Jennifer Blackmer is a playwright and director based in the Midwest, and an Associate Professor of Theatre at Ball State University. Most recently, she was playwright in residence with the Ingram New Works Lab at the Tennessee Repertory Theatre, where she developed her latest play, Unraveled, which premiered in October 2013 with Theatre Unbound in Minneapolis. Unraveled was named one of the ten best productions in the Twin Cities by Lavender Magazine, and Jennifer was lauded for superior achievement in playwriting. Alias Grace, her theatrical adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel, received its first staged reading during summer 2012 with the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. Jennifer’s play The Human Terrain, which will premiere in St. Louis with Mustard Seed Theatre this fall, was a finalist for the David Charles Horn Prize for Emerging Playwrights (Yale Drama Competition), the Fratti-Newman Political Play Contest, the Firehouse Festival of New American Theatre, the O’Neill National Playwrights’ Conference and a semi-finalist for the 2012 Princess Grace Award; she is currently developing the play as a motion picture for Rumpus Room Productions. Jennifer’s work has been seen in New York (The Lark, EstroGenius Xtended Festival, MSP Emerging Female Voices), Los Angeles (IAMA Theatre Company), Minneapolis (The Playwrights’ Center, Theatre Unbound), and the Chicago area (Museum of Science and Industry, Illinois Wesleyan University) among others. Recent directing credits include the American premiere of Lost: A Memoir at Indiana Repertory Theatre, and numerous productions at Ball State University.

Visit Jennifer’s website at www.jenniferblackmer.com.