Zarina Shea is a third-generation Brooklynite. Her grandfather’s parents emigrated from Latvia to avoid persecution. She currently lives less than a mile from where he grew up. Zarina is a playwright and performer whose work focuses on the ways in which storytelling can effect change and serve social justice. She received her BA from the University of Chicago, then moved to South Africa to work with a local non-profit using theater to raise awareness and mobilize orphaned and vulnerable children. She ultimately returned to the US to continue her theater training but returns to Africa frequently. One notable trip was to Rwanda and Uganda with a group of international theater makers to explore the role that storytelling can play in healing. She holds MFAs in Acting from Brown University and in Playwriting from Brooklyn College. Zarina’s plays include Just up the road, slightly; I Am Here; The Part Where Peter Leaves; Stella Stein; and The Peggy Project. Just up the road, slightly was nominated by Berkeley Rep for the 2019 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Zarina’s work has been produced and/or developed by BRIC Arts, Berkeley Rep, Clubbed Thumb, Two River Theater, New Georges, New York Theatre Workshop, JACK, and Actors Theatre of Louisville, among others. In 2019, she accepted a residency with BRIClab and has been a resident at Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, the Ucross Foundation, Two River Theater, and Norm’s Fish Camp at Tofte Lake. She is an alumna of Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers Group and a member of the New Georges JAM, and is a recipient of a Clubbed Thumb Short Play Commission and Brown University’s David Wickham Playwriting Award. Zarina has performed at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Trinity Rep, and Ars Nova, among others. For more information, visit www.zarinashea.com.