Kira Rockwell

Kira Rockwell

Kira Rockwell is a Boston-based playwright from the heart of Texas. She is an Artist Fellow in Dramatic Writing with Mass Cultural Council, a recipient of the Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award, Runner-Up for the Princess Grace Award, Second Place recipient of the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, and two-time Finalist for the O’Neill Conference, among others. Her work has been supported by NNPN, The...
Kira Rockwell is a Boston-based playwright from the heart of Texas. She is an Artist Fellow in Dramatic Writing with Mass Cultural Council, a recipient of the Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award, Runner-Up for the Princess Grace Award, Second Place recipient of the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, and two-time Finalist for the O’Neill Conference, among others. Her work has been supported by NNPN, The Kennedy Center, Actor's Express, Great Plains Theatre Commons, Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Fresh Ink Theatre, Third Culture Theatre in collaboration with HBO and Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network, and more. Commissions with Ensemble Studio Theatre and Moonbox productions. Publications with Original Works Publishing. Kira received her BFA in Theatre Performance from Baylor University and MFA in Playwriting from Boston University.

Before entering into grad school, Rockwell spent time in various community organizations and nonprofits working at the intersection of social work, youth development, and arts education. Through a trauma informed lens, she aims to nurture communal healing spaces that disrupt passivity and empower agency. Currently, she teaches at Brandeis University and Grub Street.

Plays

  • Oh, to Be Pure Again by Kira Rockwell
    Recommendations: 6
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    Cast: 
    8
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: purity culture, teenage girls + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, faith-based
    Keyword: purity culture, teenage girls, spirituality, church camp, young marriage, mother nature
    Set during one hot Texas summer at a Neo-charismatic Christian church camp, this earnest drama follows the senior girls cabin along their journey to make an authentic connection with something bigger than themselves. A new play about female desire, submission, rebellion, and growing up in a religious culture that's obsessed with your sexual purity.

    UPCOMING: November 2022 World Premiere with Actor's Express
  • Space Bound by Kira Rockwell
    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: drama
    Genre: drama
    Rapidly expanding through the farm fields of central Texas is SpaceBound’s Rocket Development and Test Facility. This tender drama follows four siblings across the span of four Sunday mornings as they navigate their proximity to the billion-dollar commercial industry.

    SPACE BOUND was originally commissioned in 21/22 by The Ensemble Studio Theatre / Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project
  • The Tragic Ecstasy of Girlhood by Kira Rockwell
    Recommendations: 5
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: chosen family, teenage girls + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, tragedy
    Keyword: chosen family, teenage girls, foster care, trauma, communal healing, survivor, C-PTSD, coming of age, resilience
    After the sudden death of their housemate, four teenage girls living in a group home try to combat their grief and their guilt. A new poetic drama about the chrysalis of female adolescence that demands our attention be on the youth of America who are raising themselves in the shadows of a broken system.
  • Wicked Bitter Beast(s) by Kira Rockwell
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: drama, faith-based
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    Keyword: daughters, Sisters + 5 more
    Genre: drama, faith-based
    Keyword: daughters, Sisters, fathers, evangelical, Hellmouth, morality, Religious Trauma
    A latter-day morality play about forgiveness that reverberates through time and space (and realms) centered around Zoey, a prodigal daughter on the run from the evangelical hell house she can’t seem to escape.
  • Nomad Americana by Kira Rockwell
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: adventure, comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: blended families, indie + 4 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, drama, movement/physical, romantic comedy
    Keyword: blended families, indie, ritual, coming of age, southern, Shakespeare
    For years Bridgette has been avoiding painful memories by traveling the country with her eccentric, yogi family in an old RV, selling soap. When they stop in a small Texas town, she strikes up a romance with a young dreamer who causes her to question her responsibilities to herself and to her family. A new coming of age tale about love, sacrifice, and letting go.
  • With My Eyes Shut by Kira Rockwell
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: drama, experimental + 2 more
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    Keyword: autism, non-linear + 2 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, movement/physical, romantic comedy
    Keyword: autism, non-linear, stylized, fringe
    ONE ACT PLAY: In this neurodivergent love story, Naomi and Cole will push the boundaries of compliance to find authentic connection and shatter the complacency of the disembodied voices running the show.