News
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April-May 2025
Bess is working as the dramaturg for Amalia Oliva Rojas' thesis play I Hope this Letter Reaches Mictlán, as part of Amalia's MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University. |
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March-April 2025
Bess directed a production of False Alarm by Emma Goldman-Sherman, as part of the New Circle Theatre Company Spring Short Play Festival. |
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March 2025
Bess was chosen as a finalist for the 2025 Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival. |
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October-November 2024
Bess directed a production of Start Then Next by Libby Heily, produced by New Circle Theatre Company. |
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September 2024
Bess was a two-time quarterfinalist for the 2024 Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition: - Skipping Stones | Short Form - The Visitors | Comedy Feature |
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July-August 2024
Bess returned for a third summer to teach Screenwriting as part of the NextGen Leadership Institute at Barnard College. |
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January-February 2024
Bess directed a workshop of her adaptation, Pippin: Her Life and Times, at her alma mater the University of Michigan, working with students in the Musical Theatre Department. |
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September 2023
Bess directed a public staged reading of Bad Things by Shara Feit at the Dramatists Guild's Mary Rodgers Room. |
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April 2023
In personal news, Bess spent the spring planning and celebrating her wedding. |
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February 2023
Bess spoke with hosts Hannah Joyce and Alayna Jacqueline on the Playwrights Center's Theatre Begins podcast. |
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January 2023
Bess proudly joined the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. |
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August-September 2022
Bess associate directed Clyde's at the Goodman Theater in Chicago, under the direction of Kate Whoriskey. |
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June 2022
After over four years, Bess stepped away as Lynn Nottage's assistant to focus on her work as a playwright, director, and television writer. Her last day was Lynn's record-breaking evening at the 2022 Tony Awards. |
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May 2022
Bess was chosen as a finalist for the 2022 Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference, and for the 2022 Drama League's Beatrice Terry Residency. |
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October-November 2021
Bess assisted Lynn Nottage on her Broadway production of Clyde's, produced by Second Stage at the Helen Hayes Theater. |
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March 2020 Bess began rehearsals as assistant director of Assassins at Classic Stage Company, before the pandemic shutdown. |
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March 2, 2020
The German Party received a public reading at Asolo Repertory Theater in Sarasota, Florida. |
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September-December 2019
Bess completed her first semester as Co-Director and Head of Playwriting, the playwriting and producing students of CreateHER presented their end-of-year performance. She remained as the Head of Playwriting for this program until spring 2024. |
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September 2019
2076 was a finalist in the Columbia @ Roundabout 2019 Reading Series. |
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April-June 2019
Bess assisted Lynn Nottage on the world premiere of her musical adaptation of The Secret Life of Bees at the Atlantic Theater. |
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October 2018
2076 was a finalist for the Playwrights Realm’s 2018-2019 Fellowship. |
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August 2018
Bess was accepted into the 2018-2019 Manhattan Theatre Club Directing Fellowship. |
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February–May 2018
Bess assisted Lynn Nottage on the world premiere of her play Mlima’s Tale at the Public Theater. |
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January-February 2018
Bess wrote and directed 2076 at Columbia’s School of the Arts. |
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August-September 2017
Neuroclear (formerly, Much Better) received a developmental production with the Really-Really Theatre Group in Seattle. |
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July 2017
Bess worked on the Dramatic Writing faculty at the Broadway for All Summer Conservatory. |
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June 2017
The German Party was a finalist in the Columbia @ Roundabout 2017 Reading Series. |
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April 29, 2017
Bess' one-act, Shelter, was awarded the 2017 Bill Broyles Award for Drama, presented by the American Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. Bess received this award in Virginia at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, where there is now an engraved brick with her name and the name of her play outside the museum. |
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May & October 2016
There were two public staged readings of The German Party this year, starring a majority of the same cast in both performances. One reading was at Columbia University; and one was at Pearl Studios. |
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April 2016
Bess co-directed a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, starring the students of East Harlem Tutorial Program’s Middle School Drama Class. |
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April 2016
Bess' play Jerusalem is Beautiful was produced by Porch Light Productions in Glen Rock, New Jersey. |