BELLA POYNTON is a playwright, director, dramaturg, and theatre historian from Buffalo, NY. Her plays have been published with Sam French/Concord Theatricals, Broadway Play Publishing, Applause, and Smith & Kraus. Her woks have recently appeared in The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2024 The Best Men’s Monologues of 2024, The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2019, The Best American Short Plays 2018-2019, The Weirdest Plays of 2020, and WE-US: Monologues for Gender Minority Characters.

Bella’s scholarly work has been published in Theatre/Practice, Global Performance Studies, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Texas Theatre Journal, and Comparative Drama. She currently serves as director the senior co-chair of the Playwriting Symposium at the Mid America Theatre Festival, the director of the Playwrights’ Wing at First Look Buffalo Theatre Company, and the Vice President of ARTA (Association of Regional Theatre Artists of Western New York.)

Bella’s plays have been produced and developed at the Bechdel Group, MadLab Theatre, Alleyway Theatre, The Great Plains Theatre Festival, The Pittsburgh New Works Festival, The Antaeus Company, Otherworld Theatre Company, Road Less Traveled Productions, 3rd Act Theatre Company, Kitchen Theatre Company, Panndora Productions, Theatre Viscera, Post-Industrial Productions, First Look Buffalo Theatre Company, ART of WNY, Bennington Theatre, and the Mid America Theatre Conference, among many among others. Additionally, her plays have enjoyed many university level productions and development opportunities at collegiate institutions such as Kent State University, Bloomsburg University, Eastern Illinois University, Oklahoma City University, Tulsa Community College, and the University at Buffalo.

Bella’s ongoing book project titled Robot Dramaturgy explores the history and cultural significance of robotics and A.I. in theatrical performance, and their journey towards personhood framed through dramatic action. Other research interests include science, technology, and the posthuman in performance as well as the history of new play development and the historical avant-garde. Bella holds a BFA in Acting from Boston University, an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Iowa, and a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University at Buffalo.