Playwrights' Arena to Present RED INK, A HIT DOG WILL HOLLER and More in 2020

Jon Lawrence Rivera, Artistic Director of Playwrights' Arena - the first and oldest theater dedicated to discovering, nurturing, and producing original works written exclusively by Los Angeles playwrights - has announced its 2020 Season of World Premieres which include: RED INK by Steven Leigh Morris, A HIT DOG WILL HOLLER by Inda Craig-Galván, and FABULOUS MONSTERS by Diana Burbano.

RED INK (January 18 - February 10, 2020) by Steven Leigh Morris is an absurdist satire that looks at the corrosive pressures of click-bait journalism and cut-throat competition on newspapers around the country, as they struggle to report the truth in a post-fact world. It is a funny, often biting, brand new play about the plight of local newspapers, which follows a journalist who is hired by new management to run the paper he has been working for, and loves. In the wake of a corporate merger. Can he keep the standards he aspires to? Can he keep his family and friends? His sanity?

Steven Leigh Morris is the founding editor of Stage Raw, a digital journal dedicated to covering the Los Angeles stage. He is the inaugural (2017) recipient of the Gordon Davidson Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Los Angeles Theatrical Community, presented by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle. He has served as both jurist and jury chair for the Drama award of the Pulitzer Prizes. For over 25 years, he served as either a theater reviewer, theater editor, news writer, and critic-at-large for LA Weekly, and his arts features have also been published in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, American Theatre Magazine, and DRAMA Magazine in London. His play Beachwood Drive, first presented by Playwrights' Arena in Los Angeles, was also performed off-Broadway. Morris's first novel, Fowl Play (Padaro Press) was a Gold Winner in the Human Relations Indie Book Awards. Morris teaches theater, playwriting and criticism at California State University, San Bernardino and Dominguez Hills.

A HIT DOG WILL HOLLER (May 23 - June 14, 2020) by Inda Craig-Galván deals with racism and oppression as they manifest in a scary, physical form, when a social media influencer and a boots-on-the-ground activist form a complex bond of friendship to help each other survive. The play, developed in workshop with the Humanitas Prize, explores the effects of a never-ending barrage of trauma on the women who are continually looked at to lead a movement of resistance and change. What happens when there's no more outside space for the growing monster that is American racism?

Inda Craig-Galván's playwriting dwells in stories that explore the breadth and multiplicity of intra-racial conflicts, allegiances, and politics within the African-American community. Female protagonists and a dose of magic/realism are prominent in her work. Currently developing new work with East/West Players Writers Group and Geffen Playhouse Writers Room. Her play Black Super Hero Magic Mama had its world premiere at The Geffen Playhouse and will receive its second production at Company One (Boston) in 2020. I Go Somewhere Else had its world premiere at Playwrights' Arena, directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera (Best Playwright, Los Angeles Stage Raw Awards). Inda has developed work at the Ojai Playwrights Conference, Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, OSF's BLACK SWAN Lab, The Old Globe Powers New Voices Festival, Kitchen Dog Theatre New Works Festival, Black & Latino Playwrights Conference, and WomenWorks. Additionally, her work has been presented at: Chalk Repertory Theatre, Skylight Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Trustus Theatre Playwrights Festival, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Intiman, and others. Honors include: 2019 Kesselring Prize, 2019 Jeffry Melnick New Playwright Award, Kilroys List, Kennedy Center Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, Steppenwolf's The Mix, Blue Ink Playwriting Prize, Jane Chambers Student Award for Feminist Playwriting, Humanitas Prize, and Princess Grace Award in Playwriting (runner-up). Inda writes words for Viola Davis and Cicely Tyson on How to Get Away with Murder (what is life?!) and previously wrote on ABC's The Rookie. MFA in Dramatic Writing, University of Southern California.

FABULOUS MONSTERS (October 10 - November 2, 2020) by Diana Burbano is about the time when punk rock exploded in L.A., introducing us to Sally and Lou who were there: feminists, Latinas, queens of noise. One went pop, one stayed punk, but sparks from their tumultuous friendship remain. Decades later they have to navigate age, illness, and social media to overcome old feuds. But they discover punk isn't dead. It just has a more reasonable bedtime. This play contains original punk music written by Moises Vazquez.

Diana Burbano, a Colombian immigrant, is a playwright, an Equity actor, and a teaching artist at South Coast Repertory and Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble. Diana's plays focus on female protagonists. Plays include Policarpa, Fabulous Monsters, & Caliban's Island. Linda, (in English and in Spanish), has been seen all over the world. Her play Ghosts of Bogota, recently won the Nu Voices festival at Actors Theatre of Charlotte. Ghosts was commissioned and will get a production from Alter Theater in the Bay Area. She was in Center Theatre Group's 2018-19 Writers Workshop cohort. As an actor Diana recently played Amalia in Jose Cruz Gonzales' American Mariachi at South Coast Repertory. You can also see her as Viv the Punk in the cult musical Isle of Lesbos.

Artistic Director Jon Lawrence Rivera will present these plays that speak to our ever-changing political and racial climate. Rivera added "I have known all these playwrights for many years, two of them are returning to our theater. They bring a deep understanding of our multicultural landscape in their writing. We are so proud to present these diverse brand new plays to Los Angeles audiences."

All performances will be at Atwater Village Theatre, 3269, Casitas Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90039. For tickets or more information go to www.playwrightsarena.org

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