Bonnie Metzgar is a playwright, director, dramaturg, and producer who specializes in creating socially-provocative theatre works across the US. From 2008–2013, Metzgar served as Artistic Director of About Face Theatre in Chicago, the largest theatre in the US dedicated to advancing the cultural dialogue on sexuality, politics, and gender identity. Winner of a 2019 Edgerton New Play Award, Metzgar’s play You Lost Me had its world premiere in January 2020 at the Denver Center and was featured in the DCPA Colorado New Play Summit. Currently, Metzgar is a staff writer on the limited TV series Genius: Aretha for Nat Geo.
Metzgar received a 2018 MacDowell Colony fellowship, the Carl Djerassi Fellowship in Playwriting at the University of Wisconsin, a 2013 NEA commission and was a recent member of the Goodman Theatre’s resident Playwrights Unit. In addition to the DCPA summit, her plays have been finalists for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Festival, and selected for the Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha. Metzgar was co-creator of the landmark international public art project called the 365 Festival—a yearlong play cycle in 2006–7 based on 365 Days/365 Plays written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks. Previously, she served as Associate Producer at the Public Theater under George C. Wolfe where she founded Joe’s Pub.
Metzgar has taught at Brown University, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, SUNY Purchase, Purdue University, University of Wisconsin, DePaul University, and enjoys an ongoing relationship with the low-residency MFA program at Hollins University. She received her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Iowa and her BA from Brown. She is a proud member of the founding National Advisory Council for HowlRound.