Sandra Fenichel Asher (Sandy Asher)

Sandra Fenichel Asher's plays have been produced across the country and abroad. She's received both the AATE Charlotte Chorpenning Playwriting Award and the Sara Spencer Artistic Achievement Award for her lifetime contributions to TYA. Three of her plays have been honored with AATE's Distinguished Play Award: A WOMAN CALLED TRUTH, IN THE GARDEN OF THE SELFISH GIANT, and JESSE AND GRACE: A BEST FRIENDS STORY. Her work has also been included in many anthologies, including TELL YOUR STORY: THE PLAYS AND PLAYWRITING OF SANDRA FENICHEL ASHER. All are published by Dramatic Publishing Company. Sandy has also published books for young readers, including the award-winning TOO MANY FROGS and her latest, CHICKEN STORY TIME. She's adapted these and her other picture books for the stage and seen them produced at the Pollyanna Theater (Austin, TX), The Open Eye Theater (Margaretville, NY), The Children's Theatre of Charlotte (NC), Trike Theatre (Bentonville, AR) and elsewhere. Most recently, she and fellow playwright Jose Casas workshopped a bilingual play for the very young, MARIPOSA/BUTTERFLY, as part of NYU's New Plays for Young Audiences series. It's featured on the American Theatre for the Very Young: A Digital Festival webpage, which Sandy founded and co-chairs. Sandy is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild, the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, Theatre for Young Audiances/USA, and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She lives in Lancaster, PA, with her husband and their dog and cat. For more information, visit her website at http://sandyasher.com.

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA:
Website: http://sandyasher.com

MORE ABOUT ME:
Much as "these times" have brought challenges galore, what with COVID, climate change, sexism, ageism (and age! I'm heading toward 79), and the pressing and important need to make space for writers who have faced these, additional, and even greater obstacles, I still find myself writing fiction and drama, taking classes, mentoring others, ZOOMing with colleagues, devising new projects to contribute to the field, and involved in new (to me) ways of storytelling, namely ZOOM, YouTube, and radio drama. I've always been defiant of obstacles, and I've always believed that -- barring brain disease or injury -- we continually become more of what we always were. So to answer the question, "How do you imagine telling stories in these times?" I guess I'd say, "Anyway I can and as often as I can!"

WHAT I'M WORKING ON:
Right now, I'm going through manuscripts lying around my office and seeing what work needs to be done to move them out into the world. Maybe a story needs to be a poem or a play? Maybe a play needs to be a better play? Whatever, I keep trying.

KEYWORDS:
​Children, Family, Animals, Equality, Environmental, Historical, Adaptations, Fable/folktales, immersive, radio plays, verse, musical, period, Young Audiences, pre-K, elementary, teens.