Current Students

The Playwriting area is very proud of the professional activities of our students. Just a snap shot of our current group reveals an astonishing level of accomplishment. The eleven grad students in the combined MCW and T&D programs have had their works produced all over the country and at all professional levels, from fringe festivals to off-Broadway premieres. Some have international credits with productions in Belgium, England, Germany, and Canada. They have collectively received six fellowships from the prestigious Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis: four have won Jerome Fellowships, with one writer receiving it twice, and one has earned a McKnight Advancement Grant. Our students are the recipients of commissions and grants from Soho Repertory, the National Endowment of the Arts, and Theatre Communications Group.

Our students have been finalists or have won the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Ten-Minute Play Contest, the Heideman Award, the Princess Grace Award, the Alliance Theatre's Graduate Playwriting Competition, and the Playwrights' Center's Playlabs Play Development Workshop. Our current students are performing at the level of professionals with many years of experience. At the 2004 Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville, one of the most prestigious new play events in the United States, three of the twelve plays were written by former UT students or faculty. Current Michener Student, Carson Krietzer, shared the honors of a major national critic's award with Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, August Wilson.

Jenny Connell

Jenny Connell's plays have been staged in New York, Chicago, Austin, Aspen, and Billings. Her works include Fire Escape, Chrysalis, The Lost Work of Samuel Beckett, Self Defense, Above Below, and Summer People. She has also written two screenplays; Cinnamon Girl and Painting the Boys. Before she started writing, Jenny received a B.A. in anthropology from The University of Chicago, and worked as an actor in Chicago with Steppenwolf Theatre, Court Theatre, and the Gift Theatre, where she is an ensemble member. She is currently pursuing an MFA in playwriting at the University of Texas at Austin.

Soo-jin Lee

SOO-JIN LEE is a playwright and screenwriter. Her work includes: PEACHES, which was staged at the Edward Albee New Playwrights Workshop (Houston, 2005), was read at Theater Mu¡&hibar;s New Eyes Festival (Minneapolis, 2006), won the 2006 New Work for Young Women Prize and was presented at the University of Tulsa (2007); TIGERS, DRAGONS, & OTHER WISE TAILS!, which premiered at the Smithsonian&hibar;s Discovery Theatre (D.C., 2005); and SAVING MOM, which will be produced in the spring (Austin, 2008). Two short screenplays, BONSAI and COMPASSION, have been produced at UT-Austin, where she is a MFA playwriting candidate, a member of Austin Script Works, and a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Erin Phillips

Erin Phillips is in her first year of the MFA playwriting program. She holds a BFA in Acting for Cornish College of the Arts, and an MA in Dramatic Art from the University of California Santa Barbara. She was the recipient of the Corwin award for best one act play and best full length play. She has also recieved a meritorious achievement award from the Kennedy Center.

Priscilla Sample

Priscilla Sample is a second-year M.F.A. playwriting candidate at the University of Texas at Austin. For the last fifteen years she has dedicated her work to supporting emerging playwrights; in Dallas as the Director of the Playwrights' Project and in New York and Connecticut as the Director of External Affairs for the O'Neill Theater Center (home of the National Playwrights Conference and National Music Theater Conference.) She relocated to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she has worked as a producer, director, dramaturg, stage manager, and playwright and this past summer produced and directed a series of workshops and readings about notable women entitled "An evening with …" which included her one-woman play Margo Jones. Also a visual artist, Priscilla specializes in hand-painted textile work, art quilts, functional ceramics, and mosaics. She holds a B.A. in Film, theater emphasis, from Yale University.

Robert Sanchez

Robert Sanchez is in his third and final year in the MFA Playwriting program at UT. Robert recieved his BA in Dramatic Arts with an emphasis in Playwriting and Dramatic Literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Robert has been a finalist for the Humana Festival's 10 minute playwrighting competition for his play INHALE/EXHALE and has been a recipient of the Dilling Yang Playwriting Fellowship (UCSB), Dorthy and Sherrill Corwin award for a full length version of his play INHALE/EXHALE, and an Honorable mention for the Dorothy and Sherrill Corwin award for best full length play for BLUE MONDAY.

Robert is a native of Southern California. Some of his playwright influences are Henrik Ibsen, John Guare, Edward Albee, Naomi Iizuka, Suzan Lori Parks, and many many others. Robert loves to spend his time outdoors, gets alot of his influences for his plays from the music of The Smiths and has the sweetest Pitbull named Emma.

Martin Zimmerman

Martin Zimmerman is a playwright, who graduated this past May from Duke University with degrees in Theater Studies and Economics. He received highest honors in Theater Studies for his work on his thesis play 'Three Movements'. He is the recipient of the Reynolds Price Award for Best Original Script for his play 'Eyes Like Fire Opals' as well as the Dasha Epstein Award in Playwriting for 'Three Movements'. Other awards include The Benenson Award in the Arts for which he received funding to research Argentina's Dirty War as well as the Louis Sudler Award in the Arts. He has also held a playwriting fellowship at New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse Playwriting Festival.