Playwright

Lavinia Roberts is a published and award-winning playwright, puppet designer, and educator. She has over 50 plays published with Applause Books, Big Dog Plays, Brooklyn Publishers, Heuer Publishing, Plays: The Drama Magazine for Young People, Pioneer Drama, Smith and Kraus, and others. Her work has been performed in all 50 states and internationally in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

Her full-length play, Counting Skunks, won the 2011 Mario Fratti-Fred Newman Political Playwriting Award at the Castillo Theatre in New York City.

Her play Eaten Voices won best play and $5000 in The Thespis Theatre Festival (NYC, NY) in 2012 and went on to productions with Goblin Baby Theatre Company (London, UK), The New Alchemists (Seattle, WA), Dixon Place (NYC, NY), and with Gadfly Theatre (Minneapolis, MN).

Her full-length Poor People, a free stage adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky masterpiece Poor Folk was featured in August 2015 as part of the New York City International Fringe Festival and received a staged reading at the Drama League.

Her one-act play Black Triangle received productions with Truant Arts (NYC, NY), The Metropolitan Playhouse (NYC, NY), at the Roy Arias Studios (NYC, NY), and a staged reading with Alley Repertory Theatre (Boise, ID).

She was a member of the 2012 Women’s Work Lab at New Perspectives Theatre.

Her work has been featured in New York City at The Barrow Group Theatre, The Center at West Park, C.O.W Theatre, Emerging Artist Theatre, HERE Arts Center, Galapagos Art Space, The Kraine Theatre, Metropolitan Playhouse, New York University, The Players Theatre, Roy Arias Studios, Theatre for the New City, The Wild Project, and other spaces.

She has directed her work in New York City at The Sheen Center, The Bushwick Starr, Dixon Place, The Tank, The Brick, and The Secret Theatre.

She has taught with various arts organizations in New York City including Arts Connection, Project Art, and others. Her educational resource book, A Little Drama; Playful Activities for Young Children is published with Redleaf Press.

She has done artist residencies at the Arts Students League at Vyt (Sparkill, NY), The Center for Books Arts (NYC, NY), The Charlotte Street Foundation (Kansas City, KS), The Midwest Dramatists Center (Kansas City, KS), Newnan ArtRez (Newnan, GA), onelove NOLA (New Orleans, LA), Paul Artspace (St. Louis, MO), Escape to Create (Seaside, FL), Salina Art Center (Salina, KS), Surel’s Place (Boise, ID), Urban Glass (NYC, NY), and Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY).

Her work has been displayed in gallery spaces in NYC, NY such as The Parlor, The Brooklyn Fireproof, Frontrunner Gallery, Agnes Varis Art Center, Arts@Renaissance, Diana Kane Gallery, and others.

She has designed and built puppets for Trinity Church Wall Street (NYC, NY), Exquisite Corpse Theatre Company (NYC, NY), The Lawrence Arts Center (Lawrence, KS), The Puppets and Poets Lab at the Bushwick Starr (NYC, NY), and for New York University (NYC,NY).

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