Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig
Affiliated Writer
Univ of Ca Santa Barbara, CA
Biography

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig is an internationally produced playwright whose work has been staged at venues that include the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre of Great Britain, the Royal Court Theatre, the Unicorn Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Manhattan Theater Club, the Goodman Theatre, Trafalgar Studios 2 on the West End and the József Katona Theater in Budapest. Frances' plays have been awarded the Wasserstein Prize, the Yale Drama Series Award (selected by David Hare), an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, the David A. Callichio Award and the Keene Prize for Literature. She has held year-long residencies at Manhattan Theater Club and Marin Theater Company, and is a 2019 United States Artists Fellow. Her work is published by Yale University Press, Glimmer Train, Methuen Drama, Samuel French and Dramatists Play Service. Frances was born in Philadelphia, and raised in Northern Virginia, Okinawa, Taipei and Beijing. She received an MFA in Writing from the James A. Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin, a BA in Sociology from Brown University, and a certificate in Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre from the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre.  She is an Associate Professor of Drama at UC Santa Barbara, where she has the pleasure of mentoring undergraduate playwrights. You can learn more about her body of work at www.francesyachucowhig.com 

Agent Information

Rachel Viola

United Talent Agency

viola_r@unitedtalent.com

Successes

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig named a finalist for the 2020 Susan Smith Blackburn prize for their play The King of Hell's Palace, receiving $5,000.