Photo by Kathryn Hayden

About Me

Sonya Hayden (she/her) is a playwright, composer, and lyricist originally from Virginia, now based in New York. Her work includes the plays THERE’S ALWAYS TOMORROW (Finalist, Tennessee Williams Festival 2020-2021 Play Contest), JUST LIKE MAGIC (virtual production, Little Fish Theatre), BAUBLES, BANGLES, AND BANKRUPTCY (reading, ATHE New Play Development Workshop 2021), and DEATH AT THE AIRPORT (Winner, Merlin Theatre Frome Short Play Contest); musicals WANDA DOES THE WATER CYCLE (production, Lincoln Center GREEN), THE LUCKIEST GIRL (workshop production, Princeton University), CRAZY BUT TRUE (lyricist, virtual production, CAIM Creative Co.), and TAKING OFF! (lyricist, reading, Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center); songs “If I Didn’t Know Better” (Winner, Lotte Lenya Competition Songbook 2021), “Snow One Else for Me” (composer, Playdate Theatre Holiday EP 2020), and “I’m Here” (lyricist, Empower Her Voice 2020 Scratch Night). She is a member of the BMI Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop, the Dramatists Guild, and ASCAP and was mentored by Broadway Music Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell in Maestra’s Mentorship Program 2021. She was previously a member of The Workshop Theatre’s selective writers’ intensive, where she developed her play HERR DENTIST; the Princeton University Triangle Club Writers Workshop (Milton Lyon Award for Outstanding Writing) for which she contributed music and lyrics for three full-length musicals; and Traverse Theatre Young Writers in Scotland. Master’s in Playwriting with Distinction, University of Edinburgh; A.B. Music (summa cum laude) and Minor in Theater, Princeton University.