TAMMY RYAN is a resident playwright of New Dramatists and the inaugural recipient of the Leah Ryan Fund’s Boost Award. Her work has been performed, commissioned and developed across the United States and internationally at such theaters as The Alliance Theater, City Theater, Florida Stage, Marin Theater, People’s Light, , Pittsburgh Public Theater, Portland Stage, Premiere Stages, and Theatre Lab among others. Honors include the Francesca Primus Prize for Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods, and AATE Distinguished New Play Award for The Music Lesson. In 2020 Playpenn named Ryan a Haas Fellow for her play, Take My Hand And Wave Goodbye which was developed at the Arkansas New Play Festival at Theatre Squared, Barter Theater’s Appalachian Festival of Playwrights & Plays and was the winner of  Trustus Theatre's Playwriting Festival  in 2025.  Her work has been supported by the Bogliasco Foundation,The New Harmony Project, National New Play Network, Sewanee Writers Conference,Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation.  Ryan's plays are available from Concord Theatricals, Dramatic Publishing Company and Broadway Play Publishing. She is currently at work on an adaptation of the novel, Speak by Laurie Halse Andersen for a world premiere production by Pittsburgh’s Prime Stage Theater in May 2026.     For more information: www.tammyryanplays.com   

Statement: 

The work I am drawn to tends to be theatrical, well-crafted, character driven plays in any form that take the audience on a surprising emotional journey in which we learn something about ourselves and what it means to be a human being alive on this planet.  My favorite quote about the purpose of drama came from a Sanskrit poet:  To entertain the drunken, to teach us how to live, and to reveal the secrets of the universe.  I think every play I have ever loved does all three.

When I work with writers I begin with the playwright's intentions. I believe the writer knows more than anyone else the truth of the story they are trying to tell. While I offer extensive notes and suggestions for revision, I am never prescriptive. My goal is always to hear what the play is showing me about what it wants to be and to help the writer discover and realize their story more fully. I focus on process, craft and unleashing the playwright's individual, imaginative and original voice.