Jamie Rubenstein

Jamie Rubenstein is a New York-based playwright whose works often include roles for different generations of women, and treats mortality, grief, and loneliness with humor and lightness. Prior to entering the MFA in playwriting program at Hunter College, Rubenstein taught English to middle and high school students in public and private schools for over a decade.

While teaching, she simultaneously pursued a master’s in English at Middlebury’s Bread Loaf School, where Rubenstein eventually reconnected with her love of theater. “I began writing plays in my spare time, eventually shifting careers to get my MFA in Playwriting at Hunter College, where I have learned to look first and foremost for the human truth in a story, to search for the beating heart on the page,” she says.

Rubenstein has also taught undergraduate playwriting at Hunter, while continuing her own creative work. Her full-length plays include Ruth and Lydia, Metzevich/Metz, Sophomore, Sam, Inc., What We’re, and The Postponement, adapted from Euripides’ Alcestis. Her work has been seen or developed at the Alliance Theater, Hunter College, The Bechdel Group, Spark Creative Works, and in ESPA Detention Nights at Jimmy’s No. 43, Skeleton Rep, and the Cherry Lane Theater. Rubenstein is a 2022-23 Kendeda Finalist, ROO Residency Semi-finalist, and a 2020 Trustus Playwrights Festival Finalist.