Diana Howie has written eight full-length plays in the past ten years and has seen seven of them produced. Like the monologs in Tight Spots, three of her plays, The Brightest Light, Susanna of Stratford and Judy’s Friend, use real people (Alexander Hamilton, Susana Shakespeare and Judy Garland) as characters. Characters in her other plays are inspired by people she has known, but are essentially fictional creations. “I’m usually not even thinking of writing a play,” she says. “Something a person does catches my interest, and pretty soon I am trying to imagine why they did that, and the story evolves.”

Before taking up writing full-time, Ms. Howie was a reference librarian in New Jersey libraries. Since moving to Texas, she has completed undergraduate and graduate studies in theatre and was fortunate to have studied in Houston with Jose Quintero, a legendary director of new work for the stage. Ms. Howie has been playwright in Residence of the Country Playhouse since 1997 and is a teaching artist in elementary schools, introducing theatre to about 500 students each school year. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild.