Playwright Bios – Books & Books 3/4/21 Reading

SCOTT GIBSON (Ailurophobia) is a Colorado native and author of several plays. His full-length comedy drama Someone Else's Life was winner of the Steven Dietz Original Playwriting Competition in 2005. In November, 2016, his black comedy Cross Words won first place in Chameleon Stage Circle's 17th Annual Full-Length Play Competition in St. Paul, MN, and is slated for a run this autumn at Vintage Theatre in Denver, Colorado. Additional works have been produced in Seattle, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, Memphis, Los Angeles and New York. He is honored to have the privilege of being produced at City Theatre. Ailurophobia was produced in City Theatre’s 2018 Summer Shorts Festival, and the play was also a finalist that year in City Theatre’s National Award for Short Playwriting Contest.

LISA KRON (Monticore) is a writer and performer whose work has been widely produced in New York, regionally, and internationally. She wrote the book and lyrics for musical Fun Home, with music by composer Jeanine Tesori, which won five 2015 Tony awards including Best Book, Score, and Musical, and was finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Lisa’s other plays include In The Wake, Well, and the Obie Award winning 2.5 Minute Ride. As an actor she received a Tony award nomination for her performance in Well and a Lortel Award for her turn as Mrs. Mi-Tzu and Mrs. Yang in the Foundry Theater’s acclaimed production of Good Person of Szechuan. She is the recipient of Guggenheim, Sundance and MacDowell fellowships, a Doris Duke Performing Artists Award, a Cal Arts/Alpert Award, a Helen Merrill Award, the Kleban Prize for libretto writing, and grants from the Creative Capital and NYFA. Lisa is also founding member of the OBIE- and Bessie-Award-winning collaborative theater company The Five Lesbian Brothers. She serves on the boards of the MacDowell Colony and the Sundance Institute, and as Council Vice President of the Dramatists Guild of America. Lisa Kron was the first Dramatists Guild Fund Traveling Master in 2011 at City Theatre’s CityWrights Weekend for Playwrights Conference.

ERIC PFEFFINGER (Melto Man and Lady Mantis) is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America east. His plays have been produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival, the Denver Theatre Center, the Geva, the Phoenix, and elsewhere. He's developed new work with the Lark's Playwrights Week, Page 73, PlayPenn, the Colorado New Play Summit, the Orlando Shakes PlayFest, and others. He's one of the writers of the musical May We All, slated to premiere in Nashville in 2022. Melto Man and Lady Mantis was produced in City Theatre’s 2018 Summer Shorts Festival, and the play was also a finalist that year in City Theatre’s National Award for Short Playwriting Contest.

DARIA POLATIN (Getting Ahead in the Big Bad World) is the Creator/Executive Producer of DEVIL IN OHIO Limited Series for Netflix. She was a Co-Executive Producer on Stephen King’s CASTLE ROCK, HUNTERS, wrote and produced two seasons of Amazon’s JACK RYAN, starring John Krasinski, and Hulu’s SHUT EYE. Daria is an award-winning playwright, a founding member of The Kilroys (the advocacy group for gender equality in the American Theater) and holds an MFA from Columbia University. Daria's plays have been produced at the Kennedy Center, in London, Los Angeles and Hong Kong, and her new play Palmyria was presented with Primary Stages at The Cherry Lane Theater. Daria's plays have been published by Dramatists Play Service, Dramatic Publishing Company and Vintage Books. Daria is of Egyptian heritage, grew up traveling on five continents, loves hiking and inventing recipes, and lives in Los Angeles. Daria’s play, Getting Ahead in the Big Bad World was a Finalist in City Theatre’s 2016 National Award for Short Playwriting Contest.