Hilary Bluestein-Lyons

Hilary Bluestein-Lyons is a playwright, librettist, screenwriter, TV writer, stand-up comedian, comedy improviser, director, teacher, and actor. Originally from Los Angeles, she lived in Tucson, AZ for many years, where she was actively involved with Old Pueblo Playwrights and was a member of the comedy improv troupe, Not Burnt Out Just Unscrewed. She recently completed her MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. Since graduating, she’s been an active participant in the Rochester Fringe Festival and has had several one-acts produced.

Her plays often have a recurring theme of female empowerment, and she’s deduced that there are an infinite number of ways stories that inspire female empowerment can be told, and need to be told until women are equal. And they’re not. We can especially see it in the disparity of the number of plays that are produced that are about women and/or written by women.

Several of her plays are about the struggles women have faced historically. From these plays we can see how far we’ve come, and also how far we still need to go. When half our population is deemed less worthy, it’s a significant issue. This has inspired Hilary to write, Tighten Your Borscht Belt, an O’Neill Semi Finalist about a 1950s Jewish stand-up comedian with the Catskills, If I Knew the Way, about two female 1980s Deadheads and the dire effects of mandatory minimum sentencing, which was specifically harsh on people of color and transwomen, and her most recent play, HisStory, a dystopian play about a future where only women exist. She draws her inspiration and sense of humor from her six kids, two feisty kittens, a Yorkie and nine chickens.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://www.hilarybluesteinlyons.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/hilarybluesteinlyonswriter
TW, IG: @hilobeans

MORE ABOUT ME
It wasn't until a recently that I learned that not everyone thinks in scenes. I am constantly watching a movie, or sometimes multiple movies, of my thoughts. Apparently not everyone thinks this way. But, it was inevitable that I'd discover that my only outlet for this type of thinking is to write these scenes down. I write, because I have to. There is no shortage of ideas. Often I'll hear a snippet of a story, and that sparks an outpouring of scenes in my head. I fill in the blanks, and walla, I have a play. Well, of course it's never that simple, but you get my drift.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
Right now I'm working on two musicals, one about a Beatles tribute band and another about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I'm also doing creative visualization in order to get a TV writing job.

KEYWORDS
Queer, Jewish, Historical, Musical, Comedy, Dystopian, Feminist, Dark Comedy, Female Lead, Immersive/site-specific, fantasy, magical realism