Lauren Gunderson was awarded the 2016 Lanford Wilson Award from the Dramatist Guild, the 2016 Otis Gurnsey Award for Emerging Writer, and was awarded the prestigious 2014 and 2018 Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for her plays I and You and The Book of Will. She co-authored the play Miss Bennet: Chrsitmas at Pemberley with Margot Melcon.
Bauer, commissioned by San Francisco Playhouse, premiered there and in New York City at 59E59. Her play Silent Sky premiered at South Coast Rep in 2011 and was further developed and rewritten for TheatreWorks. Her world premiere of Exit, Pursued By A Bear was has reached over 20 communities across the US winning “Best Comedy” accolades.
Other works include Toil and Trouble, The Taming, her first musical, The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful and Her Dog!, Emilie: La Marquise Du Chatelet Defends Her Tonight, By and By, and Firework. Her first children’s book based on Dr. Wonderful was released by Two Lions Publishing in 2017.
She has developed plays with Second Stage, Red Bull, and Primary Stages in New York City; New Repertory Theater in Boston; Playwrights Foundation, Crowded Fire, TheatreWorks, Aurora Theatre, and The Magic Theatre in San Francisco; Kitchen Dog Theatre in Dallas; Synchronicity, Actor Express and Horizon Theatre in Atlanta; JAW at Portland Center Stage in Portland; WORDBridge, Brave New Works, and others.
Her work has received national praise and awards including being a Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award finalist, a Susan Smith Blackburn finalist, a Jane Chambers Award finalist, and winner of the Berrilla Kerr Award for American Theatre, Global Age Project, Young Playwright’s Award, Eric Bentley New Play Award, and Essential Theatre Prize.
She has spoken nationally and internationally on the intersection of science and theatre and Arts Activism, and teaches playwriting in San Francisco. She is a Playwright in Residence at The Playwrights Foundation, a Dramatists Guild member, and was a member of Just Theatre’s New Play Lab. She writes for The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and tweets @LaLaTellsA Story.
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