Rita Grauer comes by her theatrical know-how quite naturally. Born into an East Coast show business family, she spent her childhood singing professionally with her sisters and parents in Miami Beach hotels and in Catskill Mountains resorts during the last days of the once-famous New York Borscht Belt. Fresh out of college in 1971 with a bachelor's degree from Florida State University's Theatre Arts Program, she was hired as an actress, performing in repertory and touring throughout the southeastern United States with the Asolo State Theatre. Grauer's adult career spans more than three decades of acting, directing, teaching, producing or writing for numerous theatres across the country. Her delightful, imaginative plays for young audiences are an outgrowth of her tenure as artistic director for Yellow Brick Road shows, a touring educational theatre she founded in Southern California with friend and colleague John Urquhart. Now widely produced from coast to coast, her award-winning scripts are available exclusively through Dramatic Publishing. They include Nightingale, Fool of the World, Huckleberry Finn, Gold Fever and The Boy Who Tricked the Moon (originally commissioned by Louisville's Stage One Theatre).
