Michèle Raper Rittenhouse is a Southern writer living in New York that writes strong female characters. She has had the opportunity to have her work presented in London, England at the Double X Festival through the North American Association of Actors, and plays developed through the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference under the artistic direction of Lloyd Richards, former dean of the Yale School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre. and the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. She has been a playwright in residence with the Abingdon Theatre Company in New York City and received the Witter Bynner Fellowship, a national award given to one playwright per year. As part of the residency, she was commissioned to write and have produced Off-Broadway a new play.
Other awards: New Century...
Michèle Raper Rittenhouse is a Southern writer living in New York that writes strong female characters. She has had the opportunity to have her work presented in London, England at the Double X Festival through the North American Association of Actors, and plays developed through the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference under the artistic direction of Lloyd Richards, former dean of the Yale School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre. and the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. She has been a playwright in residence with the Abingdon Theatre Company in New York City and received the Witter Bynner Fellowship, a national award given to one playwright per year. As part of the residency, she was commissioned to write and have produced Off-Broadway a new play.
Other awards: New Century Writers, the Nat Horne New Playwrights Festival, and The Avy Award (4). She has been a finalist for; the Seven Devils (3), the O’Neill (4), Chesterfield Film Project (3), New Century Writers (2), Julie Harris Playwright Award, Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, Southwest Theatre Association, National New Play Contest, Louisville Theatre Center-One Act Play Competition, Christopher Wolk Playwriting Award.
Her plays have been presented at the following theatres: Lincoln Center-Bruno Walter Auditorium, Joseph Papp’s NY Public Theatre-Free at Three Series, Abingdon Theatre Company, Access Theatre Company, Nat Horne Theatre, and The Coast Playhouse – LA, Dougherty Art Center-Austin, Mary Moody Northen Theatre-Austin, Nomad Theatre-Boulder, New Jersey Institute of Technology-Newark, NJ, and Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Newark campuses. She has coordinated a playwrights’ forum at the Playwrights Horizon School.
She is the Director of Theatre Arts and Technology Program at New Jersey Institute of Technology in conjunction with the Rutgers University-Newark Joint Theatre Program. AT NJIT she has developed a stand-alone or a double major that takes applied theatre training to enhance research and development in a STEM institute. She has created opportunities for theatre related project development with Digital, Industrial, and Interior Design. She works with undergraduate playwrights who have gone on to self produce their work in festivals, won national competitions, and have introduced their unique voices reflecting their cultural and racial backgrounds. Presently, she develops plays with the id Theatre Company’s ID-iots Playwrights group, NYC.