Meet Mêlisa Annis The Playwright of Charlie’s Waiting, a World Premiere by 2017 Parity Commission

Charlie’s Waiting, a world premiere by 2017 Annual Parity Commission winner Mêlisa Annis, follows two women the night before their wedding. A pregnant Louise is busy with all the planning while her fiancée Kelly busies herself feeding the goats. Everything is going to plan, that is until Louise is forced to confront questions of trust and intimacy, and she discovers how quickly plans can get derailed.

Playwright Mêlisa Annis’ work has been seen at or developed by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Lark with Dorset Theatre Festival at the Theresa Rebeck Writers Colony, The New School, Primary Stages, ESPA*Drills, Tangent Theater, About Face Theatre (Ireland), RAL Productions and her play United Front was a finalist for the Lark’s Playwrights Week. She won the Margaret Lamb Creative Writing Prize, and was the recipient of the Fordham Summer Fellowship while studying for her MFA in playwriting at Fordham/Primary Stages. Mêlisa has written for new children’s show Jessy and Nessy for Amazon Studios, and is currently working with Conde Nast on creative content for an upcoming puppet driven campaign. Mêlisa’s play Aberfan was published in Clockhouse Literary Magazine (Goddard University) and her play Fit for a King was illustrated and published in Fourth Wall Magazine. Mêlisa has also worked as a dramaturg for Primary Stages (A Walk With Heifetz) and loves working with new writers to help develop their work.  As a director Mêlisa has worked at The Arcola Theater (UK), Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Shadowland Stages and Primary Stages to name a few select theater companies. Mêlisa is a frequent contributor to BBC Wales factual programming, and has written personal essays for The Western Mail (UK) and BBC Online. Mêlisa also teaches at the Dramatic Writing department at NYU.

Parity Productions is a formidable producer of new theatrical work that as a company always ensures that we fill at least 50% of the creative roles on our productions—directors, playwrights, and designers—with women and trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) artists. Artistically, we develop and produce compelling new plays that give voice to individuals who rebel against their marginalized place in society. 
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Charlie’s Waiting, at Parity, 357 West 36th Street, 3rd Floor, March 28th – April 20th