Teresa Mella Fogel

(Updated 2/9/26) Teresa Mella Fogel is a published Playwright living in Old Saybrook, CT. A founding member of Shoreline Playwrights, a Connecticut group that presents readings and productions in local theatres. In 2025 she joined the Women’s Short Play Lab at New Perspective Theatre in New York City. As part of the lab her short play, “Bargaining Chip” was performed over a week in August 2025. Teresa is expanding “Bargaining Chip” and hopes to work with the same cast and director. She is excited to be joining the Full-Length Lab in 2026 at New Perspective to develop a new play. Her full length, “Knock!Knock! was a semi-finalist at the Garry Marshall Theatre New Works Festival. “Speed Dating”, was a winner of ICWP’s 3-minute play competition. “Wedding Day Blues”, was produced at Theatre Artists Workshop New play festival. “Looking for Juliet” was published in the Drama Notebook. Teresa is a member of several organizations including, The Dramatists Guild, PWC, International Center for Women Playwrights, Honor Roll and the CT Theatre Women’s Network.

MORE ABOUT ME
Starting your playwriting career at 55 is daunting. After taking classes, attending conferences, joining a theatre group and countless submissions I decided to take matters into my own hands. Together with a friend and fellow playwright (also in the same boat) we decided to organize ourselves and make our own opportunities. She knew of a local theatre who was open to us producing a playwright’s festival and we would be their first show opening after covid. My friend had been a professional dancer in the theatre, so she knew her way around staging a show; I learned much from her. From finding other playwrights, setting timelines, auditioning actors, gathering props, advertising and a host of other tasks we were busy! And of course, we needed to write the plays for this festival. All this was a turning point for me; I was able to take my passion and put it into action. Writing my pieces and working with a director to bring them to life was thrilling. I wrote three short pieces for the festival and tweaking them while working with the actors was an educational experience. The thrill, excitement and nausea I felt opening night turned into immense pride when we experienced the audience’s response to our show. We were schedule to run for two nights but needed to add a third night due to high demand! We worked with this theatre for four years and were able to watch our work grow and mature. This experience solidified my love for writing for the theater.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON
I am working on expanding my play "Bargaining Chip" into a full length and excited to be working on a new full length adaption of Don Quixote.

KEYWORDS
Woman, mother, partner, hispanic, jew-ish, drama, family,