Biography
Eric Samuelsen was born in Provo, Utah, but spent most of his early life in Bloomington, Indiana. His father Roy was an opera singer, which introduced young Samuelsen to a love for theater productions. As a young man he served in Norway as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He received a bachelor's degree in theatre from Brigham Young University in 1983 and returned to Bloomington and earned a Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1991. He taught at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio before joining the faculty at Brigham Young University in 1992.
From 1999 to 2011 Samuelsen ran BYU's playwrighting program. Throughout his career, at least 24 of Samuelsen's plays were produced professionally throughout the United States, including California, Indiana, Louisiana, New York, and Utah.
Most of Samuelsen's early plays were produced at Brigham Young University, but around 2003 he began a relationship with Plan-B Theatre Company. Since 2006, Plan-B premiered a Samuelsen play every year. He became its playwright in residence in 2012, and many of his newer plays were produced there. This may be due to a more controversial bent in later plays; Borderlands has a character who is an openly gay Mormon youth.
Following illness and a diagnosis of polymyositis, a degenerative muscular disease, Samuelsen retired from BYU in 2012, where he had taught for 20 years. The next year, Plan-B Theatre Company dedicated 2013 as the "Season of Eric", presenting four of Samuelsen's plays.
