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The Ignite Project is an 8 week lab for artists to create brand new plays
written for or inspired by our company.
COHORT #3 FACILITATORS
David Johann Kim
David’s plays Pang Spa and Two Stop were both awarded the 2022 Los Angeles New Play Project Award and Grant. Two Stop was recently workshopped at The Inkwell Theater. Pang Spa was a semifinalist for the 2018 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Ashland New Play Festival and Bay Area Playwrights Festival. He holds and MFA from UC San Diego and is a member of The Dramatists Guild, EST/LA’s Playwrights Unit, The Playwrights Union, Playwrights ThinkTank and cofounder of EST/LA’s Ignite Project. David spent the first half of his career in the theatre primarily as an actor. He performed at theatres on both coasts including: The Public Theatre, NY Theatre Workshop, The Lark, Mabou Mines, Repertorio Espanol, La Mama ETC in NYC and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Magic Theatre, Asian American Theatre Co. and El Teatro Campesino in California.
Rosie Narasaki
ROSIE NARASAKI is a Los Angeles-based playwright and actor. Her acting highlights include IN LOVE AND WARCRAFT and TWO MILE HOLLOW with Artists at Play, as well as a pre-Greta Gerwig turn as Amy in a multicultural transposition of LITTLE WOMEN. Her play UNRIVALED is to be produced by Playwright’s Arena in
2023 and her play WHEN YURI MET MALCOLM is currently touring schools across Los Angeles with East West Players’ Theatre for Youth Program.
2023 and her play WHEN YURI MET MALCOLM is currently touring schools across Los Angeles with East West Players’ Theatre for Youth Program.
Jennie Webb
Jennie Webb is a Los Angeles-based playwright and dramaturg with works produced locally by Inkwell Theater, Rogue Machine Theatre, EST/LA, Santa Monica Rep, Virginia Avenue Project, Theatre of NOTE and La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival as well as in Canada, the UK, India, Iran, Iceland and at colleges/universities. Her plays have been presented by Great Plains Theatre Conferences, The Playwrights’ Center, Moving Arts MADlab, Blank Theatre, Playground-LA, Climate Change Theatre Action, Rogue Artist Ensemble’s Rogue Lab, Road Theatre Summer Playwrights Festivals & inaugural “Under Construction” Group, and published by Heinemann Press, Smith & Kraus, Next Stage Press and ICWP. National recognition includes Finalist (O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Gulfshore Playhouse, City Theatre) and Semi-Finalist (O’Neill, PlayPenn, Athena Project, Trustus) nods; she is the recipient of Max K. Lerner Playwriting Fellowships and a WIT Red Carpet Award. Member: the Playwrights Union, EST/LA, Honor Roll!, Dramatists Guild; co-founder: LA Female Playwrights Initiative (LAFPI). jenniewebbsite.com
COHORT #3 WRITERS
Poonam Basu
Poonam Basu (she/her) is an award-winning actor, writer, and filmmaker. She has a BA in Spanish and an MA in Educational Children’s TV from New York University. Poonam has appeared on TV shows like S.W.A.T., Baskets, Good Girls, Parks and Rec and more. For voiceover, she’s best known for her work as Klee in Genshin Impact. Most recently, catch Poonam in the comedy feature, Four Samosas. Poonam was nominated for Best Screenplay in 2020 for a film she co-wrote called, Everfall. Poonam lives her life by the quote, “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” Follow her @iampoonambasu
Alicia Carroll
Alicia Carroll (she/her) is a playwright and TV writer based in LA. She got her start in theater and news before moving to screenwriting. Recent credits include BUMPER IN BERLIN (Peacock), THE WATCHFUL EYE (Freeform), ZOEY’S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST (NBC), and Crooked Media’s comedic live show and podcast, LOVETT OR LEAVE IT. Alicia has also participated in fellowships and labs across genres in film, television, and theater, including Film Independent's Project Involve (2019), Women In Film's Insight (2019), IAMA Theatre’s Emerging Playwrights Lab (2020), and The Workshop Theater’s Writing Intensive (2023). Alicia is from Philadelphia and the DMV, and is a graduate of Emerson College.
Brandon English
Brandon English is a Filipinx-American Multidisciplinary Artist located in Los Angeles, CA. He is an in-house Casting Director & Producer for Roundabout Entertainment. He has cast many projects for Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Studios, such as: Small & Mighty, Summer Time Rendering, and Love & Karma. Founder of Morenx Media, he is most known for his critically acclaimed short film "Bakla," which was screened at NewFilmmakers Los Angeles, Vancouver Queer Film Festival, CinemQ, and many more! He advocates strongly for Diverse & Representative Media, both in-front and behind the camera.
brandonenglish.net, IG: @brandonuniverse
brandonenglish.net, IG: @brandonuniverse
Anna Fox
Anna Fox is a playwright, performer, teacher, and astrologer. Selected Credits:
The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Sam French Off-Off Broadway Short
Play Festival, The Last Frontier Theater Conference, Fusion Theater Company,
Live Girls! Theatre, Theater Masters National MFA Playwriting Competition.
Publication: Samuel French, The Dionysian and Bare Fiction Literary Magazine.
Residencies: Djerassi, MacDowell, Monson Arts, and The Cabins. Groups: The
Vagrancy, Echo Theater’s Los Angeles Young Playwrights, and EST LA’s New
West Playwrights Group. She also adapts foreign film and television for Netflix
and Disney+. BS Skidmore College. MFA UCLA, where she has taught
playwriting. www.annapfox.com.
The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Sam French Off-Off Broadway Short
Play Festival, The Last Frontier Theater Conference, Fusion Theater Company,
Live Girls! Theatre, Theater Masters National MFA Playwriting Competition.
Publication: Samuel French, The Dionysian and Bare Fiction Literary Magazine.
Residencies: Djerassi, MacDowell, Monson Arts, and The Cabins. Groups: The
Vagrancy, Echo Theater’s Los Angeles Young Playwrights, and EST LA’s New
West Playwrights Group. She also adapts foreign film and television for Netflix
and Disney+. BS Skidmore College. MFA UCLA, where she has taught
playwriting. www.annapfox.com.
Sandy Nguyen
Sandy Nguyen is an actor, playwright, and producer. She got her start at Chicago’s About Face Youth Theatre and has since received her BA in Critical Theory & Social Justice and Theater from Occidental College. Sandy performed in Anna Moench’s 2019 world premiere of Man of God at East West Players. Most recently, she produced the Hantext Writing Group and New Works Festival with Pothos Arts & Theater House, dedicated to the creation and development of new works by queer and trans playwrights of color. She is also an intern for Artists at Play.
Peter Pasco
Upon finishing a google search Peter Pasco found out that he Is an actor. Films like “Baby Driver,” “Bombshell,” and “Father of the Bride” are movies he has yet to see. Though his Linkedin lists Peruvian as his primary profession. -Which is a 24/7 job. He started writing plays in 2020 and his first play was a semifinalist for the Blue Ink Award and the O’Neill. Peter, also, has had plays accepted into the Workshop Theater’s intensives, and he once won a spelling bee in the fifth grade. Yer boi can SPUH-ELLL.
Ashley Denise Robinson
Ashley Denise Robinson is excited to return to EST/LA as a writer after appearing in previous Ignite readings as an actor. She holds a BA & MA from the University of Maryland, College Park and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. She’s acted in over 15 indie films, including JETHICA (which she co-wrote), a feature which premiered at the 2022 SXSW film festival. Her two-woman play, superfecunda, (which she starred in & directed) had its premiere in Santa Monica. Ashley's acted all over the country and her films have played around the world in Nigeria, South Korea, Switzerland, Poland, Sweden, and more.
Christine J. Schmidt
Christine J. Schmidt is a Los Angeles based playwright, screenwriter, and EST/LA company member. Her work has been developed and produced with EST/LA, Via Brooklyn, Skylight Theatre, Ammunition Theatre Co, The Blank Theatre, Team Awesome Robot, The Parsnip Ship, and others. Her full-length play, Charlotte Stay Close, had its world premiere production at Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA in September 2019 and she co-founded and ran New West Playwrights for its first six seasons. More at www.christinejschmidt.com.
FIRST FLAME COHORT #3 PROGRAM
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