Diana Burbano News

Geffen Playhouse today announced its selection of six local writers to participate in the third cycle of The Writersa?? Room, a forum for engagement and collaboration between Los Angeles playwrights. The participants for 2020/2021 are Meghan Brown, Diana Burbano, Donald Jolly, Matthew Paul Olmos, T.Tara Turk-Haynes and Ali Viterbi.

Celebrating 60 years as Los Angelesa?? oldest non-profit theater company, Company of Angels presents a live-streamed event Whata??s Going On? A Virtual Play Festival: Watch Whata??s Going On? live on Saturday, August 1 & 8 at 8 PM PST on Youtube at https://bit.ly/CoAWhatsGoingOn, Facebook Live at Facebook.com/CompanyofAngels or via their Website at companyofangels.org/whatsgoingon

San Diego Repertory Theatre and Amigos del REP announced today the lineup for the Fourth Annual San Diego REP Latinx New Play Festival streamed live online, September 4-6, 2020.

This Spotlight focuses on Jon Lawrence Rivera, co-founder of Playwrights' Arena with Steve Tyler in 1992 during the LA Riots. At the time, and for at least two decades, we were the only theater dedicated to discovering, nurturing, and producing new works for the stage written exclusively by Los Angeles playwrights to be enjoyed by adventurous minds. I first discovered Playwrights' Arena when their 2017 production of Bloodletting was selected to be presented during Center Theatre Group's 2018 Block Party at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

In light of curfew orders throughout the Bay Area PlayGround has moved the showtime of its Saturday, June 6 opening night performance of Genevieve Jessee's The Rendering Cycle to 5pm PT.

'Ghosts of Bogotáa??, a new comedy on trauma by Diana Burbano will livestream on Saturday, May 23rd.

PlayGround, San Francisco's premier theatre development lab, is hosting the nation's largest fully digital new play festival PlayGround Zoom Fest presented May 11 through June 14, 2020.

Playwrights Foundation, the West Coast's premiere launchpad for exceptional plays and playwrights, has announced the semifinalists and finalists for the 2020 Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF), which is scheduled to run July 17-26, 2020.

The Bret Adams and Paul Reisch Foundation has announced the recipients of their special COVID-19 response grants for playwrights, composers, lyricists and librettists who have had a full professional production cancelled, closed, or indefinitely postponed due to the COVID-19 closures.

The Board of Directors of Playwrights' Arena has voted to postpone its annual fundraiser, HOT NIGHT IN THE CITY, and the balance of its 2020 Season.

The Bridge Initiative: Women+ in Theatre (TBI) will be offering three regional premiere readings for its new play festival, Bechdel 3.0: Beyond the Test, at Tempe Center for the Arts, Saturday, March 28th. The three pieces feature diverse writers and creative teams, chosen by Producing Artistic Director Brenda Jean Foley in consultation with a panel of local theatre artists.

Jon Lawrence Rivera, Artistic Director of Playwrights' Arena - the first and oldest theater dedicated to discovering, nurturing, and producing original works written exclusively by Los Angeles playwrights - has announced its 2020 Season of World Premieres which include: RED INK by Steven Leigh Morris, A HIT DOG WILL HOLLER by Inda Craig-Galván, and FABULOUS MONSTERS by Diana Burbano.

Serving as the gloriously buoyant 56th season-opening production at Orange County's South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, AMERICAN MARIACHI---which continues performances through October 5, 2019---is a wonderful play about the love of family and the love for achieving personal dreams. Playwright José Cruz González's joyful, musical-leaning play combines gorgeous music with broad comedy and touching drama that gives a fresh spin to the story of pioneering women subverting expectations to achieve their dreams in a world dominated by men's old world outlook.

To celebrate the culmination of Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Latinx Play Project (LxPP), OSF will host a panel discussion featuring five veteran Latinx playwrights as they discuss the joys and challenges of working in professional theatre today, finding artistic home, and making work that speaks to the times we are in. The discussion will take place on Sunday, September 29 at 10 a.m. at Carpenter Hall and also be livestreamed by Howlround. 

The Bridge Initiative: Women+ in Theatre (TBI) announces its next production, ROAR! A Celebration, to be presented at Tempe Center for the Arts, Saturday, September 14th, 7:30 p.m. This one-night-only event offers original music, dance, spoken word, and testimony to what it means to be women and non-binary individuals in America today. A portion of all proceeds will be donated to Southwest Indigenous Women's Coalition (www.swiwc.org) and TBI is also partnering with Arizona Jews for Justice to collect goods for asylum seekers.

Although nuVOICES 5 was all about women playwrights, the staged readings in the revived Actor's Theatre of Charlotte festival at Queens University featured plenty of diversity - and plenty of onstage and tech talent.

Center Theatre Group has selected participants for the 2018-2019 L.A. Writers' Workshop, where local playwrights are invited to spend eight months in residence at the company researching and writing new works with the feedback from artistic staff and their fellow writers. The workshop, administrated by Center Theatre Group's Artistic Department, is designed to foster new voices, inspire playwrights to create their best work, encourage bold writing and build relationships among local playwrights, Center Theatre Group and the Los Angeles theatre community.

Award-winning artists' collective Rogue Artists Ensemble takes over West Hollywood's Plummer Park through a commission from The City of West Hollywood's Arts Division for a site-specific immersive theater experience with Señor Plummer's Final Fiesta, celebrating the life of Eugene Plummer, a champion of community in early Los Angeles and a prominent figure in what is now West Hollywood. Closing November 18, Señor Plummer's Final Fiesta stirs up a merry band of ghosts and shadows who sweep you into a past filled with wild west duels, pirates, land-grabs, violent mobs, shark-riding, romances, epic court battles, and, of course, fiestas!