Helena Pennington is a new play dramaturg and creative producer. ​​Her work gravitates towards adventurous theater and  live performance styles, including puppetry, musical theater, and immersive events. She is currently the literary manager of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, an institution dedicated to nurturing bold new work for the stage and the people who make it. There, Helena oversees the script submission and selection process for the National Playwrights Conference and National Music Theater Conference, and serves as the resident dramaturg for the National Puppetry Conference. 

Helena has provided dramaturgical and developmental support to new plays and musicals on Broadway and off. Highlights include WALK ON THROUGH by Gavin Creel (MCC), TEETH by Michael R. Jackson and Anna K. Jacobs (Playwrights Horizons, New World Stages),  SLAVE PLAY by Jeremy O. Harris (Broadway), THE APIARY by Kate Douglas (Second Stage), PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC by Joshua Harmon (Broadway, MTC), and many more. She has worked in literary and artistic development offices in New York and regionally, at organizations including Manhattan Theater Club, Playwrights Horizons, Woolly Mammoth Theater Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and others. 

Helena has dramaturged new works of puppet theater that have gone on to tour nationally and internationally. Highlights include BILL’S 44TH by Official Puppet Business, a Drama Desk nominee for Best Puppetry and New York Times Critics Pick, which has toured around the world since 2022. She served as workshop dramaturg for CHIMPANZEE by Nick Lehane (UK: The Barbican, France: Charleville-Mézières), SHINNAI MEETS PUPPETRY by Sachio Takahashi (Canada: Festival International de Casteliers, France: Charleville-Mézières), and many more.  She recently dramaturged PARCHED by Official Puppet Business, which enjoyed a sold-out premiere at HERE Arts Center’s Puppetopia Festival.

As a script reader, Helena has advocated for new plays and musicals at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Playwrights Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, the National Network of New Plays, and myriad other institutions devoted to adventurous contemporary theater. 

In an educational capacity, Helena has served on panels and designed professional development workshops for early-career writers through for the American College Theater Festival (ACTF and KCACTF), the National Theater Institute, the National Music Theater Institute, and the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas—of which she is a proud member.