WCT ANNOUNCES PLAYWRIGHT-IN-RESIDENCE
Wagner College Theatre is proud to announce that playwright Nina Kissinger will join the department as Playwright-in-Residence for the 2026–27 academic year. The appointment marks a milestone collaboration with an artist whose work has already left a mark on Wagner College Theatre.
THIS IS GOVERNMENT Comes to Stage One
The centerpiece of the residency is the Stage One production of Kissinger's play THIS IS GOVERNMENT. The production follows a successful staged reading of the play last season and its First Place win at the 2025 Stanley Drama Award. THIS IS GOVERNMENT has also enjoyed an active production history beyond campus including a 2025 Off-Broadway run at 59E59 Theaters in partnership with New Light Theater Project and Pendragon Theatre.
In the Classroom and Beyond
Kissinger's residency extends well past opening night. In the Spring 2027 semester, she will teach Playwriting, working directly with Wagner's playwriting students and offering mentorship to emerging writers as they develop their own voices and scripts.
She will also return to the Stanley Drama Award, serving as a final-round judge for the 2027 competition lending her perspective as a recent winner to the selection of the next honoree.
Additional programming tied to the residency includes a talkback with the playwright (details to be announced) and a developmental workshop of one of Kissinger's new and upcoming plays, giving the Wagner community a rare inside look at a new work still taking shape.
Stay tuned for casting announcements, talkback dates, and workshop details as the 2026–27 season approaches.
About Nina Kissinger
Nina is a playwright originally from San Francisco and currently based in Brooklyn. Her plays include THIS IS GOVERNMENT (2026 Production with MOXIE Theatre, 2025 Off-Broadway Production at 59E59 with New Light Theater Project & Pendragon Theatre, 2025 Stanley Drama Award Winner), SORRY WE’RE OPEN, I WASN’T PLANNING ON SAYING ANYTHING, ON TUESDAYS WE FIGHT, and THE EXIT INTERVIEW. Nina is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop (Bookwriting) and the 24 H
our Plays: Nationals 2025 Cohort (Playwriting). She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she majored in political science and philosophy, minored in music, and studied playwriting under Laura Schellhardt and Julie Marie Myatt. When she isn’t writing plays, she’s working as a producer for KALW’s Your Call.