Under Construction Playwrights Group (Second Option)

Dramaturge
Jessica Broutt – Jessica is a creative producer who is passionate about new work.  She serves as the co-creator and artistic producer of Rapid Development, a new play development series for emerging playwrights at the Fountain Theatre.  She has also had the privilege of working in the artistic department of La Jolla Playhouse and San Diego Repertory Theatre.  Formerly, she ran Outfest’s Screenwriting Lab,  the leading organization that promotes LGBTQ equality by creating, sharing, and protecting stories on the screen. Jessica loves working at the intersection of arts and education, and looks forward to this new venture with The Road.

Jami Brandli – JAMI BRANDLI’s plays include Technicolor Life, S.O.E., M-Theory, ¡SOLDADERA!, Sisters Three, Through the Eye of a Needle, Medusa’s Song, O: A Rhapsody in Divorce, and BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!) which was named in the 2014 Kilroys List.  Her work has been produced/developed at New Dramatists,  New York Theatre Workshop, Launch Pad, Great Plains Theatre Conference, The Lark, among other venues.

Meeghan Holaway – Meeghan has directed over 20 readings for the Playwrights’ Kitchen Ensemble and, most recently, a staged reading of Against The Rising Sea by Kelly Masterson for the Word at the Road.  She directed Three For The Road as part of the Off-Road Series.  She was a director for The Berkshire Theatre Festival Young Playwrights’ Program, Shakespeare and Company’s Youth Program, The Berkshire Public Theatre and The Wings theatre in Manhattan.  She also directs audiobooks.  As a member of the Road Theatre Company, she has appeared in Three For The Road, Through The Eye Of A Needle, and The Rescued.  Acting credits include Off-Broadway & Regional theatre, as well as over 50 TV, Film, and Voiceover credits.

Although his base is now the west coast, Steve has lived in 14 states and 3 countries – as far south as Corpus Christi, Texas and as far north as Baie Comeau, Quebec, Canada.

As a playwright, Steve is most interested in exploring people’s boundaries. His plays are meant to challenge, provoke, surprise and of course – entertain.

Partial list of plays: Forever Bound – starring French Stewart (Ovation Award nomination for playwriting), Flight of the Penguin (Drama-Logue Award playwriting ) The American Way (Valley Theatre Award playwriting) Broken (Antaeus Festival with Laura San Giacomo), T.N.T. and Cold in Hand (2 time finalist at The Neil Labute Playwright Festival, most recently 2020), The Lesson (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville Semi-Finalist), Elevator Repair at The Open Fist, Embroiled – NJ Rep and many others. His play Forever Bound was read at Williamstown Theatre Festival with Amanda Seyfriend, Tommy Sadoski and Peter Friedman. Several of his pieces saw development through The Road Theatre’s Summer Festival and his latest full length play, Fairville, was developed through their Under Construction Workshop during Covid 2020.

Member: The Dramatists Guild, Antaeus Playwright’s Lab (Playwright’s Panel) and The Road Theatre’s Under Construction.

JAMI BRANDLI’s plays include Technicolor Life, S.O.E., M-Theory, ¡SOLDADERA!, Sisters Three, Through the Eye of a Needle, Medusa’s Song, O: A Rhapsody in Divorce, and BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!) which was named in the 2014 Kilroys List.  Her work has been produced/developed at New Dramatists,  New York Theatre Workshop, Launch Pad, Great Plains Theatre Conference, The Lark, among other venues.

Winner of John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award, Holland New Voices Award, Ashland New Plays Festival and Aurora Theatre Company’s GAP Prize.  Finalist for the 2016 PEN Literary Award for Drama, Playwrights’ Center Core Writer Fellowship, Princess Grace Award and the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference; nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award.  Her short works are published with TCG and Smith & Kraus.

Technicolor Life premiered as part of the 2015 Women’s Voices Theater Festival and received its Australian premiere in 2017. In 2018, BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!) received a joint-world premiere with Moxie Theatre (San Diego) and Promethean Theatre (Chicago), ending with Moving Arts’ production at Atwater Village Theatre in Los Angeles (LA Times Critic’s Choice and Ovation Recommended). BLISS will receive it’s next production at Defunkt Theatre (Portland, OR) in early 2020. Through the Eye of a Needle (Stage Raw ‘TOP TEN’ Pick and Ovation Recommended) received its world premiere at The Road Theatre (Los Angeles), March-May 2018.  Sisters Three received its world premiere with The Inkwell Theater (Los Angeles) in December through January 2019.  As a 2019 Humanitas Prize PLAY LA playwright, Jami was commissioned to write her latest play, Visiting Hours. She is represented by the Robert A Freedman Agency and Gramercy Park Entertainment.  Please visit: www.jamibrandli.com

Bernardo Cubría was recently nominated for best playwright at The Ovation Awards, Stage Raw Awards and The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for his play The Giant Void In My Soul. He was the co-writer of the short Spanish Class that won Best Comedy at The NBC Universal Shorts Awards in 2018. His play, Neighbors: A Fair Trade Agreement was a Semi-Finalist for the O’Neil in 2017. It received a world premiere at INTAR in NYC in the fall of 2017.  In 2016, The Judgment of Fools received three critically acclaimed productions in NYC, LA, and Houston, TX. The Redhead is Coming was featured at F*ckfest at The Brick in NYC in 2015.

Lisa Kenner Grissom is an award-winning LA-based playwright and producer whose work explores dynamic social issues through intimate relationships. Her award-winning short film Tattoo You is based on her one-act of the same name (Winner, Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival), and has screened at festivals nationally and internationally. Full-length plays include: Here Comes The Night (Semi-Finalist, Garry Marshall Theatre New Works Festival), Motherland (Finalist, Jewish Plays Project and part of 2020 National Tour); Semi-Finalist, Princess Grace Fellowship) Four Chambers (Winner, Kennedy Center Jean Kennedy Smith Award), Building The Perfect Chair (Finalist, TruVoices) and Shelter (Semi-Finalist, PlayPenn). In addition, her work has been recognized as a finalist for the Ashland New Play Festival, O’Neill National Playwright Conference, The Lark, Playwrights’ Center and Heideman Award. Short plays are published by Smith & Kraus. Lisa twice attended the O’Neill Playwrights Conference as a Kennedy Center Fellow. Her work has been presented/developed at The Kennedy Center, Antaeus Theatre Company, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Chalk Rep, Clurman Theater, Inkwell Theater, Moving Arts, Manhattan Theatre Source, Road Theatre. Originally from Boston, Lisa is a proud member of the Playwrights Union, Dramatist Guild, and Antaeus Playwrights Lab.www.lisakennergrissom.com

Cory is a Los Angeles based playwright who has been the recipient of the McKnight Advancement Grant, two Jerome fellowships, a MAP Fund Grant and a Jerome Travel and Study Grant. He was the recipient of the Heideman Award for his play This Quintessence of Dust and a recipient of the Humanitas Play LA Award. His recent plays include The End of Beauty (premiere at Playwrights’ Arena, LA Times Critics’ Choice, developed at the Road Theatre’s SPF); Apocalypse Play (premiere at Moving Arts, Stage Raw Top Ten); Uncovered Cities (developed with Circle X and Humanitas); Golden (commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville, workshopped with Chalk Rep); Clandestino (workshops at Sundance Theatre Lab and New York Theatre Workshop); and The Killing of Michael X (premiere at Jackalope Theatre in Chicago). He was a co-writer of That High Lonesome and Fissures (lost and found) both of which premiered at the Humana Festival. He is an affiliated writer at the Playwrights’ Center and earned his MFA in Playwriting from Brown University.

Velina Hasu Houston, recipient of over twenty-eight writing commissions, began her career Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club, expanding globally to institutions such as the Old Globe Theatre and Los Angeles Opera.  She also writes for film and television; and is a published poet, essayist, journalist, and novelist.  The nationally acclaimed film short she penned, Path of Dreams, was named best original screenplay at the London International Filmmaker Festival 2019.  Honored by the Kennedy Center, Smithsonian Institution, Rockefeller Foundation, Japan Foundation, Wallace Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), and others, she is Distinguished Professor & Director of Dramatic Writing at the School of Dramatic Arts, University of Southern California.  A Fulbright Scholar, she served on the US Department of State’s Japan-US Friendship Commission.  Currently, her work has been produced in Toronto, London, and Vietnam, and is slated for several Los Angeles productions in 2020. Matchabook, her blog,highlights female theatre artists.  The recipient of a TCG Global Connections grant, Houston is writing a new play that will first bow as part of The Body Female, produced by Los Angeles Opera in its Eurydice Found Festival, January 2020, a collaboration with Nao Bustamante, Paula Cizmar, Nadia Islam, and Bita Shafipour.  She is bookwriter with composer Angela Aki for the musical theatre adaptation of Memoirs of a Geisha, produced by Dustin Sparks.  Current film projects include adaptations of two of her plays; and a film adaptation of the short story, “Madame Butterfly.”  Archives: Library of Congress, Huntington Library.

A professional actor for over thirty-five years, Carlos Lacámara began his writing career after visiting Cuba in April 2000. His observations of life on the island, as well as conversations with family in Havana, inspired him to write a trilogy of plays, Becoming Cuban, Havana Bourgeois and Exiles, which have enjoyed productions in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Portland. His play, Nowhere on the Border—winner of The MetLife and Hola awards for best new play—premiered at the Hayworth Theatre, followed by runs at Repertorio Español in Manhattan and Stageworks Hudson in New York, culminating in a completely updated production at The Road Theatre in 2020.

Artist’s Rep in Portland produced Carlos’ first musical, Cuba Libre, which showcases the world-renowned Cuban band, Tiempo Libre. Cuba Libre is currently in development for a second production.

Carlos co-authored four one-hour television pilots: Adam and Eve, written with wife, television show-runner Carol Barbee, and bought by Amazon Studios, Eagle Pass, optioned by Braun Entertainment, Prophesy, optioned by Fox TV Studios and San Juan, optioned by CBS Studios. His screenplays include Killing Time and Children of Conscience, both commissioned by Dark-Light Pictures.

Carlos has co-authored four one-hour television pilots: Adam and Eve, written with wife, television show-runner Carol Barbee, and bought by Amazon Studios, Eagle Pass,optioned by Braun Entertainment, Prophesy, optioned by Fox TV Studios and SanJuan, optioned by CBS Studios. His screenplays include Killing Time and Children of Conscience, both commissioned by Dark Light Pictures.

Clacamara.com.

Jennifer Maisel’s THE LAST SEDER premiered Off-Broadway with Gaby Hoffmann and Greg Mullavey after productions around the country and abroad.  Her Sundance-developed OUT OF ORBIT was awarded an Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P Sloan rewrite commission for plays about science and technology, made the 2016 Kilroy List and won both the Stanley Award and the Woodward Newman Award for Drama before premiering at Williamston Theatre and Bloomington Playwrights Project.  Her Pen West Literary finalist THERE OR HERE had its London premiere in January, 2018.  Her @thespeedofJake, also a Pen West Literary finalist, premiered in LA with Playwrights’ Arena.  Jennifer has written movies for major networks and cable, as well as independent features; she recently sold a pilot to Super Deluxe with MomentumTV.  Jennifer was one of five writers invited into the prestigious Humanitas 2018 PlayLA workshop where she developed her new play, BETTER. Her EIGHT NIGHTS premiered to critical acclaim at Antaeus Theatre in the fall of 2019.

James McManus (Playwright) is the author of ten plays: RADIOMAN, LOVE ON SAN PEDRO, DRY BONES, THE FRIENDLY TAVERN, FULL RIDE, DOROTHY 6, MORNING IN AMERICA, UNDERGROUND, CHERRY SMOKE and BLOOD POTATO. His plays have been developed and performed at La Jolla Playhouse, Cornerstone Theater Company, Labyrinth Theater Company, The

Road Theatre, Dell’Arte International, Working Theater, Apothecary Theatre Company, The Clockwork Theatre, Glass Umbrella Creative (Sydney), Revolt  Theatre (Melbourne), New Dramatists, The Kennedy Center, Round House Theatre, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, The Edinburgh Festival

Fringe, Barebones Productions, Irish Repertory Theatre, Son of Semele, The Side Project Theatre Company, The Lark Play Development Center and the August Wilson Center for African American Culture. James was the recipient of the Princess Grace Award in Playwriting for Cherry Smoke, which is published by Samuel French. He has also received the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award and is a proud alumnist of New Dramatists.

Elizabeth Sampson is an actor, director and playwright. She is a graduate of the M.F.A. program at The American Conservatory Theatre. She teaches Acting at UCLA in their Professional Program and is also an adjunct Professor of acting at Pepperdine University in addition to her private coaching.

Road Work: Actor – The Lighthouse (actor/writer) Melissa Arctic, That Good Night, As White As O/ and many, many, many, readings. As Director:  Finish and Trim and many, many, many, readings Playwright: her plays The Petoskey Stones has been performed at The Road Theatre Company and The Bay Theatre Company in Annapolis, MD (chosen for the New Women’s Voices in Theatre Festival Washington DC 2015). Her short play trilogy Irish Coffee was presented in succession at the Road Theatre Company’s Summer Playwrights Festival 2013 with Kathy Baker and Perry King. It Was The Lark 2014 with Michael O’Neill.  The Lighthouse in 2015. In 2016 her festival play Hell Is Empty was performed at the Road Theatre. and has worked with playwright Craig Wright on several of his plays including Lady, The Unseen, and Melissa Arctic.

Off Road: While at A.C.T. she was asked to join the prestigious resident acting company where she performed in the west coast premiere of 1918, as well as a Christmas Carol, and Twelfth Night.  Her NYC credits include Bringing’ Home the Girl (Here Space as co-writer and actor), King of the Moon (Present Company, director). As a Los Angeles based actor she has been seen in Detachments w/ Glenn Healdey at the Loretta Theatre Company. She is a founding company member of A Noise Within where she did The Way of the World. Other L.A. More LA theater credits include The Memorandum, The Dearest of Friends, Mr. Happiness, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Ashbury Actor’s Group) and Measure for Measure directed by Tina Packer for the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company. Elizabeth studied and performed at The Studio Theatre in Washington D.C., in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton. Other D.C. credits include, Ten Little Indians, Killing Real Estate Women.  She directed Spring Dance (Pepperdine University), King of the Moon (The Groundlings, Present Theatre Company)

She has been performing her short stories in the heralded Spark Off Rose, Melt In Your Mouth and Tree People spoken word events in Los Angeles for the last 15 years. She is a member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA.

Jennie Webb is an LA-based playwright and dramaturg (she created the new play development program, Seedlings, at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum) with works including “Currency,” “Yard Sale Signs,” “Smiling Cat Candy Heart,” “Remodeling Plans,” “Unclaimed Assets,” “On Tuesday,” “It’s Not About Race,” “Rebecca on the Bus,” “Brand New Script” and “Buying a House” produced locally by Inkwell Theater, Rogue Machine Theatre, EST/LA, Santa Monica Rep, Virginia Avenue Project, Theatre of NOTE and La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival as well as in Canada, the UK, India and Iceland. Her plays have been developed and presented by Great Plains Theatre Conferences, The Playwrights’ Center, Moving Arts MADlab, Blank Theatre, Playground-LA, National Winter Playwrights Retreat, Little Black Dress INK Festivals, Protest Plays Project, PlagueWrites, Climate Change Theatre Action, Rogue Artist Ensemble’s Rogue Lab, Road Theatre Summer Playwrights Festivals and currently, “Under Construction” at the Road. National recognition includes Finalist (O’Neill Playwrights Conference, City Theatre Short Play Festival) and Semi-Finalist (O’Neill, PlayPenn, Athena Project, Trustus Theatre Festival) nods; she is the recipient of Max K. Lerner Playwriting Fellowships and a Women in Theatre Red Carpet Award. Member: the Playwrights Union, EST/LA, Honor Roll!, Dramatists Guild; co-founder: LA Female Playwrights Initiative (LAFPI). jenniewebbsite.com @jenniewebbsite

SNOWFLAKE by Velina Hasu Houston
Directed by Stewart J. Zully
Two college administrators of color meet online with an applicant they think is Black.  Much to their surprise, while the applicant identifies as Black, she looks White. The encounter blows to smithereens all notions of race and ethnic diversity.

BUBBLE by Jennifer Maisel
Directed by Sara Guerrero
Two women hover on the brink, juggling the insanity of solo parenting in the pandemic. How far will they go for their friendship?

THE STATEMENT by Bernardo Cubría
Directed by Chelsea Gonzalez
Late to put out a “Black Lives Matter” statement, the marketing team at White Claw holds an emergency meeting to find the right words while remaining on-brand.

THE KEEPSAKE by Carlos Lacámara
Directed by Meeghan Holaway
“Love and clocks.”

EXZOOMED by Steve Apostolina
Directed by Steve Apostolina
23 years after their mysterious breakup, two ex-lovers reunite on Zoom. Inner secrets will finally be exhumed – and truth is king.

TERRORIST IS SPELLED K-A-R-E-N by Aja Houston
Directed by Inger Tudor
Grocery stores. Parks. Sidewalks. Restaurants. At home. Black couple, Toni and X, fight daily for their survival as they move through these commonplace spaces that are regularly targeted by the American terrorist group, KAREN. When one member violently attacks X, Toni struggles to help put the pieces of his soul back together KAREN sought to annihilate. 

REACH by Jennie Webb
Directed by Susan Diol
A short comedy about the ways in which we connect, or try to, Reach takes a peek at socially-distanced friends during a time when the dual pandemics of Covid-19 and Racism hit Los Angelenos—and bring them together—in rather revealing ways.  

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY by Jami Brandli
Directed by Ann Hearn Tobolowsky
A long-time married couple struggles to adjust to the never-ending pandemic living situation while their marriage counselor wrestles with her own problems.

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For more details on the readings in the festival, like Playwright bio, Director bio, Cast list and more, please select from the streaming schedule listed above.