Betty Shamieh

Betty Shamieh is an American playwright, author, screenwriter, and actor of Palestinian descent. She has written 15 plays.

Background
Shamieh was born in San Francisco, California. She holds degrees from Harvard University 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.

She has been awarded a Sundance Theatre Institute residency, New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship, New Dramatists Van Lier fellowship, Ford Foundation grant, Yaddo residency, Arts International grant, and Rockefeller Foundation residency in Bellagio, Italy. She was awarded a playwriting grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and Theatre Communications Group to spend 2008 as a playwright-in-residence at the Magic Theatre.

Shamieh is a professor at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. She is on the Screenwriting/Playwriting Advisory Board for the New York Foundation for the Arts.

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.

Roar
Shamieh became the first Palestinian-American to have a play premiere off-Broadway with the 2004 premiere of Roar, a drama about a Palestinian family. Tony-nominated Marion McClinton directed, and Annabella Sciorra and Sarita Choudhury starred. The play was a New York Times 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. The Theatre Fournos of Athens, Greece, 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 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 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.

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.
 * Roar, Broadway Play Publishing Inc.