Lisa A. Mammel is a published and produced writer, attorney, and former diplomat. She is the author of several full-length plays, among them: Martha; Refuge; and (W)Hole (Finalist, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, 2021, and Finalist, Ashland New Plays Festival, 2020); a musical, Storyville, with composer LaTasha Bundy (Semi-Finalist O’Neill National Musical Conference, 2023); as well as short plays that explore the themes of community, justice, and paths toward reconciliation. Her plays have been produced in California, Texas, and Maryland.
In addition to stage plays, Lisa’s background in writing includes two full-length screenplays and a novel. Her screenplay, Melting Point, was a Finalist in the World-Fest Houston Screenwriting Contest (Original Drama), and a Semi-Finalist in the Phoenix Film Festival Screenwriting Contest.
Meticulous research supports the truths woven into Lisa’s writing. To write her play (W)Hole, Lisa observed proceedings at Veterans Treatment Courts, interviewed U.S. veterans, and collected oral histories of survivors of the 1970s boat exodus out of Vietnam. To write the musical Storyville, she traced the streets of the former Storyville District in New Orleans with a recognized local historian, and drew from the extensive musical and cultural knowledge of her composer-collaborator, LaTasha Bundy. She fished with a family practicing subsistence living in the Alaskan bush as research for her screenplay, Melting Point, and milked sheep with shepherds in Sardinia, Italy to write her screenplay, The Innocent. At the invitation of the lead historian at Mount Vernon, Lisa drafted her play Martha while perched in the hallway outside of Martha Washington’s bedroom.
Prior to embarking on her writing career, Lisa served as an Africa Analyst for the U.S. Department of State; a United Nations observer of South Africa’s first multi-racial elections; and an attorney-monitor to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Lisa is a member of the Dramatists’ Guild. She is also a member of the Honor Roll!