Circle X Theatre Co. announces the 2023 - 2024 Evolving Playwrights Group, a group for groundbreaking and provocative voices to dedicate their time, energy, and attention to developing ambitious, brand-new plays. We encouraged playwrights to pitch the ‘impossible play,’ the play they are afraid to write that pushes the borders of language, form, or subject. Our third season is comprised of established playwrights paired with a mentor or playwright in conversation to provide guidance and support as they write their plays.
This Evolving Playwrights Group runs from July 2023 - June 2024 and culminates in a public reading series.
The Emerging Playwrights Group (EPG) is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs and is supported in part by The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture.
Amanda L. Andrei is a playwright, literary translator, and theater critic residing in Los Angeles by way of Virginia/Washington DC. She writes epic, irreverent plays that center the concealed, wounded places of history and societies from the perspectives of diasporic Filipina women, and she co-translates from Romanian to English with her father, Codin Andrei. Her plays have been produced by Relative Theatrics and developed with Boston Court, NY Classical Theater, La MaMa, IAMA, Chalk Rep, Echo Theatre, The Vagrancy, Pasadena Playhouse, Artists at Play, and others. Her play MAMA, I WISH I WERE SILVER won the 2022 Jane Chambers Award for Feminist Playwriting, and other work has received finalist status with the Princess Grace Award, Eugene O’Neill Conference, Playwrights Realm, Blue Ink Award, and Ashland Festival. She reviews theater for Stage Raw and the South Eastern European Film Festival, and her reviews of poetry and translated literature have appeared in Hopscotch Translation, Barrelhouse Magazine, and more. MFA: USC. www.amandalandrei.com
David Johann Kim’s plays, Pang Spa and Two Stop, were awarded The 2022 Los Angeles New Play Project Award and Grant. Two Stop was recently workshopped at The Inkwell Theater. Pang Spa was a semifinalist for the 2018 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Ashland New Play Festival and Bay Area Playwrights Festival. David fell hard for dramaturgy when working as an actor with powerhouse dramaturgs, Mame Hunt (at Berkeley Rep) and Morgan Jenness ( NYSF’s New Works Now Festival & NY Theatre Workshop’s Dartmouth retreat). Mabou Mines’ Ruth Malaczech asked David to join the writers group for her devised A Drop In The Ocean in residence at NYTW. Les Waters selected David to for the devising team for his Joint Stock-style production, Act 3 Sc 2 of Life at UCSD. David holds an MFA from UCSD and is a member of The Dramatists Guild, The Playwrights Union, EST/LA’s Playwrights Unit, Chalk Rep’s Writers group, Playwrights ThinkTank and is cofounder of The Ignite Project. As an actor, David played leading roles in new plays at theatres including: The Public Theatre, NY Theatre Workshop, The Lark, Mabou Mines, Repertorio Espanol, La Mama ETC, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Magic Theatre, Asian American Theatre Co. and Teatro Campesino.
Amy Tofte is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter who won the 2015 Nicholl Fellowship in screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her play Righteous Among Us won the 2020 Todd McNerney Playwriting Award. Recent productions include the short opera The Course We Set (Boston Opera Collaborative) and her plays Cardboard Castles Hung on Walls (Wild Imaginings in Waco, TX) and Parts & Pieces (Larking House in Santa Ana, CA). Her short The Vagina Read was at the 2022 Samuel French Off Off Broadway Play Festival at Playwrights Horizons in NYC. She has been in residence at the Autry Museum of the American West, Brush Creek, Monson Arts, The Kennedy Center and Yaddo with work produced and developed throughout the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and twice at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild. MFA, CalArts.
MENTORS/PLAYWRIGHTS IN CONVERSATION
Anthony Clarvoe has been a dramaturg, mentor, and teacher with OLLI@UC Berkeley, Playwrights Foundation, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, PlayGround, PlayCafe, Stagebridge, and many more. The Circle X productions of his THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV and SHOW AND TELL won multiple critics’ awards. Those and his other plays PICK UP AX, THE LIVING, LET’S PLAY TWO, AMBITION FACING WEST, WALKING OFF THE ROOF, CTRL+ALT+DELETE, CITY OF LIGHT, THE ART OF SACRIFICE, GUNPOWDER JOE, and PEOPLE WHERE THEY ARE and his translations of Henrik Ibsen’s GHOSTS and THE WILD DUCK are published by Broadway Play Publishing, Inc. He has received American Theatre Critics, Will Glickman, Bay Area Theatre Critics, LA Drama Critics, Garland, Elliot Norton, and Edgerton New American Play awards; fellowships from the Guggenheim, Irvine, Jerome, and McKnight Foundations, National Endowment for the Arts, TCG/Pew Charitable Trusts, and Kennedy Center; commissions from South Coast Rep, Mark Taper Forum, and Playwrights Horizons; the Berrilla Kerr Award for his contributions to American theater; and many others. A native San Franciscan and long-time resident of New York City and the Midwest, he lives with his family in Berkeley, CA.
Anthony is in conversation with Ian Merrigan
Michael John Garcés is a writer and director based in Los Angeles. Recent directing credits include world premiere productions of Wicoun by Larissa FastHorse (Cornerstone Theater Company), The Play You Want by Bernardo Cubrias (The Road Theatre), The Rivers Don't Know by James McManus (City Theatre) and the just and the blind by Marc Bamuthi Joseph and composer Daniel Bernard Roumain (Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center). He also directed FastHorse's The Thanksgiving Play at The Geffen Playhouse and Will Powers' Seize the King (Alliance Theatre). Recent productions of plays he has written include 36 Yesses (Cornerstone), TOWN (Theatre Horizon) and the break (Juggerknot Theatre Company and PopUp Theatrics - "Long Distance Affair"). Michael is a recipient of the Doris Duke Artist Award and is the Executive Vice President of SDC, the theatrical union for directors and choreographers. He was the Artistic Director of Cornerstone Theater for 17 years, and is currently a Professor of Practice at Arizona State University. Upcoming productions: the world premiere of For the People by Larissa FastHorse and Ty Defoe at The Guthrie Theatre.
Michael is in conversation with Matthew Paul Olmos
Jiehae Park's plays include peerless (Yale Rep premiere, upcoming at Primary Stages), Hannah and the Dread Gazebo (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Here We Are Here (Sundance, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, Princess Grace WIP @ Baryshnikov Arts Center), The Aves (Alley All-New, McCarter Spotlight Festival), and contributions to Wondrous Strange (Humana/ATL). Development: Soho Rep, the Public, p73, ACT, Playwrights Horizons, CTG, Atlantic, PlayCo, Old Globe, Dramatists Guild Fellowship, Ojai, BAPF, and the amazing Ma-Yi Writers Lab. Awards: Steinberg, Blackburn Finalist, Leah Ryan Prize, Princess Grace Award, Weissberger, ANPF Women’s Invitational. Commissions: Playwrights Horizons, Yale Rep, Geffen, OSF, MTC/Sloan. Residencies: MacDowell, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, McCarter/Sallie B. Goodman. As a performer, she most recently appeared in Celine Song’s ENDLINGS (NYTW, ART), and Ripe Time/Naomi Iizuka's adaption of Murakami's SLEEP (BAM Next Wave, Yale Rep) . TV writing: Marvel's Runaways, Hello Tomorrow; development with Tomorrow Studios/Apple, Anonymous/Endeavor Content. Former Tow Fellow and Hodder Fellow; current NYTW Usual Suspect, Lincoln Center Theater writer in residence, and New Dramatist. BA, Amherst; MFA, UCSD.
Jiehae is in conversation with Peter Kim George
California born and New York based, Peter Kim George is a Korean diaspora playwright. He did his PhD at Brown University on the 19th century novel before writing for theater. Plays include To Red Tendons (Ojai Playwrights Conference 2022 Dr. Kerry English Artist Award) and Men Accumulate (Bay Area Playwrights Festival Finalist, Princess Grace Award Semi-Finalist, NormalAve NAPseries). Alumni of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood.
Ian Merrigan is a Los Angeles and Kansas City based writer, actor, and composer. He co-authored and starred in the hit musical The Unfortunates which ran at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2013 and A.C.T. San Francisco in 2016. Ian’s songs, across all genres, have been placed in numerous television shows and films. As an emcee, Ian has shared mics with Saul Williams, KRS One, and The Roots. He has acted on stages from Hollywood to Hong Kong and spent three years improvising weekly on the main stage at The Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles. Some of his recent TV roles include The Chi (Showtime), Room 104 (HBO), and Crazy Ex Girlfriend (CBS). Ian is also an educator and runs the Los Angeles wing of the playwriting program for Northwestern University’s National High School Institute.
Matthew Paul Olmos is a Mexican-American playwright who focuses on the creation of space for marginalized, underrepresented communities and gives them poetics and theatricality. While his work is always personal, it is aimed at reaching across socio-political boundaries, showing the ridiculous of how separate we are, and illuminating hope for future generations.
He is a three-time Sundance Institute Fellowship/Residency recipient, Echo Theater Company Resident Playwright, lifetime Ensemble Studio Theatre member and Sloan Commission recipient, New Dramatists Resident Playwright, Playwrights’ Center Core Writer and two-time Venturous Playwright Fellowship nominee. Previous Actors’ Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival Commission, Arizona Theatre Company’s National Latine Playwriting Awardee, Baryshnikov Arts Center Resident Artist, Brooklyn Arts Exchange Resident Artist, Center Theatre Group LA Playwright, Drama League nominee, Geffen Playhouse Writers Room, Ingram New Works at Nashville Repertory, INTAR H.P.R.L., a proud Kilroys nominator, New York Theatre Workshop Fellow, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Black Swan Lab, two-time Ojai Playwrights Conference, inaugural Primary Stages Creative Development Grantee and Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, Princess Grace Awardee in Playwriting, Repertorio Español Miranda Family Nuestra Voces Playwriting Awardee. He spent two years as a Mabou Mines/SUITE Resident Artist being mentored by Ruth Maleczech, was chosen/mentored by Taylor Mac for Cherry Lane’s Mentor Project, and was La MaMa e.t.c.'s Ellen Stewart Emerging Playwright Awardee as selected by Sam Shepard. He will world-premiere his newest play at Steppenwolf in 2023-24 and his work has been presented nationally and internationally, taught in university, and is published by Concord Theatricals/Samuel French and NoPassport Press. www.matthewpaulolmos.com.
Tiffany Colli-Moon is a producer, director and dramaturg with a passion for new works. She has worked in theatres across Southern California including Center Theatre Group, Greenway Court Theatre, South Coast Rep, the Wallis, and others. At Greenway Court Tiffany served as Producing Director from 2017 - 2021 and directed the Rolling World Premier of Herland by Grace McLeod. Her dramaturgy work has included projects with Ojai Playwrights Conference, Artists at Play and Cal Rep, working on new plays with playwrights such as Anna Ziegler, Will Arbery, Steph Del Rosso, Kimberly Belflower, Boni Alvarez and Lina Patel. She is currently Program Producer for the Library Foundation of Los Angeles' ALOUD series and Literary Manager for Ojai Playwrights Conference.
Tiffany is in conversation with Amy Tofte
Jim Leonard writes plays, movies, and television. He’s published seven plays, including THE DIVINERS, AND THEY DANCE REAL SLOW IN JACKSON, and ANATOMY OF GRAY, and received numerous theatrical honors including the Outer Critics Circle, Ovation, Midland Writers, and Dramatists Guild Awards. Jim co-wrote the screenplay for Mira Nair’s film MY OWN COUNTRY. He created the television series CLOSE TO HOME (CBS), SKIN (Fox), and THIEVES (ABC). Other TV credits include DEXTER, THE CLOSER, INTERNAL AFFAIRS, KILROY (HBO), and the American version of CRACKER. His most recent TV show was RAY DONOVAN (Showtime). Jim is currently writing a new musical with his long-time collaborators Rob Cairns and Beth Thornley.
Jim is in conversation with David Johann Kim
JD Pluecker works with language, that is, a material thing, a thing of life and history. Their undisciplinary work inhabits the intersections of writing, history, translation, art, interpreting, bookmaking, queer/trans aesthetics, non-normative poetics, language justice, and cross-border cultural production. They have translated numerous books from Spanish, including Gore Capitalism (Semiotext(e), 2018), Antígona González (Les Figues Press, 2016), Writing with Caca by Luis Felipe Fabre (Green Lantern Press, 2021), and forthcoming Trash by Sylvia Aguilar Zéleny (Deep Vellum Press, 2023). JD’s book of poetry and image, Ford Over, was released in 2016 from Noemi Press, and in 2019 Lawndale Art Center supported the publication of the artist book, The Unsettlements: Dad. From 2010-2020, they worked as part of the transdisciplinary collaborative Antena Aire and from 2015-2020 with the local social justice interpreting collective Antena Houston. JD edits chapbooks with Ugly Duckling Presse’s Señal series, is a recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writing Grant, and has exhibited work at Blaffer Art Museum, the Hammer Museum, Project Row Houses, and more. More info at www.jdpluecker.com and www.antenaantena.org.
JD is in conversation with Amanda L. Andrei