Theresa Rebeck

Other New York productions of her work include Seared (starring Raul Esparza) at MCC Theater, Downstairs (starring Tim Daly and Tyne Daly) at Primary Stages, The Scene (starring Tony Shalhoub); The Water’s Edge, Loose Knit, The Family of Mann, and Spike Heels at Second Stage; Bad Dates, The Butterfly Collection, and Our House at Playwrights Horizons; The Understudy at Roundabout Theatre Company; and View of the Dome at New York Theatre Workshop.

Other notable plays include Poor Behavior, What We’re Up Against, and Omnium Gatherum (co-written), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2013. Her play, Mad House, had a critically acclaimed world premiere on London’s West End, starring David Harbour and Bill Pullman. She’s currently working on a musical adaptation of Working Girl, with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper.

In television, Theresa created the NBC showbiz drama Smash, and has written for Canterbury’s Law, LA Law, NYPD Blue, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Dream On, Brooklyn Bridge, and many more. Her produced feature films include the big-budget all-female spy thriller 355 (co-written with Simon Kinberg for Jessica Chastain’s production company), Trouble (writer/director) starring Angelica Huston and Bill Pullman, Harriet the Spy, Gossip, and the independent features Sunday on the Rocks and Seducing Charlie Barker, an adaptation of her play, The Scene.

For her work on NYPD Blue, Theresa won the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award, the Writers’ Guild of America Award for Episodic Drama, the Hispanic Images Imagen Award, and the Peabody Award. Other awards include a GLAAD Award (for Smash), the National Theatre Conference Award (for The Family of Mann), the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award (for The Bells), the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, the Athena Film Festival Award, an Alex Award, a Lilly Award, and more. In 2011, Theresa was named one of the 150 Fearless Women in the World by Newsweek.

Originally from Cincinnati, Theresa holds an MFA in Playwriting and a PhD in Victorian Melodrama, both from Brandeis University. She is a proud board member of the Dramatists Guild, a contributing editor to the Harvard Review, an associate artist of the Roundabout Theatre Company, and resident playwright at Vermont’s Dorset Theatre Festival. She has taught at Brandeis University, Columbia University, and the University of Houston.

Hosting Theresa in conversation is Mary Bacon, actor and member of The Actors Center’s Resident Company.

Mary’s work with Theresa includes her play Dig at Primary Stages, a NY Times Critic’s Pick which Theresa also directed, and multiple productions of her plays at the Dorset Theatre Festival including the premiere of The Novelist with Michael Cristofer, Mauritius with Guy Boyd and Keith Reddin and company member Mandy Siegfreid, and The Scene with Tim Daly.

Mary received the 2020 Sam Norkin Drama Desk Award for her performance as Patti in The Public’s Coal Country, and as Susan in Nothing Gold Can Stay with Partial Comfort, and for her NYC theatre career. She has appeared on Broadway in Tom Stoppard’s Rock N Roll and Arcadia. Select Off-Broadway credits include Horton Foote’s The Roads To Home and Harrison, TX, Charles Busch’s The Tribute Artist, and Lucinda Coxon’s Happy Now? (Primary Stages), Coal Country (Public/Audible); GIANT, The Musical (Public); Women Without Men (Drama Desk, Lortel noms.), Days to Come (The Mint), and Eccentricities of a Nightingale (TACT). Regionally she has performed with the Guthrie, Hartfod Stage, Williamstown, The McCarter, Yale Rep, Old Globe, Denver Center, among many others. Her TV/Film credits include Lost Girls, Bad on Paper (upcoming) Blue Bloods, The Blacklist, FBI Most Wanted, The Mist, Boardwalk Empire, Mildred Pierce, Elementary, Madame Secretary, The Good Wife, Law and Order, and Three Pregnant Men.