2016/17 L.A. Writers' Workshop

The 2016/2017 Writers' Workshop participants include Eliza Clark, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Dominique Morisseau, David Myers, Qui Nguyen, Herbert Siguenza, and Deborah Stein.

Eliza Clark

Eliza Clark has had her plays developed at Manhattan Theatre Club, the Studio at Cherry Lane Theatre, Page 73 Productions, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Provincetown Playhouse, The New York International Fringe Festival and Yale University. She has received commissions from South Coast Repertory and Yale University’s O’Neill Studio. Clark was a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre's emerging writers group, Youngblood and was the 2010 Page 73 Playwriting Fellow. Her play Edgewise was co-produced by Page 73 and The Play Company in 2010 and her play Recall was produced by Colt Coeur at The Wild Project in 2012. Edgewise and Recall are published by Samuel French. The world premiere of her latest play, Future Thinking, was produced at South Coast Repertory in spring 2016. Clark also has written for television including AMC's Rubicon and The Killing. She is a writer/producer on Animal Kingdom for TNT. She currently is developing Margaret Atwood’s Maddaddam trilogy with Darren Aronofsky.

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's plays have been produced at venues such as the National Theatre of Great Britain, Manhattan Theater Club, the Goodman Theatre, Trafalgar Studios 2 [West End], Crowded Fire, Page 73 Productions, Interact Theatre, Borderlands Theatre and the Contemporary American Theatre Festival. Her plays have been awarded the Wasserstein Prize, the Yale Drama Series Award, an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, the David A. Callichio Award and the Keene Prize for Literature. Frances has received artist residencies from Yaddo, Macdowell, Hedgebrook, Ragdale, the Sundance Playwright Retreats at Ucross and Flying Point, and the Santa Fe Art Institute. She has been Playwright-in-Residence at Manhattan Theater Club and Marin Theater Company and is currently under commission from Manhattan Theatre Club, the Goodman Theatre and the National Theatre. Her work has been published by Yale University Press, Glimmer Train, Methuen Drama, Samuel French and Dramatists Play Service. Frances received an MFA in Writing from the James A. Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin, a BA in Sociology from Brown University, and a certificate in Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre from the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre. She was born in Philadelphia, and raised in Northern Virginia, Okinawa, Taipei and Beijing. Frances is currently an Assistant Professor of Playwriting at UC Santa Barbara.

Dominique Morisseau

Dominique Morisseau is the author of The Detroit Project (A 3-Play Cycle) which includes the following plays: Skeleton Crew (Atlantic Theater Company), Paradise Blue (Signature Theatre), and Detroit '67 (Public Theater, Classical Theatre of Harlem and NBT). Additional plays include: Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theatre), Sunset Baby (LAByrinth Theatre); Blood at the Root (National Black Theatre) and Follow Me To Nellie's (Premiere Stages). She is also the book writer on the new musical Ain't Too Proud—The Life and Times of the Temptations (Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Ahmanson Theatre). Dominique is an alumna of The Public Theater Emerging Writer's Group, Women's Project Lab, and Lark Playwrights Workshop and has developed work at Sundance Lab, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Eugene O'Neil Playwrights Conference. Her work has been commissioned by Steppenwolf Theater, Women's Project, South Coast Rep, People's Light and Theatre, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival/Penumbra Theatre. She most recently served as Co-Producer on the Showtime series Shameless. Awards include: Spirit of Detroit Award, PoNY Fellowship, Sky-Cooper Prize, TEER Trailblazer Award, Steinberg Playwright Award, Audelco Awards, NBFT August Wilson Playwriting Award, Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama, OBIE Award, Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellowship, and being named one of Variety's Women of Impact for 2017–18.

David Myers

David Myers has had work developed at Berkeley Rep, South Coast Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Vic, The Royal Court and more. His How to Conquer America was written through Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor program and a finalist for the Humanitas Prize at Center Theatre Group; his From Under the Tree was read in Pasadena Playhouse's Hothouse Series; and his most recent The World As It Should Be was recently workshopped at Skylight Theatre. Other works include: Muzungu (Mixed Phoenix, NYC), Body Parts (self produced in San Diego) and 1800 Acres (Riverside Studios, London). He's had short play commissions from La Jolla Playhouse, Chalk Rep, Moving Arts and Cornerstone; and he completed a year-long residency at South Coast Rep. He's written and sold two screenplays and two original television pilots. He's from Houston, Texas. He has a BA from Brown University and an MFA from UCSD. He currently teaches at Chapman University and UCSD. Surrounded by life, he lives in L.A. with his wife, two sons, two cats and a fish named Cobra.

Qui Nguyen

Qui Nguyen is a co-founder of the OBIE Award-winning Vampire Cowboys of NYC. His plays include Vietgone (2016 Steinberg Award); She Kills Monsters (2014 AATE Distinguished Play Award); Soul Samurai (2009 GLAAD Media Award nomination), and the critically acclaimed Vampire Cowboys productions of The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G; Alice in Slasherland, Fight Girl Battle World, Men of Steel, and Living Dead in Denmark. Recent awards include a 2016 Daytime Emmy Award® for Outstanding Writing on a Pre-School Animated Program and a 2015 New York Community Trust Helen Merrill Playwriting Award. He's a member of the WGA, The Dramatists Guild, The Playwrights Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Ma-Yi Writers Lab, and an alumni of New Dramatists. For television, he's written for PBS's Peg+Cat and SYFY's Incorporated. He's currently a writer for Marvel Studios.

Herbert Siguenza

Herbert Siguenza is a founding member of the performance group Culture Clash. Along with Richard Montoya and Ric Salinas, Culture Clash is the most produced Latino theatre troupe in the United States. Founded in San Francisco in 1984, Culture Clash has performed on the stages of America’s top regional theatres including the Mark Taper Forum, The Kennedy Center, The Arena Stage, The Alley Theatre, The Berkeley Repertory, Yale Repertory, South Coast Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego Rep, Syracuse Stage, The Huntington Stage and countless universities and colleges. Mr. Siguenza has co-written, and or performed in the following Culture Clash plays: American Night (commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Palestine New Mexico, Water and Power, Chavez Ravine (all three commissioned by Center Theatre Group), Peace (commissioned by The Getty Villa), Zorro in Hell! (Commissioned by the Berkeley Rep), The Birds (commissioned by the Berkeley Rep and South Coast Rep), Bordertown (commissioned by the San Diego Rep), Radio Mambo, Nuyorican Stories, Anthems, S.O.S., A Bowl of Beings, The Mission, and others. As a solo writer and performer Mr. Siguenza has produced Cantinflas!, and A Weekend with Pablo Picasso currently on national tour. His latest plays Steal Heaven, Manifest Destinitis, and El Henry (Best new play San Diego Critics Circle Award 2014) have been produced at the San Diego Repertory and La Jolla Playhouse. Recipient of Andrew Mellon Playwright in Residence Award with San Diego Rep. Mr. Siguenza is also an accomplished visual artist and has exhibited both nationally and internationally. He has a BFA in printmaking from the California College of Arts, Oakland, California. TV and Film credits: Ben Ten Alien Swarm for the Cartoon Network, Larry Crowne feature film directed by Tom Hanks.

Deborah Stein

Deborah Stein is a playwright, director, and Co-Artistic Director of Stein | Holum Projects (SHP), with whom she has written and co-directed The Wholehearted (World premiere at Center Theatre Group and La Jolla Playhouse; ArtsEmerson commission; National Theatre Project award from NEFA) and Chimera (Under the Radar; HERE Artist Residency Project; Drama Desk Award nomination; UK premiere at the Gate in London). SHP has also presented and developed work at Z Space, Berkeley Rep, New Dramatists, Playwrights Horizons, Clubbed Thumb, LMCC, New Georges, Kelly Strayhorn, Philadelphia FringeArts, Perry Mansfield, Swarthmore College, and UCSD. Deborah's other plays include Marginal Loss (Actors' Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival), Natasha and the Coat (Minnesota Jewish Theatre), God Save Gertrude (Theatre @ Boston Court, Workhaus Collective), Wallflower (Stages Repertory Theatre, Awesome Possum), and Bone Portraits (Stillpoint Productions, Live Girls!). Deborah has received the NYSCA, the Bush Artist Fellowship, two Jerome Fellowships and a McKnight Advancement Grant from the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. She is an alumna of New Dramatists and current member of the Playwrights' Union. She currently teaches Playwriting at UCSD, where she directed and co-created Keith Wallace's The Bitter Game for the La Jolla Playhouse Without Walls Festival and subsequent international tour.