The LA Writers' Workshop is a dynamic and talented community of playwrights at Center Theatre Group. Since 2005, we have invited a cohort of local playwrights to spend a year researching and writing new works with feedback from our artistic staff and their fellow writers.
Membership in the Writers' Workshop begins with this residency year and continues with events and activities designed to build community and support professional and artistic development. The program is designed to foster important voices, inspire playwrights to create their best work, encourage bold writing, and build relationships among local playwrights, CTG, and the Los Angeles theatre community. Our growing list of LA Writers’ Workshop alumni is currently comprised of more than 100 playwrights.
The cohort is curated by the Artistic Staff at Center Theatre Group, and there is no application process.
ISAAC GÓMEZ
Isaac Gómez (Playwright, they/them) is an award-winning Chicago and Los Angeles based playwright and screenwriter originally from El Paso, Texas/Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. They identify as na’wi – the third gender marker of the Rarámuri, a Mexican indigenous community in northern Chihuahua, of which they’re a direct descendent. They’re currently under commission with LCT3, Steppenwolf Theater Company, South Coast Repertory, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and IAMA Theatre Company. Their plays have been produced by Audible Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Primary Stages, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Goodman Theatre, the Alley Theatre, Seattle Rep, and many others. Their television credits include the Netflix Original Series Narcos: Mexico, the upcoming Apple TV+ Limited Series The Last Thing He Told Me, the second season of Paramount TV+’s Joe Picket, amongst others. They currently have a series in development with Stacey Sher and FX as well as a full-length feature in development with Focus Features.
JASMINE SHARMA
Jasmine Sharma (Playwright, she/her) is a South Asian-American performer/writer/activist and thrilled to be working on Pigeonhole with Center Theater Group. She aims to focus her work at the intersection of race/femininity/Americanness. Recent acting includes the west coast premieres of Wives and Calvin Berger: A Musical, The Wolves (McCarter Theater), and a lot of new work development (ASCAP, NYTW, The Public, The New Group, Ma-Yi, etc). Upcoming: Much Ado About Nothing (OSF). Her writing has been recognized/developed/produced by The Kilroys, The O’Neill, The Kennedy Center, Shattered Globe Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Jackalope Theatre Company, IAMA Theatre Company, The Entertainment Community Fund, Moxie Arts NYC, Ashland New Plays Festival, The Road Theatre, The 24 Hour Plays, AlterTheater Ensemble, Valdez Last Frontier Theatre Conference, The Blank Theatre, and Lime Arts Productions, among others. As a screenwriter, her short film Conflicted Cuties of Color is currently in post-production, releasing spring 2024, and she is a 2022-2023 Reel Sisters Fellow. Jasmine has also contributed to @iWeigh. Northwestern University. jasminesharma.org | @jasminesharmaa
Christopher Oscar Peña
christopher oscar peña’s plays include the strangers, which was commissioned and had its world premiere by the Clarence Brown Theatre. In New York, the Flea Theatre produced the world premiere of his play a cautionary tail. He collaborated with actress Solea Pfeiffer on her solo show You Are Here, which was commissioned by Audible, and played to sold out acclaim at the Minetta Lane Theatre Off-Broadway and is now available on Audible. His play how to make an American Son was commissioned by Yale Rep and had its world premiere at Arizona Theatre Company. Currently, Profile Theatre in Portland, Oregon, is producing a season of his work titled the American Generation, which includes the world premiere of his Goodman commissioned play awe/struck, and Profile’s first ever commission, our orange sky. In television, he’s written for Jane the Virgin (CW), Insecure (HBO), Sweetbitter (Starz), Motherland: Fort Salem (Freeform), and Promised Land (ABC / Hulu). He’s currently developing a new series with Omar Sharif Jr for STX. A two-time Sundance Fellow, he was the former Artistic Associate at Arizona Theatre Company, an alumni of New Dramatists, and a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect.
Amy Berryman
Amy Berryman is a playwright, screenwriter, actor, and teaching artist originally from Seattle by way of West Texas. Her play Walden, produced by Sonia Friedman and directed by Ian Rickson, premiered on London’s West End in May 2021. Walden was also produced at TheaterWorks Hartford in August 2021 (New York Times Critic’s Pick) and was published by Faber & Faber. Other full-length plays include God's Flesh (MTC/Sloan Commission), The New Galileos (O’Neill Finalist 2019); Three Year Summer; Epiphany, Or What Would You? (Finalist for Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries, O'Neill Semi-Finalist 2020); and The Whole of You (Commissioned for Rising Phoenix Rep). Her work has been developed at Premiere Stages, Kitchen Dog, Caltech, East 15, Portland Stage, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Valdez Last Frontier Theatre Conference, and AMiOS, among others. Amy has a television project in development at Warner Bros and was awarded a MacDowell Fellowship 2023. amy-berryman.com
INDA CRAIG-GALVÁN
Inda Craig-Galván is a Los Angeles-based playwright and television writer, born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. Her work explores conflicts and politics within the African-American community, grounded in reality, and with a touch of magical realism. Upcoming: A Jumping-Off Point (Round House Theatre, April 2024), Welcome to Matteson! (Orlando Shakes, Fall 2024). Other plays: The Great Jheri Curl Debate (East West Players), Black Super Hero Magic Mama (Geffen Playhouse), a hit dog will holler (Playwrights’ Arena/Skylight Theatre), I Go Somewhere Else (Playwrights’ Arena). Awards: Kesselring Prize, Jeffry Melnick New Play Award, Blue Ink Prize, Jane Chambers Award, Kennedy Center’s Rosa Parks Award for plays focused on social justice and/or civil rights. Commissions: The Old Globe, Round House Theatre. TV: Co-Executive Producer of ABC’s Will Trent. Previous: The Rookie, How to Get Away with Murder, Demimonde, Happy Face. Inda is an Adjunct Professor at University of Southern California’s School of Dramatic Arts, where she received her MFA in Dramatic Writing.
RAMIZ MONSEF
Ramiz Monsef is an alumni of The EPG at Circle X as well as The Writers’ Room at the Geffen Playhouse, where his play The Ants was developed, and will be produced later this year. It also was developed at The Ojai Playwrights Conference in 2021. Ramiz is co-author of the musical The Unfortunates produced at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and ACT in San Francisco. He wrote that show’s accompanying graphic novel as well. He also co-wrote The Many Deaths of Nathan Stubblefield, which premiered in the 2017 Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville. His play 3 Farids was part of The Bushwick Starr reading series and selected to be in the New Works Festival at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, the DNA New Work Series at La Jolla Playhouse, and at Playwrights Horizons. Ramiz is an actor and has appeared in major theatres across the country, most recently playing the title role in Rajiv Joseph’s Letters of Suresh Off-Broadway at SecondStage, numerous television series including NCIS, SWAT, SEAL Team, Kidding, Shameless, Modern Family, and Young Sheldon. He is also in the film SYNCHRONIC.
Past Participants
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2021/22
The 2021/22 L.A. Writers' Workshop participants include Jami Brandli, June Carryl, Penelope Lowder, Lisa Ramirez, Jessica Ko, Pia Shah, Judy Soo Hoo, Delanna Studi, Julie Taiwo Quarles, and Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera.
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2019/20
The 2019/20 L.A. Writers' Workshop participants include Adelina Anthony, Ngozi Anyanwu, Jonathan Caren, Dionna Michelle Daniel, Boo Killebrew, Kenneth Lin, and Kemp Powers.
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2018/19
The 2018/19 Writers' Workshop participants include Luis Alfaro, Aziza Barnes, Diana Burbano, Noah Haidle, Aditi Brennan Kapil, Brian Otaño, and Ruby Rae Spiegel.
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2017/18
The 2017/18 Writers' Workshop participants include Jeff Augustin, Marcus Gardley, Aleshea Harris, Laura Jacqmin, Molly Smith Metzler, Matthew Paul Olmos, and Jiehae Park.
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2016/17
The 2016/217 Writers' Workshop participants include Eliza Clark, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Dominique Morisseau, David Myers, Qui Nguyen, Herbert Siguenza, and Deborah Stein.
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2015/16
The 2015/16 Writers' Workshop participants include Charise Castro Smith, Tom Jacobson, Allison Moore, Janine Nabers, Sylvan Oswald, Daria Polatin, and Martín Zimmerman.
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2014/15
The 2014/15 Writers' Workshop participants include Joshua Allen, Evelina Fernández, Dorothy Fortenberry, JC Lee, Alex Lewin, Ken Roht, and Kimberly Rosenstock.
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2013/14
The 2013/14 Writers' Workshop participants include Bekah Brunstetter, Carla Ching, Jason Grote, Sarah Gubbins, Henry Ong, Timothy McNeil, and Madhuri Shekar.
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2012/13
The 2012/13 Writers' Workshop participants include Zakiyyah Alexander, Sheila Callaghan, Jonathan Ceniceroz, Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews, Meg Miroshnik, Tanya Saracho, and John Sinner.
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2011/12
The 2011/12 Writers' Workshop participants include Padraic Duffy, Larissa FastHorse, Sigrid Gilmer, Prince Gomolvilas, Jennifer Haley, Matt Sax, and Steve Yockey.
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2010/11
The 2010/11 Writers' Workshop participants include Julie Hébert, Lila Rose Kaplan, Ronald McCants, Carly Mensch, Dan O'Brien, and Marco Ramirez.
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2009/10
The 2009/10 Writers' Workshop participants include Boni B. Alvarez, Joseph Fisher, Michael Golamco, Ruth McKee, Brett Neveu, Sibyl O'Malley, and Janine Salinas Schoenberg.
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2008/09
The 2008/09 Writers' Workshop participants include Mickey Birnbaum, Joseph Fisher, Michael John Garcés, Donald Jolly, Evangeline Ordaz, Matt Pelfrey, and Adriana Sevahn Nichols.
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2007/08
The 2007/08 Writers' Workshop participants include Ricardo A. Bracho, Paul Grellong, Cody Henderson, Rolin Jones, Josslyn Luckett, T.D. Mitchell, Lina Patel, Kate Rigg, and Alexander Woo.
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2005/06
The 2005/06 Writers' Workshop participants include Julia Cho, Brian Freeman, Jessica Goldberg, Joe Hortua, Lisa Loomer, Laural Meade, Julie Marie Myatt, Erik Patterson, and Annie Weisman.