Rob Florence is a New Orleans playwright who holds an MFA in Playwriting (with distinction) from the University of New Orleans.  He was the first Dramatists Guild Gulf Coast Regional Representative and co-founder of the play reading group Gulf Coast Playwrights.  Rob’s play KATRINA’S PATH was Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival regional finalist and the first published Hurricane Katrina play).  His play KATRINA was favorably received in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New Orleans; The New York Times wrote: “The evocative true stories assembled are full of fear, courage and resilience.  But they are also rich in the flavorful humor, inextinguishable identity and civic love that characterize the inhabitants of America’s most battered city.”  The play was published by Samuel French and was the only Katrina play produced in New Orleans on Katrina’s 10th anniversary, which occurred in the historic 640-seat Joy Theater on Canal Street, a Katrina-comeback story in itself.  Real-life main character of KATRINA, Antoinette K-Doe, asked him to write a play about Ernie K-Doe which resulted in the jukebox musical BURN K-DOE BURN!, whose production Allen Toussaint called: “Better than music.” Of course it was loaded with Allen’s music.  Rob’s HOLY WARS will be presented in New Orleans in 2017, a play-with-music scored by Harold Brown who founded the band WAR and played with Jimi Hendrix the night he died, and Bill Summers of Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters who scored Steven Spielberg’s THE COLOR PURPLE and for Quincy Jones scored all the African parts in Alex Haley’s ROOTS.  Rob is also working on a musical about the New Orleans-born singer / songwriter / comedian Biff Rose.  He is a documentary filmmaker working on a film about the Cosimo Matassa recording studios and rob has taught playwriting at the University of New Orleans and Tulane University.