PROFILE: GAIL PHANEUF

Gail Phaneuf is a playwright, director and actor in Boston.  Her newest teen musical, The Love Note, had its rousing world premiere production at Curry College in April 2009.   The Love Note has gone on to enjoy several subsequent productions and will be produced this spring at The Regent Theatre and at The South Camden Theatre Company.  Gail co-wrote MONSTERS! the Musical , a collaboration with composer Ernie Lijoi, while earning her Master’s degree at Emerson College in Boston. The comic musical was named a finalist in the Rod Parker Playwriting Competition, kicking off developmental readings in Boston and New York City.  MONSTERS!  had its first full production at CentAstage in Boston.  Polished and energized after its Boston debut, MONSTERS! is being further work-shopped in New York City, and had a production in August 2011 at the Deertrees Theatre in Maine.

Gail is a long-standing member, and former president, of The Playwrights’ Platform, where several of her plays have been introduced.   Her short play "Stop Requested" was awarded best play and best director at the 2008 Playwrights Platform summer festival, and was recently published by Heuer Publishing.  Games and Puzzles was produced by Image Theatre Co. for the 2011 FemNoire Festival and the 2008 Boston Theater Marathon.  "Stop Requested" and her prickly Urban Gardens were  produced by the South Camden Theatre Company in New Jersey. Urban Gardens was awarded best play at the Playwrights’ Platform 2004 Summer Festival. Her play A Perfect Match was produced at the 2008 ACME Winter New Works Festival. Her edgy political piece Random Selection was read at the Provincetown Theatre Company's  Spring Playwrights Festival and was later performed at the Boston Theater Marathon and at Curry College.  Random Selection was published in Belgium in a collection of short plays by Boston playwrights. Her new work, Binding the Artful Dodger, had its world premiere at Curry College in 2009.   

Gail is a busy director and most recently directed Breakfast with Mary at the Deertrees Theatre Festival, Bat boy the Musical and  Harold Pinter's Betrayal in Boston.  Directing credits include The Love Note,  Binding the Artful Dodger,  Baby with the Bathwater, Fallen Star, Smoke,  "Stop Requested", Choices, Dancers, The New Frontier and Random Selection.  She has appeared as an actor on New England stages for over 20 years, most recently in the role of Stevie in The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? for the New Provincetown Players and as Anna in The Baltimore Waltz for The Provincetown Theatre Co. She appeared in the 2007 Tennessee Williams Festival in Provincetown, as Viola Shields in The One Exception. Gail is a member of the Dramatists Guild. She holds a degree from Emerson College in Theater Education, and is the Playwright in Residence at Curry College where she also teaches scriptwriting.  Gail directs and produces the Class Acts and New Plays festivals.   Gail is also in charge of directing the musicals on the Main Stage for Curry Theatre.  gailphaneuf@gmail.com   or visit  http://www.gailphaneuf.com