JENNY LAIRD was a long-time Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists where her play Ballad Hunter was first produced and received a Joseph Jefferson Nomination for Outstanding New Work as well as the Cunningham Prize for Playwriting. Her play Sky Girls premiered at Northlight Theatre and subsequently had its West Coast premiere at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. Sky Girls was the recipient of the Selma Melvoin New Play Award, as well as grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her play Only The Sound also premiered at Chicago Dramatists and won the 2003 Joseph Jefferson Award for Outstanding New Work and garnered an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, as well as Mill Mountain Theatre’s New Play Award.

Jenny is grateful to have had the opportunity to work with so many other wonderful theatres dedicated to developing and producing new plays; some of her favorites include: WP Theatre, The Road Theatre, The Asylum, API, Stage 3, Rivendell Theatre, Horizon Theatre Company, The New Harmony Project and The Utah Shakespeare Festival.

Since 2006, Jenny has had the privilege and joy of collaborating with Will Osborne and Randy Courts on a collection of theatre adaptations of Mary Pope Osborne’s bestselling book series: The Magic Tree House. Most recently, she has been busy adapting a selection of Magic Tree House books into graphic novels, all published by Random House Children’s Books.