East West Players Announces Its 2019-2020 Playwrights Group

East West Players (EWP), the nation's longest-running professional theatre of color in the country and the largest producing organization of Asian American artistic work, is pleased to announce the second cohort of its Playwrights Group, providing space and artistic support over the course of a year for six writers of color. The 2019 program is led by playwright Alice Tuan and composed of writers from diverse backgrounds as part of EWP's 54th Anniversary Season.

"Our inaugural playwrights group was a rousing success, and we are thrilled to welcome this new cohort of exceptionally talented and inspiring artists. They each have unique and distinct voices that have already made their mark on the American theatre scene. It is an honor to have them be in residence at EWP over the coming year where they will be able to focus on a new work of their choosing and advised by the inimitable Alice Tuan ," says EWP Artistic Director Snehal Desai.

"I look forward to engaging with these exciting playwright voices and continue to activate (and agitate) vibrant theatrical artistry," says playwright Alice Tuan. "I'm thrilled to be part of Snehal's vision for EWP, his programming of new Asian American voices, and bringing a collective of interdisciplinary talents to Little Tokyo."

The members of the 2019 inaugural playwrights group are Inda Craig-Galván, Lisa Dring, Eric Loo, Anna Moench, Lina Patel, and Christopher Peña.

Inda Craig-Galván's plays include Black Super Hero Magic Mama (Geffen Playhouse) and I Go Somewhere Else (Playwrights' Arena). Her work has been developed/presented at Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, The Old Globe, OSF's BLACK SWAN Lab, San Francisco Playhouse, and others. Honors include Kilroys List, Kennedy Center Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, Steppenwolf's The Mix, Blue Ink Playwriting Prize, Humanitas Prize. Inda is a Story Editor on "How to Get Away With Murder."

Lisa Sanaye Dring has worked with Asolo Repertory Theatre, Humana Festival, The New Group, One Year Lease, Year Lease, Bread & Puppet, East West Players, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Playpenn, Bootleg Theater, The Blank, Sacred Fools, SCF at Son of Semele, Theatre of NOTE, and the New York, Hollywood, & Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. She was a finalist for the 2018 Relentless Award.

Eric Reyes Loo is a company member of Chalk Repertory Theatre, where his play Death and Cockroaches was produced in November 2018. When he's not running their writers group, he writes for TV - including the upcoming Netflix series A.J. & the Queen. Otherwise, you can find him on the dance floor. He's a graduate of both Santa Clara University and NYU, where he received his MFA in Dramatic Writing.

Anna Moench is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Her plays include Mothers (Playwrights Realm 2019), Man Of God (East West Players 2019, InterAct 2020), Birds of North America (BETC 2017, ThrownStone 2019), and Sin Eaters. She is an alum of UCSD's Playwriting MFA program, the Emerging Writers Group at The Public, and Youngblood at EST. Anna is currently adapting a book to the screen for Universal and Michael DeLuca Productions.

Lina Patel is a writer whose work often explores colonialism, family structures, and the environment. Commissions/residences include Yale Rep, New Harmony Project, Sewanee Writer's Conference (Walter E. Dakin Fellow), Japanese American National Museum. Lina's work has been developed/presented at Cherry Lane Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, CTG, The New Group, The Lark, Chalk Rep, Circle X Theater, East West Players. Lina also writes for television and is a critically acclaimed actor and voice-over artist.

Christopher Oscar Peña is an Artistic Associate at Arizona Theatre Company, was named one of "The 1st Annual Future Broadway Power List" by Backstage, and is a member of New Dramatists. He's written for Jane the Virgin, Insecure (as well as recurring on screen as "Gary"), and Sweetbitter. Currently, he writes for the upcoming Freeform show Motherland: Fort Salem, and is developing an original series based on Stephen King's Joyland.

Alice Tuan is best known for Ajax (por nobody), (Flea Theater, Melbourne Fringe, Toronto's Summer Works). Other plays include Hit (LATC), BATCH (Humana), Last of the Suns (Berkeley Rep, Ma-Yi Theater), Roaring Girle (Foundry), Ikebana (World Premiere at East West Players; Dramalogue Award), and Coastline (Serious Play!, Edinburgh Fringe). She recently facilitated the Almasi African Playwrights Conference in Harare Zimbabwe and was Artist in Residence at Hong Kong's Chinese International School where a bilingual version of Last of the Suns was commissioned and performed.

As the nation's premier Asian American theatre organization, East West Players produces artistic work and educational programs that foster dialogue exploring Asian Pacific Islander (API) experiences. Founded in 1965, at a time when APIs faced limited or no opportunities to see their experiences reflected outside of stereotypical and demeaning caricatures in the American landscape, EWP not only ensures that API stories are told, but works to increase access, inclusion, and representation in the economy.

For more information about East West Players, please visit www.eastwestplayers.org.

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