Hope Villanueva

Rockville, Maryland

Hope Villanueva (she/her) is an AEA stage manager by profession, but constantly writes. Her interest is in exploring the humanity of characters in their most challenging moments. She believes that the point of art is to examine ourselves and make ourselves better as a result of that reflection.

Her work has been presented by Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Next Act! New Play Summit at Capitol Repertory Theatre, Baltimore Playwrights’ Festival, The Black and Latino Playwrights’ Conference, The Kennedy Center Page to Stage Festival, The Discovery New Play Festival, The Kitchen Dog New Play Festival. The Women’s Voices Festival, INKubator On Air and WTF Occupy the Space Festival, Rapid Lemon, NextStop Theatre Company, and The Wayward Artist. Her plays have been selected as O’Neill Conference Semi-Finalist (2022) and Finalist (2020).

More recently, Vanishing Girl: A New Musical (with William Yanesh, book and lyrics), was hosted for multiple readings at NYC’s Latiné Musical Theatre Lab and a developmental workshop at Flying V in Washington, DC in 2023. Her newest play, BUZZ, was presented at the 2023 Valdez Theatre Conference and has been selected for the 2023 AGE Legacy Playwright Grant.

Ms. Villanueva is the current literary manager at Bay Street Theatre, holds a BA from the UCSB in Playwriting, and is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Writing for Stage and Screen at Lesley University. She is represented by IPEX Artists’ Agency.