Tamara Kissane is a Durham, NC-based playwright, theatre-maker, and podcaster for Artist Soapbox (www.artistsoapbox.org). She was the Piedmont Laureate in 2020. Tamara’s first audio drama MASTER BUILDER premiered at the Women’s Theatre Festival NC before being released publicly in July 2019. Her second audio drama, THE NEW COLOSSUS, was released in April 2020. The same year, she co-produced, co-directed, and wrote for an eleven episode audio drama anthology that was created and released in quarantine (DECLARATION OF LOVE). Tamara is a co-founder and playwright for Curious Theatre Collective and leads  Soapbox Audio Collective Writers’ rooms, Public Works events, and Creative Accountability Groups. Her stage-plays, The New Colossus and Master Builder were commissioned and performed by Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern in 2016 & 2018. In North Carolina, she’s worked with University Theatre at NC State, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Seed Art Share, Burning Coal, Manbites Dog Theater, The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, Duke Theatre Studies, Transactors Improv, Summer Sisters, Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern, Archipelago and both hands theatre company. Recently she’s received grants from the Manbites Dog Theater Fund, the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, Durham150, and the Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artist Award (Durham Arts Council). She is the parent of two young children.