Rosary Hartel O’Neill, Ph.D., a sixth-generation Louisiana native, lives in New Orleans and New York City. She is the author of 27 plays, 16 published by Samuel French, Inc., four books of nonfiction, two novels, and four anthologies of plays. The fourth edition of her text The Actor’s Checklist is used in schools nationwide.
A Senior Fulbright Drama Specialist, Rosary has completed nine residencies, including at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland, the American Academy in Rome, and the Irish Cultural Center and Cartoucherie Theatre in Paris, and the Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms Universitaet in Bonn, Germany. She has been a three-time scholar in residence at the Sorbonne, and has garnered invitations to Harvard and the American Center in Paris. She is an active member of the Actors Studio: Playwrights and Directors Workshop in New York. While a full professor of Drama and Speech at Loyola University New Orleans, she founded Southern Repertory Theatre, the premier professional theatre in New Orleans. In October, 2022 her Degas play will premiere at the American Embassy in Paris.
A screenwriter and producer, Rosary’s pantheon includes a 12-episode New Orleans TV series, Garden District, written under five fellowships with David Black of Law and Order at Harvard University and Norman Mailer’s homes in Provincetown, Maine and Brooklyn, New York. The short film from this work just garnered 10 awards at over 20 festivals around the world. Additionally, she has written three screenplays with her daughter Rory O’Neill Schmitt, Edgar Degas: The Impressionable Years, The Vampire’s Last Bite, and Garden District (feature), which were developed at Herbert Berghoff Studios, NYC and The Writers Workshop at Columbia University.
Rory O’Neill Schmitt, Ph.D. is a writer, educator, artist, and filmmaker. An art scholar and non-fiction author, Rory has written and published two books with Arcadia Publishing: New Orleans Voodoo: A Cultural Tradition (2019) and Navajo and Hopi Art: Continuing Traditions (2016). She has also co-written three screenplays with Rosary O’Neill, Ph.D.: Edgar Degas: The Impressionable Years, Garden District, and The Vampire’s Last Bite. In 2021, she was the lead producer on A Long, Long Night, a limited television series by Duplass Brothers Productions. She also served as the producer for the award-winning short film, Garden District, which participated in over 20 film festivals. She currently works at the University of Southern California.
