About Rene

Rene Zabel (she/her) holds a BFA in Psychology from University of Arizona Global Campus and graduate studies in Music composition and sound design for Film and TV from Academy of Art University. She uses her degree frequently in writing her plays, such as Evil Therapy and A Rare Case. 

Rene’s love of Folklore and Mythology has inspired many projects as well, such as Deirdre of the Sorrows and Mother Solstice. 

 Her solo musical, When the Silence Sings, was a finalist in the Rave Theater Festival in 2020 and the 2019 Producer’s Perspective: Producer’s Pick.  

As a theater maker, I am interested in looking through the lens of our past and connect it to our present. I write stories that try to answer the question: Are we able to change;  not repeat our mistakes or are we destined to whatever fate or destiny has written for us?

I am inspired by ancient folklore, legends and mythology and in warrior women, who stood up and believed in their own strength. I am inspired by what makes us, as humans, tick; why we do the things we do. What causes the darkness, in some of us, to break free. 

I combine my degree in Psychology with my degree in music and create strong female characters, whose true stories have been painted and at times muted with the hand of the patriarchy. I write stories that are dramatic, that show the mental state of the characters; that life isn’t black and white, but many shades of gray. My aim is to demonstrate the multifaceted emotional, mental, strength and endurance women had and have carried through the centuries. This strength is in our genes. I utilize fictional and fantasy to draw on real life issues, from menopause, to betrayal, from psychosis to Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Member of Dramatist Guild 

Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive

Member of Expert's Theater Company

Member of Ken Davenport’s :

NextStage and Theater Makers Studio