Sandra is a Literary Manager, Playwright, Dramaturge, Artistic Director, and Theater Producer. She is the Founder of New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest.
Over 25 years, as a Literary Manager and Dramaturge, Sandra has critiqued over 3,500 scripts.
Sandra studied creative writing at the New School-NYC, New York University and at The Writer's Voice. She has written several screenplays and is currently writing a non-fiction screenplay dealing with spirituality and the holocaust. Sandra co-wrote a full-length play in quadrameter entitled Old Witch Blinda on Smeltzburg Hill, which is in workshop development. Her short play, The Flower, was part of NYC's Visions and Voices Festival. Sandra co-wrote a full-length play, The Ice Cream Man Cometh: Prophet or Madman .. You Decide, which had 3 NYC productions.
Her adaptation of A Christmas Carol has had 15 New York City productions and numerous productions around the U.S., Puerto Rico, France, Belgium and Switzerland. The play is published in the U.S. by Brooklyn Publishers (Odessa TX) and Christian Publishers, and has been translated into French by French playwright Christian Palustran and into German by German playwright Christian Michalak. The French/English volume, Un Conte de Noel, has been published in France and may be purchased through Amazon.fr. Her radio-play adaptation of A Christmas Carol aired 24 times on Christmas Day-2010 on GrayceNYCRadio.
Review from NYTheatre.com:“Of the many productions of A Christmas Carol each year, there are only two versions that are a must-see: the production at Madison Square Garden and Sandra Nordgren’sadaptation!”
Sandra is Dramaturge for the stage-play Conversation with a Kleagle ... a KKK Recruiter. She has produced the play three times in NYC and is co-writing the screenplay with Rudy Gray.
In 2003, Sandra founded New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest to bring works of social significance to the attention of Producers and Artistic Directors.
In 1981, she co-founded the Classical Theater Ensemble which produced classical theater at NYC landmarks. Most notable: the 500-year-old medieval morality play Everyman produced in the nave of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC.
Sandra was involved in film production from 1980 – 1996 as Corporate Comptroller for major film editing and production companies and Production Auditor for CBS-TV's Pee-wee's Playhouse as well as TV specials and pilots shown on CBS-TV, ABC-TV, NBC-TV, HBO, and Showtime.
Beginning in 1996, Sandra was responsible for the offering of nearly 200 readings, produced well over 100 full-length plays + 76 short plays, 16 development workshops, 12 short play festivals -- all in New York City and all at no cost to the writer.
Sandra received a Certificate of Appreciation from Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, for educating and fostering tolerance and social justice through the arts.
Her name was added to the Wall of Tolerance in Montgomery, Alabama for her "important contribution to the ongoing fight against hatred and intolerance in America."
In response to 9/11, Sandra served on FEMA's Spiritual Task Force and Mental Health Task Force.
Sandra is a member of: League of Professional Theater Women New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts & Media Women in Theater and Film