Mona Mansour

Mona Mansour is an acclaimed American playwright known for her powerful, politically resonant work that explores themes of identity, displacement, and belonging. Of Lebanese descent, Mansour often draws on her Middle Eastern heritage and diasporic experiences to tell deeply human stories that intersect with global conflicts and personal struggles.

She gained national attention for her ambitious The Hour of Feeling, which premiered at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in 2012. The play follows a Palestinian academic as he confronts cultural tension and personal ambition during a visit to 1960s London. This piece became the first installment of her celebrated trilogy, The Vagrant Trilogy, which also includes The Vagrant and Urge for Going. The full trilogy was staged in repertory at The Public Theater in 2022 to critical acclaim, affirming Mansour’s voice as one of the most compelling in contemporary theatre.

Mansour is an alumna of the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group and the Lark Play Development Center, and she is a longtime member of New Dramatists. Her work has been developed or produced by major institutions such as New York Theatre Workshop, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Center Theatre Group, and the Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award, which she received in 2012.

In addition to her stage work, Mansour has written for television, including episodes of NBC’s The Blacklist and the Apple TV+ series Swagger. Her writing blends intellectual rigor with emotional honesty, often focusing on people caught between worlds—culturally, geographically, and psychologically.

Mona Mansour’s work continues to resonate for its lyrical storytelling, global perspective, and fierce commitment to portraying underrepresented voices. Through her plays, she invites audiences to confront displacement, home, and humanity with nuance and empathy.