.png)
.jpg)
Photo Credit: Presto Photography
Photo Credit: Donna Bise
Photo Credit: Donna Bise
Photo Credit: Elizabeth Brendel Horn
"As a classroom community, our capacity to generate excitement is deeply affected by our interest in one another, in hearing one another’s voices, in recognizing one another’s presence.” — bell hooks
About
Nicole B. Adkins (she/her) is a multi-hyphenate theatre maker, award-winning playwright, teaching artist, dramaturg, and advocate for Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). As the Literary and Education Director for Discovery Stage Company, she champions accessible, inclusive, and imaginative storytelling that amplifies the voices and needs of young people and their communities. Her plays have been produced at venues such as Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, Oklahoma Children’s Theatre, Birmingham Children's Theatre, Hollins University (VA), Woodstock Arts (GA), Creative Drama Children’s Theatre (NC), SkyPilot Theatre (Los Angeles), and the American International School in Guangzhou, China, as well as other schools, arts organizations, and museums nationally and internationally.
​
Nicole has ten plays published with YouthPLAYS. Her essays on TYA appear in A Companion to Children’s Literature (Wiley Blackwell, 2022) and Bloomsbury Introduction to Children’s and Young Adult Literature (2017). She co-authored Playwriting and Young Audiences: Collected Wisdom and Practical Advice from the Field (Intellect Press, 2017) with Matt Omasta.
​
Honors include the 2026 TYA Community Impact Award, presented to Kennesaw State University Department of Theatre and Performance Studies and Smith-Gilbert Gardens for the KSU & Smith-Gilbert Gardens Family Theatre Project, which Nicole co-created and developed with fellow faculty, students, community partners, and young people. Additional awards include the 2024 Kennesaw State University Outstanding Part-Time Teacher Award, the Write Now Playwriting Award, and second place in the Beverly Hills Theatre Guild Marilyn Hall Competition.
​
A graduate of Hollins University’s MFA program in Children’s Literature, Nicole is Rotating Visiting Faculty at Hollins Playwright’s Lab and teaches at Kennesaw State University, where she mentors students in TYA, devising for family audiences, teaching drama, and new play development. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, TYA/USA, the American Alliance for Theatre in Education, and the Environmental Education Alliance of Georgia.
​
As a certified Pollinator Steward and Georgia Master Naturalist, Nicole is passionate about nature and community-engaged art, creating outdoor, immersive theatre experiences that foster connection, curiosity, and play for families. She gardens for wildlife at her home just outside Atlanta, GA, where she lives with her husband, two children, three chickens, and a trio of mischief-making cats.