sheila rinear

Playwright, screenwriter, end-hunger advocate, women-in-theater activist, beach walking devotée, Sheila Rinear has received grants, commissions, and awards for her work resulting in development, productions, publication, and readings nationally. Bufflehead Bay (Full-length, contemporary play received a ZOOM reading at The Public last season); Bound by Truth (Full-length, commissioned by Access to Art; developed by The Classic Theatre of San Antonio; Finalist in Screen Craft’s 2020 international competition; 2nd Rounder in Austin Film Festival; and sitting at #2 on Coverfly’s Red List of the 20 best written history plays of all time); The Princess and the Peanut Allergy (TYA Musical developed by The Magik Theater of San Antonio); So, When Are You Leaving? (Full-length comedy, selected for New Works Virtual Festival fund-raiser for The Actors Fund, December 2020 starring Marsha Mason, Tonya Pinkins, and Joely Fisher); Merry Gentlemen (Full-length holiday drama, commissioned and developed by The Public Theater of San Antonio; produced by The Overtime Theatre); Deities (Full-length drama, workshopped at The University of Oklahoma; featured script in Texas Playwrights Festival, Alpine, TX. 8 separate grants from the City of San Antonio resulted in Rinear’s writing 8 new Social Justice performance pieces including A Hunger; Beyond Walls; Do I Look Like Anyone!? all productions in Luminaria, the city’s annual International Contemporary Arts Festival. Leicester Bay Theatricals has published several of Rinear’s plays including the very recent publication of a volume in their Playwrights on the Page Series, Five Plays by Sheila Rinear. Sons of Treason (a full-length feature historical drama) is currently a semi-finalist in The Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards and has placed in the Nicholl Fellowship and a Second Rounder at The Austin Film Festival; Chasing the Blues (full-length feature female-driven comedy) was a finalist at The Austin Film Festival. 

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA:
Websites: http://www.sheilarinear.com, https://newplayexchange.org/users/621/sheila-rinear, https://www.dramatistsguild.com/members/sheilarinear 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/srinear 

MORE ABOUT ME:
During the run of my play Cries That Bind at The Public Theater in San Antonio, each evening that I attended there were more and more military in the audience. The play concerned a sister’s losing her brother to suicide when he returned from Iraq with PTSD…just as I had lost my brother. While this production was in my home-town (and I have many friends in SA), my friends were very uncomfortable with my dealing with such a sensitive and painful subject. They are used to my comedy. But once the word got to the large military community in our city, they flocked to the production because it spoke to them. So…my most gratifying moments in theater? They all involved hugging and crying and laughing with my fellow humans in uniform who “got” my story and who “woke” me to their amazing strength of spirit. My heart used to not have room for appreciating our military. That production and the sharing it provided changed my life, my outlook, and who I now include in my prayers. Theater has such power! 

WHAT I'M WORKING ON:
A new feature-length screenplay, We Ourselves and turning my award-winning play, Bound By Truth, into a limited series (because I cannot get it produced in the theater).

KEYWORDS:
Historical, Mystery, Comedy, Climate, Political, Environmental, Biography, TYA Musicals, Holiday.