2020/2021 EVOLVING PLAYWRIGHTS GROUP
NINA ROSE CARLIN
Nina Rose Carlin is an LA-based writer and actress originally from New York. A former intern at Circle X, Nina has written, directed, and starred in plays When I Was Sacred and Black Widow Laughs at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Her forthcoming play, The House Sit, is about a Hollywood assistant tasked to watch her boss' Malibu home as it ~literally~ burns to the ground. Nina is an ABC Discovers Talent Showcase writer (2018), and has created digital sketches for Funny Or Die. She currently studies improv at The Groundlings, and is developing a TV pilot. Nina is being mentored by Jim Leonard.
KHARI WYATT
Khari Wyatt, a Howard University alumnus, was recently selected as one of eleven writers of #While We Breathe: A Night of Creative Protest, produced by Brian Moreland and Arvind Ethan David. His audio play, 90011 South Central Los Angeles: Speakeasy, was commissioned and
will be produced by Antaeus Theatre Company for their Zip Code Plays. Moving Arts, Chalk Repertory Theatre as well as the DC Black Theatre Festival have hosted his plays for readings and workshops. His play, Some Type of Ecstasy, was a semifinalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference. Some of the fellowships and grants he has received came from the MacDowell Colony, the Guy Hanks/Marvin Miller Screenwriting Program, and the Panavision New Filmmaker Equipment Grant. In addition to earning an MFA in Film from Columbia University he is also a member of Antaeus Theatre Company
Playwrights Lab and Moving Arts. Khari is being mentored by christopher oscar peña.
PEPPUR CHAMBERS
Peppur is an international writer/producer/educator. Selected for Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble’s “Pandemic Plays”, she sites this experience of writing and presenting “For the Love of You” as one that helped her get through this tough time. She’s currently writing a radio play based on white supremacy as her social justice effort to speak up. Her original plays “House Rules”, “The Build UP”, “Dick & Jayne Get A Life” and her one-woman show, “Harlem’s Awakening: Storytelling Live” have been produced in Los Angeles and Prague. Learn more by reading her blog, penandpeppur.com where she tells stories of heroes, including her own. Peppur is being mentored by Meghan Brown.
JONATHAN CENICEROZ
Jonathan is a Los Angeles born, Latino playwright and screenwriter. His best known plays are: The Cruise, Lupe, Now! The Drowning of Natalie Wood, BIG BRO/lil bro and los immortales which are available on The New Play Exchange. Jonathan earned degrees in writing from UCLA and Brown University, studying with Paula Vogel, Luis Alfaro, Oskar Eustis, Lee Blessing and others. In television, Jonathan story produces shows for the Food Network and other docuseries programs. He is a MacDowell Colony Fellow in Writing and lives in Pasadena with his partner, writer Greg Chandler. Jonathan is in conversation with Meg Miroshnik.
DANIEL A. OLIVAS
Daniel A. Olivas is the author of nine books including, The King of Lighting Fixtures: Stories (University of Arizona Press), Crossing the Border: Collected Poems (Pact Press), and Things We Do Not Talk About: Exploring Latino/a Literature Through Essays and Interviews (San Diego State University Press). His first full-length play, Waiting for Godínez, was selected for the 2020 Playwrights’ Arena Summer Reading Series. Olivas received his degree in English literature from Stanford University, and law degree from UCLA. By day, he is an attorney and makes his home in Southern California with his wife. twitter: @olivasdan. Daniel is in conversation with Donald Jolly.
2020/2021 MENTORS/PLAYWRIGHTS IN CONVERSATION
MEGHAN BROWN
Meghan Brown writes plays about dangerous women. Her work has been produced or developed at Lincoln Center, Milwaukee Rep, Victory Gardens Theater, Portland Center Stage, The Geffen, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Getty Villa, and other institutions in the US and UK. Full-length plays include The Tasters (Milwaukee Rep 2021, Rivendell Theater 2019), The Pliant Girls (Fugitive Kind, winner of the 2014 Ovation Award for Playwriting of an Original Play), The Kill-or-Dies (Electric Footlights in association with Moving Arts, Max K. Lerner fellowship winner), What Happened While Hero Was Dead (developed with Moving Arts' MADlab, Great Plains Theater Conference 2021), and Shine Darkly, Illyria (Fugitive Kind). Meghan wrote the lyrics for the song cycle Untuned Ears Hear Nothing but Discord (In Need of Music: The Songs of Ben Toth) and the libretto for improvised social justice opera The Discord Altar (OperaWorks). Current projects include raging rock musical These Girls Have Demons with Pittsburgh CLO (music by Sarah Taylor Ellis) and wild west hypertheater play (with music!) (and PUPPETS) Cowboy Elektra with Rogue Artists Ensemble (songs by Z. Lupetin). She was a founding member of Los Angeles playwrights collective The Temblors, the 2013 - 2017 resident playwright for Fugitive Kind Theater, a 2019 member of Moving Arts' MADlab, is currently a member of the 2020-2021 Geffen Writers' Room. For more information, visit www.MeghanBrown.net. Meghan is mentoring Peppur Chambers.
CHRISTOPHER OSCAR PEÑA
christopher oscar peña is a story-teller originally from California, now residing in New York and LA. Last year he co-directed the world premiere of Sean Daniels adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s “lost novel” The Haunted Life at Merrimack Rep. The production marked the first time the Kerouac Estate had ever sanctioned an official theatrical adaptation of Kerouac’s work. Most recently as a playwright, the Clarence Brown Theatre commissioned and produced the world premiere of his play The Strangers. In NewYork, the Flea Theatre produced the world premiere of his play a cautionary tail. His work has been developed by Playwrights Horizons, the Goodman Theater, Public Theater, Two River Theater, INTAR, Ontological Hysteric Incubator, Playwrights Realm, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Old Vic, Orchard Project, Naked Angels, and New York Theatre Workshop, among many others. This upcoming season, his play how to make an American Son will have its world premiere in a co-production between Arizona Theatre Company and Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in New York.
A two-time Sundance Institute Theater Fellow, he has also held fellowships with the Lark Play Development Center, was a recipient of the Latino Playwrights Award, an Emerging Artist Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, and was a part of the US/UK Exchange (Old Vic New Voices).
An Artistic Associate at Arizona Theatre Company, christopher is a proud member of New Dramatists, was named one of “The 1st Annual Future BroadwayPowerList”by Backstage, and has been published by No Passport Press and Smith and Krauss. In television, he was a writer on the Golden Globe nominated debut season of the CW show Jane the Virgin, and the critically acclaimed HBO show Insecure (also recurred on screen as the character Gary), as well as the Starz show Sweetbitter, and Motherland: Fort Salem on Freeform. He is currently developing an original series for Netflix.
DONALD JOLLY
Originally from the District of Columbia, writer/theatre Artist/diva worshipper Donald Jolly is the author of the acclaimed historical drama bonded (nominated for LA Stage Alliance Ovation and GLAAD Media Awards, and the 2013 winner of the Arch and Bruce Brown Playwright Award for LGBT Historical Plays). In association with the Watts Village Theatre Company, D. Jolly wrote Riot/Rebellion, an immersive ensemble-driven docudrama that was staged in 2013 & 2015 in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the 1965 Watts Uprising (GO! LA Weekly). In 2018, Jolly’s play Baby Eyes had its World premiere at Playwrights’ Arena (Stage Raw recommended). D. Jolly is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America, an Associate Artist with Playwrights’ Arena, and a graduate of Dartmouth College (A.B., English) and University of Southern California (M.F.A., Dramatic Writing). Jolly was most recently selected for the 2020/2021 Geffen Playhouse Writers’ Room. Twitter: @JollyDramatist. Donald is in conversation this season with Daniel Olivas.
MEG MIROSHNIK
Meg Miroshnik is a Minneapolis-born, L.A.-based playwright and co-founder of the Kilroys. Her plays include The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls (Yale Rep; Alliance Theatre), The Tall Girls (Alliance Theatre; O’Neill National Playwrights’ Conference), The Droll (Pacific Playwrights’ Festival; Undermain Theatre), Lady Tattoo (Pacific Playwrights’ Festival), and Quiver (ACT One Festival). Her work has been developed and produced all over the country, including at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, the Playwrights’ Center, Cleveland Play House, Center Theatre Group, McCarter Theatre Center, The Lark, Chicago Opera Theater, and others. Awards: Whiting Award, Kendeda Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist. MFA from Yale under Paula Vogel. Meg is in conversation this season with Jonathan Ceniceroz.
JIM LEONARD
Jim writes plays, movies, and television. Published plays include The Diviners, And They Dance Real Slow In Jackson, V&V Only, Crow and Weasel, Battle Hymn and Anatomy of Gray. Jim was a member of New York's Circle Repertory Company for twenty years. Honors include three NEA Fellowships, a New York Villager Award, the Midland Writers Award, the Samuel French Best New Play Award, and the Dramatists Guild Award. He co-wrote the screenplay for Mira Nair's award-winning film My Own Country. He created the television series Close to Home (CBS), Skin (Fox), and Thieves (ABC) and has written and run many others, most recently Ray Donovan (SHO). Jim is mentoring Nina Rose Carlin.
