Brian Otaño Named Recipiemt Of IAMA's Shonda Rhimes-Sponsored 'Unsung Voices Playwriting Commission'

IAMA Theatre Company has selected ensemble member Brian Otaño as the 2024 recipient of the company's Rhimes Unsung Voices Playwriting Commission, sponsored by award-winning writer and producer Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, Inventing Anna).

Now in its seventh year, the annual Rhimes commission was created to help grow and nourish budding playwrights and artists with an emphasis on cultural inclusion, and to showcase fresh, creative, thought-provoking work. The commission helps foster long-lasting relationships with the diverse voices that IAMA is committed to developing; by incorporating the talent and inspiration of IAMA's acting ensemble into the development of writers and their work, IAMA continues to create a dynamic family of artists.

Past recipients include Brooklyn-based playwright and activist Geraldine Inoa; Iranian-American playwright Sanaz Toosi, who went on to receive a Pulitzer Prize; Obie-winning performer/playwright Ryan J. Haddad; Emmy-nominated writer, director and producer Larry Powell; celebrated actor, director and playwright Jule Carryl; and Chinese-Canadian playwright, TV writer, screenwriter Chloé Hung. Otaño is the first IAMA ensemble member to be honored with the award.

“We're so lucky to be able to extend this opportunity to a writer from our ensemble for the first time,” says IAMA artistic director Stefanie Black. We've been invested in Brian's work for years, helping early on to develop his ambitious Dooley Street Trilogy. We can't wait to see what he's been dreaming up next that we can build from the ground up together.”

A Brooklyn-born playwright and screenwriter, Otaño's full-length plays include Dolores Slayborne: A Grand Guignol Drag Fantasia (Atlantic Theater Company Launch Commission), Under Normal Circumstances (UCSB), The Dust (2019 MCC Theater PlayLab), Tara, Zero Feet Away (Roundabout Underground Series) and The Dooley Street Trilogy. In television, Otaño developed numerous projects and served as writer-producer for The Horror of Dolores Roach while under a two-year overall deal with Amazon Studios. Other TV credits include Goosebumps: Gravesend (Disney+, upcoming) and the first season of Cruel Summer (Hulu). Otaño is a two-time alumnus of National Hispanic Media Coalition Writers Program, as well as Echo Paywrights Lab, CTG LA Writers Workshop, Geffen Playhouse Writers Room, Ars Nova Playgroup and Page 73's Interstate 73 Writers Group. He is the recipient of the New Dramatists Van Lier Fellowship and the New York Theater Workshop 2050 Fellowship. He currently lives in LA, where he is an IAMA Theatre Company member playwright and a participant in the Rogue Machine Playwrights Roundtable. Otaño is represented by William Morris Endeavor, Grandview Management and Jackoway Austen et al.

IAMA has been dedicated to developing new plays and musicals by emerging and established playwrights since 2007. Rhimes, a frequent IAMA audience member, came on board in March 2017 as the company's first-ever “Patron of the Arts,” committing funds for the commission as well as tangible support for IAMA's mission and operations through her Rhimes Foundation. The Rhimes Foundation was established in 2016 to support arts, education and activism with a focus on promoting cultural inclusion and fighting inequality.

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