I HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED TO THE 2018 MIDWEST DRAMATISTS CONFERENCE

My play Reality Check has been accepted for a reading in the 2018 Midwest Dramatists Center Conference on  September 27-29, 2018.  Reality Check was selected from hundreds of plays. 

Industry professionals from New York City, Beth Blickers (literary agent with APA), and Sean Grennan (playwright), will attend play readings held during the conference and conduct workshops for the playwrights whose plays have been selected for the conference. 

The conference will provide actors and directors and feedback on plays of the selected playwrights from literary managers and artistic directors from around the country.

I'm a 2018 Fellow with the Sesame Street Writers Room Program!

I am one of seven fellows selected from approximately 500 applicants for the 2018 Sesame Street Writers Room Program. This fellowship is designed to develop new screenwriting talent, amplify underrepresented voices, and foster diversity in children’s media. Fellows gather weekly for hands-on workshopping and conversations with writers, producers, agents, and executives in eight three-hour sessions. When the program concludes, each fellow will have completed at least one script, and up to two winners will receive development deals from Sesame Workshop. The winning scripts will be performed in a staged reading at an industry networking event.

“By helping emerging writers from diverse backgrounds build industry experience and connections, programs like this one have the potential to change the children’s media landscape,” said Kay Wilson Stallings, SVP of Creative Development, Sesame Workshop. 

Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit media and educational organization behind Sesame Street, the pioneering television show that has been reaching and teaching children since 1969. Today, Sesame Workshop is an innovative force for change, with a mission to help kids everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. We’re present in more than 150 countries, serving vulnerable children through a wide range of media, formal education, and philanthropically-funded social impact programs, each grounded in rigorous research and tailored to the needs and cultures of the communities we serve. For more information, please visit sesameworkshop.org.

American Pia Awarded "Notable Writer" in 2018 New York TV Festival

My half-hour comedy pilot, American Pia, about my real-life experience living with a Xenophobic family outside LA was selected as one of 40 projects from nearly 1800 submissions to participate in the 2018 New York Television Festival. 

Over the last decade, the NYTVF has distinguished itself as an industry leader in the cultivation and fostering of independent artists across episodic storytelling platforms while engaging a wide swath of decision-makers, buyers, agents, and managers as a trusted curator of new voices. With NYTVF SCRIPTS, that opportunity is extended to emerging writers by offering a Festival experience designed to provide maximum exposure, access, and opportunity.

http://www.nytvf.com/2018_scripts_competition.html

 

 

AMERICAN PIA IN TOP 15% OF NYTVF

American Pia has moved on to the second round of deliberation in the 2018 New York TV Festival Scripts Competition; the second round recognizes comprises the top 15% of scripts submitted to the competition.  Over the last decade, the NYTVF has distinguished itself as an industry leader in the cultivation and fostering of independent artists across episodic storytelling platforms while engaging a wide swath of decision-makers, buyers, agents, and managers as a trusted curator of new voices. With NYTVF SCRIPTS, that opportunity is extended to emerging writers by offering a Festival experience designed to provide maximum exposure, access, and opportunity.

 

Recipient of 2018 ATHE New Play Development Workshop opportunity!

My play has been selected from 130 submissions to be workshopped, developed, and presented at the 2018 Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) conference to be held in Boston, MA August 1-5.  Founded in 1986, ATHE serves the interests of its diverse individual and organizational members, including college and university theatre departments and administrators, educators, graduate students, and theatre practitioners. An advocate for the field of theatre and performance in higher education, ATHE serves as an intellectual and artistic center for producing new knowledge about theatre and performance-related disciplines, cultivating vital alliances with other scholarly and creative disciplines, linking with professional and community-based theatres, and promoting access and equity.