Playwrights’ Arena Honors Artists At Play, Beatrice Casagrán, John P. Flynn, And Stephen Sachs At Annual Gala

Playwrights' Arena will honor ARTISTS AT PLAY (Founding Artistic Leaders: Julia Cho, Stefanie Lau, and Marie-Reine Velez), JOHN P. FLYNN (Founding Artistic Director of Rogue Machine Theatre), STEPHEN SACHS (Founding Artistic Director of the Fountain Theatre) with the Lee Melville Award for outstanding contributions to the Los Angeles theater community, and BEATRICE CASAGRÁN (Founding Artistic Director of Ophelia's Jump Productions) with the Henry Ong Community Leader Award for outstanding leadership in the Los Angeles theater community at its annual gala HOT BRUNCH IN THE CITY.

The Board of Directors of Playwrights' Arena have unanimously voted to honor these amazing theater leaders. Artistic Director Jon Lawrence Rivera said “he is especially thrilled with these year's honorees – collectively they have worked over 100 years in our artistic community. Individually they have cultivated and engaged our audiences at large with their artistry and expertise.”

HOT BRUNCH IN THE CITY begins at 11 AM on Sunday, April 27, at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, 1125 N. McCadden Place, Hollywood. There is secured underground parking across the street. Dress code is elegant brunch attire. For reservations go to www.playwrightsarena.org.

Artists at Play is a Los Angeles-based theatre-producing collective dedicated to programming that explores the Asian American and Pacific Islander experience. Since 2011, they have presented plays that demonstrate the humanity and complexity of diverse AAPI communities while championing and uplifting AAPI theatre artists who give voice to our past, present and future. Artists at Play's mainstage productions have achieved box office success and critical acclaim, including “Critics' Choice” by numerous news outlets and a GLAAD Media Award nomination. They are a resident company of the Los Angeles Theatre Center, contributing to the multicultural programming at the city-owned facility in Downtown's Historic Core. Through their New Play Development program, Artists at Play has provided resources and support to 20 playwrights in crafting new work, with about half of those plays going on to world premiere productions across the United States and Canada. In 2022, they launched the AAP Emerging Playwright Commission. This year, Artists at Play's season includes the AAP Spring Reading Series which provides resources to playwrights for a workshop and public performance of a new in-progress play; the inaugural cohort of the AAP Playwrights Group which will focus on creating new work that explores different Asian neighborhoods in Los Angeles; and the world premiere of नेहा & Neel by Ankita Raturi at the LATC. Artists at Play has developed artistic partnerships with the Latino Theater Company, Chinese American Museum, USC Visions & Voices, USC Pacific Asia Museum, East West Players, Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles Public Library, and Center Theatre Group. They are members of the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists, Artistic Directors of Color Alliance – Greater Los Angeles and Theatre Producers of Southern California. 

Beatrice Casagrán is a Cuban-American Stage Director and Artistic Director. They hold a Masters in Theatre from CSUSB, a Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law and a BA in Political Studies from Pitzer College. A theatrical educator, actor, director, and producer, Beatrice co- founded Ophelia's Jump Productions in 2013 with a mission to produce thought-provoking theatre and to provide opportunity for underrepresented artists and arts workers. Casagrán has led Ophelia's Jump to milestones such as the 2014 launching of the annual Claremont Midsummer Shakespeare Festival, which is co-produced with Pomona College at the Sontag Greek Theater each July. In 2019, Beatrice has been honored as a Person of Distinction by Assembly member Chris Holden. As Vice President of the Theatre Producers of Southern California (formerly Theatrical Producers' League of Los Angeles), Beatrice was a leader in the efforts to obtain equitable payroll funding for small non-profit performing arts companies to be able to pay all workers at least minimum wage. Their efforts led to adoption of funding for the CA Nonprofit Paymaster and passage of SB 1116 which established the Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund. In 2023, the LA Drama Critics Circle awarded Beatrice the Gordon Davidson Award for their work in service of the theatre community. They also received the Stage Raw Spirit of Los Angeles Award. Beatrice continues their work to advocate for increased funding and support for small performing arts companies especially BIPOC companies. Beatrice's directing and producing work has garnered various honors including most recently a 2023 OCTG Award for Best Musical for her production of Nevermore the Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allen Poe. Her adaptation of Shakespeares' The Tempest, LA Tempestad received a 2024 NEA Challenge grant and her 2023 production of Sealed Orders by Jean Collinsworth was nominated for an American Drama Critics award for Best New Play. Beatrice is a member of Actors Equity Association.

John Perrin Flynn is Rogue Machine's founding Artistic Director.  Rogue Machine was founded in 2008 to present new work in Los Angeles since it and, during his tenure, John produced more than 30 world premieres, primarily by local playwrights. Twelve of these have been licensed and published by Concord Theatricals, Dramatists Play Service or Broadway Play Publishing and/or received significant subsequent productions, including Off-Broadway, Larger Regional Theatres and the Donmar Warehouse in London. RMT has won the LA Drama Critics Polly Warfield Award three times and is the only theatre to do so.  Three of the plays he produced won Ovation Awards for Production and four won LA Drama Critics Circle Awards for Production. Three plays later became feature films including John Pollono's Small Engine Repair and Razorback (Riff Raff) and Kemp Powers' One Night in Miami… For Rogue Machine, Flynn directed the world premieres of John Pollono's Lost Girls, Henry Murray's Treefall and David Rambo's A Good Guyand the US premieres of Mike Bartlett's Earthquakes in London and Tom Morton Smith's Oppenheimer. Other productions directed at RMT include Enda Walsh's The New Electric Ballroom and Penelope; Samuel D. Hunter's Pocatello, A Permanent Image and A Bright New Boise; Corman McCarthy's The Sunset Limited; and our inaugural production, Jeffrey Hatcher's Complete Female Stage Beauty. John was an Executive Producer of Lifetime's long-running series Strong Medicine and produced two other series and 14 television movies or miniseries including the Emmy-nominated Burden of Proof. In 2012, he received the Career Achievement Award for Theatre from the LA Weekly. He is married to writer, director, and actress Ann Bronston. They have two children, Caitlin and Walker.  John is a proud citizen of the Chickasaw Nation.

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