Frank J. Avella

Frank J. Avella received a 2015 Fellowship Award from the NJ State Council on the Arts for his play, CONSENT. He is also the recipient of the 2016 Helene Wurlitzer Residency Grant and Bumbalo/Chesley Foundation Playwright Award for CONSENT, which confronts bullying and homophobia and was a 2012 semifinalist for the O’Neill. The play was workshopped by the Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles in 2012 and will be published by Adirondack Plays as part of an anthology of LGBTQ Plays. Frank has written 17 full-length plays; 10 have been produced. VATICAN FALLS, set against the backdrop of the Catholic sex abuse scandal, was a semifinalist for the 2013 Newborn Festival and received Special Mention at the 2013 O’Neill. His other work includes: ORVILLE STATION, which has been published by Lazy Bee Scripts. ORVILLE was a finalist (one of three) for the 2014 NJ Playwrights Contest and a finalist (final round) for the 2014 Kitchen Dog Theatre New Works Festival. Upon reviewing IRIS in 2005, the Cincinnati Post wrote: “Avella’s plays tend to send earthquakes through his audience's comfort zones.” An NYU’s Tisch Grad, Frank is a Film and Theatre Journalist for Edge Media Network and . He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.