Matthew Paul Olmos News

The Assembly Theatre, a non-profit theater company based in Brooklyn, New York, is set to launch its ambitious first (and last?) 4-Hour Telethon Fundraiser.

Playwrights Foundation, the West Coast's premier launchpad for plays and playwrights, has announced the semi finalists and finalists for the 44th annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) scheduled to stream online July 16-25, 2021.

'We hope you can help us understand what happened here so it never repeats itself and justice can be served.'

The Echo Theater Company's next production UNDERNEATH THE FREEWAYS OF LOS ANGELES will live-stream April 2 for sixteen Zoom performances. Written by playwright Matthew Paul Olmos, this interactive murder mystery experience has been inspired by historical events centering in and around the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights. Michael Alvarez directs the cast of Mia Ando, Morgan Danielle Day, Amy K. Harmon, Gloria Ines, Roland Ruiz and Darrett Sanders.

The Drama League has just announced the 2021 Nominees and Special Recognition Honorees for The 87th Annual Drama League Awards. Keeping in the tradition of honoring the outstanding accomplishments of the theatrical community, as they have since 1935, this year the organization has established five unique categories to honor the extraordinary achievements of artists across the nation who created digital and socially-distanced theatrical productions during this challenging year of suspension for live arts.

'Clue' meets Chinatown in a live-streamed, interactive murder mystery experience inspired by historical events. Set in 1960 in East L.A.'s Hollenbeck Park — newly divided by the Los Angeles Freeway Interchange that famously displaced over 15,000 residents in Boyle Heights — Underneath the Freeways of Los Angeles.

Registration is currently open for The Dramatists Guild's Institute for Dramatic Writing Spring 2021 Semester, featuring writing classes that will be taught by James Anthony Tyler, Cheryl Coons, John Dietrich, Emily Dendinger, Jacqueline Goldfinger, Marcy Heisler, Mark Hollmann, Andrea Lepcio, Donja Love, Mona Mansour, Deborah Murad and more.

Lighting the Way: An Anthology of Short Plays About the Climate Crisis is now available in paperback and ebook from Lulu and Amazon. Edited by Chantal Bilodeau and Thomas Peterson, this anthology includes 49 inspiring plays by writers from across the world.

The second and final showing of new work developed in The Assembly's Deceleration Lab is TONIGHT (Saturday, December 19th) at 7pm ET/4pm PT! Lab artist Nehassaiu deGannes' has assembled over two dozen artists to collaborate on EBB & lo', a devised exigesis of the life and writing of poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

The Assembly presents two new works developed by the resident artists of the Deceleration Lab, an initiative to foster new theatrical projects that use and experiment with multi-perspective and multi-disciplinary models of creation.

Ken Barnett (Off-Broadway's Too Much Sun, Amazon's Mozart in The Jungle), Kyle Beltran (Broadway's The Cherry Orchard and In the Heights), and Emily Bergl (Dirty John, Shameless) will star in a virtual workshop of Ken Urban's new play Danger and Opportunity on October 28, 2020 as part of Kane Repertory Theatre's New Play Lab.

The digital workshop begins at 7:30 PM CT on Youtube and will remain available until November 1st at 7:30 PM CT. A live talkback with playwright Ken Urban, director Mark Brokaw, and Kane Repertory Theatre AD Daniil Krimer will follow the reading. All of our readings are free to watch, but a donation of $25 is suggested.

Tony Award winner Rondi Reed and Steppenwolf's Francis Guinan will star in a world premiere virtual reading of Adam Szymkowicz's Such Small Hands, directed by Artistic Director of Northlight Theatre BJ Jones on October 14, 2020, at 7:30 PM, as part of Kane Repertory Theatre's New Play Lab.

Repertorio Español has announced the winners of The 2020 Miranda Family Voces Latinx Playwriting Competition, an initiative to develop and promote Latinx plays that resonate with and accurately depict the Latinx experience.

Rondi Reed (Steppenwolf Ensemble/Tony Winner) and Francis Guinan (Steppenwolf Ensemble) will star in a world premiere virtual reading of Adam Szymkowicz's a??Such Small Hands ona?? October 14th. The performance is part of Kane Repertory Theatre's a??New Play Lab. The reading will be directed by BJ Jones (AD Northlight Theatre).

Isabel Arraiza and Philip Stoddard will star in a virtual workshop reading of Adam Szymkowicz's Young Love October 7th. The performance is part of Kane Repertory Theatre's New Play Lab.

As part of its new Words Matter initiative, The Workshop Theater will be presenting four newly-commissioned one-act plays by Sylvia Khoury, Charly Evon Simpson, Matthew Paul Olmos, and Lisa Ramirez on behalf of New Sanctuary Coalition.

Check out this week's list of new and upcoming book and music releases, including a book of Broadway musical Christmas carols, socially distanced theatre games, and more!

The next four plays which will be workshopped in The New Play Lab and streamed live on YouTube have been announced.

Geffen Playhouse today announced its selection of six local writers to participate in the third cycle of The Writersa?? Room, a forum for engagement and collaboration between Los Angeles playwrights.