Playwright, Nadine Bernard is a playwright and drama therapist in Montclair, New Jersey and an adjunct professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Montclair State University. In 2016, she collaborated with award winning director Andy Sandberg (Application Pending and Straight, Off-Broadway) on her play, Opportunity of a Lifetime which had an industry reading in NYC and was a semi-finalist for the Women’s Project Playwright Lab in NYC. Her award winning play about the origins of Valentine’s Day in America, Miss Valentine, had it’s premiere at Wells College on Valentine’s Day 2020 and is currently in development in New with Ivy Austin, Associate Producer at SunnySpot Productions. Nadine’s web series, about the pandemic, Cells of Quarantine, was nominated for Best Ensemble cast by the New Jersey Web Festival, for Best Dramedy and Best Director by Asia Web Festival, and won Exceptional Merit for Writing by the WRPN International Film Festival. Her play, In the Shadow of My Son, appeared at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2007 and has been produced throughout the USA and Canada. A monologue from the play is published in the Smith and Kraus The Best Women's Stage Monologues of 2008. Other plays include, The Way to Summer, which she developed during a year-long writing residency at CAP21 in NYC, working with Artistic Director Eliza Ventura (Directors Company with Tovah Feldshuh and Russell G. Jones, Staged Reading, 2012; August Wilson Center, Pittsburgh, Staged Reading, 2011; Lark Play Development Center, 2011; New Play Festival, Jewish Ensemble Theatre, Staged Reading 2009) Waiting For Fame to Come, (Downstage, 2005), The Almost Baby, (Kitchen Theatre, 2001), The Jizo Story (Creative Theater, 1995). Veils, about a group of New Jersey women in a belly dancing class who get caught up in the mystery and past of their belly dancing teacher; The play appeared in the HB Studios Playwrights Foundation staged reading series (also June Havoc Theatre and Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, NYC, Staged Readings, 2014). Her play, Then Let the Fish Go appeared as a reading at the Meet the Artist series at Dreamcatchers Repertory Theater in Summit (May 2014), and her short piece, Female Factor, appeared as a staged reading in 2017 in Dreamcatcher Ensemble's evening, Continuing the Conversation. Her play, Seize the Day After, about a mother finding the balance between science and spirituality as she raises a special needs child, was developed with Director, Jane Mandel, Founding Artistic Director Emerita of Luna Stage. The play was first developed at a workshop at Luna Stage in West Orange, NJ, and the play has had developmental reading at Dreamcatchers in Summit, NJ and at Drew University and staged readings at The Theater Project in Maplewood, NJ, Cornerstone, Montclair and for Julia’s Reading Room held by the League of Professional Theatre Women. She is collaborating on her most recent play, The Ivy Railroad, with playwright Della Brown, and they are invited to bring a reading of it to Drew University in March, 2022. Nadine has a BA from Cornell University and an MFA in Theater from Sarah Lawrence College and is currently an instructor in the Montclair State Department of Theatre and Dance. She has toured hospitals in New Jersey with her solo version of In the Shadow of My Son, raising awareness about postpartum depression. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, The League of Professional Theatre Women, and the Screen Actors Guild/AFTRA. Contact Nadine at ndf3@cornell.edu, (917) 364-4538.