Writer, composer, performer and director Rinde Eckert began his career as a writer/performer in the 1980s, writing librettos for composers Paul Dresher and Steven Mackey. Working subsequently with choreographers Margaret Jenkins and Sarah Shelton Mann, Eckert began composing dance scores, and with the creation of his 1992 homage to Dante, The Gardening of Thomas D, performed on tour in the United States and France, Eckert began composing and performing his own music/theater pieces. Recent work includes the Obie Award winning And God Created Great Whales (2001); Highway Ulysses (2003), and Orpheus X (2006), which was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.