Bio
Her play ‘The Innocence of Ghosts’ was produced by Pan Asian Rep and was awarded an AT&T On Stage Award. It was subsequently filmed by The Lincoln Center for the Theatre on Film Collection.
Rosanna Staffa’s adaptation of ‘The Biggest Little House in the Forest’ by Djemma Bider was seen on stage at CTC in Minneapolis April to June 2010.
The ‘The Interview’ opened the Tokyo International Arts Festival in February 2008.
The plays ‘Mirage’ and ‘Lucky’ are published by Smith & Kraus. “Waltz’ and ‘My brother Sandro’ by Heinemann.
Her work was part of the International Art festival in Tokyo, First Light Festival at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York, The Seattle Rep Women Playwrights Festival-Hedgebrook, the Playground Festival at Soho Rep in New York, The New Work Festival at Taper Too in Los Angeles, PlayLabs, the Festival of Ten by Ten at the Theatre Garage and The Fringe Festival in Minneapolis.
She received commissions from the Guthrie Theater and the Sloane Foundation (‘Ada’) CTC in Minneapolis (‘Hansel and Gretel’ and ‘The Biggest Little House in the Forest’) and The Hennepin Center for the Arts ( adaptation of ‘Little Women’).
She is a recipient of a McKnight Advancement Grant, a Jerome Fellowship and an AT&T Grant.
She is currently a Core Alumni Member at The Playwrights Center in Minneapolis.
Plays
THE BIGGEST LITTLE HOUSE IN THE FOREST (1W, puppets)
(adapted from Djemma Bider)
Toy Theatre
A menagerie finds shelter in the woods. But the house with the rabbit, rooster, butterfly and frog has no room for a cold bear. So he takes to the roof to warm himself by the chimney, which causes the house to collapse under his weight. A new house is built that can accommodate more of nature’s creatures.
The Childrens Theatre Company, Minneapolis | April 20 – June 30 2010
THE INTERVIEW (2M, 1W)
An American correspondent in Iraq, kidnapped on the verge of reporting explosive information, is brought to a makeshift hospital after having been released. But has she been released? Is this a hospital? Is the man questioning her a doctor? This may be the transition to freedom or another, more deadly trap to find out what she knows, before being executed.
The Kawasaki Art Center, Tokyo | February 2008
ADA (4M, 2W)
Ada , daughter of Lord Byron, envisioned the first computer program one century ahead of her time. The play is the story of an obsession, a scientific curiosity that becomes an all consuming passion, leading Ada to public scandal and ruin. Ada, Babbage, Darwin, Lewis Carroll and Queen Victoria spar while realizing they are inextricably bound together by the air-tight world surrounding them
Seattle Rep Women Festival – Hedgebrook | May 2004
