Artist Bio

(Bio as of April 2013)

christopher oscar peña is a playwright from California currently splitting his time between New York City and Chicago. He received a BA in dramatic arts from the University of California Santa Barbara, where he studied with Naomi Iizuka, and an MFA in dramatic writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. His plays include maelstrom; l(y)re; however long the night; i wonder if it’s possible to have a love affair that lasts forever? or things i found on craigslist; icarus burns; the suicide tapes; alone above a raging sea and a cautionary tail. His work has been developed or seen at The Public Theater, Two River Theater Company, Ars Nova, INTAR Theatre, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Flea Theater, Ontological Hysteric Theater, Rising Circle, Pavement Group, Son of Semele Ensemble and New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW). Mr. Peña is an alumni of INTAR’s Hispanic Playwrights Lab, was an emerging artist fellow at NYTW, a writing fellow with the Playwrights Realm and the recipient of both the Corwin Award for Playwriting and the Latino Playwrights Award from The Kennedy Center. In 2011, Peña traveled to London as part of the T.S. Eliot US/UK Exchange with the Old Vic New Voices where his play however long the night premiered. He is currently developing new pieces for art.party.theater company, American Theater Company and Pine Box Theater. He is the Lark Play Development Center’s 2012 Van Lier Fellow.