About

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MICHELLE “BELLA” POYNTON is a graduate of the Boston University School of Theater with a BFA in Acting, and is currently an MFA candidate at the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. She began writing plays in 2006, and has had over ten productions in New York and around the country.

In 2008, her play Pope Joan, was produced by the Boston University New Play Initiative, went on to be a regional finalist at the American College Theater Festival. Joan was also later produced at New World Stages in March 2009, and was nominated for the Christopher Brian Wolk Playwriting Award in 2010. Pope Joan beautifully exemplifies the kind of bold and ambitious classical playwriting she is known for.

Other productions include: Unpopular Devotion (New Perspectives Theater Company, August 2009), Hey, Mary! (MITF, August 2010), Advanced Program System (13th St Rep, August 2010 & The American Globe Theater, 2011), The Experiment (Barrow Group, July 2010), A House Full of Dust (Wings Theater Company, August 2010), and Fat Actress/Ugly Model: and Other Destructive Labels for Women (Manhattan Rep, March 2010). Fat Actress/Ugly Model was also chosen to be part of the Last Frontier Theater Conference in Valdez, Alaska in 2009, and has a third production coming up at Writeact Eastside Theater Company in New York. She won the Amelia Bassano Lanier Short Play Competition at Manhattan Theater Source, served as a literary intern at the 13th Street Repertory Company and the Barrow Groups FAB Women’s Project, and was a member of the Women’s Works Group at the New Perspectives Theater Company.

Upcoming: The Angel Play, will be produced at the Looking Glass Theater Company in March, 2012.