Anna Watts is a Minnesota born playwright. She received a BFA in Acting from Hofstra University and an MFA in Playwriting from UCLA. Anna’s playwriting credits include Below Zero (Reading at B. Street Theater), A List of Happenings at 1016 14th St. (Not Necessarily in Chronological Order) (Workshop at UCLA), Girls Will Be Girls: Gorgeous, Manic Pixie Nightmare Bitch, The Feminine Urge to Disappear (Workshop at UCLA), You Up? (reading at UCLA), Two is a Prime Number (workshops at Dixon Place and Theater for the New Audience), Plowing Through (reading at Theater for the New City), The One Minute Play Festival (full production at LIC One Act Festival, nominated for “best play”), Stalling (workshop at Hudson Guild, Readings at The Nest Brooklyn, Theater for the New City, and Hofstra University). Anna’s screenwriting credits include, “Tits, Ass, and Brains” (produced by UCLA). In 2021, Anna won the Fine Arts Trust Award which will fund research in Nepal for her play Because It’s There. Anna is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Psi Omega honors societies.
Plays
2019, New York City. Four college friends find themselves boozing in the bathroom of their friend’s cash bar wedding reception. But, when too many nips of tequila are mixed with a pair of handcuffs and a selfie stick, Callie, Tabby, Ashley, and Jude are left with questions unanswered. Will their loyalty to each other become the achilles heel of their friendship? Set in different restrooms around New York City, Stalling is a play about sexual health, queerness, and navigating through the trials and tribulations of being a millenial.
It’s the first big snow of the year on Christmas Eve in Minnesota. Janice Wilson is having the whole family (including her ex-husband) over for a traditional Christmas dinner. When unexpected guests arrive, and everyone get snowed in overnight. Issues swept under the rug for years resurface. In the end the Wilson family ends up being closer and more understanding of each other. Plowing Through is full of laughs, family moments, lutefisk, and midwestern humor.
At its core, Two is A Prime Number is a universal story, told through movement, poetry, and scenes, about what it means to fall in love, to fall out of love, to be in love, and the fundamental problem of intensely loving someone who may be completely wrong for you. It has evolved through workshopping, experimentation, and molding the text to fit the performers who are working with it. The characters of Sam & Taylor are purposefully written so that they can each be played by any young person, regardless of gender, race, or sexual orientation. The story is not about what defines us as individuals, but rather that thing that brings two people together that we can’t quite define. The project is really meant to be a collaboration between the team that is working on it in that moment and the text itself; it’s meant to change and flow around the artists that are bringing it to life, and that’s what I think is the most beautiful thing about it.
When Nellie’s high school boyfriend, Erik, goes missing in the Northwoods of Minnesota in the middle of winter, she decides to take matters into her own hands. As a stand-up comic living in New York City, Nellie has no idea how to survive in the cold Northwoods. Luckily, or maybe unluckily, she convinces Mary Anne, Erik’s current girlfriend and a dog sledding guide, to help her look for him. The two women must overcome their differences and find Erik before they all freeze to death.