Jenny Connell Davis
Affiliated Writer
Austin, TX
Biography

Jenny Connell Davis is a playwright from Maine who lives in Austin. Recent plays include Matinicus: A Lighthouse Play (a true story about Maine heroine Abigail Burgess), As I See It (about the relationship between painter Alice Neel and poet Frank O'Hara), The Messenger (a multi-voice monologue play, inspired by true stories, that connects the dots between Holocaust denialism, free speech in schools, and anti-AAPI violence), and Anton Chekov Is A Tasty Snack (a comedy about the tragedy of theater and the people who love it).

Her stage plays have been developed or produced with the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, the Playwrights' Center, Icicle Creek, ACT in Seattle, the Araca Group, The Gift Theatre, Stage Left and ATC in Chicago, Ars Nova, Asolo Rep, NAATCO, Theater Mitu, New York Stage and Film, Shrewd Productions, Impact Theatre in Berkeley, Chance Theatre, SPACE at Ryder Farm, and Team Sunshine Performance Corporation.

By day, Jenny works as the in-house writer at Emmy-award-winning Baobab Studios, developing the stories that they iterate across TV, film, books for kids, graphic novels, Roblox games, and VR. She adapted bestselling novelist Jennifer Weiner's first YA novel, The Littlest Bigfoot, for screen; it's currently under development with Fox/Disney. Her YA+ comedy, RUSH, is in development with Amazon Studios; her adaptation of her own play, Dragon Play, is in development with Iconoclast Films/Anonymous Content. Her first pilot script, a soapy supreme court drama, sold to Sony. Her short films have screened at festivals worldwide, including SxSW and Toronto.

She has been a finalist or semi-finalist for Seven Devils, BAPF, the Nicholl (twice), and the Heideman Award, has been an honorable mentions on the Kilroys list (2014, 2015, 2016) and for the Jane Chambers Award (2014), and has been twice-nominated for both the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the Lark/PONY fellowship. She has been commissioned by The Chance Theater, Penfold Theater, and Palm Beach Dramaworks, where she is now Resident Playwright. 

Jenny in an Affiliated Writer with the Playwrights' Center, former member of the Ars Nova Play Group, and a recipient of grants from Ars Nova, ScriptWorks, Playwrights' Center, and the Network of Ensemble Theatres. Jenny was the 2014-15 Hot Seat Local Writer in Residence at Baltimore's Center Stage Theater, where she helped organize their new Playwrights Collective, the 2016 Resident Playwright at Chance Theatre in Anaheim, CA, and an inaugural member of the Hyde Park Theater Playwrights Group in 2019-2020.

She trained as an actor at Court and Steppenwolf theaters in Chicago, and in playwriting at UT-Austin. She has taught acting at UT-Austin and playwriting at a bunch of places including Playwrights' Center.

Agent: Verve Talent
Management: Good Fear

Agent Information

Chris Till 
Verve
ctill@vervetla.com

Daniela Gonzalez
Circle of Confusion
daniela@circleofconfusion.com

Successes

The Scientific Method by affiliated writer Jenny Connell Davis will have its world premiere at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble in Chicago, IL, running Oct 8th ~ Dec 2nd 2018. For more information, go to: http://rivendelltheatre.org/

Jenny Connell Davis's play END OF SHIFT, developed at the Playwrights' Center, will run at Nazareth College from February 16th to February 25th 2018. For tickets and other info, visit: https://www2.naz.edu/events/2270/end-of-shift/

SCIENTIFIC METHOD by Jenny Connell Davis will receive a reading at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble in Chicago, IL on November 3rd at 12:30 PM. For tickets and more information, email Rachel Abrams at rabrams@apa-agency.com

Jenny Connel Davis' SCIENTIFIC METHOD has been selected as a 2017 National Playwriting Conference Finalist! See the link for more information: https://sites.google.com/a/theoneill.org/2017/npc-finalist-list

The Know Theatre's 2016-17 season will include Jenny Connell Davis’s "The Dragon Play" (Jan. 29-Feb. 20, 2017), a dark comedy about a teenage boy and a dragon who fall in love in rural Texas. Tamara Winters will direct. http://www.americantheatre.org/2016/05/24/know-theatre-announces-2016-17...