Tenara Calem is a playwright, performer, and educator

based in Philadelphia, PA. Born in Israel with deep roots in the Midwest, Tenara’s written work has been featured all around the country, including with the Jewish Plays Project National Competition, the Young Playwrights Festival with Horizon Theatre Company in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Annual Midwestern Jewish Playwriting Contest at Continuum Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. Her work has earned her a Young Playwright award nomination from the Dramatist’s Guild.

Tenara has worked as an arts administrator, educator, and creator with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Trinity Repertory Company, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Lightning Rod Special, Strange Attractor, FringeArts, and InterAct Theatre Company. She is currently working towards her MFA in Devised Theater with the Pig Iron School and University of the Arts.

Tenara is also the Lead Facilitator in the Philadelphia-local performance company Lupine Performance Cooperative. Find out more at their website here.

Tenara is an educator, orienting the ethos of collaboration and experimentation in her pedagogical approach. You can learn more about her teaching work here.

This is her website. Photos by John C. Hawthorne, Emilie Krause, and Jennifer Strickland.