2nd Annual AAPI Playwright Festival at San Jose Stage

Jeffrey Lo (He/Him/His) is a Filipino American playwright and director based in the Bay Area. He is the recipient of the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award, the Emerging Artist Laureate by Arts Council Silicon Valley and Theatre Bay Area Director's TITAN Award. Selected directing credits include “The Language Archive,” “Little Shop of Horrors” and “The Santaland Diaries” at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, “Chinglish,” “The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin” and “Hold These Truths” at San Francisco Playhouse, “Vietgone” and “The Great Leap” at Capital Stage, “A Doll’s House, Part 2” and “Eurydice” at Palo Alto Players (TBA Awards finalist for Best Direction) and “The Grapes of Wrath,” “The Crucible” and “Yellow Face” at Los Altos Stage Company. As a playwright, his plays have been produced and workshopped at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, BindleStiff Studio, City Lights Theatre Company and Stanford University. His play “Writing Fragments Home” was a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Conference and a semi-finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Jeffrey has also worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Asian American International Film Festival, San Jose Repertory and is a company member of Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company and SF Playground. His short play, “Brendan’s Damn Good Day,” was adapted to a short film, which was selected for the Manchester Lift-Off Film Festival and the Black Cat International Film Festival in Bolivia. Jeffrey also works as an educator and advocate for issues of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and has served as a grant panelist for the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Silicon Valley Creates, and Theatre Bay Area. He is the Associate Producer of Casting and Literary Manager at the Tony Award-winning TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, a graduate of the Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute, and a proud alumnus of the UC Irvine Drama Department. More info at Jeffreywritesaplay.com.

Reed Flores (he/him) is a director, playwright, and producer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Reed has worked around the country at places such as Seattle Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Breaking Wave Theatre Company, Long Beach Playhouse. Locally, Reed has worked with SFBATCO, New Conservatory Theatre Center, Bindlestiff Studio, PlaygroundSF, Contemporary Asian Theater Scene, Hillbarn Theatre, The Pear Theatre. Favorite Directing credits include: WRITING FRAGMENTS HOME (World Premiere, Hillbarn Theatre), PUEBLO REVOLT (World Premiere, Alter Theatre Ensemble), BRACKISH (World Premiere, Wayward Voices). In 2025, the world premiere of his play CUCKOO EDIBLE MAGIC was produced by SFBATCO at The Magic Theatre -- it was the best time. Reed will begin his MFA in Playwriting at Brown University in Fall 2025. More info at reedflores.com.

TASI ALABASTRO (he, him) is a multi-hyphenated artist, SVCreates Emerging Artist Laureate, and recipient of the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award. He’s delighted to be involved in the festival’s second year! Directing credits include Japantown Returning, the inaugural AAPI Playwright Festival (Contemporary Asian Theater Scene), and assistant director of Clyde’s (CLTC). Selected acting credits include Sisters Matsumoto (Center REPertory Company), The Play That Goes Wrong (San Francisco Playhouse), A Christmas Carol (A.C.T), Manahatta (Aurora Theatre Company), Every Brilliant Thing, and Vietgone (City Lights Theater Company). Recent illustrations and designs include SF Mime Troupe's 2025 poster and projections on Happy Pleasant Valley (TheatreWorks/CenterRep). He is a senior company member of the Red Ladder Theatre Company, a nationally acclaimed, award-winning social justice theatre company. More info at tasialabastro.com.

Marissa May Macaraeg Martinez (she/her) is a playwright and arts advocate born and raised in East San José. Since 2007, she has written plays, short stories, and poetry inspired by her experience as a second-generation Latina-Filipina. She writes about identity, growing up, mental health, friendship, and fruit. Her recent plays include a production of “Joyful Wedding TBD” (Bindlestiff Studio, 2025) and staged readings of “stonefruit” (Santa Clara University, 2024) and “your twenties” (More Más Marami Arts, 2023). Aside from writing, she makes zines, volunteers for genARTS Silicon Valley and KQED, and works full-time at Happy Hollow Foundation in San José. Marissa earned a B.A. in English and Theatre Arts from Santa Clara University and has been featured by EASTSIDE Magazine, La Raíz Magazine, Sampaguita Press, More Más Marami Arts, and Bindlestiff Studio. Check out her website at marissamaywrites.com.

Jenny Nguyen Nelson is a playwright and theater artist from the Bay Area. She received her MFA in acting from Brown/Trinity, where she debuted various works. She has a one-woman show titled “Amalgam,” which explores her identity as a mixed-race Asian woman, set during the height of the Vietnam War from her mother's perspective. Her longer play, “The Brave Ones,” earned her a spot in a selective writing cohort, where she was given a week-long workshop and an open performance. As an actor, she has worked in the Bay Area and New York. She has a special passion for new plays and has worked in development with Ojai Playwrights Conference several times, Playwrights Center, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, and the Magic Theater, to name a few. More info at jennynguyennelson.com.

Conrad A. Panganiban (he/him/his) is a Filipino American playwright representing the San Francisco Bay Area. His plays include “DARYO’S ALL-AMERICAN DINER,” “WELGA,” and “RIVER’S MESSAGE.” Conrad’s work has been produced by Bindlestiff Studio, The Chikahan Company, CIRCA Pintig, MaArte Theatre Collective, and the Sinag-tala Filipino Theatrical Performing Arts Association. Awards include: Susan Fairbrook Playwright Fund Awardee (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley), James Milton Highsmith Award Winner (SFSU), National Ten-Minute Play Festival Finalist (Actors Theatre of Louisville), and Bay Area Playwrights Festival Semi-Finalist (Playwrights Foundation). Resident Artist: Bindlestiff Studio. Member: Dramatist Guild of America, and Theatre Bay Area. MFA from San Francisco State University. More info at conradpanganiban.com.

Lisa Marie Rollins is a Filipina / Black feminist playwright, director and theater maker. She has been a writing fellow with “Hedgebrook,” “Djerassi,” “CALLALOO London,” “VONA” and more. She was a Wallace Gerbode Playwright Fellow awardee and is a 24-25 Core Writer in the Susan Fairbrook Playwright Group at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Her plays “TOKEN” and “LOVE IS ANOTHER COUNTRY” can be found on New Play Exchange. She has been the Literary Associate for Intiman Theater in Seattle, WA, and reads for juries and play selection panels around the country. She has been a Resident Artist with Brava Theater and Crowded Fire Theater in San Francisco. She is a Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC) and the Dramatist Guild. Selected directing and dramaturg credits include Sundance Institute Theatre Lab (Directing), New York Stage and Film, Berkeley Repertory Theater’s Ground Floor, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Arizona Theater Company, Hedgebrook Women’s Play Festival, Crowded Fire Theater, American Conservatory Theatre SF, Magic Theatre. She leads the IRIS LAB, a residency and new work incubator for global majority theater makers located at the University of California, Santa Cruz. More info at lisamarierollins.wordpress.com.

Kenna Tanaka is a graduate from San Francisco State University (SFSU), receiving a Bachelor’s in Theatre Arts. He is returning to SFSU in the fall of 2025 to pursue a Master’s of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Kenna pursued acting during his time in the United States Navy, after receiving high honors for his performance in the Ship’s Command Holiday Play. Jokingly, (but not really) his Captain in the Navy gave him direct orders to pursue acting in college and as a career. Therefore, on military orders, Kenna joins the Contemporary Asian Theater Scene’s (CATS) AAPI Playwright Festival, honored, privileged and ready to entertain. He’s performed in several SFSU productions, like Jeffrey Lo’s “Dealing Dreams” and Aaron Posner’s “Stupid F’N Bird.” He recently completed productions in Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” as an understudy at the SF Playhouse. When he’s not performing, he serves as a substitute teacher for the West Contra Costa Unified School District. More info at More info at https://new.express.adobe.com/webpage/rTijacDlwvpR9. See his portfolio at https://kennatanaka.myportfolio.com.