It adds up.
What can a lifetime of kindness teach you about how it actually works?
In Kindness: An Instruction Manual, Lee Nowell looks to her own life for the answer. Through a collection of true stories—including the remarkable day a dog saved her family’s life—she revisits the kindness she has received, witnessed and carried with her, following the connections between moments that might otherwise seem unrelated.
Part storytelling, part investigation, Kindness: An Instruction Manual takes something we tend to think we understand and gives it a closer look: where kindness shows up, what it sets in motion and why some acts stay with us long after they’re over.
MEET THE ARTISTS
Lee Nowell began her career as a professional actress in Philadelphia who specialized in new plays. She graduated from Kenyon College with a degree in drama and trained to be a director with Obie Award-winner Lou Lippa. The productions she has directed have garnered critical acclaim, including being named one of the Top Ten Productions of the Year by the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION.
Her plays have been workshopped, commissioned, and produced at Actor's Express (ALBATROSS; PAPER HOUSE; OBSESSION), Georgia Public Broadcasting (BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT: THE TROY DAVIS PROJECT), Theatre in the Square (URBAN FAIRYTALE), Horizon Theatre (BLUE ANGELS WEEKEND), 7Stages (TRUE NORTH; AND CAULDRON BUBBLE (previously titled THE COMMISSION)), Ex Somnium (HOW TO SURVIVE BEING HUMAN), Synchronicity Theatre (BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT: THE TROY DAVIS PROJECT), and Found Stages (AND CAULDRON BUBBLE). HOW TO SURVIVE BEING HUMAN was published by Ex Somnium.
She performed her one-person show I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO TALK ABOUT THIS at The Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse, where it had its premiere in 2024, and at the Essential Theatre in 2025. She performed her new, one-person show THE WOMAN YOU WANT TO BE at The Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse in May 2026 and at Essential Theatre in August 2026.
She is the recipient of two Inverness Playwriting Awards, three Turner New Voices in the Works Grants, two NEA Grants, and has been nominated for The List, a Jennie Award, six Suzi Bass Awards, Best Play of the Year by Atlanta Theatre Fans, and an NEA Distinguished New Play Development Award.
Go to www.leenowellplaywright.com to learn more.
