Bio

Paul Calandrino is a Northwest playwright, actor, and teacher. His plays have been produced coast to coast. He began writing plays in 2005, and in 2011 he completed an MFA in Playwriting at Goddard College. Since then he has led playwriting workshops at Oregon Contemporary Theatre (OCT). In 2009 he founded the Northwest Festival of Ten-Minute Plays and was the festival's executive producer until 2018.

"Finding the Time to Plays"
Feature article from The Register-Guard

Paul's first full-length play THE FINAL LEG won the Lakewood Theatre Playwriting Competition and the Northwest Playwrights Festival, both in 2005. The play received a staged reading in Portland and a workshop production at OCT. His second full-length play, I HEAR AMERICA BARKING, was a finalist in the Lakewood Competition in 2007 and a winner of the Portland Playwrights Project at Bump in the Road Theatre. His other full-length plays include SHRIMP & GRITTS: SHE'S GONE (OCT, 2016), MY HAPPY HOUR WITH PEGODA (NR4RP, 2018), SHRIMP & GRITTS: THE LONG AND WINDING TRAIL (NR4RP, 2019), and THE FIFTH HYPOTHESIS, among others.

Paul has written and had produced many ten-minute plays. BRING ME THE HEAD OF DUFRESNE FISH and CUBISM appeared in the 2008 fall issue of Northwest Review. BIG LIFE was a finalist in the 2011 National Ten-minute Play Competition at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Also in 2011, Trial by Fire TheatreWorks produced AN EVENING WITH PAUL CALANDRINO, showcasing eight of Paul's ten-minute plays.

As an actor, Paul has appeared in August: Osage County, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Clean House, and the Northwest Festival of Ten-Minute Plays at OCT.

Paul's short stories and poems have appeared in a number of online and print journals. His nonfiction book Spirit of Courage: A Tribute to People with Disabilities was placed on the New York Public Library's list of Best Books for the Teen-age in 1996.