BELLA POYNTON is a playwright, director, actor, and performance studies scholar from Buffalo, NY. Her 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, director of the Playwrights’ Wing at First Look Buffalo Theatre Company, literary manager at Post-Industrial Productions, and director of Queen City Playwrights, Buffalo’s new play development workshop for career playwrights in Western New York.

Bella’s plays have been produced and developed at the Bechdel Group, MadLab Theatre, Quantum Dragon Theatre Company, Alleyway Theatre, Looking Glass Theatre Company, The Science Fiction Theatre Company of Boston, 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, Theatre Viscera, and Post-Industrial Productions, among many among others. Additionally, her plays have enjoyed many university level productions, including productions at Eastern Illinois University, Oklahoma City University, Tulsa Community College, and the University at Buffalo.

Bella’s plays has been published with Samuel French at Concord Theatricals as well as in The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2024 (forthcoming), The Best Men’s Monologues of 2024 (forthcoming), 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. Her work has has been a finalist for the Christopher Brian Wolk Playwriting Award, the Heideman Award, the New Works of Merit Playwriting Context, the Woodward/Newman Drama Award, the Sam French OOB Festival, and the Maxim Mazumdar Playwriting Competition. In addition to her playwriting, Bella is also an avid director, actor, and dramaturg. She is currently engaging in rigorous training to become a well-informed Intimacy Choreographer through Theatrical Intimacy Education.

Bella’s ongoing book project titled Robot Dramaturgy explores the history and cultural significance of robotics and A.I. in theatrical performance, and it’s journey towards personhood frames 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 MA in Theatre Studies from the University at Buffalo, an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Iowa, and a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University at Buffalo.