Tina Esper writes plays about love, redemption and the power of the unknown. She's committed to centering older female characters in roles that are daring, precarious and magical.
Tina is a first-generation American playwright of Lebanese-Brazilian and Portuguese descent. Her multi-cultural background informs her writing and underscores themes of dislocation, assimilation and the pursuit of freedom. She's also dedicated to telling the stories of older women that frame the political implications of aging in America.
Tina's play, Neighbor Jane is the co-recipient of the 2023 National Partners of the American Theatre’s Julie Jensen Playwriting Award.
Neighbor Jane was also selected for the 2022 Great Plains Theatre Conference and was developed at The Workshop Theater's Spring Intensive 2021 and at the Sewanee Writers Conference 2021. She's currently working on the Jane Trilogy with State of Maine, the sequel to Neighbor Jane, and Soft Star, its prequel.
In 2023, Tina attended the New Harmony Project as well as the Sewanee Writers Conference as a Tennessee Williams Scholar.
She was featured in American Theatre Magazine. Read more about her experience at the Great Plains Theatre Conference 2022 here.
Her play Fireflies was a 2021 Woodward/Newman Drama Award Finalist as well as a 2020 O’Neill Semifinalist, a 2022 Athena Project Semifinalist, a 2021 Garry Marshall New Works Festival Semifinalist and a 2021 Cimientos Semifinalist. Fireflies was also a Finalist for the Loom at Woven Theatre.
Tina is an MFA candidate in the Playwriting program at Boston University.