“Rowen was conceived in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which swept through New York like an invisible tidal wave, forcing people inside and keeping us apart. Transportation was limited. Conversations moved to screens and life became largely virtual. It became good civic practice to avoid in person connection, to be wary of communal air.

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“Rowen is a way of bringing our city back to vital, organic, in-person life—it encourages us to get up and out of our homes, to traverse parts of the city we haven’t explored, and to imagine new pathways for revitalization and growth. Rowen is a joyful expression of the possibilities that bloom on the other side of darkness, and a reminder of life cycles in all senses. Decay can lead to growth. Separation can create space for connection. In the aftermath of collective pain, can come communal healing. Let’s find it together.”

Anna O’Donoghue is a writer, dramaturg, and story consultant born and bred in New York City. With a background in performance, she has worked as a speechwriter, ghostwriter, and editor for individuals, organizations, and academic institutions, bringing an actor’s instinct for character, audience, tone, and event to every project she touches.

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She earned her BFA in Drama from the Juilliard School and made her Broadway debut the following year in Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll, directed by Trevor Nunn. Anna went on to perform off and off-off Broadway and on regional stages around the country, in classical works and world premieres alike. In 2019, she was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for her performance in I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart at the Studio Theater in DC. But as Anna worked with more and more playwrights, her interest in the development of new work deepened, and she began to explore different kinds of collaborations.

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O’Donoghue co-led a longform generative process with playwright Alena Smith to create a piece out of found internet texts that became The Piven Monologues, a semi-satirical docudrama that played to sold out houses at Joe’s Pub and earned a cease and desist letter from Jeremy Piven himself. She has worked as a consultant on plays, screenplays, and television scripts that have been developed and produced by premier theaters, television studios, and streaming platforms.

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From 2016-2022, Anna chaired the Bridge Awards for Playwriting and Screenwriting, a project of Adam Driver's Arts in the Armed Forces, which seeked to identify and support exceptional creative work by members of the military community. Currently, she is the Literary Manager and Artistic Producer of the American Playwriting Foundation, where she oversees the Relentless Award for Playwriting and Musical Theater, the largest annual cash prize awarded to an unproduced play or musical.

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Her own plays have been developed and produced in New York, New Mexico, New Orleans, and New Hampshire (she has a penchant for new-ness.) Offense, an experimental audio piece that she wrote and directed, was released by Audible Originals in 2022. She currently splits her time between New York and New Haven, and she is a voracious consumer of podcasts and soup.