Playwright Jenifer Nii
Featured on the Wall of the Roses at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center
Plan-B Theatre is honored to be the artistic home of playwright Jenifer Nii (b. 1972), the first Asian playwright to have a world premiere staged in Utah history: she has graced the Jeanne, Black Box, and Studio Theatres with more than a dozen plays between 2010 and 2023.
At the time of her retirement in 2023, Jenifer was the most produced Utah-based playwright of color in Utah history.
Following careers as a concert pianist and a newspaper reporter, Jenifer premiered her plays FIRE! (2023 revival; paired with Debora Threedy's "Where I Come From" under the umbrella WALLACE in 2010), THE AUDACITY, THE WEIRD PLAY, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, RUFF!, THE SCARLET LETTER, and SUFFRAGE at Plan-B, and contributed to SLAM, AND THE BANNED SLAMMED ON, (in)divisible), and RADIO SLAM.
Jenifer received one of 10 inaugural Writers Alliance Grants from the Dramatists Guild Foundation (THE WEIRD PLAY) and is a two-time nominee for the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award for Best Play Produced Outside New York (THE SCARLET LETTER, SUFFRAGE). RUFF! was also seen at Birmingham Children's Theatre in Alabama.
Playwright Eric Samuelsen
Featured on the Wall of the Roses at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center
Plan-B Theatre is honored to have been the artistic home of playwright Eric Samuelsen (1956-2019): he graced the Jeanne, Black Box, and Studio Theatres with more than 20 plays between 2005 and 2017.
Eric earned a Ph.D. in Dramatic History, Theory and Criticism from Indiana University in 1991. He joined the faculty of Brigham Young University in 1992, where he headed the playwriting program from 1999-2011.
More than 30 of his plays were professionally produced in Utah, Indiana, Louisiana, New York, and California. Plan-B became his artistic home in 2005, where his plays THE ICE FRONT, THE KREUTZER SONATA (a co-production with NOVA Chamber Music Series), 3, CLEARING BOMBS, RADIO HOUR EPISODE 8: FAIRYANA, NOTHING PERSONAL. BORDERLANDS, AMERIGO, and MIASMA received their world premieres, as well as eight short plays as part of SLAM and ROSE EXPOSED. He led the Plan-B/Art Access project INTERSECTIONS II: FORGING FAMILY FROM MORE THAN DNA, a writing workshop culminating in performance exploring the ways people build families.
Fluent in Norwegian, Mr. Samuelsen has translated four Ibsen plays for production in California, Indiana, and Utah, including A DOLL HOUSE and GHOSTS, which were read as part of Plan-B's Script-In-Hand Series. His novel "Singled Out" was published by Cornerstone Publishing. He published scholarly articles on 19th and 20th century Scandinavian Theatre, blogged at mormoniconoclast.com and was a member of the Dramatists Guild.
