As resident playwright since the company’s inception, Emily Cicchini has written eight plays for the Pollyanna Theatre Company:  EDWARD THE OWL AND THE CALICO CAT, A CHRISTMAS ROSE, COMMUNITY HELPERS ON WHEELS, A DRAGON’S HAPPY DAY, DUCKIE SEES THE WORLD, JUST BEE, and the PATTERN NATION series. She was also commissioned by director Judy Matetzschk-Campbell to write RUMPELSTILTSKIN’S DAUGHTER adapted from the picture book by Diane Stanley for Zachary Scott Theatre’s Project InterAct, and the libretto for TRAIL OF TEARS, a ballet/drama for Ballet Austin, Umlauf Sculpture Garden, and Pollyanna Theatre’s collaborative ArtsBlitz program. EDWARD, THE OWL, AND THE CALICO CAT, inspired by the life and work of Edward Lear, is published by Dramatic Publishing.

Emily has written extensively for stage, film, radio, and interactive media. Much of her writing focuses on strong women from the past, most notably BECOMING BRONTË, about the early lives of the authors of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. BRONTË was produced at McNeese State University and Capitol City Playhouse and was selected for the National Play Networks’ Hothouse at Kitchen Dog Theatre, Richard and Betty Burdick National Playwright’s Festival at Florida Studio Theatre and won the Austin Critics’ Table Award for Best Original New Script. DUCKIE SEES THE WORLD was a recipient of an Aurand Harris award from the Children’s Foundation of America.

As a playwright, actress, arts educator, and arts administrator, she has worked on and/or offstage with Austin Script Works, BoarsHead: Michigan Public Theatre, Capitol City Playhouse, the Cleveland Play House, Frontera @ Hyde Park Theatre, Live Oak Theatre, the Michigan and Texas Young Playwright’s Festivals, Salvage Vanguard Theatre, Turner House Shakespeare Festival, the University of Texas Performing Arts Center, VSA arts of Texas, and Zachary Scott Theatre Center, among others.  She has also served on the boards of Texans for the Arts, the International Centre for Women Playwrights, and The Greater Austin Creative Alliance.

Cicchini holds an MFA in playwriting with a secondary emphasis on screenwriting from the University of Texas at Austin where she was a James A. Michener Fellow, and a BFA in acting from DePaul/Goodman School of Drama. See more at www.emilycicchini.com.