Playwright Rick Cleveland, front, and director Martin McClendon, standing, laugh during a rehearsal of The Rail Splitter at Carthage Jan. 25, 2011.

Emmy Award-winning writer Rick Cleveland, a guest artist in the Carthage Theatre Department this year, will speak about his work at a Fine Arts Colloquium at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23, in Wartburg Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Mr. Cleveland's television credits include the NBC series The West Wing, the AMC hit Mad Men, the HBO series Six Feet Under, and the Showtime series Nurse Jackie. His screenplay credits include Runaway Jury, starring John Cusack and Dustin Hoffman; and Jerry and Tom, starring Joe Mantegna and Sam Rockwell. He's currently working on an HBO miniseries about Dick Cheney and a new movie for Steve Carell.

He has been working with Carthage students since August to write and stage the new play The Rail Splitter. The satiric docudrama-for-the-stage is about a group of college students attempting to write a play about Abraham Lincoln. It premieres Friday, Feb. 25, in Wartburg Auditorium, and continues through March 5. Read more.