Olga Humphrey

OLGA has written for film, theater, and television. Her plays have been performed internationally and are published by Dramatic Publishing Company. Her comedy play MAGNIFICENT HUBBA HUBBA was named the winner and audience favorite of the 2017 Dayton FutureFest, the 27th year of the competition and will be produced by the Dayton Playhouse in May 2021, via Zoom. MAGNIFICENT HUBBA HUBBA was also a semi-finalist for the O’Neill, and was presented at EST, the Actors Studio with John Patrick Shanley moderating the reading, and in a table read at the Cherry Lane. Inspired by the 2016 election, a draft of her new play LITTLE. BLACK. WOMAN. about Shirley Chisholm’s run for president was a semi-finalist for the O’Neill in 2019. Olga is a staff writer for the new television animated series THE DOG & PONY SHOW, an international co-production, which is currently airing in Canada, before coming to the U.S. via the Discovery Channel. She did a page-one rewrite for the animated film A HARD LIFE, working with TOY STORY producer and Pixar founder Ralph Guggenheim on the story beats. Her true-crime screenplay MAMA’S BOY was adapted from the book by Pulitzer-nominated journalist Richard Pienciak, the National Investigative Editor of Associated Press. IFP selected her as a Project Involve fellow, and her mentors were Nora Ephron and Mary Harron. Olga’s play F-STOP was produced by New Directions Theater in New York, and the B-Street Theater in Sacramento. The “Chop Susie” monologue from the play has become a favorite for students applying to acting programs. Her one-act plays SVETLANA’S NEW FLAME and HYPERACTIVE won the Perishable Theater’s Women’s Playwriting Festival two consecutive years in a row, and were published in a collection of her comedic one-acts called “Fire Works.” Twentieth Century Fox optioned her comedy series proposal THE THREE R’s. 
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WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
http://www.olgahumphrey.com

MORE ABOUT ME
One of the best moments I have had was when my comedy Magnificent Hubba Hubba (which features roles for "older" actresses) won the Dayton FutureFest in 2017 along with the Audience Favorite Award. They bring the finalists to Dayton for a wonderful three days and you see all the six finalist plays. The other five were very intense dramas, while mine was a comedy about two old-time women wrestlers brought back together for a rematch by a teenage boy. It was gratifying to see a comedy get recognition, because they rarely do. The production of my play F-STOP was another gratifying moment, because we actually ran on "Broadway" for several weeks and I was called "a writer to watch" by the Village Voice (remember them?), as well as getting a nice small write-up in the New Yorker. That production led to a bigger production in Sacramento at the B Street Theater.

​WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I am procrastinating putting the very final touches on my play about the misogyny faced by Shirley Chisholm when she ran in 1972. It was inspired by Hillary's run in 2016, and is a very different type of project for me. It was shocking to learn that Chisholm faced incredible misogyny as well. If you're a woman, look out -- it will always be there. I planned the play for a few years, and it seems timely now, so I need to get it done.

KEYWORDS
Political, adaptations, farce, satire, historical, equality, biography​