Leah Napolin (1935-2018) made her Broadway playwriting debut in 1975 with Yentl, adapted from a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer and since performed widely here and abroad. In 2013 the play was revised and songs reflecting the musical genres of folk, rock, bluegrass and klezmer added by the singer-songwriter Jill Sobule. 

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In addition to essays and articles, other work for the theater include plays Lost Island, Aristophanes’ Retreat, The Dogs of Pripyat; short plays Trash and Treasures, Dear Leader, Yes or No, Trooper John, Dear Life, and The Happy Journey Redux; prose Joined, War Baby 1935-1950 (an illustrated memoir), and Split at the Root, a Novel in Three Acts, published in 2018. 

 

Before these ventures, Ms. Napolin worked for an anthropological research foundation, taught music at a private school in Venezuela and Comparative Literature at The Ohio State University, founded a program in creative writing for the inmates of the Ohio Reformatory for Women, and was Associate Editor at Choice Magazine Listening, an audio anthology of articles, poems and short stories for visually-impaired subscribers. She acted in summer stock, directed children's theater, and raised two daughters. 

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Ms. Napolin was a member of P.E.N. and the Dramatists Guild, and winner of the 2004 John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award for The Dogs of Pripyat.