PROFESSIONAL BIO:
Bara Swain's plays and monologues have been performed across the country in 275+ venues in 32 states and abroad (Australia, UK, Ireland, UAE, Ukraine, Canada). NYC theatres include Metropolitan Playhouse, The Barrow Group, Urban Stages, Primary Stages, Abingdon Theatre, Articulate Theatre Company, Athena Theatre, Sam French OOB Festival, Artistic New Directions, Project Y Theatre, Symphony Space, Players Theatre, Rising Sun, Ego Actus, Kaufmann Theatre, Gallery Players, Turnip Theatre, NY Madness, Stage Left, Polaris North, T.A.R.T.E., Aching Dogs, and Greenhouse Ensemble. Other venues include NJ Repertory, TheatreWorks (TN), Lyric Theatre (FL), New American Theatre and Open Fist (CA), Old Opera House (WV), Potluck Productions (MO), OnStage Atlanta (GA), and Short+Sweet Festivals (Hollywood, Canberra, Sydney, Dubai).
Give and Take, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Critical Care, One Word, Prized Begonias, I Love Lucy and Unfathomable are published in the Smith & Kraus Best Ten-Minute Plays anthologies. Saving Grace is included in the Best American Short Plays anthology with Applause Books. Her work is also published by Art Age Press (Senior Theatre), Original Works Publishing, Meriwether, and JAC Publications. Critical Care, produced on stage and in film, is reprinted in the college textbook, Serious Daring: Creative Writing in Four Genres by Lisa Roney (Oxford U. Press) and serves as a key reading for the craft of writing dialogue.
Honors include Heideman Award Finalist, Aboard the Guy V. Molinari; City Theatre National Award Finalist for Short Playwriting for Extraordinary and The Hotel Lobbyist; and, by special invitation from Burt Reynolds, An Evening With Bara Swain, BRIFT, Jupiter, Florida, directed by The Bandit. Her short plays won first prize at the Shawnee Playhouse (The Wonder of You), Birdhouse Theatre Festival (Little Black Dress), International Jewish Short Play Festival (The Hotel Lobbyist), Dubuque Fine Arts Players (Ideal Grace), Multi-Arts Playwriting competition (It’s All Greek to Me), and the Raymond J. Flores Festival (Unconditionally). Her one-act play, Folded, received Honorable Mention in the 2021 William Faulkner Literary Competition in Mississippi.
Film credits include Protocol, Fastnet Film Festival (Ireland), Flagler International Film Festival, and Mende International Film Festival; Prized Begonias, 1st Place Shorts Section, Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, Palm Beach International Play Festival, NOLA International Film Festival, and Treasure Coast International Film Festival; Critical Care, Palm Beach International Film Festival (selected for Palm Beach Society Voices of Local Film, Cobb Theatre), Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, and Treasure Coast International Film Festival; Safety Pin, In: Before & After, Project Y Theatre Company, Access Theatre, NYC; Staten Island Ferry, Project Y Theatre Sight/Site Festival; and three webisodes in Chapter Three's "City Kitties" digital anthology about female friendship, Herring, James Bond, and The Sweater (visit chapthree.com). In 2020-21, Bara participated in two interactive film projects, "Something Quirky This Way Comes" and "Something Quirky...Again!," with seven interactive pieces (Canberra, Australia).
Bara currently serves at Urban Stages as the Creative Consultant, where she is expanding opportunities for theatre artists through a new play development program, Urban Stages New Pages. Member: Dramatists Guild, AEA, SAG-Aftra, FAB Women @ Barrow Group, American Renaissance Theatre Company, ICWP, Poets & Writers.
Bara Swain's plays and monologues have been performed across the country in 275+ venues in 32 states and abroad (Australia, UK, Ireland, UAE, Ukraine, Canada). NYC theatres include Metropolitan Playhouse, The Barrow Group, Urban Stages, Primary Stages, Abingdon Theatre, Articulate Theatre Company, Athena Theatre, Sam French OOB Festival, Artistic New Directions, Project Y Theatre, Symphony Space, Players Theatre, Rising Sun, Ego Actus, Kaufmann Theatre, Gallery Players, Turnip Theatre, NY Madness, Stage Left, Polaris North, T.A.R.T.E., Aching Dogs, and Greenhouse Ensemble. Other venues include NJ Repertory, TheatreWorks (TN), Lyric Theatre (FL), New American Theatre and Open Fist (CA), Old Opera House (WV), Potluck Productions (MO), OnStage Atlanta (GA), and Short+Sweet Festivals (Hollywood, Canberra, Sydney, Dubai).
Give and Take, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Critical Care, One Word, Prized Begonias, I Love Lucy and Unfathomable are published in the Smith & Kraus Best Ten-Minute Plays anthologies. Saving Grace is included in the Best American Short Plays anthology with Applause Books. Her work is also published by Art Age Press (Senior Theatre), Original Works Publishing, Meriwether, and JAC Publications. Critical Care, produced on stage and in film, is reprinted in the college textbook, Serious Daring: Creative Writing in Four Genres by Lisa Roney (Oxford U. Press) and serves as a key reading for the craft of writing dialogue.
Honors include Heideman Award Finalist, Aboard the Guy V. Molinari; City Theatre National Award Finalist for Short Playwriting for Extraordinary and The Hotel Lobbyist; and, by special invitation from Burt Reynolds, An Evening With Bara Swain, BRIFT, Jupiter, Florida, directed by The Bandit. Her short plays won first prize at the Shawnee Playhouse (The Wonder of You), Birdhouse Theatre Festival (Little Black Dress), International Jewish Short Play Festival (The Hotel Lobbyist), Dubuque Fine Arts Players (Ideal Grace), Multi-Arts Playwriting competition (It’s All Greek to Me), and the Raymond J. Flores Festival (Unconditionally). Her one-act play, Folded, received Honorable Mention in the 2021 William Faulkner Literary Competition in Mississippi.
Film credits include Protocol, Fastnet Film Festival (Ireland), Flagler International Film Festival, and Mende International Film Festival; Prized Begonias, 1st Place Shorts Section, Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, Palm Beach International Play Festival, NOLA International Film Festival, and Treasure Coast International Film Festival; Critical Care, Palm Beach International Film Festival (selected for Palm Beach Society Voices of Local Film, Cobb Theatre), Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, and Treasure Coast International Film Festival; Safety Pin, In: Before & After, Project Y Theatre Company, Access Theatre, NYC; Staten Island Ferry, Project Y Theatre Sight/Site Festival; and three webisodes in Chapter Three's "City Kitties" digital anthology about female friendship, Herring, James Bond, and The Sweater (visit chapthree.com). In 2020-21, Bara participated in two interactive film projects, "Something Quirky This Way Comes" and "Something Quirky...Again!," with seven interactive pieces (Canberra, Australia).
Bara currently serves at Urban Stages as the Creative Consultant, where she is expanding opportunities for theatre artists through a new play development program, Urban Stages New Pages. Member: Dramatists Guild, AEA, SAG-Aftra, FAB Women @ Barrow Group, American Renaissance Theatre Company, ICWP, Poets & Writers.
