First Name
Melanie
Middle Name
Last Name
Anthony
Country
State or Province
CA
Job Title
Website
Biography
Melanie Anthony (she,her/s) is a Los Angeles-based dramaturg focused on production dramaturgy, literary management, and audience engagement dramaturgy for theater and film. She is the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region 8 Dramaturgy Coordinator, part of the JPP Artists Panel, and proud member of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. Most of 2023 was devoted to the Morgan-Wixson Theater (Santa Monica, CA) New Works Festival —designed to amplify marginalized voices and increase representation on the stage (with works by Khari Wyatt, Danielle Frimer, Amy Dellagiarino, Dorinne Kondo and more). She helmed the literary selection process, created the Playwrights’ Gatherings informal developmental phase leading up to the Festival, and was the Festival Dramaturg.

She served as a Reader and Juror for the 2022 Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy competition (Edwin Wong Founder/Producer) and was the Workshop Production Dramaturg for the winning play THAT MUST BE THE ENTRANCE TO HEAVEN by Franky D. Gonzalez. Her return to theater began in 2021 as dramaturg for the Morgan-Wixson’s inaugural New Works Festival (including plays by LaDarrion Williams and Diana Burbano), and she provided production and audience-facing dramaturgy for MWT’s subsequent two seasons of plays and musicals (Romeo & Juliet Choose Your Own Ending, Mothers & Sons, Andrew Lipa’s The Wild Party, and In the Heights).

Other recent dramaturgical projects include consultation for award-winning documentary short films, dramaturgical collaboration for a Greek mythology-themed cabaret, and creator/collaborator of the 2022 LMDA international conference panel “Ambassadors, Advocates & Artists – How Early Career Dramaturgs Create Art and Help Define Community Through Community Theater.”

Melanie is a 2021 Kennedy Center-LMDA Dramaturgy Intensive Fellow, KCACTF National Dramaturgy Fellow, KCACTF Regional Dramaturg awardee, and selected panelist for the 25th annual Association of Theater in Higher Education (ATHE) Dramaturgy Debut Panel. Her dramaturgical view also reflects lived experience as an award-winning documentarian, museum educator, STEAM instructor-advocate-activist, local social justice participant, mom, caregiver and concerned voter.

She can be found on IG at: em.anthony_
Areas of Expertise
Language(s) spoken
Interested in freelance opportunities
Yes