2012 PlayLab Members

READ ABOUT THE PLAYLAB PROGRAM HERE

TONY FOSTER is a founding member of the Elephant Theatre in Los Angeles and has written several works for the company including: Underwear for Christmas, Elephant Shorts, Adventures with Sparky and Poo, Greystone, and the critically acclaimed Asleep on a Bicycle (now available through Original Works Online). Other works have been produced at the Universal Theatre; Howling Moon Cab Theatre; Makor/Steinhardt Center; New Jersey Rep; the Ashland New Plays Festival; and the Actors Theatre of Louisville. He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Playwright Unit. Find out more about Tony at: www.tonyplaywright.com

MAYANK KESHAVIAH is a playwright, screenwriter, and drama critic. His play RANGOON received its world premiere Off-Broadway at the Clurman Theatre, produced by New York’s Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. His plays ANGELS FIGHT and SWITZERLAND have been produced in Los Angeles by Company of Angels, where he is a member of the Playwrights Group, and RECYCLING was included in Single Servings, Cornerstone Theatre’s One-Minute Play Festival. As a critic, Mayank regularly reviews for the LA Weekly, serves as the Treasurer of the L.A. Drama Critics Circle, and was selected as a 2010 NEA Arts Journalism Fellow in Theatre and Musical Theatre. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College, an M.A. in Teaching from American University, and an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from the University of Southern California.

 TOM LAVAGNINO is a writer whose plays have been produced in 13 states (and is working on the other 37). NINETEEN KINDS OF PERIL was a runner-up for the 2010 Yale Drama Series award (and was subsequently presented at Sheffield Theatres (U.K.)), NEGOTIATING NATHAN won the 2006 Actors’ Theatre (Santa Cruz) Full-Length Play Award, and one-acts HANK MANQUE and W.A. have been published in Confrontation and Dramatics, respectively. He is a native of Indianapolis, a former editor at 5th Street International Poker Magazine, and a graduate of NYU's Tisch School Of The Arts (B.F.A.) and the American Film Institute's Center For Advanced Film Studies (M.F.A.).

Z.N. LUPETIN is a Chicago-born playwright, screenwriter and touring musician. He The University of Michigan and won several of the university’s prestigious Hopwood awards for writing including The Hopwood Drama Award, The Dennis McIntyre Prize for Distinction in Undergraduate Playwriting, and The Naomi Saferstein Literary Award for the play “The Surprise” which was produced at the Arena Theater in Ann Arbor. Mr. Lupetin won the Hopwood Drama Award for his play “Past Alaska” which was produced at The Walgreen Center, Ann Arbor, and the Hopwood Undergraduate Short Fiction Award, and the Stanley S. Schwartz Prize for his fiction manuscript “Permanent Vacation”. After penning several screenplays, including a biblical action epic with friend and collaborator Rachel Robb Kondrath that is receiving some studio notice, Zach moved to Los Angeles and has worked extensively in advertising and production. Z.N. Lupetin is the front man of vaudeville roots collective The Dustbowl Revival which has toured throughout the west, playing hundreds of shows and festivals in the last four years. In 2011 he was asked to write a full bluegrass score to Shakespeare’s 12^th Night, which was performed at The Old Globe Theater in San Diego. A Dustbowl Revival song won “Americana Song Of The Year” at The Independent Music Awards in 2011 (Tom Waits, Ozzy Osbourne judges). During his years in Los Angeles Z.N. Lupetin has written several full length plays and several one acts, three of which he produced and directed at The Block Box Theater in 2010 (Rubber/Necking) which featured two actors playing over six roles (Mark Weiler, CBS’s CSI Miami, NBC’s The Event - and Alicia N. Seaton, recent feature The 4^TH Kind ). In 2011 Zach brought his one act Eskimo Brothers to the Little Theater in LA for a limited run. After a workshop in New York, his play “Sweet Tooth”, directed by Gina Rattan (Broadway’s “Billy Elliot”) was accepted into the New York International Fringe Festival and will have a run in August 2012. There are plans to bring “Sweet Tooth” to LA in the fall of 2012. Z.N. Lupetin lives in Venice, CA.

RUTH MCKEE’s work has been produced or developed by Abingdon Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alliance Theatre, Black Dahlia Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Chalk Repertory Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, HB Playwrights Foundation, The Road Theatre, Six Figures Theatre Company, SPFNYC, and Urban Stages, among others. She received the Stanley Drama Award for Stray and her play Hell Money was a runner up for the Yale Drama Series Award. Originally from Canada, by way of Bangladesh and Kenya, Ruth has a BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU and an MFA in Playwriting from UCSD. She is a member of the L.A. Playwrights Union, Literary Manager for the Black Dahlia Theatre, teaches playwriting at Cypress College and is a founder and Artistic Circle member of Chalk Rep.

 WILLIAM NEDVED is the co-founder of The Gift Theatre Company of Chicago. Full-length works include Northwest Highway (The Gift; 2011 American Theater Critics Association’s Steinberg/New Play Award nomination); Fact & Fiction (Elephant Theatre, 2011; The Gift, 2012); crying, waiting, hoping (Blank Theatre’s Living Room Series); A Young Man in Pieces (The Gift; published by Heuer); and County Fair (The Gift). His short play Kid was awarded “Best Production” at Collaboraction’s Sketchbook 2009. Against the Grain was part of the 1997 Young Playwrights, Inc. Summer Festival. His short film All Tomorrow’s Parties premiered at The ArtHouse Sydney and was screened at the 2002 Los Angeles Short Film Festival. He holds a BA in Theatre Arts from the University of Iowa; an MA in Theatre Studies from the University of New South Wales – Sydney; and an MFA in Film and Television Writing from the University of Southern California.

LARRY PONTIUS is a playwright and screenwriter whose work has been seen around the world.  His produced stage work includes an Off-Broadway production of Umbrella by Alchemy Theatre Company of Manhattan; Fallout by Working Man’s Clothes Productions and The Lunar Adventures of Dar and Matey by Stolen Chair Theater, On The Night of Anthony’s 30th Birthday Party, Again at the Manhattan Theatre Source, On Sunday Morning, by Collaboraction in Chicago.  Pontius is one of the highest paid TV writers… in Pakistan.  He has written three serials, including Qaatil, Pakistan’s first tele-thriller, and most recently Neeyat, a 20 part drama set in New York City.

CHELSEA SUTTON is a playwright, fiction writer and director.  She holds a BA in Literature rom the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara.  Her plays have been developed or produced with Ensemble Theater in Santa Barbara, Inner Circle Theater in Ojai, The Waking Art Project in Santa Barbara, Monstrous Little Productions, UCSB New Plays Festival, The Car Play Project at Westmont College, The Eclectic Company Theatre, The Secret Rose Theatre A Through Z Productions and The Looking Glass Theatre in NY.  Her fiction has appeared in Farmhouse Magazine, Spectrum, The Catalyst and The Best of Farmhouse Magazine Anthology (Editor’s Choice Award).  She is also the first place winner of NYC Midnight’s Flash Fiction Contest 2011 and is currently a staff fiction writer for Fictionade Magazine.  WithCoffeeSpoons.com

LUCY WANG  writes, teaches and occasionally performs. Her plays have been performed all over, including London, and are available at Original Works Publishing, JAC Publishing, Amazon. Wang has also written a novel, two short films (one of which she directed), and sold a pilot to Disney. Her awards include the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, Best New Political Social Play from the Katherine and Lee Chilcote Foundation, Berrilla Kerr Foundation, James Thurber Fellowship, CAPE’s New Writers TV Award, NATPE Diversity Fellow, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Honorary Fellow, Annnenberg Community Beach House Writer in Residence. Her manuscripts are archived at the Huntington Library in San Marino.

KIT WILLIAMSON is an actor and writer living in Los Angeles, CA. His plays have been developed by MCC, The Blank Theatre, Urban Stages, The National Arts Club, The Old Vic: New Voices Network, Fordham University, UCLA, The Cry Havoc Company, At Play Productions and The Great Plains Theatre Conference. His play, The Gin Dialogues, was the recipient of the National Arts Club’s Playwrights First Award for 2009 and was a semi-finalist for Reverie Productions' Next Generation Contest for 2012. His play, “Tennessee Waltz” was a finalist for the 2012 WordBRIDGE playlab. As an actor he performed in the Broadway Revival of Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio at the Longacre Theatre and Off-Broadway in The Play Company's production of Made in Poland at 59E59, among other credits. He is a founding member of At Play Productions and the Old Vic: New Voices Network, as well as a contributing artist with the Cry Havoc Company. He holds a B.A. in Theatre from Fordham University and is currently pursuing his MFA in Playwriting at UCLA.

Read about the 2011-12 PlayLab Members here