Anna Nugent

Founding Family

It is such a great pleasure watching someone share what they love. This week Paul and I had the opportunity to see DUBLIN BY LAMPLIGHT, a Corn Exchange Production, on the Abbey stage. It is the first time that we’ve watched a full production in the redesigned auditorium from up the top. And what a […]

Up for a Challenge

When my husband mentioned that a friend was thinking of suggesting me to fill in for one performance of a musical, I was simultaneously thrilled and terrified. I love to sing, but I consider myself an actress who sings, not a bona fide singer. The friend put me forward and the next day I was […]

Returning to the Familiar

Seamus, Paul and Anna standing on a balcony overlooking rail tracks and the Hudson River. It is a sunny day.

This past week Paul and I have been doing a mini-tour of Seamus Scanlon’s The Long Wet Grass. In early October we shot the short film version that will be released in 2017. And years ago in INKubator at Art House in Jersey City we read the script aloud for the first time. We have […]

Playwrights Are People

I love working creatively with my posse. The people that have inspired me and who I trust after years of working together. And truly this type of repeated collaboration strengthens the work. But sometimes, just as we as people need different relationships to teach us different aspects of our self, there are times when playwrights […]

Writing “Living Grace”

If you had told me a year ago that I would write a play in 6 weeks I would have laughed at you. I don’t think of myself as a writer. And a play? Come on, you need mad skills for that! Well, I would have been wrong. Working with the fabulous women’s group at […]

We Are Family

This season is all about gifts and true meaning and spirit and love and food and new beginnings and family. Ah, that loaded word, “family.” What do I mean by family? Yes, there are the people we grew up with, the ones we are related to, but to me family is something more than that. […]

Inspiring NEW Plays

This November the NEWvember New Plays Festival (which I co-produce) is celebrating its 5th year! Wow! In that time we’ve read thousands of plays and will be presenting our 30th new play reading this weekend (November 5-8). It is remarkable how much work goes into one weekend. Early in the year we go over the […]

Why I Love British Theatre

To be honest the reasons I love British Theatre are many and varied. From the standpoint of an actress, I like the professionalism: that at least from the outside it appears to be respected as a craft, that for the most part the actors don’t take themselves too seriously and that there is a high […]

An Annie Baker Month

Okay, so it wasn’t really a full month of Annie Baker, but two of the handful of shows my husband and I went to during August were hers. Which is a pretty high percentage for any playwright, besides Shakespeare. We saw both THE FLICK at Barrow Street Theatre and JOHN at Signature. I had previously […]

London Theatre Sparks My Heart

The Nugents in front of the National Theatre Sign

My husband and I recently spent some time in England, ending our visit with three days in London, binging on theatre. Such a pleasure! The city has changed a lot since I was last there 12 or 13 years ago, especially the skyline on the Thames, but of course there are some things that never […]