Company of Angels Playwrights Group

Convened in the summer of 2007, the Company of Angels Playwrights Group is comprised of a select group of diverse, award-winning writers who have been produced across the country, from the West Coast to the East Coast, not to mention international locations such as London, the Edinburgh Festival, and Singapore.

The purpose of the group is to generate original plays for the company, in both long and short formats. Recently, the playwrights came together in early 2008 to create L.A. Views, an evening of eight 10-minute plays about Los Angeles. This critically acclaimed show was sold out every night of its run, signaling a very successful premiere for the Playwrights’ Group.
The group meets twice a month to work on new works with actors in the company. Contact Gabriel Gomez for more information.

Playwright Members
* – CoA Company members

DONALD JOLLY

Donald Jolly hails from the District of Columbia. He first gained recognition for his writing as a teenager when his short play JUST … was selected as a winner of the EmPowerPlay Festival at Young Playwrights’ Theater, and received a reading at D.C.’s Theater J. In college, he was awarded the Ruth & Loring Dodd Drama Prize for the best play by an undergraduate for his full-length play, I MIGHT HAVE BEEN QUEEN. Through his writing he employs imaginative uses of language to investigate urban identities and explore the intersections/interactions between race, class, gender, and sexual orientation through historical and contemporary lenses. His work has been workshopped/read/presented at Horizon Theatre Company (Atlanta), CalArts, Celebration Theatre (LA), University of Southern California School of Theatre, and Company of Angels. During the 2008-2009 season, Donald participated in Center Theatre Group’s Writers’ Workshop, where he workshopped his play, HER HIGHNESS, PHILOMENA PHILLIPS, BLUESWOMAN EXTRAORDINAIRE! Donald’s historical drama, BONDED, will receive its World Premiere in 2010. He is member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc., a graduate of Dartmouth College, and holds an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from the USC School of Theatre.

GABRIEL RIVAS GOMEZ*

Gabriel Rivas Gomez received his MFA in Dramatic Writing from USC in 2007. Since then he has been teaching English composition at local community colleges and writing for the stage as well as the screen.

He is excited to have his first play, CHASING MONSTERS, featured as part of the 2010 season for Company of Angels. His play, CIRCUS UGLY, was showcased in 2007 as part of USC’s “Under Construction” series, and in 2006 as part of Cypress College’s “New Play Festival.”

Gabe has been a member of CoA. for the last eight months and is excited for the future both of the company and its many talented artists.

HENRY ONG*

Henry Ong is the author of Madame Mao’s Memories, a play based on the life of Chairman Mao’s widow. Madame Mao’s Memories has been produced internationally (England, Singapore and Canada) and nationally, including a production at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California.

Sweet Karma, a play based on the life of Haing S. Ngor, the Cambodian Oscar-winning actor of The Killing Fields, is scheduled for production in the fall of 2009 by the Obie-award winning Immigrant Theatre Project, New York. Pacific Resident Theatre in Los Angeles, is planning a workshop production of Rachel Ray, Ong’s stage adaptation of Anthony Trollope’s 19th century English classic, next year

Other credits include: People Like Me,; Fabric; The Legend of the White Snake; Dream of the Red Chamber, an adaptation of the famous 17th century Chinese classic novel; and The Silworm Scientist. People Like Me which he also directed at Playwrights’ Arena won a Drama-Logue award for writing and has been published by Big Dogs Publication.

Ong is an eleven-time recipient of the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department grants. The latest is a 2008-09 Artist-in-residence grant collect the oral histories of Korean Americans. He completed two similar projects involving Filipino Americans and Chinese Americans.

He has also a number of children’s Asian folktales: The Wedding of Bolak Sonday (Filipino), Lady White Snake (Chinese), Golden Flower Princess (Thai), and The Fire Boy (Japanese). Marlton School has staged all of the Asian folktales,

Ong is an active member of the Dramatist Guild; a member of the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights and Playwrights Ink; and a board of director of Mezclao. He is an Artistic Associate of Playwrights’ Arena.

JOHN DUBIEL*

An east coast transplant, John has attended The Philadelphia College of Art and The California Institute of the Arts. He has worked extensively as an animation artist/illustrator and writer on a variety of projects.

Aside from writing and directing, John is a long time member of the Company of Angels and has served as one of it’s board members.

Theater Productions include:

“Hello Hello”, “Angels Unwrapped” (2003 BackstageWest Critic’s List, playwriting, direction, and production), “Table Dance”, “Youthspeak”, “Costumes” and “Changing Leaves”

Readings have included:
“Wind Chimes” (Full Length Drama)
“Peaches and Daddy” (Full Length Musical Comedy)
“Hartford Zoo” (Proposed Animated Series)

John has written for Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros.’ “Animaniacs” and has worked as a story artist for Warner Bros., Universal Studios, Film Roman, Hyperion Studio and Mike Young Productions. He has done illustration work for the Walt Disney Studios.

JULIE TAIWO ONI

The daughter of a Nigerian father and German-American mother, Julie Taiwo Oni is also an identical twin. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing from Pepperdine University in 2006 with an emphasis in sociology and a Spanish minor, and her MFA in Dramatic Writing from USC’s School of Theatre in 2009, where she studied with Velina Hasu Houston, Oliver Mayer, and Luis Alfaro. Her play Tether received a reading as part of Inkwell Theatre’s Inkubator Festival in October 2009. She currently teaches ESL in Pasadena.

MAYANK KESHAVIAH

Mayank Keshaviah is a playwright, screenwriter, and educator. Before moving to Los Angeles in 2005, he served on the board of South Asian Theatre Arts Guild Experiment (STAGE) in Washington, DC. As part of STAGE, he directed REARRANGED MARRIAGE and PSYCHO for the annual South Asian Literary and Theatre Arts Festival (SALTAF). He also assistant directed LENNY & LOU, which opened Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s 25th Anniversary season. Since his arrival on the left coast, Mayank has worked on the world premiere of LEWIS AND CLARK REACH THE EUPHRATES at the Mark Taper Forum and in the Literary Department of Center Theatre Group. In 2007, his play THOSE WHO CAN’T received a workshop production as part of the USC School of Theatre’s Blueprints festival, and in 2008, his play RANGOON was given a staged reading in the Under Construction festival of graduate playwrights. RANGOON also received a staged reading at New York’s Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in December 2009. When he’s not working on his own scripts, Mayank writes theatre reviews for the LA Weekly. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College, an M.A. in Teaching ESOL from American University, and an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from the University of Southern California.

MICHAEL PATRICK SPILLERS*

Michael Patrick Spillers was born in the Ozarks, and moved to Los Angeles in 1989 to study dramatic writing at the University of Southern California.  His first full-length play, “WHISKEY RAINBOWS”, was developed and produced as part of USC’s 1992 Experimental Theatre season, for which he won the Jack Nicholson Award for playwriting.  The autobiographical comedy “WHITE BOY” premiered at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica in 1995 and has enjoyed several revivals throughout Southern California, including the Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles, Sixth at Penn Theatre in San Diego, and the Top Hat Playhouse in Palm Springs.  “WHITE BOY” premiered off-Broadway in 2002, at Wings Theatre in New York City.  “ALWAYS & FOREVER” has received staged readings and full productions by Watts Village Theater Company (2007) and Casa 0101 Theatre in Boyle Heights (2009), and excerpts from Michael’s current Prop 8 project were recently selected for inclusion in Casa’s “Ride to the East Side” celebration of the L.A. Metro Goldline expansion.  Michael is also a proud member of the Unusual Suspects Theatre Company, a non-profit organization that teaches theatre arts to youth from the foster care and juvenile justice systems.

VASANTI SAXENA*

Vasanti Saxena is a playwright whose work has been produced or developed in New York (The Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop), Chicago (Silk Road Theatre Project, Chicago Dramatists), and Los Angeles (Company of Angels). Her play Sun Sisters won the 2008 East West Players Pacific Century Playwriting Competition. Other plays include Gloria in Translation, Even the Stone, Baby Blue, and Shift. Vasanti has received an EST/Sloan commission, has been a Van Lier Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, and was a finalist for the Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission. She received her MFA from Columbia University.