Who We Are
Playwrights' Platform is a diverse group of Boston-area playwrights who share a commitment to the cooperative development of quality theater. On this page, we post the bios and contact information for some of our member playwrights.
(If you are a member of Playwrights' Platform and you would like to be included on this page, please Send an email to the webmaster. We'd be happy to include you!)
George Smart is a Boston based playwright who has been writing for the past five years. A social worker by day, he enjoys exploring the world as seen from a gay perspective in his writing. Produced plays include "IDWYT" (10 minute play) in Plays on Tap by CentA stage Theater Company in 2008 and in the Boston PlaySlam also 2008; "BOTTOM AND THE BIG BAD BAT" (10 MINUTE PLAY) Boston PlaySlam 2009; "You Don’t?" produced by Boston PlaySlam 2010, the Acme Theater Company in 2009 (winner of audience choice award); "A Dog and His Boys" (a staged reading) 2010 as part of the Three Ring Reading Series by CentAstage and the current production of "You Don’t?" as part of the Boston Playwrights Platform Summer Festival 2010 which won the audience choice award for Best director and Best Actor. He has written two full length plays which are awaiting production.
Dan's first play, "Five Guns, Four Bullets," was highlighted in New York Magazine when it was performed in the 2006 8 Minute Madness Festival in NYC. It was seen again in September 2007 as part of the Mill City Minutes Festival in Lowell, Massachusetts. His short play, "Choices," won the Audience Choice award for Best Play in June 2007 at the 35th Playwrights' Platform Summer Festival in Boston, Massachusets. His play, "What's Really Good," was produced in NYC in the 2007 8 Minute Madness Festival and in September 2007 was included in the Ghostplays reading series of the Tennessee Williams Festival in Provincetown, Massachusetts as well as in the October 2007 New Provincetown Players Fall Festival. In July 2008 he attended the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive in Washington D.C. His play, Smoke, won Audience Choice and Playwrights' Choice awards for Best Play in June 2009 at the 37th Playwrights' Platform Festival, Boston. He is Secretary of the Board of Directors of Playwrights' Platform and an associate member of the Dramatists Guild. E-Mail: 
Sandy Burns has been writing and co-writing plays since 1992. He writes comedy, following the aphorism of Horace Walpole, "To those that feel, the world is a tragedy; to those that think, the world is a comedy." After a brief career on the technical side of theatre in college and in summer stock, Andrew went on to an even more checkered career in academia and industry. He is now trying playwriting as his next career alternative, while also teaching at MIT.
Ludmila Anselm was born in Siberia, where she lived through the war and studied until entering Leningrad State University. She graduated in 1956 and did research in solid state physics for many years until she decided she was more interested in theater than in atoms. She has been living in Boston since 1997. She is a specialist in Shakespere and Russian authors and poets. 
Marika Barnett was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1934. A survivor of the Holocaust, she escaped Hungary as a young college student after Soviet troops crushed the anti-communist revolution of 1956.
I discovered over the course of fifty years that I was raised in southeast Missouri near the St. Francis River Valley, the grandson and great grandson of the Cherokee. I belong to the Western Cherokee Tribe in Salem, Missouri. My life's experiences (so far) have included two years of military training, twenty-five years of carpentry, forty-five years of gardening, ten years of university studies, including a Master of Arts in playwriting from the Goddard Graduate Program and a Master of Education, Language Arts. I began writing plays in November, 1974. As a writer, I have been a Fellow of the McDowell Colony, the Millay Colony, the Edward Albee foundation, and the Playwrights Lab sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trust. I am the recipient of several monetary grants from Pennsylvania and productions in New York City and Washington D.C.
I've taught playwriting from grade school to graduate school, and in art institutes and theatres: UCAL, Wilma Theatre. I've taught in the Young Playwrights Program: From Dream to Drama in a middle magnet school in Philadelphia. I live in Brookline, MA, where the writing goes very well.
A member of The Dramatists' Guild of America, Lydia Bruce has been writing and co-writing plays since 1992. She greatly appreciates the early intervention and input from Platform members, and attributes many successes to the constructive feedback from the organization. A full-length play, At The Heart of Art, that she co-wrote with Andrew Burns, won the 10th Annual Regional Playwrights Festival at GeVa, a LORT theater in Rochester, New York. As a member of the Ethics Officers Association of America, Lydia managed ethics investigations, developed training programs, and coordinated ethics activities for a corporation based in Stamford, CT. Playwriting has always provided a creative balance to business commitments. Her home, in upstate New York, was converted from a grain storage barn. She can be contacted at 
Kelly DuMar began writing plays just after publishing her non-fiction book, Before You Forget - The Wisdom of Writing Diaries for Your Children in 2001. As a psychotherapist for many years, Kelly expressed her passion for theater by directing psychodramas in therapeutic settings. Currently, she devotes her time to writing plays and offering Diary Door writing workshops, and she has been a member of Playwrights' Platform since 2001.
Peter M. Floyd is a New Hampshire native who currently lives in Brighton. Although he has been involved in Boston-area community theater for many years as an actor and director, he began writing plays only in 2004. His plays Possibilities and The Little Death had their premieres at MIT in the Summer of 2005. Since then, Possibilities was included in the 2006 Boston Theater Marathon, and The Little Death appeared in the 2006 Playwrights' Platform Summer Festival, where it received the Audience Choice award for best play. By day, Peter is a software quality engineer. He can be contacted at 
Hortense Gerardo is a playwright, screenwriter and Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Performing Arts at Lasell College. Recent credits include: 
Chris enjoys finding a home at Playwrights' Platform, where the depth of talent is impressive and the feedback from other playwrights so insightful. Chris began penning plays after college with S.P.A.C. a short play about student protests. For many years his primary scripting was for educational videos and recordings. In the last decade he has taken up creating drams again. His one act, A Mother In My Head has won several awards and Our Appointed Rounds has been performed in community theater. His wedding farce, Wendy and Wendell's Wonderful Wacky WASP Wedding was performed at the Sherborn Inn. Chris also enjoys writing ten-minute plays and musical comedies. An experienced director, he is also interested in staging others' works.
George has had five plays produced, including Alone Together, which was also short-listed for the Selection Committee at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference in Waterford, CT, and A Thin Thread which was directed by Charles Werner Moore at Brandeis U in Waltham, MA. He had, or is having short plays produced at the Ritalin Readings and Theatre Diversified at the Theatre Cooperative in Somerville, MA, the Pregnant Chad New Plays Festival 2004 in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, The Playwrights Platform Summer Festival in Boston, the Arlington Friends of the Drama Short Works Festival in Arlington, and the Hovey Summer Shorts Festival in Waltham. He received his MFA from Brandeis and has two wonderful and unusually gifted daughters.
Richard is an award-winning playwright,
poet, artist, journalist, filmmaker and educator. He was a finalist
in the grant competition in playwrighting for the Massachusetts
Artists Foundation (1976) and recipient of an ARTA (American Regional
Theatre Award) best new play award in 1986.His play, "Happily
Ever After", received an Honorable Mention in the Writer's
Digest playwrighting competition in 2004. His has had staged readings
and productions at various places in Massachusetts.
Gail Phaneuf has penned several plays and her
musical, (co-written with Ernie Lijoi), MONSTERS! was chosen as a 2005
finalist for the Rod Parker Playwriting Competition, and was produced in
September 2006 at CentAstage in Boston. Visit: (
Since Phyllis joined Playwrights' Platform in the fall of 2005, three of her plays have been produced at the Playwrights' Platform Summer Festival, including The Offer, (runner up for the 2006 Playwrights' Choice Award), Breeding Season, and most recently, The Entertainer(winner of the 2008 Audience Choice Award). She has had several staged readings of her comedy,Pull a Costner at the Image Theater in Lowell, SWAN (Support Women Artists Now) Day at Boston Playwright's Theater and at the Our Voices Festival of Women Playwrights at Wellesley College. She is a published fiction writer, actress, voiceover artist and line coach. As an actress, Phyllis has performed in over 25 theater and film productions in the Boston area. She has narrated two television series and has worked for over 50 clients in radio and television. She can be reached at 
Ellen began writing plays in 2006 after more than twenty years writing unpublished fiction. Apparently joining Playwrights' Platform in 2007 was the secret to writing success because since then two of her short stories have been published. Yiddish Land was selected for the 3rd place prize in Moment Magazine's short fiction contest and appears in the November/December '08 issue (online at www.momentmag.com). Memoril appears in the debut issue of the literary journal 94 Creations. Her short play The Unveiling was given a staged reading in 2008 at Our Voices Together and was performed at the 2008 Playwrights' Platform Festival. It was also selected by the Association for Theatre in Higher Education for its 2008 New Play Development Workshop. lndsullivan@comcast.net
Richard Westcott has recently renewed his playwright ambitions. The Image Theater in Lowell, Massachusetts read the 10 minuteplays “CAULK” and “BACHELOR PARTY” in their 2010 Naughty Readings. “CAULK” was then fully produced by The Provincetown Players as part of their 2011 Spring Festival. In addition to writing, Richard has acted in Northeastern University’s Silver Mask group, Boston’s Arts in the Parks program, and was featured in a WGBH documentary while in college. Richard works as a background actor, and has appeared with Steve Martin in “PINK PANTHER TWO”; and appears in “27 DRESSES”, Danny Aiello’s “STIFFS”, ESPN’s “THE BRONX IS BURING”, WGBH’s “WE SHALL REMAIN, and “REST IN PEACE DEPARTMENT” still in production.
Andrew Wetmore lives in Lowell. His plays have been produced on both coasts and in eastern Canada. His oddest challenge so far was to write a murder mystery that was performed by Hampshire Shakespeare Company on the historic train running between Holyoke and Westfield. His biggest project to date has been to adapt the entire Bible for production as an audio play. The New Testament part of the project won Audio Book of the Year in 2007. Wetmore was the founding chairperson of the Dramatists' Co-op of Nova Scotia, and has worked with many playwrights to prepare their scripts for production.