Liba Vaynberg is a first generation American writer and actor. She is a bilingual first-generation American artist whose work reimagines canonical text by centering contemporary questions of gender, progress, and God (or lack thereof). The daughter of Ukrainian and Azeri Jewish refugees, she studied Molecular Biology at Yale before receiving her MFA at Columbia.
Her plays include THE MATRIARCHS which was developed at the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference under the direction of Melia Bensussen, was a Theater J, Blue Ink Award & Princess Grace Finalist, and Premiere Stages & Jewish Plays Project Semi-Finalist. THE GETT, was the inaugural commission at Rattlestick with CBE and a 2021 Princess Grace Semi-Finalist and was produced at Rattlestick and subsequently programmed at Theater Ariel. ROUND TABLE premiered at 59E59 (Times Square Chronicles 10 Best Plays of 2019) and was reprised at Tierra Del Sol. Her first play SCHEISS BOOK premiered at the United Solo Festival at Theatre Row where it won Best One-Woman Show as well as the Backstage Magazine Audience Choice Award, and was reprised by Dixon Place, Wild Project (with Wheelhouse) and Stonewall Inn with a regional premiere at the Kitchen Theater.
She has been a Walter E. Dakin Fellow at Sewanee Writers' Conference, a member of the Civilians R&D Group, and an Artist-In-Residence with Colt Coeur. Her collaboration with Dina Vovsi was commissioned by the Working Theater and was the recipient of a NYSCA Grant. Other projects include QUEEN'S QUEST, a SPACE on RYDER FARM finalist and LABA Humor Fellowship selection that was performed with United Solo. Her plays THE OXFORD COMMA and MIRIAM received educational premieres at Xavier University. Her play with Emily Louise Perkins, THE RUSSIAN & THE JEW, was the recipient of a COJECO BluePrint Fellowship and was produced by the Tank, and her audio play CONTRITION was comissioned and produced by Refracted Theater Co.
She has been published by the LABA JOURNAL and contributes to LILITH MAGAZINE and CANVAS COMPENDIUM.
As an actor, she specializes in the development of new work, off-Broadway and regionally. Full credits here.She is also the co-founder of ANNA & KITTY, INC., a non-profit devoted to female leadership in and through the arts.
