HOME | PLAY SYNOPSES | REVIEWS & QUOTES | NOVEL

RESUME:

DONNA SPECTOR
Member: Dramatists Guild, Poets & Writers

Agent:
Carolyn French at Fifi Oscard Agency

PRODUCTIONS

FULL-LENGTH PLAYS:

Burying Mother
- Workshopped at Manhattan Oracles, 2005-6
- Semi-finalist for the 2006 O'Neill Playwrights Conference

Unforgiveable Act
- Finalist for the 2005-6 Panowski Playwriting Award
- Developed in workshop at Manhattan Oracles in 2005

Life Lines
- Finalist in Reverie Productions' Next Generation Competition, NYC, 2006
- Staged reading at Reverie Productions, NYC, 2006
- Finalist in Theatre Unbound Competition, Minneapolis, 2005
- Staged reading at the Theater WorkShop, NYC, 2002
- Developed at the Harbor Theatre, NYC, 2001-2

Golden Ladder
- Off-Broadway production at the Players Theatre, New York City, 2002;
- Published in Women Playwrights: Best Plays of 2002 (Smith & Kraus) and Best Stage Scenes of 2002 (Smith & Kraus). Finalist, Herbert Mark Newman Theatre contest (then titled How to be Really Jewish)
- Produced at Hope College, Michigan, 2004
- Staged Readings: Mirror Stage, Seattle, 2004; International Women Playwrights Conference, Athens, Greece, 2000; Grove Street Playhouse, New York 1999

Another Paradise
- Off Broadway production, Players Theatre, 1986; Chinook Theatre production, Edmonton, Canada, 1985; Equity Showcase, Open Space Theatre, TOMI, NYC, 1984; Upstart Stage, Berkeley, CA, 1989

Manhattan Transits
- Semi-finalist in Beverly Hills/Julie Harris contest & Chesterfield Writer’s Film Project;
- Short-listed in the BBC/British Council International Radio Playwriting Competition, 2001
- Staged readings: Urban Stages, NYC, November 2004; Medicine Show, NYC, 1999; Passage Theatre in Trenton, NJ, 1992; Contemporary Theatre of Syracuse, NY,1990; Players Theatre, NYC,1989

Dancing with Strangers
- Semi-finalist in Chesterfield Writer’s Film Project
- Staged Readings: Wings Theatre, NYC, 2001; Playwrights Theatre of NJ, 1999

Hanging Women
- Production at Where Eagles Dare, NYC, 2007
- Production at California State University, Hayward, 1998
- Staged readings: International Women Playwrights Conference, Galway, Ireland, 1997; Playwrights Theatre of NJ, 1996; Summit Theatre, NJ, 1995; Playwrights Harbor, NYC, 1995

Dementia
- Staged Reading, Harbor Theatre, NYC, 1998; two scenes performed at Producers’ Club, 1999

These Are My Adults
Finalist in Beverly Hills/Julie Harris & Mill Mountain Theatre contests
- Staged Reading, Playwrights Theatre of NJ, 1996

Seductions
- Staged Readings: Lark Theatre, NYC, in Festival of New Plays, 1996; William Mount-Burke Theatre, NJ, 1996; Playwrights Theatre of NJ, 1996; George Street Playhouse, NJ, 1995

Strip Talk on the Boulevard
- 2008 winner: Acrosstown Rep’s Sunwall Comedy Prize; 2003 Semi-finalist, Bloomington Playwrights Project.
- Staged Readings: Lark Theatre Company at the Chelsea Theatre, 1996; Win Atkins Memorial Play Reading Series, Hoboken, NJ, 1994; Waterfront Ensemble, Players Theatre and Williams Center (Rutherford, NJ), 1990-1992

Missing Families
- Semi-finalist: Mill Mountain Theatre Contest; Bloomfield College Theatre, 1993
- Staged Reading: Playwrights Theatre of N.J., 2000

A Sense of Movement
- Miranda Theatre Company (NYC), 1996;
- Production: Creative Theatre Group, with a grant from the New York Council for the Arts, 1987

Not for the Ferryman
- Production: Spetses Theater at Anagyrios College, Greece, 1994; Pickup Styx Production with a grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, 1993; International Center for Women Playwrights & Buffalo Ensemble Theatre, 1993
- Staged Readings at Princeton University theater, 1991, Playwrights Theatre of NJ, 1992, Abingdon Theatre, NYC, 2007

Caught in the Act
- Productions: Showcase, Players Theatre, NYC, 1988; Warwick Lake Playhouse production, 1987

Mr. Big (Hip! Hip! Hooray!), a political musical: Staged reading: Kaufman Theatre, NYC, 1987

Life Lines: a new play.
- Staged readings: Reverie Productions, NYC, 2006, WorkShop Theater, NYC, 2002
- Finalist: Theatre Unbound Competition, Minneapolis, 2005; Reverie’s Next Generation Contest, 2006

Unforgivable Act: a new play.
- Finalist: 2005-6 Panowski Playwriting Award; Semi-finalist: Reverie Productions, 2007.


ONE-ACT PLAYS:

The Gray Bombers: Staged reading, Playwrights Theatre of NJ, 1997

The Audition: Produced in a one-act play festival, Williams Center, Rutherford, N.J., 1988
- Staged Reading, The Theater Center, Philadelphia, 1985

10-20 MINUTE PLAYS:

Short-Term Affairs: Winner in Palm Springs National Short Play Fest, finalist in ATL National Ten-Minute Play Contest
- Productions at Playwrights Circle in Palm Springs, 2003; Gallery Players, Brooklyn, 2002; Actors on the Verge, NYC, 2001
- Staged reading: Drama West, L.A., 2001
- Forthcoming in 35 IN 10: THIRTY-FIVE TEN-MINUTE PLAYS (Dramatic Publishing).

How to Make Yourself Miserable by Traveling to France with a Frenchman Who Happens to be Your Boyfriend: Staged reading at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, 2004

The Hollywood Rapture Clinic : Staged readings at Atlantic Gallery, NYC, Playwrights Theatre of NJ, 2005

The Church of Empirical Human Cartology: Staged readings: Grove St. Playhouse, NYC, 2000; Drama West, L.A., 2000

Passing Fancies: SASI Productions’ One Act Festival, NYC, 2000

The Crystal Ball: Harbor Currents production, NYC, 2001

The Kitchen Sink Play: Playwrights' Theatre of N.J., Gallery Players, 2003

Blind Date: Harbor Currents production, Center Stage, NYC; Playwrights Theatre of N.J, Samuel French One-Act Play Festival, 2003

Dinner with Marvin: Staged reading, Playwrights Theatre of N.J., 2004


CONFERENCES

- International Women Playwrights Conferences, where my plays were selected for readings: Athens, Greece, 2000; Galway, Ireland, 1997; Buffalo, NY, 1988
 - Key West Theatre Conference, 1988
- Squaw Valley Writers Conference, 1988

PUBLICATIONS

Notre Dame Review and Poetica, an Australia Broadcasting Company program of my poems

Poems, short stories, plays, scenes and monologues: Women Playwrights: Best Plays of 2002 (Smith & Kraus), 2002 Best Stage Scenes (S & K), Monologues by Women, for Women, Even More Monologues for Women, by Women (Heinemann), Blue Unicorn, The Greensboro Review, Black River Review, Poet & Critic, Pudding Magazine (forthcoming), Sycamore Review, Teachers as Writers, The Connecticut
River Review, The Paterson Literary Review, The Bellingham Review, Poet Lore, South Florida Poetry Review, Gaia; Plainswoman, Facets, Journal of New Jersey Poets, Sow's Ear Poetry Review, Mudfish, Oberon, The Pedestal Magazine, XY Files: Poems on the Male Experience (Sherman Asher); At Our Core: Women Writing about Power (Papier-Mache Press); In the West of Ireland (Enright House); Emily Dickinson Award Anthology


ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

U.C.L.A. - Theater Arts and English

U.C. Berkeley - B.A., M.A. in English

HONORS

National Endowment for the Humanities grants to study abroad: Greece, 1994; Greece, 1990;

N.Y.U. - N.D.E.A. fellowship in English and Creative Writing

Masters Poetry Prize (David Citino, judge)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Playwright, Rutgers University Summer Arts Institute

English, Theater, Creative Writing and French teacher, high school and college

Director, actor, writer: Dementia, a S.F. Bay Area improvisational theater troupe

Storyteller on Warwick Cable T.V.; WNYE, New York; KPFA, Berkeley, CA

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115 Blooms Corners Road
Warwick, New York 10990

Email: donnaspector@optonline.net

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