On Writing Presents: Rob Urbinati

Every Second Tuesday of the Month join us in the lobby, alongside our partner The Book Nook, and participate in an engaging live reading with a local or nationally recognized writer, playwright, or poet. Peruse the curated offerings from the Book Nook, have a drink, and stay for the Q and A.

Rob Urbinati is a freelance playwright, screenwriter, book author and theater director based in New York City. He is also director of new play development at Queens Theatre.

Rob was born in Framingham, Massachusetts and currently resides in New York City. He received a BA from the University of Massachusetts, an MA from the University of Nebraska Omaha and in 1994 was awarded a PhD in theatre arts from the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences.

Plays written by Rob Urbinati include an adaptation of August Strindberg’s 1888 play Miss Julie, Miss Julie in Hollywood (1993), produced in Seattle at Northwest Actors Studio in 1994, starring Heidi Schreck; Hazelwood Jr. High (1996), about the Murder of Shanda Sharer, which premiered at The New Group and starred Chloë Sevigny; Cruel and Barbarous Treatment (1999) based on the 1939 Mary McCarthy short story, at Gloucester Stage Company; Karaoke Night at the Suicide Shack (2002) and The Queen Bees (formerly named Shangri-La) (2006) at Queens Theatre; Rebel Voices (2006), an adaptation of Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove’s Voices of a People’s History of the United States at Culture Project with a rotating cast including Staceyann Chin, Steve Earle, Danny Glover, Lenelle Moïse, Rich Robinson, Lili Taylor, and Wallace Shawn; Murder on West Moon Street (2006), which was based on Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, an Oscar Wilde short story and Cole Porter’s Nymph Errant (2001), produced by the Prospect Theatre Company; (2012) commissioned and produced by Linfield College; Death By Design (2010) written in a mash-up of styles of Noël Coward and Agatha Christie, commissioned and produced by Houston Family Arts Center; Mama’s Boy (2013), based on the lives of Marguerite Oswald and Lee Harvey Oswald, which premiered at Good Theater in Maine (2015) and Our Boy (2017) which premiered at the Minnesota Fringe Festival in 2017. Hazelwood Jr. High, Murder on West Moon Street, Mama’s Boy and Death By Design (as well as an alternate version with songs by Peter Mills) are published by Samuel French. Cole Porter’s Nymph Errant, UMW: University of Mostly Whites and The Queen Bees are published by Steele Spring Stage Rights. His plays have received over two hundred productions worldwide. His book, Play Readings: A Complete Guide for Theatre Practitioners (2015), is published by Focal Press/Routledge.