What is your hometown and how did you decide on enrolling at URI?
I went to high school in New Hope, PA. When applying to colleges, I specifically sought out BFA theatre programs—I knew I wanted a liberal arts degree and a program that offered artistic rigor and production experience. URI offered me the best financial aid package, which included a Centennial Scholarship, and a real campus experience, which was important to me.
Did you discover theatre while you were an undergraduate at URI, or was it something that you always wanted to do?
I grew up doing theatre. My parents were very supportive of me pursuing my passion as long as I got a degree—and I was eager for the opportunity to be surrounded by other “theatre kids” and to learn more about all aspects of the field.
How has your experience as an actor informed this transition into becoming a playwright?
I think like an actor when I write. I try to write roles—particularly those for women—that are challenging and juicy, defy “type”, and excite me intellectually and emotionally. Basically, I write roles that I know I would have wanted to play. When writing dialogue, I’m very aware of how language can work for or against an actor in performance-– rhythm, silence, and even punctuation impact our ability to find a character, drop in emotionally, and play action. Structurally, I often think about whether an actor in a certain role has enough to do—if I’d be bored backstage, the role is getting expanded, doubled, or cut!
What is your approach to playwriting / What inspires a new play for you?
I usually start writing a play when I can’t stop asking questions about a certain idea. Research itself is very generative, whether it’s about a historical event or figure, a scientific concept I want to understand, or a news story that’s driving me crazy. I start with gathering information, and then the play begins to reveal itself. The first time I went to the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway New Play Festival, the keynote speaker was Pulitzer winner James Ijames. When asked about writer’s block, he said something that really resonated with me: that generating was only a part of the process, and “taking in” — reading, listening, experiencing, is just as vital to creating as writing itself. To that end, I’m a voracious consumer of books, movies, music, TV, art, and news, and I consider moving through the world with curiosity to be the most important part of writing plays.
After graduation, how did you go about getting your plays produced? Was it something you had in mind, or did it happen organically?
I didn’t think of myself as a playwright for many years. I had a couple of short plays produced in Providence in the years after finishing my degree, but I was mostly focusing on acting and some directing. It wasn’t until around 2018 that I began writing seriously. In 2020/21 I produced an online festival of new work—over 20 plays from global playwrights across a six week span—called Digital Dionysia. It included two original plays I wrote specifically for the festival. It was at that point I realized that my work was on par with the emerging playwrights whose plays I read for the selection process, which gave me the confidence to commit to calling myself a playwright and start submitting.
What was the first play of yours that was produced? What was that like?
The first one, I believe, was Tipping, a 10-minute play for the Providence Bar Plays in 2009. It was about a sad person and an angry person meeting in a bar where the bartender is mysteriously missing. I had left Providence for Massachusetts shortly before that, so I wasn’t part of the rehearsal process, and I remember feeling excited that something that existed in my head had come to life without me there. That play has since been produced at colleges and in short play festivals from Chicago to Seoul, South Korea. I think it holds up over ten years later.
You recently visited Professor Tracy Liz Miller’s playwriting class. Can you share some insight on what that means as an alumni and contributing to the URI community?
So much of who I am as an artist came from the teachers and guest artists who I met at URI. Claudia Traub’s scene study introduced me to playwrights who are still among my favorites, like Jose Rivera and Tony Kushner; Tony Estrella cemented my love for Shakespeare; David Howard challenged me to see theatre as a medium not only of words but of images. If one student discovers something about theatre or their own perspective because of something I brought into class, I consider it good karma.
From your experience as a working playwright, what is your advice for aspiring writers and artists?
Write what you need to write, not what feels “producible” or is currently in fashion. Your greatest asset is your unique voice. It won’t be for everyone, but those who connect to it will do so because of your authenticity.
What’s next for you?
I have a few exciting projects coming up in 2026. In January, Gather By The Ghostlight is releasing an audio drama miniseries on the Broadway Podcast Network based on my queer historical dramedy, Romeo & Her Sister. The play will also be licensed for production around the same time. In April, my verse comedy The Polycule: A Comedy of Manners will have its East Coast premiere at Connecticut Repertory Theatre. And this summer, my husband Peter Sampieri (a fantastic director who I met at URI!) will be directing a workshop of my newest full-length, Morphology, as part of Boston Playwrights Theatre’s new Incubator program.
I also plan to continue working on my new musical Evil Librarian, adapted from Michelle Knudsen’s YA novel; it had its first workshop with Landless Theatre outside of DC this month and the response was really exciting. My writing partner and I are looking for more opportunities to develop the show.
Jillian Blevins (she/her) is a New England-based playwright whose work engages with literature, myth, and history, exploring how the stories we think we know resonate in our present.
Select plays include MERE WATERS (Winner ‘Best Script’ SheNYC Festival 2024, Golden Prize Winner Clauder Competition 2024, Finalist Seattle Public Theatre Distillery New Works Festival 2024, Honorable Mention American Playwriting Foundation Relentless Award 2024, Semi-finalist O’Neill Playwrights Conference 2024), ROMEO & HER SISTER (Semi-finalist SheNYC Festival 2022), THE POLYCULE: A COMEDY OF MANNERS (Finalist Boston New Works Festival 2024, Semifinalist The Road Summer Playwrights Festival 2024, Frank Moffett Mosier Longlist Prize for Works in Heightened Language from Synecdoche Works 2023), SPACE LASER, IN SPACE! (Semi-finalist Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway New Play Festival 2023, Jewish Plays Project Festival of New Jewish Plays 2024), THE BED TRICK (Valdez Theatre Conference 2023), IZZY AT ZOOM THERAPY (Third Coast Magazine 2025), and PILLORIED (Winner, Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway New Play Festival 2024, Concord Theatricals 2025).
Jillian’s plays have been featured on audio drama podcasts Gather By The Ghostlight and The Ugly Radio. She is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild. Learn more at www.jillianblevinsplaywright.com