Claudia Barnett grew up in the Bronx and is current professor at Middle Tennessee State University teaching playwriting. She got into the theatre scene when she enrolled in the already full playwriting class at Cornell University. She later on earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in English at Ohio State University. She then became a professor in the English Department at Middle Tennessee State University. At a playwriting symposium, she realized that she didn’t want to write about other playwrights. She wanted to write her own plays. Soon after, she redirected her career as a playwright.
A firm believer of her plays being “never done”, she is open to new perspectives and what performances can show her. Barnett’s plays focuses on the intersection of historical overlap between history and the natural, cosmic balance of the world. She also focuses on the visions of women, past and present, and the hardships they are faced with, from sexism to violence. Creating female roles are also an important piece in her works as well. She is author of two books both from Carnegie Mellon University Press: I Love You Terribly: Six Plays (2012) and No. 731 Degraw Street, Brooklyn, or Emily Dickinson’s Sister: An Play in Two Acts (2015). Her plays were part of the Great Plains Theatre Conference, Kennedy Center Page-to-Stage Festival, MultiStages New Works Festival, LeapFest at Stage Left Theatre Company, Women’s Work Festival (Newfoundland), and Ingram New Works Festival at Nashville Repertory Theatre (formerly Tennessee Rep). Barnett credits Naomi Wallace, Caryl Churchill, Adrienne Kennedy, Judith Thompson, and Quiara Alegeria Hudes as her influences and is excited to see the University of Pittsburgh Stages’ production of Aglaonike’s Tiger! |
Photo courtesy of claudiabarnett.com
Photo courtesy of MTSU English
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