Ellen McLaughlin

Ellen McLaughlin has written numerous plays inspired by classic Greek texts, including The Oresteia, The Persians, Ajax in Iraq,Iphigenia and Other Daughters, The Trojan Women, Oedipus, Helen, Kissing the Floor, and Penelope. Her other plays include Days and Nights Within, A Narrow Bed, Infinity’s House, Tongue of a Bird, Septimus and Clarissa and Blood Moon. The producers of her work include The Public Theater, National Actors’ Theater, Classic Stage Co., New York Theater Workshop, The Guthrie, The Intiman, The Mark Taper Forum, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Actors’ Theater of Louisville, Orlando Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Theatre, DC, and The Almeida Theater in London. She is the recipient of the Writer’s Award from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund as well as other honors, including the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, The Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting, and grants from the NEA.  McLaughlin has taught playwriting at Barnard College since 1995, among other teaching posts. McLaughlin is also an actor. She has performed at the Public Theater, Manhattan Theater Club, LaMama, A.C.T., Berkeley Rep, Yale Rep, Seattle Rep, Trinity Rep., Arena Stage, among others. She is most well-known for originating the role of the Angel in Angels in America by Tony Kushner, appearing in every U.S. production from its earliest workshops through its original Broadway run.