"Calamity West is one of the best playwrights in Chicago. Or maybe the country. Or the universe." - Chicago Reader
CALAMITY WEST
THOUGHTS ON
CALAMITY'S WORK
“A leading aesthetic innovator of storefront realism.”
- Chicago Reader
“West, a Chicago writer with an ebullient sense of theatricality, is the real deal."
- Chicago Tribune
"West is a colossal talent with a formidable intellect."
- Chicago Tribune
“Calamity West is, without question, a name to watch.”
- Chicago Tribune
“Calamity West manages to hook you in and get you comfortable
only to take you places no one wants to see clearly.”
- Third Coast
“West writes like a vise, slowly tightening the screws
until her characters are trapped and her audience is rapt.”
- Windy City Times
“...an essential voice.”
- Chicago Tribune
“West’s writing really hits the zeitgeist. She’s an important voice in the world.”
- PerformInk
Calamity West is the 2026 recipient of the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award for her play FEAST!. This $150,000 national prize supports the premiere production of a new work and recognizes bold and socially relevant voices in American playwriting. Originally developed in New York at Primary Stages through the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group and later at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, FEAST! will receive its world premiere at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in 2027.
Over the past fifteen years, West has maintained an active artistic practice creating and producing new work in both Chicago and New York. Her plays have been produced, commissioned, or developed by institutions including The Public Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Primary Stages, the Lucille Lortel Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, and Jackalope Theatre Company - to name a few.
From 2022 to 2026 West was an invited member of Primary Stages’ Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group where she wrote FEAST!, Sgt. Hank Cole’s Drama Club of Algona, and PARALLAX. Sgt. Hank Cole’s Drama Club of Algona has received staged readings in Chicago and New York. PARALLAX received its first public presentation at Primary Stages in April 2026
West is a recipient of the $25,000 3Arts Award, honoring her contributions to Chicago theatre. She is also a company member of Jackalope Theatre Company, where her play Engines and Instruments of Flight: A Fantasia in Three Acts will receive its world premiere in November 2026.
