Kira Rockwell (she/her) is a neurodivergent, atlanta-based playwright and educator, originally from the heart of Texas. She is an Artist Fellow in Dramatic Writing with the Mass Cultural Council, a recipient of the Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award, the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, three-time finalist for the O’Neill NPC, runner-up for the Princess Grace Award, and more.
Selected plays include OH TO BE PURE AGAIN (world premiere: Actor's Express, winner of the Gene Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award); WICKED BITTER BEAST(S) (upcoming development: Southern Writers Festival, Alabama Shakespeare Festival); HOLY CHICKEN SANDWICH (upcoming workshop premiere: Boston New Works Festival); THE TRAGIC ECSTASY OF GIRLHOOD (workshop premiere: Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, a Boston Globe Critic’s Pick, and Elliot Norton Nominee). Rockwell is currently under commission with Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan, Actor's Express, and Moonbox Productions.
Her work has also been developed with The Kennedy Center, National New Play Network, MFA Playwrights' Workshop, Great Plains Theatre Commons, Last Frontier Theatre Conference, and Third Culture Theatre in partnership with HBO and Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network, among others. Rockwell holds a BFA in Theatre Performance and an MFA in Playwriting from Boston University.
Before graduate school, Rockwell worked at the intersection of mental health, youth advocacy, and arts education. Through a trauma informed, healing centered lens, she aims to nurture communal spaces that disrupt passivity and empower agency.