Go! feature

Melanie Marnich was happily working away as a copywriter for a Cincinnati advertising agency when she had a life-changing experience.

“I was in the middle of a great career without any interest in leaving,” she said. “Then I went to see a play one night and I saw the light: This is how my brain works.”

She was so caught up in the revelation that today she can’t even remember what play it was, but she started getting involved with a local playwrights’ group, thinking it would be something she could do on her off-hours.

“I didn’t intend to change careers, but I ended up getting an MFA in playwriting and had some wonderful luck,” she said, landing productions at the Guthrie Theatre and the Humana Festival for New American Plays, as well as a staff writing job with the television series “Big Love.”

Now, her “A Sleeping Country” has been awarded the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park’s Mickey Kaplan New American Play Prize. It’s the story of a desperate woman in New York City who becomes convinced that she has the “Worst Insomnia in the World.”

“I’ve been a lifelong insomniac,” she said. “My trouble sleeping has been one of the central worries and wonders of my life, and I started writing a draft of this when I thought that in this day and age, no one should be able to sleep. Of course you’re depressed and anxious — you just saw the news.”

• WHAT: “A Sleeping Country”
• WHERE: Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park
• WHEN: through April 20
• COST: $44.50-$54.50
• MORE INFO: (513) 421-3888; www.cincyplay.com