Biography, At a Glance
Melanie Anthony (she/hers) is a production dramaturg, a new play festival literary manager interested in curating work to amplify underrepresented voices, a supportive, inquiry-based new work dramaturg for playwrights, and an audience engagement creator and moderator for theater, film and documentary media.
Credits include: reader/juror/evaluator/respondent (Playwrights’ Center, MADLab–Moving Arts Play Development, Jewish Plays Project, Risk Theater Modern Tragedy Competition); Festival/Workshop Dramaturg/audience engagement moderator (Urbanite Modern Works Festival; Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival; JPP; Risk Theater); Lobby Dramaturgy (Pacific Resident Theatre, Morgan-Wixson Theater); co-Producer–Jewish Plays Project Los Angeles; Dramaturg (Santa...
Biography, At a Glance
Melanie Anthony (she/hers) is a production dramaturg, a new play festival literary manager interested in curating work to amplify underrepresented voices, a supportive, inquiry-based new work dramaturg for playwrights, and an audience engagement creator and moderator for theater, film and documentary media.
Credits include: reader/juror/evaluator/respondent (Playwrights’ Center, MADLab–Moving Arts Play Development, Jewish Plays Project, Risk Theater Modern Tragedy Competition); Festival/Workshop Dramaturg/audience engagement moderator (Urbanite Modern Works Festival; Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival; JPP; Risk Theater); Lobby Dramaturgy (Pacific Resident Theatre, Morgan-Wixson Theater); co-Producer–Jewish Plays Project Los Angeles; Dramaturg (Santa Monica Rep); Literary Manager (Venice Voices Festival-collaboration between the Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library and Pacific Resident Theatre); Literary Manager & Festival Dramaturg (Morgan-Wixson New Works Festivals); Regional Dramaturgy Chair/Coordinator-Teaching Artist (-formerly Kennedy Center- American College Theater Festival), and ‘ghost’ dramaturgy in person and in Zoom boxes. Her perspective and training as a dramaturg and director and her lived experiences in and out of the immediate theater ecosystem inspire her to explore context and clarity with an inquiry-based approach that encourages conversation, collaboration and creativity.
CREDITS & RELEVANT BACKGROUND DETAILS, INCLUDE:
• Respondent, MADLab-Moving Arts Theatre Play Development Lab, Los Angeles, 2026
• Company Dramaturg, Santa Monica Rep Theatre, Santa Monica, 2025 to present
• Literary Manager, VENICE VOICES (festival of site-specific short plays to explore Venice CA’s past, present, and imagined future). Performed in collaboration with Pacific Resident Theater, Venice, CA. 2026
• Festival Dramaturg (play development, production dramaturgy research/support) & Talkback Moderator, MODERN WORKS FESTIVAL (for emerging and established female playwrights), URBANITE THEATRE Sarasota, FL with Sarah Cho (SCREEN TIME), Stacey Isom Campbell (1999), and Jenny Stafford (AHOY-HOY). 2025
• Dramaturgy Chair-Coordinator, KENNEDY CENTER AMERICAN COLLEGE THEATER FESTIVAL CONFERENCE, Region 8 (Southwest/Pacific) 2024,25, Dramaturgy chair/coordinator and teaching artist/mentoring - R8 ACTF (AMERICAN COLLEGE THEATER FESTIVAL) 2026.
• Audience Engagement Dramaturgy - Gallery Displays - narrative and interactive posters, MIRACLE ON 55th Street (by Gregg Ostrin, Dir. by Emily Chase), PACIFIC RESIDENT THEATRE, Venice, CA. 2025
• Reader-Evaluator, PLAYWRIGHTS’ CENTER, Twin Cities, MN. 2025 to present.
• Co-producer, reading series and live contest, JEWISH PLAYS PROJECT (JPP), 2025 Los Angeles.2025- present
• National JPP Artist Panel Reader, 2023 to present; Working Group 2025 to present.
• Dramaturg & Talkback Moderator, MODERN WORKS FESTIVAL, Urbanite Theatre, Sarasota, FL with Lia Romeo (A NICE MOTHERLY PERSON), Sarah Elizabeth Grace (I’M SAVING YOU A SEAT), and Baylee Shlichtman (IN THE MOUTH OF THE BEAST). 2024
• JPP Contest and Workshop Dramaturg for Finalist Daniel Ajl Kitrosser (WHY THIS NIGHT, A TYPICAL 19th CENTURY QUEER SHETEL SEDER MURDER MYSTERY!). 2024
• Contest Reader-Juror/Workshop Winner Dramaturg, RISK THEATER MODERN TRAGEDY COMPETITION, Franky D. Gonzalez (THAT MUST BE THE ENTRANCE TO HEAVEN), Vancouver, BC. 2022
• NEW WORKS FESTIVAL (to amplify marginalized voices and increase representation on the stage), Morgan-Wixson Theatre, Santa Monica, CA with Diana Burbano (BEHEADING COLUMBUS), Amy Dellagiarino (NO LOITERING), Danielle Frimer (MONARCHS), Dorinne Kondo (SEAMLESS), Samara Siskind (SWIPED), LaDarrion Williams (BOULEVARD OF BOLD DREAMS), Khari Wyatt (SOME TYPE OF ECSTASY) - Literary Manager & Dramaturg 2023; Dramaturg 2021; Creator, Playwrights’ Gatherings informal developmental program for the 2023 Festival.
• Audience-facing mainstage season dramaturgy Morgan-Wilson Theatre, Santa Monica 2022-2023; season selection/reading committee, 2025, 2026.
• Other projects include consultant for award-winning short films, directing local new works micro reads for LAFPI (Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative), and creator/collaborator for a 2022 LMDA international conference digital panel.
•Kennedy Center-LMDA Dramaturgy Intensive Fellow, KCACTF National Dramaturgy Fellow, KCACTF Regional Dramaturg awardee, 25th annual Association of Theater in Higher Education (ATHE) Dramaturgy Debut Panel, 2021.
• B.A. in Humanities: Dramatic Literature and Criticism concentrating on Dramaturgy, Directing and Journalism at UC Irvine, and returning student course work at Santa Monica College.
My dramaturgical view also reflects lived experience as an award-winning documentarian, museum educator, STEAM instructor-advocate-activist, local social justice participant, mom, caregiver and concerned voter. I’m a proud member of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA).