Who Are the Playwrights

SM Shephard-Massat

Resident Playwright

2023 — 2030

SM Shephard-Massat (she/her) attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts as a dramatic writing major and interned at London’s Royal Court Theatre. Her plays have been produced in theatres across the United States including Denver Center Theatre Company, Chicago’s Victory Gardens, The Kennedy Center, St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre, won several awards including The Francesca Primus Award, The Helen Hayes Award, The Adrienne Kennedy Society’s Young Dramatist’s Award, Delaware Theatre Company’s Connections Award, the Roger L. Stevens Award, the Westword Best of Denver Award, The American Theatre Critics Association’s M. Elizabeth Osborn Award, New York University’s 2009 Goldberg Prize for Playwriting and the Black Theatre Alliance Award, was a Joseph Kesselring Award nominee, a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nominee, New York University’s 2007 Dean’s Fellowship recipient, and is an alumnus of the O’Neill Playwrights Conference. SM has mentored theatre students, represented The Dramatists Guild at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, been featured in American Theatre Magazine and is also the founder and host of TERTULIA Group - a meeting place for Atlanta’s black playwrights sponsored by The Dramatists Guild of America and The Alliance Theatre. Ms. Shephard-Massat lives in Atlanta, GA.