Penelope Marantz Caywood is a native of California. She grew up in Redondo Beach and didn’t initially move to Utah until she was in college. She is known and respected throughout the Salt Lake Valley as an actor, teacher, choreographer, and the Artistic Director of Youth Theatre at the University of Utah (YTU).

She has been the Artistic Director of YTU for the last 16 years and is an Adjunct Associate Professor for the Theatre Teaching BFA program as well. Youth Theatre is a successful year-round performing arts training program for youth ages 5 to 18. Over 650 students train in drama annually and over 3000 elementary school students are bussed to see their production at Kingsbury Hall every year.

Through her work with YTU, Penny has created a unique theatre-arts program in which she demonstrates drama strategies in the classroom, presents scaffolded workshops to teachers, and assists in the implementation of drama as a teaching method.

As a professional director and choreographer, Penelope has been involved with over thirty productions along the Wasatch Front. Most of these productions reflect her passion for Theatre for Young Audiences, but they are not restricted by this label.

With her internationally recognized and nationally award-winning high school Conservatory, she devises new work every year. In 2011, she wrote the music and lyrics for an original musical about the perils of the internet called VIRAL and celebrated its world premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Most recently, Death of the American Teenager won a national award for high school musical theatre and it also celebrated its world premiere at the Ed Fringe in 2019.