Laura Maria Censabella is an American playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 and screenwriter. She has been awarded three grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts; two in playwriting for Abandoned in Queens and Three Italian Women, and The Geri Ashur Award in Screenwriting for her original screenplay Truly Mary. She is the Director of The Playwrights Unit of the Ensemble Studio Theatre

Works and awards

Her short play Posing

Pösing

Pösing is a municipality in the district of Cham in Bavaria in Germany....

was nominated for a Pushcart Prize

Pushcart Prize

The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....

, and The Actual Footage won the 2000 Tennessee Chapbook Prize for Drama. Both plays are published in Poems & Plays. She has written the short film adaptation Physics for HBO's Women: Breaking The Rules series, and she has won two Daytime Emmy Award

Daytime Emmy Award

The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming...

s for her work on As the World Turns

As the World Turns

As the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light...

. Her first Emmy win in 2001 was shared with Hogan Sheffer

Hogan Sheffer

Hogan Sheffer is an American Daytime Emmy-winning screenwriter. During the WGA strike, he chose financial core status with the WGA and continued working.-Personal life:...

 (Head Writer

Head writer

A head writer is a person who oversees the team of writers on a television or radio series. The title is common in the soap opera genre, as well as with sketch comedies and talk shows that feature monologues and comedy skits, but in prime time series this function is generally performed by an...

), Leah Laiman

Leah Laiman

Leah Laiman is an American soap opera writer and romance novelist.- Background :This Emmy Award winning writer got her start on daytime television during the early 1980s when General Hospital's Head Writer, Pat Falken Smith, quit the show with the entire writing team...

 (head writer), Carolyn Culliton

Carolyn Culliton

Carolyn Culliton is an American daytime serial writer and an alumnus of Northwestern University. Her husband is acclaimed daytime serial writer Richard Culliton...

 (co-head writer), Stephen Demorest

Stephen Demorest

-Positions held:All My Children*Associate Head Writer: April 8, 2005 - January 14, 2008Another World*Associate Head Writer: March 1999 - June 25, 1999As the World Turns*Associate Head Writer...

, Hal Corley

Hal Corley

-Career:Two of Hal's plays, "An Ounce of Prevention" and "Finding Donis Anne," have been widely performed...

, Stephanie Braxton

Stephanie Braxton

Stephanie Braxton is an American television writer, playwright and actress. She married Dan Hamilton in 1970, but they are currently divorced...

, Jeff Beldner

Jeff Beldner

-Positions held:All My Children *Script Editor: May 14, 2004 - January 14, 2008, March 19, 2008–present*Associate Head Writer: 1994 - 1998, September 17, 2001 - May 2004*Script Writer: 1991 - 1994*Writer's Assistant: 1989 - 1991...

, Tom Casiello

Tom Casiello

Tom Casiello is an American soap opera writer. In a recent interview he mentioned that he is grateful to have worked with his childhood idols: Kay Alden, The Cullitons, Stephen Demorest, Richard Backus, Leah Laiman, Jean Passanante, Shelly Altman and Janet Iacobuzio.-Positions held:As the World...

, Susan Dansby, Judith Donato, Lynn Martin, Marie Masters

Marie Masters

Marie Masters is an American actress.-Early years:Born Marie Mastruserio in Cincinnati, Ohio, Masters attended Marian College in Indiana. After graduation worked at the city desk of the publication Women's Wear Daily....

, Richard J. Allen

Richard J. Allen

Richard J. Allen is an American television soap opera writer. He is the chairman and professor of the film department at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.-Positions held:Another World...

, Judy Tate, Courtney Sherman, and Karen Lewis

Karen Lewis

Karen Lewis is an American television soap opera writer.-Positions held:All My Children*Screenwriter: 1985 - 1997, October 2001 - October 17, 2007*Script Editor: 1997 - 1999As the World Turns* Script Editor: 1999 - 2000...

.

Censabella's half-hour independent film Last Call (directed by Robert Bailey

Robert Bailey

Robert Martin Bailey is a former American football cornerback who played eleven seasons for six teams, the Los Angeles Rams, the Dallas Cowboys, the Washington Redskins, the Detroit Lions, and the Baltimore Ravens from 1991 to 2001 in the National Football League.Bailey played college football at...

) has been an official selection in festivals throughout the world, including the Avignon Film Festival, Other Venice Film Festival, Hermosa Shorts Film Festival, Sedona International Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, and the Breckenridge Film Festival where it won the Best Short Drama award.

Education

Censabella's teaching experience includes The New School for Drama

The New School for Drama

The New School for Drama is the New School 's three-year graduate program for the theater arts, located at 151 Bank St. It was established in 2005 and grants Masters of Fine Arts degrees in acting, directing and playwriting...

, The Actors Studio Drama School (where she developed the playwriting program with Romulus Linney

Romulus Linney (playwright)

Romulus Zachariah Linney IV was an American playwright and professor.-Life and career:Linney was born in Philadelphia, the son of Maitland Clabaugh and Romulus Zachariah Linney III. His great-grandfather was Republican Congressman Romulus Zachariah Linney. Linney was raised in Boone, North...

), Columbia University School of the Arts

Columbia University School of the Arts

The Columbia University School of the Arts , also known simply as the School of the Arts or as SoA, is the division of the university that offers Master of Fine Arts degrees in Film, Visual Arts, Theatre Arts, and Writing, as well as a Master of Arts degree in Film Studies...

, Columbia College

Columbia College of Columbia University

Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college at Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the Church of England as King's College, receiving a Royal Charter from King George II...

's Undergraduate Writing Program, City University's MFA Writing Program, The Sewanee Writers' Conference, and Summer Literary Seminars.

She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America, East

Writers Guild of America, East

Writers Guild of America, East is a labor union representing writers of television and film and employees of television and radio news. The 2006 membership of the guild was 3,770....

, and graduated from Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

.

External links