ELLIS ABIGAIL STUMP (they/she) is a Columbia University Playwriting MFA Candidate (2020-23) and Professor of Screenwriting (2021-present), an internationally developed playwright and episodic screenwriter, assistant to Bess Wohl and mentee to Steve Martin, and a queer second-generation Czech Jew from Amish Lancaster, Pennsylvania. There, Ellis attended primarily Mennonite public schools without computers and observed ultra-conservatism, tractor traffic, food stamp poverty, and the rural drug epidemic. Now, with bold humor, heart, and hope, Ellis aims to invite all audiences into complex cult-like communities that undercut personal empowerment, juxtaposed with their own equally insular liberal bubbles. In today’s era of opposition, as a storyteller who can authentically portray and nudge surprised laughter from contrasting viewpoints, this is her contribution and voice.

Ellis’ dark comedy about queer Amish meth addicts, ONCE ON RUMSPRINGA (2022: Fulton Theatre Stories of Diversity Finalist, Emerson Stages Workshop Finalist, Bay Street Theatre New Works Semifinalist, Lanford Wilson New Play Semifinalist, American Blues Theater Playwriting Award Semifinalist; 2021: Yonder Window Ascending Playwright Award, Austin Film Festival Playwriting Competition 2nd Round Finalist), ran in a LGBTQ+ fringe festival at The Wild Project Theater (May 2022), following workshops with Chain Theatre, Yonder Window Theatre Company, UP Theatre Company, and Columbia University (2021-22). Her lyrical, experimental biopic WHERE I’VE NEVER GONE (Emerson Stages Finalist 2021, Athena Project Finalist 2020) was written in residence at Wallace Stegner House in Canada (Jan-March 2020), then premiered with a Broadway cast at Westbeth Artists Gallery in NYC, site-specific, where its subject Diane Arbus lived and passed (Oct 2021). THE PEOPLE’S TOAST (Vaclav Havel Playwriting Award 2019), a contemporary adaptation and Czech/English political satire, earned productions by Bohemian National Hall, UTC#61, and University of Toronto, and publications by Havel Library Foundation and Solis Press UK (all 2020-22). Additionally, regionally, Ellis’ works have been produced by The Main Santa Clarita, Overdue Theatre Company, Hudson Guild Theatre, The State Theatre, State College Community Theatre, Iowa State University, and Penn State University, among others.

Ellis has participated in commissioned residencies at Prague Performing Arts Academy in Czech Republic (Nov 2019) and Wallace Stegner House in woodland Canada (Jan–March 2020). Presently, they’re a member of NY/NJ-based playwriting groups affiliated with Chain Theatre, Yonder Window Theatre, and Speranza Theatre. Additionally, Ellis has worked full-time as an episodic screenwriter in Berlin, a certified clinical psychotherapist, and a curatorial assistant of contemporary visual art. Learn more at ellisstump.com.