Reared by Cajuns in southwest Louisiana, Chelsea has lived and worked among the people of the Midwest, Appalachia, the Mid-Atlantic, and now the West Coast.
She completed an American Playwrights Fellowship at The Juilliard School, and is the recipient of the Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre, the Osborn New Play Award, The Roe Green Award, and a few other encouraging Awards and Honors.
Her plays and musicals include: Airness, Everything is Wonderful, Tiny Houses, The Upstairs Department, Devour, Citizen Detective, and The Monster. As a member of the Walt Disney Animation Story Trust, Chelsea collaborated on such films as STRANGE WORLD and WISH, in addition to titles that have not yet been released.
Chelsea lives and writes in Los Angeles. She is represented by CAA and Heroes and Villains.
AIRNESS
“Among the most heralded new plays of late last decade… Marcantel has a marvelous ear for speech, both in the competitors’ banter, and in captivating monologues when they set down their invisible guitars and talk about what truly drives them.” – TwinCities.com
“Unmitigated pleasure… filled with dignity and delight.” – Chicago Reader
“An all-out comedy that’s fricking funny, hella heartfelt, and badass brilliant.” — DC Metro
EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL
“Thought-provoking, often beautiful, and in a quiet way, inspiring.” — Broadway World
“Chelsea Marcantel navigates the outwardly difficult subject with a beautiful balance of wit and raw emotion. Her writing is both entertaining and heartbreaking…. It’s a crucial piece of theatre that shouldn’t be missed.” — Baltimore Theatre Talk
“Everything is Wonderful is challenging theatrical terrain that few plays tackle successfully. Ms. Marcantel does so, however, with beauty and grace.” — DC Metro Theatre Arts
THE UPSTAIRS DEPARTMENT
“What I knew about Chelsea Marcantel going in was that she’s a genius at creating worlds on stage that seem fantastical and fictitious but that are situated in a world that actually exists… Marcantel took me to that world, peopled it with characters I could care about, and got my disbelief not just suspended but dissolved.” — DC Metro
“The plot itself is grounded and evocative… with just three actors and ninety minutes…. conjures a satisfying family drama.” — MD Theatre Guide
“The play comes through like a voice from the beyond… containing the message we most need to hear right now.” — Washington City Paper
TINY HOUSES
“[An] irresistible, tartly sweet romantic comedy about finding a home. Marcantel takes on the tiny-house movement and uses it as a vehicle to get inside the heads and hearts of young adults whose dreams and schemes, failings and foibles reveal something about all of us. The perfect, timely comedy … This blueprint is bulletproof.” — The Plain Dealer
“This sweet comedic tale… will enthrall you and make you smile with its happy conclusion. Fill the seats for this one.”— Talkin’ Broadway
“A story of self-discovery that is refreshingly honest, current, and introspective.” — Cleveland Scene
SAINT JOAN
“Marcantel seems to fear no peril. Like Joan facing those seemingly insurmountable powers, she has thrown herself quite successfully up against Shaw…. While cutting an hour off the original, she retains much of its effective dramaturgy… And she deftly inserts new (contemporary) dialogue into Shaw’s classical prose.” — Broad Street Review
“There is much to appreciate in this riveting, must-see production … a stunning blend of the traditional and the modern.” — WHYY
“It is dramatic, absorbing, historically correct and also funny… It is a magnificent rewriting of a masterpiece.” — Southern Chester County Weeklies
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