Anna Ziegler

Anna Ziegler

Anna Ziegler’s play PHOTOGRAPH 51, produced on the West End starring Nicole Kidman and directed by Michael Grandage, won London’s 2016 WhatsOnStage award for Best New Play. It has been produced around the country and the world, most recently in Hamburg, Rome, and Stockholm. Her play THE LAST MATCH premiered at The Old Globe Theatre and was nominated for the 2016 San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Outstanding New...
Anna Ziegler’s play PHOTOGRAPH 51, produced on the West End starring Nicole Kidman and directed by Michael Grandage, won London’s 2016 WhatsOnStage award for Best New Play. It has been produced around the country and the world, most recently in Hamburg, Rome, and Stockholm. Her play THE LAST MATCH premiered at The Old Globe Theatre and was nominated for the 2016 San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Outstanding New Play award; it is upcoming at The Roundabout Theatre Company this fall. Another new play, ACTUALLY, will be produced this year at The Geffen Playhouse, The Williamstown Theatre Festival and The Manhattan Theatre Club. BOY, which premiered off-Broadway in a Keen Company/Ensemble Studio Theatre co-production, was nominated for the 2016 Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award and will be produced at TimeLine Theatre in Chicago next season. THE WANDERERS, commissioned by The Old Globe Theatre, will premiere there in 2018. A DELICATE SHIP was produced at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and The Playwrights Realm and was a New York Times and Time Out Critic’s Pick. Anna holds commissions from Second Stage Theatre, The Geffen Playhouse and Seattle Rep. She is developing a television series for HBO based on her play ACTUALLY, another for AMC/Sundance, and is at work on a screenplay for Scott Free Productions. Oberon Books has published a collection of her work entitled Anna Ziegler: Plays One. Other of her plays are published by Dramatists Play Service. She holds a BA from Yale and an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Plays

  • Actually
    Amber and Tom, finding their way as freshmen at Princeton, spend a night together that alters the course of their lives. They agree on the drinking, they agree on the attraction, but consent is foggy, and if unspoken, can it be called consent? ACTUALLY investigates gender and race politics, our crippling desire to fit in and the three sides to every story.
  • Boy
    Inspired by a true story, BOY explores the complicated terrain of trying to find love in a new body, and the inextricable bonds between doctor and patient. In the 1960s, a well-intentioned doctor convinces the parents of a male infant to raise their son as a girl after a terrible accident. Two decades later, the repercussions of that choice continue to unfold.
  • Photograph 51
    An intriguing portrait of British scientist Rosalind Franklin and her—often overlooked—role in the discovery of DNA’s double helix structure. This complex tale explores how Franklin, a smart, stubborn, and courageous woman, operated in a field dominated by men. A balance of the historical, romantic, and scientific, Photograph 51 is a touching human play of ideas.
  • The Last Match
    The semifinals of the U.S. Open are underway. Sergei Sergeyev, an up-and-coming Russian phenom, and Tim Porter, a great American superstar in the twilight of his career, do battle under the lights on center court. As the intense, back-and-forth action unfolds, we go inside the minds of these two extraordinary players to contemplate athleticism, masculinity and marriage. And by match point, much more has been...
    The semifinals of the U.S. Open are underway. Sergei Sergeyev, an up-and-coming Russian phenom, and Tim Porter, a great American superstar in the twilight of his career, do battle under the lights on center court. As the intense, back-and-forth action unfolds, we go inside the minds of these two extraordinary players to contemplate athleticism, masculinity and marriage. And by match point, much more has been won and lost than a game of tennis.
  • Variations on a Theme
    April and Josh get married young, and quickly find they are in over their heads. When they separate, they are suddenly rootless in a world that they barely understand. A lyrical evocation of the lost, lonely feeling of living one’s 20s alone together in the city.
  • Another Way Home
    "Let the Nadelmans help you find Another Way Home in a funny, moving, and uplifting examination of what it means to be a family in this world premiere by Anna Ziegler. While visiting their son at summer sleep away camp, obsessive middle-aged Jewish parents Lillian and Philip are compelled to question everything they thought they understood about their children, their marriage, and their true desires....
    "Let the Nadelmans help you find Another Way Home in a funny, moving, and uplifting examination of what it means to be a family in this world premiere by Anna Ziegler. While visiting their son at summer sleep away camp, obsessive middle-aged Jewish parents Lillian and Philip are compelled to question everything they thought they understood about their children, their marriage, and their true desires." (From the Magic Theatre's website)
  • A Delicate Ship
    "A haunting love triangle triggers an unexpected chain of events in this poetic world premiere play. In the early stages of a new relationship, Sarah and Sam are lovers happily discovering each other. Sarah and Nate know everything about each other, best of friends since childhood and maybe something more. But when Nate shows up unannounced on Sarah's doorstep, she's left questioning what and who...
    "A haunting love triangle triggers an unexpected chain of events in this poetic world premiere play. In the early stages of a new relationship, Sarah and Sam are lovers happily discovering each other. Sarah and Nate know everything about each other, best of friends since childhood and maybe something more. But when Nate shows up unannounced on Sarah's doorstep, she's left questioning what and who she wants in this humorous and heartbreaking look at love, memory and the decisions that alter the course of our lives." (From Cincinnati Playhouse's website)