Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s play The World of Extreme Happiness, recently produced at the National Theatre in London, will have its world premiere at the Goodman Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club in late 2014 and early 2015, in a co-production directed by Eric Ting. Her other plays have been produced by Trafalgar Studios 2 [West End], Crowded Fire, Page 73 Productions, Interact Theatre, Borderlands Theatre and the Contemporary American Theatre Festival. Awards her plays have received include the Wasserstein Prize, the Yale Drama Series Award, an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, and the Keene Prize for Literature. She is under commission from Manhattan Theatre Club, Seattle Rep, the Goodman Theatre and the National Theatre. Frances 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. Her work has been 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 is a Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence at Manhattan Theatre Club.