Erin Courtney is an American

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

and visual artist from

Hermosa Beach, California Hermosa Beach (, Spanish for "Beautiful") is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Its population was 19,728 at the 2020 U.S. Census. The city is located in the South Bay region of the Greater Los Angeles area; ...

. Courtney is known for employing nontraditional structures in her plays, with reviewers and collaborators describing her work as " delicate gem," "a visual and aural kaleidoscope," and "within a structure that is less linear than collage-like."

Career

Education and teaching

Courtney graduated from

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

in 1990 with a BA in Visual Art, the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...

in 1993 with an MFA in Painting, and from

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

in 2003 with an MFA in Playwriting. As an educator, Courtney taught at Brooklyn College's Playwriting MFA program and acted as its Playwriting Program Coordinator. In 2020, she became an assistant professor at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

, in its Writing for Screen and Stage program.

New York and regional theater

Since 1997, Courtney has had work developed, read, and produced at Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and indie theater venues including HERE Theater, Vineyard Theater, The Flea,

Atlantic Theater Company The Atlantic Theater Company is an Off-Broadway non-profit theater company based in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1985 by playwright David Mamet, actor William H. Macy, and a group of acting students, the compan ...

Actors Theatre of Louisville Actors Theatre of Louisville is a non-profit performing arts theater located in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. Actors Theatre was founded in 1964 following the merging of two local companies, Actors, Inc. and Theatre Louisville, operated by Louis ...

and

Playwrights Horizons Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit American Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. ...

. Courtney was a member of 13P, the downtown New York playwriting-producing collective that formed in 2003 and dissolved in 2012. Her 13P production, ''A Map of Virtue,'' won a 2012 Special Citation

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given since 1956 by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theater artists and groups involved in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. Starting just after th ...

. Courtney was a Resident Playwright of

New Dramatists New Dramatists is an organization of playwrights founded in 1949 and located at 424 West 44th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in the Hell's Kitchen (Clinton) neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The members of New Dramatists par ...

from 2012 - 2019. In 2013, Courtney was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in Drama and Performance Art. Courtney sits on the executive board of

Clubbed Thumb Clubbed Thumb is a downtown theater company in New York City that commissions, develops, and produces "funny, strange, and provocative new plays by living American writers." Since its founding in 1996, the company has earned five OBIES (including ...

. In 2018, she helped develop Clubbed Thumb's Biennial Commission prompt, which urged writers to "alternative play shapes" in their storytelling.

Works

Plays

* 2015 ''I Will Be Gone'' * 2013 ''Black Cat Lost'' * 2012 ''A Map of Virtue'' * 2002 ''Demon Baby''

Musicals

* 2020 ''The Tattooed Lady.'' Book by Erin Courtney and Max Vernon, Lyrics and Music by Max Vernon. * 2015 ''The Nomad.'' Lyrics and book co-written by Erin Courtney and Elizabeth Swados

Performance pieces

* 2014 ''The Mysteries,'' "48 playwrights and 48 actors retelling the entirety of The Bible in a single night." Erin Courtney, co-writer along with 47 others. * 2014 ''I’m Bleeding All Over the Place: A Living History Tour'' at

The New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum at 235 Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-nam ...

. Created by Brooke O’Harra, written text by Brooke O’Harra and Casey Llewellyn, with Erin Courtney, Kristen Kosmas and Heidi Schreck. * 2013 ''Trade Practices,'' "an immersive site-specific theater experience that examines the notion of "value" against the backdrop of the booms and busts of the past decade."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Courtney, Erin Living people American dramatists and playwrights American women dramatists and playwrights Brown University alumni San Francisco Art Institute alumni Brooklyn College alumni Year of birth missing (living people)