Christopher Shinn

Christopher Shinn is an American playwright. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut and graduated from New York University with a degree in dramatic writing. His first play, Four, was produced at London’s Royal Court Theatre, which has subsequently produced many of his plays. Shinn’s play Where Do We Live won the Obie Award in 2005. His play Dying City was a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His plays frequently feature a manipulative victim and characters who are played by one actor. Both are the case in Dying City and his 2001 play The Coming World.

In addition to his original full-length plays, Shinn has written short plays as well as adaptations of Hedda Gabler and Judgment Day. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Robert Chesley Award for Lesbian and Gay Playwriting. As of 2022, he is a professor of playwriting at The New School for Drama in New York City.