Biography
Shawna Casey comes to playwriting from her experience as an award-winning stage actress performing new works by top playwrights in Los Angeles, New York and Europe. Cast in premiere productions by playwrights Irene Fornes, Murray Mednick, Jose Rivera, Michael Sargent and Sharon Yablon, she now writes plays of her own with an eye toward love in all its glory, pathos and humor.
Her short play stars in their eyes, about a teenage brother and sister emerging from the covid pandemic in rural Ireland, was read at the Birr Theatre's SCRIPTS IRELAND FESTIVAL as part of an evening about teens and mental health in today's world.
FULL-LENGTH PLAYS include:
blue blue moon
-Last Frontier Playwright’s Conference in Valdez, Alaska
-Featured staged reading at Tangent Theatre’s NEWvember Festival in New York
Strong Force
-Chosen out of 500 blind submissions for featured reading at Tangent Theatre in NY
-finalist in Aurora’s GAP competition
-semi-finalist in BAPF competition
Night Becomes Day
-2nd place in Ebell of Los Angeles Playwright Prize Competition
-Green Read at Theatricum Botanicum, w Ellen Geer illuminating role of MATILDA
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.929429063760646.1073741856.118436738193220&type=3
A member of the MONDAY NIGHT WORKSHOP - an offshoot of Padua Playwrights in Los Angeles - Shawna performed two of her pieces in their Backyard Plays series in 2023:
this is what you should do and hello :)
SHORT PLAYS produced include:
Catch, produced at the What She Said Festival in Duluth, Minnesota
The Aegean, produced by Padua at the Lillian Theatre in Hollywood
Animal Style, Sap, and His Name Was Luke, produced by the Lost Studio in Los Angeles
Bluebird, produced by Theatre of N.O.T.E. in Hollywood
Out of the Blue, produced by There in 10 at the Acting Barn in Los Angeles
She enjoyed working with Virginia Avenue Project in Santa Monica for 18 years till they closed their doors – acting, writing, directing and teaching playmaking to the kids who never ceased to amaze her. https://18thstreet.org/artists/virginia-avenue-project/
Shawna received her MFA in Writing at Spalding University MFA program in Louisville, now known as the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing. And conceived, edited and contributed to the single edition of her zine LOVE, which was carried by two popular independent bookstores in Los Angeles.
She is the recipient of 6 DRAMALOGUE AWARDS and 8 LAWeekly AWARD Nominations (awarded one) for her work as an actress.