PLAYWRIGHTS
group
Convened in the summer of 2007, Company of Angels Playwrights Group is a select invited group of diverse Angeleno playwrights. The group is for playwrights who wish to have a space to develop innovative, original, and exciting new plays. Our playwriting group gives writers space to experiment, be listened to, be challenged, and supported in equal measure. Part of what we can provide is space for writers to be with their peers, to support and push each other in turn. The meetings are not intended to be a how-to-write ‘course’. The writers we select can already write. It’s an opportunity to develop your craft and write a new play. Completed plays are eligible for our “To Read and Stage in L.A” reading series, and will be considered for a main-stage production.
Our Playwrights Group runs from October 2020-May 2021 and culminates in a public reading series.
playwrights
TAMADHUR AL-AQEEL
Tamadhur Al-Aqeel had plays produced as part of the LA Short Play Festival since 2014: “The Family Car,” a puppet show for which she was also a puppeteer; “Z is for Loz Angelez” (2015); “The Crayon Incident” (2016), for which she fabricated a life-sized puppet; “That’s Not Real, This is What’s Real,” as part of a 24-hour theater festival; “Coffee With My American Friend” (2018); and “Crime Scene” (2019). She was part of The Vagrancy Playwrights Group’s Blossoming series in 2020. Tamadhur co-runs the Playwrights’ Group at CoA. Tamadhur has had a number of plays produced or co-produced by Cornerstone Theater Company: “In The Bag” (2011, One-Minute Play Festival); “Branches” (2001); “The Market Tale” (1999); “Ride #14” (1997); “Family Tales” (1996); “Shahrazade and the Arabian Nights” (1994). Awards include a Golden Mic (2001) for “Best Original Commentary” (KPCC FM); As an actress, Tamadhur won a Garland Award (2000) for Ensemble Performance, Back Stage West, as an actor in “For Here or to Go?” by Alison Carey, Cornerstone Theater Company at the Mark Taper Forum.
EMILY BRAUER ROGERS
Emily Brauer Rogers received her Masters in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California. While there, she met her writing partner, Koji, and has been writing screenplays with him for over ten years. Together, they optioned Romeo, Juliet, and Rosaline to Amazon Studios. She has had three full-length plays, Searching for Americana, Hardcore: Women’s Reflections on Iraq, and The Paper Hangers produced and has been published in two monologue anthologies. Her script Bloomer Girls, about female baseball players in the 1800’s, is part of New Works Virtual Festival. Her plays have been developed and produced in Hollywood, Australia, New York, Colorado, Missouri, Indiana, and North Dakota, Australia, England, and Ireland. She’s participated in The Orchard Project Liveness Lab, National Winter Playwright’s Retreat, Theatricum Botanicum’s Greenreads, Inkwell Theatre’s Playwrights Night, AboutFace’s Newvember Play Series, Project La Femme/Curtis Theatre’s Page to Stage Festival, and Kennedy Center’s Playwriting Conference. She teaches writing at the University of California, Irvine and her work with gamification and online spaces informs her theatre collaboration during the pandemic. Emily’s excited to be a member of Company of Angel’s playwrights group and is also a member of Playground LA, Caravan Theatre, WGA, and Dramatists Guild.
MATT CALLAHAN
he/him/his. Callahan is delighted to be making continuing artistic contributions to CoA and their mission. An actor and company member since 2016, he’s appeared in numerous pieces for the LA Short Play Festival, and began working as a director and playwright with the company in 2019 on a co-production with Diagnostic Theatre Co. of his first full length play, SOLIDARITY IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD. You may have also seen him onstage or in Zoom productions by Teatro Frida Kahlo, Eastside Theatre Works, Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble, and Independent Shakespeare Co. He’s also appeared on television and in films such as MIRROR (2021), WILLIAM SHATNER’S THE UNXPLAINED (2021), THE VIOLINIST (2019), PEEPHOLE (2018), THE BROTHERS GRIMSBY (2016), THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 3 (2015), and TRUE BLOOD (2014). Callahan continues to work with CoA’s playwright’s group and is currently writing his second full-length play. Defund the police. Black Lives Matter.
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. Theater Productions include: “A Drink and a Story”, "Gates", “Tips”, “Meeting L.A.”, “Hollywood Nocturne”, “Wind Chimes”, “Steaks”, “Hello Hello”, “Secret Santa” (2003 BackstageWest Critic’s List, playwriting, direction, and production), “Heart on the Sleeve", “A Decent Proposal”, “Youthspeak”, “Costumes” and “Changing Leaves” Readings/Staged Readings: “Wind Chimes” – First Act (The Cast Theater, Hollywood) – Directed by Ted Lange, featuring Fred Willard, “The Mirage” (California Institute of the Arts), “Peaches and Daddy” (Musical) – First Act (California Institute of the Arts), “Cooking”, “Lobby”, “Great Escape”, and “Connection” (Various Venues) 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.
KIMBA HENDERSON
Kimba Henderson was born in Detroit, but the cold weather led to constant crying, forcing a move to San Diego. Called to be a writer at eight, Kimba put on bizarre plays in her home before landing in the Dramatic Writing Department at NYU. After her junior year, she won an Academy of Television Arts and Sciences fellowship and upon graduation, moved to Los Angeles.
After a stint in the healthcare industry, Kimba started writing full-time in 2014. Her play, Women on the Verge, won “Best Script” at the 2014 United Solo Project in New York and “Best One-Person Show,” at the 2018 NAACP Theatre Awards. She has also written extensively for television including shows: Origins, Corrupt Crimes, and It Takes A Killer. In 2018, Kimba ventured into audio adventure narratives by writing, The Adventum, which won a Seneca Award for “Best New Series.” The project was well received, and subsequently she has penned Seasons 2 and 3, set to be released this Fall. Kimba’s TV pilot, The Haight, a crime drama set in 1968 Haight-Ashbury, was chosen for the 2019 NYU Tisch School of the Arts Alumni Showcase, Other, which highlights diverse writers. Most recently, her screenplay, Another River was optioned, and in 2020, she was hired to write the erotic-thriller, Flaccid.
MILDRED INEZ LEWIS
Mildred Inez Lewis writes and directs for theater, film and the digital space. Her full-length plays THE GIFT and /KOM'PLISIT/ will be published by Broadway Play Publishers in 2021. Her short play ROOST FIRST, THEN FLY appears in Applause Books' 2020 10 Minute Plays collection. Upcoming productions with Antaeus, Digital Dramatists, PlayGround-LA, and Theatre Unmasked. She is a finalist for the 2021 L.B. Williams Playwriting Award from New Circle Theatre Company (NYC) which will produce her short play THE PEACE OF HOME. Her short film RUBY, DATA POINT 0838a is in pre-production. A member of the Dramatists Guild, she writes for the Antaeus, Company of Angels, Ensemble Studio Theatre-Los Angeles and PlayGround-LA playwriting groups.
M.J. KANG
M.J,. Kang is a playwright, actor, director, improviser and storyteller. She has had eight plays professionally produced, been playwright in residence at Theater Passe Muraille and Nightwood Theaters, participated in many playwrights groups and development opportunities at various theaters in Toronto, Canada, as well as Banff Playwrights Colony and Vancouver International Women's Festival. As a storyteller, she has won two Moth slams, a National Storytellers Network, a Story Collider story slam and has been featured on PBS, USA Today and will be part of The Women's Storytelling Festival in March 2021. She has acted as a series regular on a Canadian television show and as well as acted opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ellen Burstyn and other Academy award winners and on stages across Canada, the US and London, England. As an improvisor, she is on the international house team at The Nursery Theater in London, UK, Don't Mess, Killer Kimchi, and Sonic Boom Boom. She is one of the writers of Moving Day, a feature film produced and developed by Cotton Bush Productions.
ALISON MINAMI
Alison Minami is an LA based performer, writer, and educator. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts from UC Riverside and has studied at the David Henry Hwang Writers' Institute. She is a playwright with the Antaeus Theater Playwrights Lab. Her play Face to the Sun has had professional readings at the Torrance Cultural Arts Foundation, East West Players, the Victory Gardens Theater as part of the CAATA Confest, and at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as part of their Black Swan New Play Development Program. Her play Dear Baby X was chosen for the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights’ New Works Reading in conjunction with East West Players. It also had developmental readings at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, All Terrain Theater of Berkeley, and Here and Now Theater of Los Angeles. Her one-act play Shizzy's Story was produced by Enrichment Works and toured across LAUSD schools. She was a member of Playground LA, a 10 minute play collective, for which her piece This is a Banana was selected for Season 6. Her fiction is featured in Angel City Review and her storytelling can be heard on the Moth Radio Hour Podcast.
DANIEL MUÑOZ
Daniel Muñoz- is born and raised in Los Angeles and enjoys the stories this city has to offer. He has been working in theatre for many years and excited to be apart of CoA’s Playwright’s Group. He is thankful to still be creating during these times. He hopes you can still continue supporting theatre and looks forward when we can gather together again.
judy soo hoo
Judy’s plays have been read/developed at East West Players, Lodestone Theatre Ensemble, Eureka Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Cleveland Playhouse, Pan Asian Repertory, River Stage, Theatre Mu, Asian American Theatre Company, San Diego Asian American Repertory Theatre Company, and Illusion Theatre. Credits: Texas, Refrigerators, Solve for X, Taking Flight: The Katherine Cheung Story, and the upcoming Sandi Koto of the San Gabriel Valley for the CTC's Library Play Reading Series. She is a recipient of the EWP & ATand T New Voices Award, Yukon Pacific New Play Award, and PEN/WEST Emerging Voice Fellowship. Excerpts from her plays were published in Best Stage Scenes and Best Male Monologues by Smith & Kraus. Judy Soo Hoo co-wrote Cadaver Dog with Isaac Ho, which won the 2017 BlueCat Screenplay Competition. Judy has been part of LA Views at the Company of Angels. She is writing a play about two teenagers whose lives are thrown into turmoil when their mother is arrested and slated for deportation as part of the Playwrights Group at the Company of Angels.
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