Betty Shamieh is an American

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

, and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

of Palestinian descent. She has written 15 plays.

Background

Shamieh was born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. She holds degrees from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and the Yale School of Drama.

Career

In 2004, Shamieh was a Clifton Visiting Artist at Harvard University. In 2005 she was Playwriting fellow at Harvard University's

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University—also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute—is a part of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts, a ...

. She has been awarded a Sundance Theatre Institute residency,

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

fellowship, New Dramatists Van Lier fellowship, Ford Foundation grant,

Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...

residency,

Arts International The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both h ...

grant, and

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

residency in

Bellagio, Italy Bellagio (; lmo, label= Comasco, Belàs ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Como in the Italian region of Lombardy. It is located on Lake Como, also known by its Latin-derived name ''Lario'', whose arms form an inverted Y. T ...

. She was awarded a playwriting grant from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

and

Theatre Communications Group Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is a non-profit service organization headquartered in New York City that promotes professional non-profit theatre in the United States. The organization also publishes ''American Theatre'' magazine and ''ARTSEA ...

to spend 2008 as a playwright-in-residence at the Magic Theatre. Shamieh is a professor at Marymount Manhattan College in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She is on the Screenwriting/Playwriting Advisory Board for the

Acting

Shamieh performed in her monologue play, ''Chocolate in Heat - Growing up Arab in America'', at its premiere at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2001. The play has run twice off-off-Broadway and at university theatres and venues.

Productions

''Roar''

Shamieh became the first Palestinian-American to have a play premiere

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

with the 2004 premiere of ''Roar'', a drama about a Palestinian family.

Tony Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...

-nominated

Marion McClinton Marion Isaac McClinton (July 26, 1954 – November 28, 2019) was an American theatre director, playwright, and actor. He was nominated for the Tony Award for ''King Hedley II''. He won the 2000 Vivian Robinson Audelco Black Theatre Awards, Direc ...

directed, and Annabella Sciorra and

Sarita Choudhury Sarita Catherine Louise Choudhury (born 18 August 1966) is a British actress, known for her role as Mina in the Mira Nair-directed feature film ''Mississippi Masala'' (1991). Choudhury has played roles in American and international films and tel ...

starred. The play was a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' Critics Pick. ''Roar'' is currently being taught in multicultural theatre courses at universities throughout the United States.

''The Black Eyed''

Shamieh's play ''The Black Eyed'' (2005) had its off-Broadway premiere at

New York Theatre Workshop __NOTOC__ New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) is an Off-Broadway theatre noted for its productions of new works. Located at 79 4th Street (Manhattan), East 4th Street between Second Avenue (Manhattan), Second Avenue and Bowery in the East Village, ...

. The Theatre Fournos of

Athens, Greece Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, has produced it in Greek translation.

''Again and Against''

Shamieh's play ''Again and Against'' (2006) was read during the New Work Now festival at the

Public Theater The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: An American Li ...

in November 2006 and at the Royal Court Theatre in January 2007.

''The Machine''

Shamieh's one-act play ''The Machine'' was produced by

Naked Angels ''Naked Angels'' is a 1969 American outlaw biker film directed by Bruce D. Clark. Starring Michael Greene as Mother, Jennifer Gan as Marlene, and Richard Rust as Fingers, it provides an insider's perspective at the lifestyle of outlawed bikers. ...

and directed by Marisa Tomei in 2007.

''Territories''

Shamieh's play ''Territories'' (2008) had its European premiere at the European Union Capital of Culture Festival and its world premiere at the

Magic Theatre The Magic Theatre is a theatre company founded in 1967, presently based at the historic Fort Mason Center on San Francisco's northern waterfront. The Magic Theatre is well known and respected for its singular focus on the development and product ...

''Anonymous''

Shamieh received Honorable Mention for her screenplay ''Anonymous'' from the Third Annual Writers Network competition.

''Free Radicals''

Shamieh's play ''Free Radicals'' was commissioned by Het Zuidelijk Toneel in the Netherlands.

Published plays

*''The Black Eyed'' & ''Architecture'',

Broadway Play Publishing Inc. Broadway Play Publishing Inc (BPPI) was established in New York City in 1982 to publish and license the stage performance rights of contemporary American plays. The Broadway Play Publishing Inc catalog consists of over 1,000 plays and nearly 400 ...

*''Roar'', Broadway Play Publishing Inc.