Philomena Muinzer

Philomena and her twin brother Colum were born in Illinois, United States, of an Irish mother and American father. Her father, Louis A. Muinzer, graduated from Princeton University in 1949, and moved to Belfast to teach at Queen's University Belfast. The family moved to Belfast, Northern Ireland, when the children were young.{{cite web | title=Cruella De Ville | website=A to Z of N. Ireland Punk Bands |publisher= Spit Records| url=https://www.spitrecords.co.uk/cruelladeville.htm | access-date=16 August 2022}}{{efn|Her Facebook page says "From Champaign, Illinois".{{cite web | title=Philomena Muinzer | website=Facebook | url=https://www.facebook.com/login/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fphilomena.muinzer%2Fabout | access-date=17 August 2022}}}}

She is a graduate of the University of Essex. She moved to the United States to study geology at Princeton University in 1973,{{cite book | title=Princeton Alumni Weekly | publisher=Princeton University Press | issue=v. 76 | date=May 1976 | issn=0149-9270 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-RVbAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA30-PA7 | access-date=20 August 2022 | page=30-PA7}} graduating in 1978.{{cite news| url=http://www.digifind-it.com/franklin/data/news-record/1978/07%20July/07-20-1978.pdf| title=Playwright McCieery man of many talents| first=Elaine P. |last=Heinemann| quote=[Other students, such] as Philomena Muinzer -- whose glowing "We’re on the One Road," a drama of contempary Ireland, was premiered at Intime the year before last -- are on their way. She’s currently attending the Yake Drama School|page=12-A|date=20 July 1978| work=The Franklin News-Record| location = Manville, New Jersey}} She wrote a thesis on Arnold Guyot's barometrical explorations.{{cite book | title="Instructive panorama" : Arnold Guyot's barometrical explorations, 1848-1884 [catalogue entry] | via=WorldCat.org |author=Muinzer, Philomena. |date=1977| oclc=1340430839 | url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1340430839 | access-date=20 August 2022}}

This was followed by postgraduate studies at the Yale School of Drama (1980).{{cite journal | title= Lost Alumni: 1980| journal=YSD Annual Magazine 2010-11| page=71|date=Fall 2012| volume= LV| publisher=David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University | via=Issuu | url=https://issuu.com/yalerep/docs/ysdmagazine2010 | access-date=16 August 2022}}{{cite journal | journal=Books Ireland | publisher=Wordwell Ltd. | issue=186 | year=1995 | issn=0376-6039 | jstor=20623113 | pages=131 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/20623113 | access-date=16 August 2022| title=First Flush: Memories of the Irish-Israeli War [book review]}}

While at Princeton, she was disturbed by the sharp contrast between the violence of Belfast and the peace and calm of Princeton, and wrote the play We're on the One Road, about The Troubles in Ireland. It was performed in 1976, cast and directed by Muinzer. The play was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 1979–80.{{cite book | last1=Kilgore | first1=E.S. | last2=Kilgore | first2=M. | title=The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize: Six Important New Plays by Women from the 25th Anniversary Year | publisher=Smith and Kraus | series=Contemporary playwrights series | year=2004 | isbn=978-1-57525-379-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S1plAAAAMAAJ | access-date=20 August 2022 | page=}}

Both Philomena and Colum played in the post-punk rock band Cruella de Ville, formed in 1982.

Philomena Muinzer has served as dramaturge for the Royal National Theatre.

Her 1987 article, "Evacuating the Museum: the Crisis of Playwriting in Ulster", published in New Theatre Quarterly, February 1987, has been extensively quoted in literature about Irish theatre and women playwrights.{{cite book | title=Contemporary Irish Drama & Cultural Identity [PDF] [4ruvd97nesp0] | via=EDoc Pub|first= Margaret |last=Llewellyn Jones | date=2002|quote=First Published in Great Britain in Paperback in 2002 by Intellect Books|isbn=1-84150-824-1 | url=https://vdoc.pub/documents/contemporary-irish-drama-cultural-identity-4ruvd97nesp0 | access-date=16 August 2022}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=m7qrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT161 Google Books]{{cite book | last=Murray | first=C. | title=Twentieth-Century Irish Drama: Mirror up to Nation | publisher=Syracuse University Press | series=Irish Studies | year=2000 | isbn=978-0-8156-0643-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGUUpRAP4CoC&pg=PA188 | access-date=20 August 2022 | page=188}}{{cite book | last=Tracie | first=R. | title=Christina Reid's Theatre of Memory and Identity: Within and Beyond the Troubles | publisher=Springer International Publishing | year=2018 | isbn=978-3-319-97876-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P3xxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA4 | access-date=20 August 2022 | page=4}}{{cite book | last1=Kosok | first1=H. | last2=Kamm | first2=J. | title=Twentieth-century Theatre and Drama in English: Festschrift for Heinz Kosok on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday | publisher=WVT, Wiss. Verlag Trier | year=1999 | isbn=978-3-88476-333-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VSVaAAAAMAAJ | access-date=20 August 2022 | page=}}{{cite book | last=Foley | first=I. | title=The Girls in the Big Picture: Gender in Contemporary Ulster Theatre | publisher=Blackstaff Press | year=2003 | isbn=978-0-85640-715-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6BhaAAAAMAAJ | access-date=20 August 2022 | page=}}

As of 2011, Muinzer was working as public relations officer for Pennant Books in London.{{cite book | title=Directory of Publishing 2011: United Kingdom and The Republic of Ireland | publisher=Bloomsbury Academic | year=2010 | isbn=978-1-4411-8442-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zocnrpT8VLIC&pg=PA70 | access-date=20 August 2022 | page=70}} She was thanked by Matthew Hussey in the foreword to his 2013 book, Get the Guy.{{cite book | last=Hussey | first=Matthew|author-link= Matthew Hussey | title=Get the Guy: Use the Secrets of the Male Mind to Find, Attract and Keep Your Ideal Man | publisher=Bantam | year=2013 | isbn=978-0-593-07075-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wQAFm57ecF0C&pg=PP12 | access-date=20 August 2022 | page=12}}

Muinzer has written several plays and at least two books, sometimes adopting the pseudonym Phil O'Brien (O'Brien being the Munizers' mother's maiden name):

• We're on the One Road (1976)
• Together Against Him (1982), a play, which was awarded a bursary by The Arts Council of Great Britain{{cite journal | last=Muinzer | first=Philomena | title=Evacuating the Museum: the Crisis of Playwriting in Ulster | journal=New Theatre Quarterly | volume=3 | issue=9 | date=February 1987 | issn=1474-0613 | doi=10.1017/S0266464X00008502 | pages=44–63 | s2cid=191656586 | url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-theatre-quarterly/article/abs/evacuating-the-museum-the-crisis-of-playwriting-in-ulster/F3EC52970FE1B50F73D90DDCD777CD5D | access-date=16 August 2022| url-access=subscription }} and well-reviewed by the Times Literary Supplement[https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/bbm%3A978-1-349-20506-6%2F1.pdf Notes]
• Memories of the Irish-Israeli War (1995), a novel (as Phil O'Brien)
• Coldplay: Look at the Stars (2004), about the band Coldplay, in particular the effect of fame on frontman Chris Martin (as Phil O'Brien){{cite book | last=O'Brien | first=P. | title=Coldplay: Look at the Stars | publisher=Plexus | year=2004 | isbn=978-0-85965-349-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L24PAbDw9D0C | access-date=16 August 2022 | page=}}

She was married to writer Colin Bennett until his death on 15 February 2015.{{cite web | title=The obituary notice of BENNETT | website=Funeral Notices | date=28 February 2015 | url=https://funeral-notices.co.uk/East+Midlands-Nottinghamshire-Nottingham/death-notices/notice//4230706 | access-date=16 August 2022}}

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==References==

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Category:Women dramatists and playwrights from Northern Ireland

Category:Women writers from Northern Ireland

Category:Living people

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)