Theresa Rebeck is a widely produced writer for stage, film, television and novels, whose work can be seen and read throughout the United States and internationally. With four plays produced on Broadway, Rebeck is the most Broadway-produced female playwright of our time.
Rebeck’s Broadway credits include Bernhardt/Hamlet (starring Janet McTeer), Dead Accounts (starring Katie Holmes); Seminar (starring Alan Rickman) and Mauritius (starring F. Murray Abraham). Other New York productions of her work include Seared (starring Raul Esparza) at MCC Theater, Downstairs (starring Tim Daly and Tyne Daly); The Scene (starring Tony Shalhoub), The Water’s Edge, Loose Knit, The Family of Mann and Spike Heels at Second Stage; Bad Dates, The Butterfly Collection and Our House at Playwrights Horizons; The Understudy at Roundabout Theatre Company; and View of the Dome at New York Theatre Workshop. Other notable plays include Poor Behavior, What We’re Up Against, and Omnium Gatherum (co-written), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2013. Her latest play, Mad House, had a critically acclaimed world premiere in summer 2022 on London’s West End, starring David Harbour and Bill Pullman. She’s currently working on a musical adaptation of Working Girl, with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper.
All of Rebeck’s plays are published by Smith and Kraus as Theresa Rebeck: Complete Plays, Volumes I, II III, IV and V and in acting editions available from Samuel French or Playscripts. As an author, Rebeck has written three novels: Three Girls and Their Brother (Random House/Shaye Areheart Books, 2008), Twelve Rooms with A View (Random House/Shaye Areheart Books, 2010) and I’m Glad About You (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2016), along with Free Fire Zone, a book of comedic essays about writing and show business.
Rebeck made her NYC Directorial debut with Rob Ackerman’s play Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson at The Working Theatre and directed the World Premiere of her new comedy Dig at the Dorset Theatre Festival in Vermont, where she also serves as Resident Playwright. Her new podcast play, “Nightwatch” (starring Norbert Leo Butz), produced by Dorset Theatre Festival, is now available on The Broadway Podcast Network.
In television, Rebeck created the NBC showbiz drama “Smash,” and has written for “Canterbury’s Law,” “LA Law,” NYPD Blue,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “Dream On,” Brooklyn Bridge,” and many more. Her produced feature films include the big-budget all-female spy thriller 355 (co-written with Simon Kinberg for Jessica Chastain’s production company); Trouble (writer/director), starring Angelica Huston and Bill Pullman; Harriet the Spy; Gossip and the independent features Sunday on the Rocks and Seducing Charlie Barker, an adaptation of her play, The Scene.
For her work on “NYPD Blue,” Rebeck won the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award, the Writers’ Guild of America Award for Episodic Drama, the Hispanic Images Imagen Award, and the Peabody Award. Other Awards include a GLAAD Award (for “Smash”), the National Theatre Conference Award (for The Family of Mann), the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award (for The Bells), the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, the Athena Film Festival Award, an Alex Award, a Lilly Award and more. In 2011, Rebeck was named one of the 150 Fearless Women in the World by Newsweek.
Originally from Cincinnati, Rebeck holds an MFA in Playwrighting and a PhD. in Victorian Melodrama, both from Brandeis University. She is a proud board member of the Dramatists Guild, a Contributing Editor to the Harvard Review, an Associate Artist of the Roundabout Theatre Company and Resident Playwright at Vermont’s Dorset Theatre Festival. She has taught at Brandeis University and Columbia University and currently holds the Lyndall Finley Wortham Chair in Performing Arts at the University of Houston, where she teaches playwriting.
Theresa lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.
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