Anita Vatshell is a playwright and Hospice nurse living in New Orleans.

Anita ventured into playwriting in 2011, after attending The Missoula Colony, an annual writing intensive hosted by the Montana Repertory Theatre. Two of her plays were selected for developmental staged readings: Leaving Cottonwood, July 2014; and Rigged to Flip, June 2018. Her first full length play, Front Street, a historical fiction set in 1895 about a Missoula Brothel, was produced through Montana Rep’s Visions and Voices in August 2016.

While living in Missoula, Anita was a member of Zoula Playwrights (2010 - 2014) which produced two of her ten-minute shorts, Floating Away in Spring of 2012, and Gestures in Fall of 2012.

After moving to New Orleans in 2014, Anita participated in Southern Rep’s 6 by 6 new play slams until the program ended in 2016. Four of her shorts were selected for staged readings: December 2014 – Figgy Pudding; January 2015 – Dirty Shirts; May 2015 – Root; and November 2015 - Storm. She was a member of the Gulf Coast Playwrights group until December 2019.

In 2016 Anita was selected by Generate Ink, to produce Leaving Cottonwood in November 2016.

Anita was the Gulf Coast Dramatists Guild Regional Rep from 2018-2020. Her newest production, Operating Theatre, was developed prior to the Pandemic and completed during the Dramatists Guild End of Play project in March 2020. Operating Theatre opened in November 2022.

Anita decided the subject of reproductive health care access warranted more attention and wrote and self produced Open up the Kingdom Mama in November 2024. She is currently in pre production of the third play in the reproductive trilogy Bastard Nation which will open March 26, 2026. Anita is an artist in residence with the  Church of Arts and Sciences and New Marigny Theatre of New Orleans, which is supporting the premiere of Bastard Nation. This production is also supported, in part by The Carol Sutton Memorial Grant. 

Anita is currently a member of the Dramatists Guild and AquaMob NOLA.