"Calamity West is one of the best playwrights in Chicago. Or maybe the country. Or the universe." - Chicago Reader
CALAMITY WEST
THOUGHTS ON
CALAMITY'S WORK
"West is a colossal Chicago talent with a formidable intellect..."
- Chicago Tribune
“…an essential Chicago-style voice…”
- Chicago Tribune
“Calamity West is, without question, a name to watch.”
- Chicago Tribune
“Calamity West manages to hook you in and get you comfortable
only to take you places no one wants to see clearly.”
- Third Coast
“West writes like a vise, slowly tightening the screws
until her characters are trapped and her audience is rapt.”
- Windy City Times
“West’s writing really hits the zeitgeist. She’s an important voice in the world...”
- PerformInk
“West, a Chicago writer with an ebullient sense of theatricality, is the real deal..."
- Chicago Tribune
“…a leading aesthetic innovator of storefront realism as well as a
tough-as-nails moralist.”
- Chicago Reader
AWARDS & ACCOLADES
-selected-
Dominic Orlando Playwriting Award
Nominated - National - November 2023
Kilroy List Citation - In The Canyon
National - October 2023
Platform Award
Nominated - Chicago - July 2023
The Lortel Theatre - Alcove at The Lortel
Awardee - National - May 2023
The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute
Clifford Odets Ensemble Play Commission
Awardee - National - May 2022
NFMLA - Best Screenplay
Nominated - Cool For Five Seconds
Los Angeles - February 2021
Kilroy List Citation - Give It All Back
National - June 2015
Kilroy List Honorable Mention - The Peacock
National - June 2015
3Arts Chicago Theatre
Awardee - $25,000 Prize - Chicago - October 2014
H O W D Y
Calamity West is an award-winning playwright whose work has been developed at
The Lortel, Primary Stages, The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute,
Williamstown Theatre Festival, Roundabout Underground, The Goodman, and her artistic home of Jackalope Theatre – to name a few.
In addition to her writing career, Calamity teaches playwriting at the University of Chicago, Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts, and Jackalope Theatre - where she founded the Playwrights Lab in 2018. She also teaches literature at her alma mater of Webster University.
Through 2025 Calamity West will be developing her work at Primary Stages as a member of
the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group where she has (so far) developed her plays FEAST! and Sgt. Hank Cole’s Drama Club of Algona.
West is represented by CAA and managed by Curate.
CONTACT
CAA
Theatre
Di Glazer - diana.glazer@caa.com
Television and Film
Jiah Shin - jiah.shinasst@caa.com
CURATE
Television and Film
Britton Rizzo - britton@thisiscurate.com