Rob Ackerman

Monica Raymund has been developing a musical version of Volleygirls, under the direction of Neil Patrick Stewart with songs by Sam Forman and Eli Bolin. In 2013, it was staged as part of the New York Musical Theater Festival and won Best of Fest, Outstanding Ensemble, and Most Promising New Musical. It later received the New World Stages Development Award and was workshopped at the University of Florida and will be performed this spring at Grace Church School. Ackerman and Forman collaborated on a musical commissioned and produced by Grace Church School titled "In the Air" in 2016. Their newest screenplay is for the novel, "Speed of Life" (2017) optioned by David Nickoll.

Ackerman's first success was Tabletop, staged at the American Place Theatre in 2000. John Simon, writing for New York Magazine, called it "acidly funny" and "spot-on about the making of a T.V. commercial." Ackerman has since written Disconnect (2005, Working Theater, Classic Stage Company), Icarus of Ohio (2008, NYU Tisch School of the Arts), Volleygirls (2009, American Conservatory Theater), and Call Me Waldo (2012, Working Theater, Off Broadway and Kitchen Theater, Ithaca). His debut play, Origin of the Species, became a movie starring Amanda Peet, Michael Kelly, and Jean Louisa Kelly, and directed by Andrés Heinz, who wrote the original screenplay that became Black Swan. Ackerman won an award for Screenwriting at the Huntington International Independent Film Festival.

Rob Ackerman (born December 1, 1958) is a contemporary American playwright. His plays include Tabletop, which won the 2001 Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble Performance,Volleygirls, which won NYMF Best in Fest, Call Me Waldo, Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson (directed by Theresa Rebeck in 2019 and produced by Working Theater in New York), and Loyalty.