Lauren FeldmanLauren Feldman is a queer, feminist playwright (and circus artist) who loves theatrically adventurous, physically ambitious, intimate, inquisitive, deeply honest plays — usually about outsiders, often about searchers, always about the human connection. Her plays include THRIVE, OR WHAT YOU WILL (New Georges Audrey Residency); ANOTHER KIND OF SILENCE (Sewanee Writers' Conference, PlayPenn Conference, O'Neill Finalist, Playwrights Realm Fellowship, Drama League workshop); AMANUENSIS (Georgetown University, Northwoods Ramah Theatre Company commission); THE EGG-LAYERS (Jane Chambers Honorable Mention, O'Neill Finalist, New Georges/Barnard College co-commission); A PEOPLE (Orbiter 3, Jewish Plays Project); GRACE, OR THE ART OF CLIMBING (Denver Center Theatre Company, Nice People Theatre Company, ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award Nomination, Barrymore Nomination, Kilroys List); several ensemble-devised works, including GUMSHOE (New Paradise Labs with the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Rosenbach Library), AND IF YOU LOSE YOUR WAY, OR A FOOD ODYSSEY (The Invisible Dog, New York Innovative Theatre Award Nomination), LADY M (Philadelphia Live Arts Festival), and THE APOCRYPHAL PROJECT (Yale Cabaret), among others; and a baker's dozen of short plays. She has been nominated for the Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwright Award, Wendy Wasserstein Prize, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award. She was awarded an artist grant through the Boomerang Fund and a creation grant from the State of Vermont, and she has been an artist-in-residence at Terra Firma, SPACE at Ryder Farm, the School of Making Thinking, Tofte Lake Center, Montana Artists Refuge, Montana Repertory Theatre, Sewanee University of the South, Cornell University, and Theater Emory/Brave New Works Festival. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Lauren is also a New Georges Affiliated Artist, a devised-work collaborator, a teacher of playwriting (Bryn Mawr College, Circadium, McCarter Theatre, PlayPenn), and a freelance dramaturg. In 2010 Lauren fell in love with theater & circus as a hybrid art form through the feminist, Brooklyn-based ensemble LAVA; soon she began creating theatrical circus duets with Megan Gendell, and her passions led her to the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) for full-time professional training. Lauren freelances as a creator/performer of contemporary circus — specializing in duo trapeze with Megan Gendell, solo static trapeze, handbalancing, and partner acrobatics. She has performed in festivals and cabarets from Chicago to San Francisco, Philadelphia to New York City, Riga (Latvia) and beyond, and she is a co-creator/performer of the full-length ensemble circus-theater show TINDER & ASH (SummerStage NYC, TOHU residency, Orchard Project). She coaches at the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, and she travels around the country teaching dramaturgical craft to circus artists and dramaturging acts and shows. Hailing from Miami, Florida, she has lived in seven cities and is now based in Philly — where she is a proud Orbiter 3 playwright.