Malena Pennycook 

 

Malena Pennycook is a writer, performer and teacher currently based in Austin, Texas. Malena creates formally inventive theater about the strange experience of having a body.

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Their plays include How Should A Conversation Be? (Playwrights Realm, Playwrights Center, O'Neill Finalist, Princess Grace Finalist); Diving Board (Seoul International Theater Festival, Teatro Vivo, Crashbox, O'Neill Finalist); Two Apprentices (The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Latinx Playwriting Award); Below (Take Ten Theatre Masters 2023, Concord Theatricals/Sam French) and their solo show Am I Busy Yet? (Cosmic Cherry Arts NYC, Oregon Fringe). 

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As a performer and deviser, Malena has developed projects with The Public's Under the Radar, The Flea Theatre, ZACH Theatre, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Fresh Ground Pepper, Dixon Place, Shakespeare in the Square, Cape Fear Regional Theatre, The Brick and more. She has also appeared in national commercials for AT&T and Chase. 

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Malena is an alumnus of the Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series, Playwrights Center Core Apprenticeship, The Richie Jackson Artistic Fellowship and the New Harmony Project. 

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MFA Playwriting UT Austin. BFA NYU Tisch Experimental Theatre Wing.

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