Maestra • For the women who make the music in the musical theater industry.

Biography

Makena Metz (playwright & lyricist) is an LA native who writes fantasy, sci-fi, and magical realism for the stage. She studied Playwriting & Theatre Directing at Columbia College Chicago (class of 17’) and is a proud member of DGA & ASCAP. This year, Makena was excited for her short play Death Bites to be presented in The Lincoln Center’s Virtual ADA30 Celebration and she was also selected for the Institute for American Musical Theatre’s inaugural IAMT CREATORS Certificate Program in Musical Theatre Writing. Additionally, her pilot Theo’s Grand Adventure (Semifinals) and her feature script Alba and The Underworld (Quarterfinals) were selected as part of the 2020 ScreenCraft Animation Competition . In the past two years, Makena’s full length TYA fantasy Blurrred: A Modern Fairy Tale was chosen for the SE Texas Festival of New Plays and her essay Epic Storytelling in Musical Theatre was published in Musical Theater Today Magazine, Volume 3. Makena was chosen as an Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights 2018 Diversity Fellow and attended The Kennedy Center’s 2018 Playwriting Intensive for their annual workshop. Check out her 10 - minute play Death Bites (Queens Theatre, Play Readings for All), her 15 - minute musical A Family Portrait (Hollywood Fringe Festival & Microtheatre Miami, Micromusicals), and her full lengths Pirate’s Weekend: Three Nights in a Harbor (The Fountain Theatre, Rapid Development), and Quench (The Navigators Theatre, Lift-Off Festival). Makena is a graduate of New Musicals Inc. CORE Curriculum for Musical Theatre Writing. Follow her on twitter or instagram @MakenaMetz and find her work on NPX!