The Evolving Playwrights’ Group is a new play development program dedicated to supporting the development of brave, impossible new works for the stage by groundbreaking and provocative playwrights. This program is made possible supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture and by a grant from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs.

Playwright Cohort

AJ Layague (she/her/hers) is a Filipino-American playwright/composer with degrees in music from Stanford, CalArts, and UC San Diego. Her play COWGIRL KATARUNGAN'S RECIPE FOR ADOBO was a finalist for the 2024 Judith Royce Award for Excellence in Playwriting, a semi-finalist for the 2024 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, and received a Synecdoche Works FMM Fellowship prize for Works in Heightened Language. She was a 2023 Puffin Foundation Artist, a four-time semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Music Theater Conference, and part of the 2023 PanAsian NuWorks Festival. Her musical (co-composer), A GOOD BOY, based on interviews with the families of death row prisoners, received a 2024 MAP Fund grant and a Critical Issues Grant from the Humanities for the Public Good. It premieres at PlayMakers Rep in August 2025. And her musical LUCY LARCOM won the 2024 New Musical Project and had a staged reading in Boulder in 2024.

Julia Lederer An internationally-acclaimed writer from Toronto, Julia’s plays have been produced across North America and in Europe, most recently in Dallas; Cleveland; and Stratford, ON. Her play, WITH LOVE AND A MAJOR ORGAN, was nominated for "Best Production" by the LA Drama Critics Circle when it was part of Boston Court Pasadena's Polly Warfield Award-winning season. Julia adapted it into feature film that premiered at SXSW; winning "Best Feature" at multiple festivals, including the Santa Fe International Film Festival and the Canadian Film Festival. The script earned her the "Best Screenplay" award at the Berlin Female Filmmakers Festival and a nomination from the Vancouver Film Critics Circle. Julia is a published poet and podcast contributor. She often writes from a sidestep outside of reality. Her work is driven by a deep curiosity about the world and how weird it is to be a human here.

DANA SCHWARTZ is an award winning Los Angeles writer, director, producer and actress. She is a member of Directors Lab West and has directed plays across the country, most recently the critically acclaimed “here comes the night” at Moving Arts, as well as productions at Theater of NOTE, The Road Theater, Topanga Arts Center, Lyric Hyperion, Fierce Backbone and the Victory Theater. Her play "@Playaz" was an O'Neill Finalist and had its World Premiere in 2021. “Presto!” was developed with The Workshop Theater in New York, is a Eugene O’Neill Semi-Finalist, and will premiere at the Hudson Valley Theater Festival in May. “The Grotto” will be part of this summer’s Valdez Theater Conference in Alaska. "Early Birds" premiered in 2019. She has also had plays produced at Nomad Theatre, Parish Players, Eclectic Theater, Echo Theatre, Theatre of NOTE, LeftEdge, Sky Pilot, REDcat LA, Disney Hall, Segerstrom Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Curtis Theater and LACMA. As an actress she has performed around the world. Dana is the Program Director of the MADLab New Play Development Program at Moving Arts.

Weston Gaylord is a playwright and librettist based in Los Angeles. His plays have been featured in the Ashland New Plays Festival, Boston Court Pasadena New Play Reading Festival, and New Roots Theatre Festival. He has been a member of the Geffen Playhouse Writers’ Room, The Vagrancy Playwrights Group, and a recipient of the Humanitas PLAY LA fellowship. He has also developed new work with Circle X, Outside In, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, SFBATCO, and Z Space. Finalist: O’Neill National Music Theatre Conference, Lucille Lortel 121 Project, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. Weston has written and developed immersive and mixed-reality theatrical experiences with Disney Imagineering, Meta, Madison Wells, FX, and Spy Brunch, and his work has been presented in Games For Change, The Latest Draft podcast, A Little New Music, and the Future of Storytelling Festival. westongaylord.com

Cris Eli Blak's work has been produced and performed around the world. He is a staff writer on the hit series Power Book III: Raising Kanan. He is the inaugural winner of the Black Broadway Men Playwriting Initiative, the 2024 Charles M. Getchell New Play Award, and the Atlanta Shakespeare Company’s inaugural winner of the Muse of Fire BIPOC Playwriting Festival. He is currently an artist-in-residence with Abingdon Theatre Company, The Barrow Group, and a Core Writer with The Playwrights Center. He was previously an artist-in-residence with Ojai Playwrights Conference, Liberation Theatre Company, La Lengua Teatro en Español/AlterTheater Ensemble, Fosters Theatrical Artists Residency, Paterson Performing Arts Development Council, and Quick Silver Theatre. He was the recipient of the Emerging Playwrights Fellowship with The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre Company and an inaugural fellow with the Black Theatre Coalition. 

Veronica Tjioe (they/them) is a non-binary, German-Indonesian playwright based in Los Angeles. They have a BA and MA in Theatre Arts from UC Santa Cruz and are wild about theatre that involves magical realism, existentialism, clowning, inclusivity, feminism, surprises, accessibility, community, and snacks. They developed new work with The San Francisco Olympians Festival, The Attic Collective, Son of Semele, and Inkwell Theater. Their play, The Last Croissant, won Best of the Broadwater, Best in Ensemble Theatre, and Top of Fringe at the 2019 Hollywood Fringe Festival. They are a recipient of the Dharma Grace Playwriting Award, the Max K Lerner Fellowship (The String’s The Thing), and were a finalist in the 2021 Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival (Prefers Bright Indirect Light). More recently they were honored to be included in the Kilroy's 2023 Web. You can find them on New Play Exchange and at veronicatjioe.com

Artists In Conversation

JON LAWRENCE RIVERA, Director, is the founding artistic director of Playwrights’ Arena. He is the recipient of the first Career Achievement Award (2015) and Queen of the Angels Award (2024) from Stage Raw. Rivera directed the following critically-acclaimed world premieres for Playwrights’ Arena: MIX-MIX by Boni B. Alvarez, THREE by Nick Salamone, A HIT DOG WILL HOLLER by Inda Craig-Galván, SOUTHERNMOST by Mary Lyon Kamitaki, BABY EYES by Donald Jolly, LITTLE WOMEN by Velina Hasu Houston, BILLY BOY by Nick Salamone, THE HOTEL PLAY (performed in an actual hotel), @THESPEEDOFJAKE by Jennifer Maisel, and THE ANATOMY OF GAZELLAS by Janine Salinas Schoenberg. Other recent works include: KIM’S CONVENIENCE by Ins Choi, BINGO HALL by Dillon Chitto, FAIRLY TRACEABLE by Mary Kathryn Nagle, CRIERS FOR HIRE by Giovanni Ortega, STAND-OFF AT HWY #37 by Vicky Ramirez, FLIPZOIDS by Ralph B. Peña (also in Manila). Rivera is the recipient of a NY Fringe Festival Award and LA Weekly Award for direction.

Jon is in conversation with AJ Layague

JENNIFER CHAMBERS (she/her) Jennifer is a Los Angeles based director. She developed and directed the world premiere of The Cake by Bekah Brunstetter at Echo Theater Company with subsequent productions at Geffen Playhouse and Barrington Stage Company, POTUS; Or, Behind Every Dumbass are the Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive by Selina Fillinger(Geffen Playhouse), Staging Loss by Daniela Topol and Winter Miller(City of Hope) The Enigmatist by David Kwong (Geffen Playhouse, The Kennedy Center), If I Forget by Steven Levenson (Barrington Stage Company), A Kid Like Jake by Daniel Pearle (IAMA Theatre Company), The Feast by Deborah Stein (CalArts), Sheila Callaghan’s Bed (Echo Theater Company), Jessica Goldberg’s Better (Echo Theater Company), the world premiere of Stephen Belber’s The Muscles in Our Toes (El Portal Forum Theatre), The Pain and the Itch by Bruce Norris (Zephyr Theatre), Playdates by Sam Wolfson (Theatre Asylum, Elephant Theatre Company), and the world premiere of Complete by Andrea Kuchlewska.  She directed the short film See You Soon by Meredith Bishop She has worked with acclaimed playwrights Paula Vogel and Bess Wohl and has directed workshops and readings for South Coast Repertory, The Old Globe, Geffen Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, and McCarter Theatre Center. She was associate artistic director at the Echo Theater Company and ran the playwrights lab.  She is a proud member of the new class of The Kilroys, an LA/NY based collective of playwrights, directors, and producers who fight to achieve equal representation on our American stages and gender balance in the American Theater. She is the co-founder of Girl Crush Films. www.jennifergchambers.com

Jennifer is in conversation with Julia Lederer

Elizabeth Harper is a lighting designer who loves new plays. World premieres include Between Two Knees at the Perelman Center for the Performing Arts, Rattlesnake Kate by Neyla Pekarek of The Lumineers and Karen Hartman at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, new translation of Uncle Vanya by Heidi Schreck at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre (a co-design with Lap Chi Chu) Little Black Shadows by Kemp Powers, Throw Me on the Burnpile and Light Me Up by Lucy Alibar, Julia Cho’s Office Hour, and Michael Mitnick’s Mysterious Circumstances.

Elizabeth Harper is mostly a lighting designer. She is an essayist and photographer interested in Italian iconography and architecture. Her photos were featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s catalogue for Like Life: Sculpture, Color and the Body and her essay “The Cult of the Beheaded” was a notable selection in The Best American Essays. She is the Associate Professor of Lighting Design at USC.

Elizabeth is in conversation with Dana Schwartz

Jim Leonard writes plays, movies, and television. He’s published seven plays, including THE DIVINERS, AND THEY DANCE REAL SLOW IN JACKSON, and ANATOMY OF GRAY, and received numerous theatrical honors including the Outer Critics Circle, Ovation, Midland Writers, and Dramatists Guild Awards. Jim co-wrote the screenplay for Mira Nair’s film MY OWN COUNTRY. He created the television series CLOSE TO HOME (CBS), SKIN (Fox), and THIEVES (ABC). Other TV credits include DEXTER, THE CLOSER, INTERNAL AFFAIRS, KILROY (HBO), and the American version of CRACKER. His most recent TV show was RAY DONOVAN (Showtime). Jim is currently writing a new musical with his long-time collaborators Rob Cairns and Beth Thornley.

Jim is in conversation with Weston Gaylord

Ramiz Monsef is a former member of the EPG at Circle X and is happy to be returning as a mentor this time around. Most recently, Ramiz’s play The Ants was produced at The Geffen Playhouse where it had a sold out run.  He’s an alumnus of The Writers’ Room at The Geffen, where The Ants was developed. 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 A.C.T. (SF). He wrote that show’s accompanying graphic novel as well. He 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 in The Bushwick Starr reading series, The New Works Festival at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, DNA New Work Series at La Jolla Playhouse, and Playwrights Horizons. Ramiz has appeared in major theatres across the country including New York Theatre Workshop, SecondStage, The Culture Project, Actors Theater of Louisville, Seattle Rep, Berkeley Rep, The Mark Taper Forum, the Kirk Douglas, The Geffen Playhouse, ACT (SF), Lookingglass, Kansas City Rep, and seven seasons at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, most recently he played the title role in Rajiv Joseph’s Letters of Suresh off-Broadway at Second Stage Theater, television credits include NCIS, S.W.A.T., SEAL Team, Kidding, Shameless, Modern Family, and Young Sheldon. Films: Synchronic, Invaders From Proxima B, and the upcoming Scary Tales, and Josiah Road. Ramiz is a former member of the Evolving Playwrights Group at Circle X Theatre Co., and the L.A. Writers’ Workshop at Center Theatre Group, in Los Angeles.

Ramiz is in conversation with Cris Eli Black

Diana Wyenn is a Los Angeles born and based director, writer, choreographer, curator, and creative producer. Driven by a commitment to equity, environmental and disability justice, she works across theater, opera, and film. Her award-winning autobiographical solo performance, Blood/Sugar, and co-devised solo performance with Kristina Wong, Kristina Wong for Public Office, are testaments to her ability to transform personal experiences into powerful, socially conscious art. Diana has directed and choreographed projects presented by Center Theatre Group, LA Phil, Detroit Opera, East West Players, National Sawdust, Malmö Opera, Skirball Cultural Center, LACMA, MOCA, UCLA, Yale, ASU, and many more. Her work has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Arts and Disability Center, Center for Cultural Innovation, California Arts Council, and more. She received her BFA in Drama from New York University, currently serves as co-Artistic Director of Ammunition Theatre Company, and founded and leads Plain Wood Productions with her spouse LABAN. dianawyenn.com

Diana is in conversation with Veronica Tjioe