Melinda Gros

Lisa Kenner Grissom writes mostly about women - betrayed, betraying, playing mah jongg, bowling on a company team, almost making it to the altar, hustling breakfast on a subway station, confronting power dynamics, cleaning hotel rooms, facing down the pandemic, drunk on life or just plain drunk. Inspiration comes from everywhere – ‘The Smokehouse Queens’ from working with a factory in Pennsylvania; ‘Cold Cash’ after a casual conversation with a housekeeper in Jerusalem; ‘Free Coffee and Donuts’ from a subway station encounter; encounters with technology and powerful sales platforms in 'The Buy Button'. She dramatized stories of the pandemic – an unraveling bride in ‘Bette’s Bridal Bash’; opportunities for COVID real estate upgrades in ‘Claire O’Connell’; the impossibility of going home in ‘Another Homecoming’. Food always plays a prominent role. A native New York, subways appear in several plays. Melinda casts a compassionate eye on her characters’ lives, their regretted might-have-beens, and their still unrealized dreams. Pain is confronted, truths are revealed and kindness sometimes offers redemption. These are stories of women’s lives: sometimes messy, sometimes tumultuous, always real.

Since 2018, Melinda's work has been presented in New York, Louisiana, Indiana, California and Massachusetts. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Melinda started writing plays after careers in dance and costume and clothing design/manufacture; she has credits on several dance films and dance film restoration projects. She presented her first piece as a graduate student at Mills College; the glories of snickerdoodles and PB&J sandwiches formed the sound design. 

https://newplayexchange.org/users/22529/melinda-gros