2015/16 L.A. Writers' Workshop

The 2015/2016 Writers' Workshop participants include Charise Castro Smith, Tom Jacobson, Allison Moore, Janine Nabers, Sylvan Oswald, Daria Polatin, and Martín Zimmerman.

Charise Castro Smith

Charise Castro Smith is a playwright, television writer and actor originally from Miami. She was most recently a Supervising Producer on The Haunting of Hill House for Netflix and prior to that her pilot The Death of Eva Sofia Valdez was shot for ABC/ABCS with Fazekas & Butters Executive Producing. Her playwright credits include Feathers and Teeth (Goodman Theatre/developed at Atlantic Theatre Company), Estrella Cruz [The Junkyard Queen] (Ars Nova/Halcyon Theatre), The Hunchback of Seville (Washington Ensemble Theatre/Trinity Repertory Company), Washeteria (Soho Rep), and Boomcracklefly (Miracle Theatre). Smith is a recipient of a Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists, and is an alumna of Ars Nova’s Play Group and The New Georges Jam. She holds an M.F.A from Yale School of Drama.

Tom Jacobson

Tom Jacobson has had more than 80 productions of his plays, including Sperm at Circle X Theatre Company, The Orange Grove at Playwrights Arena, and the award-winning Bunbury, Tainted Blood, Ouroboros, and The Friendly Hour at The Road Theatre Company. In 2010 The Twentieth-Century Way premiered at The Theatre @ Boston Court and the New York International Fringe Festival (five Ovation Award nominations, four Los Angeles Drama Critics' Circle nominations, one GLAAD Award nomination, Fringe Festival Award for Outstanding Production of a Play, PEN Center Award for Drama) and Making Paradise: The West Hollywood Musical was produced by Cornerstone Theater Company (Critic's Choice in Back Stage West). He has been a co-literary manager of The Theatre @ Boston Court, a founding member of Playwrights Ink, and a board member of Cornerstone Theater Company and The Theatre @ Boston Court. Most recent productions include the world premieres of The Chinese Massacre (Annotated) at Circle X and House of the Rising Son at Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA (Critic's Choice in Back Stage West and Los Angeles Times, nominated for a GLAAD Award and winner of two Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards). His short film Prairie Sonata (based on The Friendly Hour) premiered in 2012. Currently running: The Twentieth-Century Way at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre (NY). Upcoming: Hopscotch, a new opera commissioned by The Industry.

Allison Moore

Allison Moore’s plays have received more than 50 productions across the US, and include Hazard County and Slasher, both of which premiered at the Humana Festival of New American Plays; and Collapse, which received an NNPN Rolling World Premiere before being produced by the Women’s Project in New York. She holds a BFA from Southern Methodist University and an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. She is currently a writer/producer for the Sony Playstation series Powers.

Janine Nabers

Janine Nabers. Photo by Brian McConkey Photography.

Janine Nabers is a graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellowship at Juilliard and winner of the 2014 Yale Drama Series Prize for her play Serial Black Face, which had its world premiere earlier this year at the Actors Express Theatre in Atlanta. Her play Annie Bosh is Missing premiered in August 2013 at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, while her play Welcome to Jesus is currently having its world premiere at the American Theater Company in Chicago. Other works include the musical Mrs. Hughes. Selected awards and honors include: The Dramatists Guild Playwriting Residency (2010), Page 73’s Playwriting Fellowship (2011), MacDowell Colony Residency (2011), The Sundance Theater Lab and Ucross Residency (2010 /2011), NYFA playwriting fellowship (2013), The Williamstown Musical Theatre Residency (2013), The AETNA Playwriting Fellowship at Hartford Stage (2014), NYTW Usual Suspect (current) and The Fadiman Award for Center Theater Group (2018). Janine is a current member of the Echo Theater’s Playwriting Group and Center Theatre Group Writers Group in L.A., and is an alumna of the Primary Stages Writers Group, Ars Nova Play Group, Soho Rep Lab, and the MCC Playwrights Coalition. Television writing credits: UnReal (Lifetime), Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce (Bravo), and the upcoming Dietland (AMC) and Watchmen (HBO). MFA: The New School for Drama.

Sylvan Oswald

Sylvan Oswald is an interdisciplinary artist and assistant professor of playwriting at UCLA's School of Theater, Film, & Television. His work has been produced/developed at About Face Theatre, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, Center Theatre Group, New Georges, Portland Center Stage, St. Ann's Warehouse, and Undermain Theater among others. He has received a Thom Thomas award from the Dramatists Guild, Soho Rep's Dorothy Strelsin Fellowship, a Jerome Fellowship from the Playwrights' Center, and residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, and Sundance/Ucross. His most recent project is High Winds, co-created with graphic designer Jessica Fleischmann and published by X Artists' Books; and his lo-fi semi-improvised web series about trans identity is available at outtakestv.com. He is an affiliated artist with Clubbed Thumb and an alum of New Dramatists.

Daria Polatin

Daria Polatin is a playwright, screenwriter and author. Daria's plays include Palmyra, In Tandem, Guidance, That First Fall, D.C., and The Luxor Express, inspired by her father's life growing up in Egypt. Her work has been produced at The Kennedy Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Golden Thread Productions, Noor Theatre, Malibu Playhouse, and in London, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong. Daria is a resident playwright at The Echo Theater Company, an alumna of Center Theatre Group Writers Workshop, Youngblood, and completed a residency with London’s Royal Court Theatre. Daria has directed plays, and her short film, “Till It Gets Weird.” She is a writer/producer for the upcoming Amazon TV series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, starring John Krasinski, and wrote for the Hulu psychic drama Shut Eye. Daria's debut novel Devil in Ohio is published by Macmillan. Awards: Kennedy Center/A.C.T.F. Best One-Act Play, Middle East America Playwriting Prize Honorable Mention, Wasserstein Prize Nominee, Princess Grace Award Finalist; MFA Columbia University. DariaPolatin.com

Martín Zimmerman

Martín Zimmerman is a multi-ethnic, bilingual playwright whose plays include Seven Spots On The Sun, On The Exhale, White Tie Ball, The Making Of A Modern Folk Hero, The Solid Sand Below, and Let Me Count The Ways, and have been produced or developed at The Kennedy Center, Goodman Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse In The Park, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, Alley Theatre, Roundabout Underground, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, LCT3, New York Theatre Workshop, Victory Gardens Theater, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Marin Theatre Company, The Playwrights' Center, Alliance Theatre, A.C.T. (Seattle), PlayPenn, Icicle Creek Theatre Festival, American Theater Company, The Theatre @ Boston Court, Chicago Dramatists, Primary Stages, Teatro Vista, Ojai Playwrights Conference, among others. A recipient of the Terrence McNally New Play Award, Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award Citation, Humanitas Prize New Voices Award, Sky Cooper New American Play Prize, McKnight Advancement Grant, Jerome Fellowship, Carl Djerassi Playwriting Fellowship, and the National New Play Network’s Smith Prize, Martín is an Executive Story Editor on Netflix's Ozark, was a Staff Writer on Netflix's Narcos, has been the Alliance for Latino Theater Artists (ALTA) Artist of the Month, was a member of the 2011–2012 Playwrights' Unit at Goodman Theatre, is a Playwright in Residence at Teatro Vista, and a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists. MFA in Playwriting: The University of Texas at Austin. BA in Theater Studies, BS in Economics: Duke University.