2013/14 L.A. Writers' Workshop
The 2013/2014 Writers' Workshop participants include Bekah Brunstetter, Carla Ching, Jason Grote, Sarah Gubbins, Henry Ong, Timothy McNeil, and Madhuri Shekar.
Bekah Brunstetter
Bekah's plays include The Cake (The Echo Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Ojai Playwrights Conference), Going to a Place where you already are (South Coast Repertory), The Oregon Trail (Portland Center Stage, O’Neill Playwrights Conference; Flying V), Cutie and Bear (Roundabout commission), A Long and Happy life (Naked Angels Commission), Be A Good Little Widow (Ars Nova, Collaboraction, The Old Globe), Oohrah! (The Atlantic Theater, Steppenwolf Garage, the Finborough Theater / London), Nothing is the end of the World (except for the end of the world) (Waterwell productions), House of Home (Williamstown Theater Festival), and Miss Lilly Gets Boned (Ice Factory Festival.) She is an alumni of the Center Theatre Group Writers' Workshop, Primary Stages writes group, Ars Nova Play Group, The Playwright's Realm, and the Women's Project Lab. She is currently a member of the Echo Theater's Playwright's group. She has previously written for MTV (Underemployed), ABC Family's Switched at Birth, and Starz's American Gods. She is currently a Producer on NBC's This Is Us. BA UNC Chapel Hill; MFA in Dramatic Writing from the New School for Drama.
Carla Ching
An L.A. native, Carla stumbled upon pan-Asian performance collective Peeling at the Asian American Writers Workshop and wrote and performed with them for three years, which she still considers her first theater training. Her plays include Nomad Motel (Forthcoming at City Theatre Company; Asian American Mixfest at The Atlantic Theater Company, O'Neill Playwrights Conference, National New Play Network Showcase of New Plays), Fast Company (South Coast Rep, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Lyric Stage and Pork Filled Productions; winner of the Edgerton New American Play Award), The Two Kids That Blow Shit Up (Huntington Theatre Company’s Breaking Ground; Artists at Play and Mu Performing Arts), TBA (2g) and The Sugar House at the Edge of the Wilderness (Ma-Yi Theater Company). She's an alumna of The Women's Project Lab, the Lark Play Development Center's Writers Workshop and Meeting of the Minds, the Center Theatre Group Writers' Workshop, and the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. Former Artistic Director of Asian American Theater Company, 2g. TBA is published in Out of Time and Place. Fast Company is published by Samuel French. Toulmin Commission from The Atlantic Theater Company. BA, Vassar College. MFA, New School for Drama. Proud member of New Dramatists and The Kilroys. On television, Carla has written on USA's Graceland, AMC's Fear the Walking Dead, Amazon's I Love Dick, the forthcoming drama The First from Beau Willimon for Hulu and AMC's Preacher. CarlaChing.com @carlaching
Jason Grote
Jason Grote's plays include 1001 (Time Out NY Top 10 of 2007, Ovation Award); Shostakovich, or Silence (ACT New Play Award); Civilization; and Maria/Stuart. He has written performance text for David Levine's Habit (2013 Obie); En Garde Arts' Basetrack (2014 New York Times Critic's Pick); and Radiohole's Tarzana. His work has been produced and developed at such venues as Soho Rep, PS122, The Performing Garage, BAM, Clubbed Thumb, Sundance, The O'Neill, The Denver Center, Woolly Mammoth, The Civilians, Mass Live Arts, The Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Foundry, The Luminato Festival, The Bielefeld Festival, The Watermill Center, Mass MoCA, Theater @ Boston Court, CAP @ UCLA, Salvage Vanguard, The Gammage Stage, and Chicago's Theater on The Lake. TV credits include Jeremy Renner's Knightfall, Z: The Beginning of Everything, Mad Men, Hannibal, and Smash, and film credits include Goodbye, My Brother, an adaptation of the eponymous John Cheever story for Water's End Productions. His work is published by Samuel French and has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, American Theater, and The Brooklyn Rail. He was a Page 73 Playwriting Fellow and is an alumnus of New Dramatists.
Sarah Gubbins
Sarah is the co-creator, writer, and executive producer of I Love Dick for Amazon. Her other full-length plays include: Cocked, The Kid Thing, The Drinking Problem, FML: How Carson McCullers Saved My Life, In Loco Parentis, and Fair Use. She won a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Play 2012 for The Kid Thing, which was produced by Chicago Dramatists and About Face Theater and was developed by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. The Kid Thing won an Edgarton Foundation New American Play Prize. The Drinking Problem won the 2012 Global Age Project sponsored by the Aurora Theater in Berkeley, California and received additional development from Timeline Theater in Chicago. Her plays have been read or developed at the Public Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Berkeley Rep, The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theater Company, and Center Theatre Group, among others. She was the 2010–2011 Carl J. Djerassi Playwriting Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a 2011–2012 Jerome Fellow. She is a member of the Center Theatre Group Writers' Workshop and the Playwrights' Union. In 2012 Sarah was named "Best Playwright of 2012" by Chicago Magazine. She holds an MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage from Northwestern University. She is the co-writer of the feature 10 Aker Wood with Jill Soloway who will also direct.
Henry Ong
Henry Ong is an internationally produced playwright whose works have been seen at the Old Globe Theatre, San Diego; Singapore Repertory Theatre; Latchmere Theatre, London; Queens Theatre in the Park, NY; Bailiwick Theatre, Chicago; Grove Theater Center and Company of Angels. His plays include Sweet Karma, Fabric, Rachel Ray, Legend of the White Snake, People Like Me, and Madame Mao’s Memories. He has conducted many oral history workshops in various communities (Pinoy Stories, Chinese American Stories, Korean American Stories, Thai American Stories, and Sikh American Stories, among others). He is a 16-time recipient of Department of Cultural Affairs Artist-in-Residence grants. In 2014, he was one of three Playwrights' Arena's honorees for the Lee Melville Award for Outstanding Contribution to Theater in Los Angeles. Ong is an active member of The Dramatists Guild.
Timothy McNeil
Timothy McNeil has had a wide and varied career since arriving in Los Angeles. He began as a young actor having the great privilege of studying with Stella Adler herself and Joanne Linville at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting Los Angeles. Tim has written and had produced over 28 plays in Los Angeles including The Twilight of Schlomo (Elephant Theater, Directed by David Fofi); Supernova (Elephant Theater, directed by Lindsay Allbaugh); The Charm of Making (The Theater Lab, directed by Milton Justice); Anything (LADCC Best Play of 2008) and Los Muertos, both directed by David Fofi at The Elephant Theater; Crane, Mississippi (directed by Kristin Hanggi); Margaret and Small Days, both directed by Mark Ruffalo; The Straight Bozo; and Freddie's Dead, among others, all around town. He has worked on two play commissions, one for Center Theatre Group and one for the Stella Adler Studio Collective. He has directed his first film feature of his play Anything starring Matt Bomer, John Carroll Lynch, and Maura Tierney, produced by Great Point Media, One Zero Films, and Chaotik Media. He also played Henry in the film version of his play Small Days (directed by Stan Harrington). In addition, he has also directed quite a few plays including Blackbird, The Seagull, King Lear, The Crucible, and The Diary of Anne Frank at Stella Adler Theater; Beach Play at the Hudson; Homebody/Kabul, 4:48 Psychosis, Hamlet, and The Year of Stolen Light by Alex Aves, all at Studio C; and The Marriage of Bette and Boo at the Elephant Theater. As an actor, he has done over 50 film and television roles. Film credits include Sympathy for Delicious, Small Days, Forrest Gump, Speedway Junkies, Starship Troopers, Contact, Poodle Springs, Wicked, Spark, Ice, Ordinary Madness, and Player 5150. Television credits include Joan of Arcadia, ER, The Night Stalker, House MD, My Wife and Kids, Stand Off, Seinfeld, Murphy Brown, Star Trek Voyager, Diagnosis Murder, and many more. Theatre highlights include Hector in the History Boys, and Flan in Six Degrees of Separation, George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf at Stella Adler, Early in Anything at the Lillian Theater, Yevgeny in Los Muertos at the Elephant, Claudius in the Page 93 production of Hamlet at the Lillian, Pozzo in Waiting for Godot, also at the Lillian, Jerry in Margaret at the Hudson Backstage, Walter in Crane, Mississippi at the Elephant, Horace in The Day I Stood Still, also at the Elephant, Henry Smalls in Small Days at the Hudson Backstage, and many more. Tim is a proud member of The Theater Lab at Stella Adler and The Elephant Theater. Tim has been on the faculty of the Stella Adler Academy Los Angeles since 1999, a tremendously rewarding experience.
Madhuri Shekar
Madhuri Shekar won the 2013/14 Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Award at the Alliance Theatre for her play In Love and Warcraft, where it went on to receive its world premiere production. Her play A Nice Indian Boy won second place in the East West Players' 2012 Face of the Future Playwriting Contest, where it received its World premiere before being produced in Chicago by Rasaka Theatre Company in residence at Victory Gardens. Her most recently produced play Queen began its journey in the Center Theatre Group Writers' Workshop, and received its World premiere in 2017 at Victory Gardens. She is currently developing House of Joy, which has been developed at the Atlantic Theatre, Juilliard, Pratidhwani (Seattle), New York Stage & Film, and at South Coast Repertory's Pacific Playwrights Festival. Her newest play Poster child/Miriam for President will be produced at Victory Gardens in June 2019 as part of their upcoming season, and was commissioned for that purpose. She has an MFA in Dramatic Writing from USC, a dual Master's degree in Global Media and Communications from the London School of Economics and USC, and currently attends the playwriting program at Juilliard.