WF26 Full Schedule | estlosangeles

FULL SCHEDULE

WEEK 1

Saturday, February 28

Opening Reception
5:00PM - 6:30PM

Join us as we celebrate the opening of Winterfest 2026!

Shorts Program #1
7:00PM - 9:00PM

Acknowledgment Written and initiated by Tony Foster
A woman confronts an ex-boyfriend over his tell-all book. Run time: 15min

Valentine's Day Written and initiated by Leilani Squire
Two strangers join forces to survive a foreign invasion. Run time: 20min

The Apartment Written by Elisa Manzini, Initiated by Christopher Reiling In extreme need to sublet their apartment, a couple struggles with the choice of renting their place to the perfect candidate after they find out he spent years in prison. Run time: 25min

Life After Life Written and initiated by Lisa Bishop Life & Love & it’s never too late. Run time: 15min

TONY FOSTER

Tony Foster is a founding member of the Elephant Theatre in Los Angeles and has written several works for the company including: Underwear for Christmas, Elephant Shorts, Adventures with Sparky and Poo, Greystone, and the critically acclaimed Asleep on a Bicycle (now available through Original Works Online). Other works have been produced at Sacred Fools; Lightning Rod Theatre; Skylight Theatre; Brimmer Street Theatre; Ringwald Theatre; Universal Theatre; Howling Moon Cab Theatre; Makor/Steinhardt Center; New Jersey Rep; the Ashland New Plays Festival; and the Actors Theatre of Louisville. He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and the Ensemble Studio Theatre.

LEILANI SQUIRE

Leilani Squire is an award-winning playwright, published writer, certified creativity coach, and member of EST/LA, Playwrights Unit, The Dramatist Guild, alumna of Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive and EST/LA’s The Ignite Project. She has been published in Smith & Krauss’ 2023 Best 10-minute Plays and WE/US: Monologues for The Gender Minority. 15 Dead Souls won Veterans Repertory Theater’s inaugural 10-minute play competition and opened their 2023 Parlor Series, and was part of EST/LA’s one-act play fundraiser in 2022. No Ordinary Mother was a finalist of The A Chronicles, first read in New York in Fall 2023, and at Winterfest 2024. Since 2010, she has facilitated writing workshops for veterans with various organizations. She is founder and CEO of Returning Soldiers Speak, 501(c)(3), whose mission is to empower veterans and their families to tell their stories to the community through the written word and live theater. Co-producer, assistant director and head playwright for Across Time: Love and Humanity During War, the full-length play written by ten veterans, and the culmination for The Letters Project, a collaboration of Returning Soldiers Speak and ArtsUP! LA. Her play Memorial Day was part of Winterfest 2025 with performances in New York and Cape Code produced by Grief Dialogues.

Sunday, March 1

@ WINTERFEST
SPECIAL PRESENTATION

EST/LA’s DevLAb is designed to take a script from its current draft to a draft that is ready for a full production.

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LAURA STRIBLING

Laura Stribling’s play, Singularities or the Computers of Venus, was produced at the Road Theatre as part of their 23-24 season. The play was developed as part of Under Construction Three and was part of the Road’s Summer Playwrights Festival before being selected for production. Her play, Rivers, was part of Ensemble Studio Theatre LA’s WinterFest, and was selected to be part of their development program. Her play, Primary Languages, was selected to be Festival Feature at InkFest. Other plays: If I Fell, Celestial, and National Zoo, were all so performed at InkFest, and If I Fell and National Zoo were part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
A seasoned director, Laura Stribling has directed more than seventy-five productions, workshops, and readings. Some selected titles include Henry IV, Part 1, Orpheus Descending, The Fattest Man in the World Lives Upstairs, Hedda Gabler, Little Night Music, Footprint, Into theGobpile, and Clownfish.
Laura has a Masters of Fine Arts in Directing from the Yale School of Drama, where she was a Patricia Boykin Scholar, and a Fox Foundation Research Fellow.

Mad Carson's Last Stop Bar and Grill Written and Directed by Laura Stribling
4:00PM - 6:00PM
Escaping LA, Elizabeth lands at Mad Carson's in Carsonville, New Mexico -- the furthest stop from nowhere, still being run by ghosts from the past. Early draft presented in Winterfest 2025. Run time: 90min

Sunday, March 1

scars & stains Written by Matilda Corley Schulman, Initiated by Aditi Pradhan
7:30PM - 9:30PM
"Frankenstein" re-imagined through Elizabeth's point of view; a look into whether or not love can actually make us monstrous. Content warning: This play deals with sexual violence and abuse, general violence, domestic abuse, and other dark subjects. Run time: 100min

MATILDA CORLEY SCHULMAN

Matilda BIO: Matilda Corley Schulman is a Los Angeles-based writer and actor—and former NCAADivision I equestrian (yes, she’s a horse girl) — who loves telling stories that are a blend ofrebellion, heartbreak, and just a touch of magic. As she puts it, she writes westerns (the one
standing up to the many) in every font and hopes to amplify voices that have too often been told
to quiet down—stories that help us all feel a little less alone.

She holds a BA from UC Berkeley (after transferring from Oklahoma State University) where
she was mentored under Philip Kan Gotanda and holds an MFA from USC. Her plays, pilots, and
features have been recognized by the O’Neill, Mazumdar, Stowe Story Labs, Cinestory, Austin
Film Festival, Coverfly, Stage 32, ScreenCraft and more.

She was named to the Coverfly x Tracking Board The Next List 2024.

As an assistant director and dramaturge she has worked for the likes of Kate Burton, David Warshofsky, and Fran de Leon. And as you guessed it, if she’s not holed up in a coffee shop writing or memorizing lines, you can be sure to find her on the back of a horse.

ADITI PRADHAN

A New West Playwrights facilitator, Aditi grew up in a neighborhood that was 80% Asian American, shaping her interest for different cultures. She has a degree in Political Economy from UC Berkeley, where she learned about systems of power. Aditi writes about family relationships, social change, and the South Asian diaspora. She’s a member of the New West playwriting group, a member of the Workshop Theatre’s writer’s group, an alum of the Rickshaw Foundation’s Writers’ Room, a semi-finalist for the Geffen Playhouse Writer’s Room, and a recipient of the Signpost Fellowship for BIPOC writers. In high school, she was nominated as “Most Dependable,” which is the highest honor she’s received.Aditi grew up in a neighborhood that was 80% Asian American, shaping her interest for different cultures. She has a degree in Political Economy from UC Berkeley, where she learned about systems of power. Aditi writes about family relationships, social change, and the South Asian diaspora. She’s a member of the New West playwriting group, a member of the Workshop Theatre’s writer’s group, an alum of the Rickshaw Foundation’s Writers’ Room, a semi-finalist for the Geffen Playhouse Writer’s Room, and a recipient of the Signpost Fellowship for BIPOC writers. In high school, she was nominated as “Most Dependable,” which is the highest honor she’s received.

WEEK 2

Friday, March 6

Women, Birds, Stars Written and initiated by Jennie Webb
8:00PM - 10:00PM
A play about being present amidst chaos, and what it means to be gone, in which four women of a certain age take refuge together when their habitat is threatened.
Run time: 100min

JENNIE WEBB

Jennie Webb is a Los Angeles-based playwright and dramaturg (she created and ran the new play development program, Seedlings, at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum, and co-created the Ignite Project at Ensemble Studio Theatre/Los Angeles) with works produced in the LA area by Inkwell Theater, Rogue Machine Theatre, EST/LA, Santa Monica Rep, Virginia Avenue Project, Road Theatre, Theatre of NOTE and La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival, as well as on stages across the country and in Canada, the UK, Europe, India, Iran, Iceland and at numerous universities & colleges.

Her plays have been developed by Great Plains Theatre Conferences, The Playwrights’ Center, Moving Arts MADlab, Blank Theatre, Playground-LA, National Winter Playwrights Retreat, Little Black Dress INK Festivals, Climate Change Theatre Action, Rogue Artist Ensemble’s Rogue Lab, Road Theatre Summer Playwrights Festivals and the Road’s inaugural “Under Construction” Playwrights Group. Her work is published by Heinemann Press, Smith & Kraus, Next Stage Press, ICWP.

National recognition includes Finalist (O’Neill Playwrights Conference, City Theatre Short Play Festival, Gulfshore Playhouse, Utah Shakespeare Festival) and Semi-Finalist (O’Neill, PlayPenn, Athena Project, Trustus Theatre Festival, DGF National Playwriting Fellow) nods; she is the recipient of two Max K. Lerner Playwriting Fellowships and a Women in Theatre Red Carpet Award. Member: the Playwrights Union, EST/LA, TCT Playwrights Lab, Honor Roll!, Dramatists Guild, LMDA; co-founder: LA Female Playwrights Initiative (LAFPI).

When asked to describe the style of her work, she uses the term “domestic absurdism.” She lives in Northeast Los Angeles with two housecats, Molly and Mick. Co-Founder of EST/LA's The Ignite Project.

Saturday, March 7

Two Dreamers Go On a Walk Written by Sol Lagos, Initiated by Aditi Pradhan
3:00PM - 4:30PM
Two Dreamers go on a walk to discover: can Dreamers choose their future or must they repeat a predetermined violent cycle? Run time: 90min

SOL LAGOS

Sol calls Los Angeles home, and is an artist who (often overly) enjoys thinking and imagining new possibilities through movement. Moving language. Moving audiences. And moving body/minds. He is currently completing his MFA in Dramatic Writing at USC, but they personally consider what makes them a student is his commitment to observing these world(s) that always call his attention – to which they give willingly and obligatorily.

ADITI PRADHAN

Saturday, March 7

"PICK"

The Ignite Project is an 8 week lab for artists to create brand new plays written for or inspired by our company.

IP "PICK" - Play On Written Andrew Grace
7:00PM - 9:30PM
A lonely tech journalist seeks to reconnect with his childhood friends by investigating how the video games they grew up loving fractured their lives. Run time: 90min

ANDREW GRACE

Andrew X.I. Grace is a writer, actor, and director. Growing up, he was homeschooled in a right-wing Evangelical community in the Midwest, so his dramas often explore multi-racial experiences, queer identity, and feature protagonists hiding secrets, searching for belonging, or attempting to unite people with drastically opposed values. His stage plays have been produced at the Hollywood Fringe Festival and Playhouse West, his short films have screened across the country, and his scripts have placed at the Austin Film Festival and won their Virtual Pitch Competition. He recently completed UCLA’s Professional Program in Producing, EST/LA’s New West and Ignite Playwrights programs, is part of NBCUniversal Launch's TV Writers' Program (2025–27), IAMA’s Emerging Playwrights Program, and is in a new fellowship that he can’t talk about publicly yet. When he’s not writing or directing, he’s acting and can be seen on TV shows on Paramount+, Disney+, Netflix, and more.

Sunday, March 8

The Captain Written by Kate McMorran, Initiated by Makeda Declet
2:00PM - 3:30PM
On the eve of her 30th birthday, Liz hatches a plan to reclaim her sexuality by hiring a Jack Sparrow impersonator. Run time: 90min

KATE McMORRAN

Kate McMorran is an LA-based writer with an MFA in Writing for Screen and Stage from Northwestern University. Her play CHOPSTICK won the judges choice award at the Playbill Virtual Theatre Festival, and several of her short plays have been produced in NYC. Her work has been published by Smith & Kraus and various lit mags, and she is a member of the Dramatists Guild. Kate writes toxic rom-coms about women searching for pleasure. She also loves to obsessively stare at her houseplants and can usually be found reading at least three books at once. She is repped by Manage-Ment.

MAKEDA DECLET

Makeda M. Declet is a Guyanese-American playwright, filmmaker and performer based in Los Angeles and Chicago. She holds an MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage from Northwestern University and a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her work– shaped by network television, bootleg CDs, and Y2K– explores themes of nostalgia, ambition and the American Dream. Her work has been developed/produced at Theater L’Acadie (Chicago), Perceptions Theatre (Chicago), Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA, Moving Arts (Los Angeles), and Mara Brock Akil’s Writers’ Colony (Los Angeles), among others. Looking ahead, Makeda is excited to continue queering Black stories for both the stage and screen. Co-Founder, EST/LA's The Ignite Project.

Sunday, March 8

@ WINTERFEST
SPECIAL PRESENTATION

EST/LA’s DevLAb is designed to take a script from its current draft to a draft that is ready for a full production.

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JACOB SUROVSKY

Jacob Surovsky is a playwright, game designer, and puppeteer born and raised in sunny San Diego. He is a proud EST/LA member and alumni of EST/LA's New West Playwrights. His 10-minute play Campus Safety was recently presented at the Festival of New Jewish Plays up in the Berkshires. Other favorite projects include puppet building with Rogue Artists Ensemble, performing at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater, and sharing new works at EST/LA including Mira and the Whale (Winterfest 2023), Think of the Children! (Winterfest 2024), and This Place Stinks (Winterfest 2025)

This Place Stinks by Jacob Surovsky
7:00PM - 9:30PM
A highly theatrical and disarmingly funny retelling of Noah’s Ark, where Noah chooses to destroy his family in order to save the world. Early draft presented in Winterfest 2025.
Run time: 90min

WEEK 3

Friday, March 13

What "All Cops Are Bastards" Means to Me Written by Jonas Oppenheim, Initiated by Angela Bullock
8:00PM - 10:00PM
A dark satire about policing, copaganda, and the prison-industrial complex. destroy his family in order to save the world.
Run time: 100min

JONAS OPPENHEIM

Jonas Oppenheim is an award-winning writer whose plays have received over 50 productions, in theaters, living rooms, alleys, parks, parking lots, and at protests outside presidential conventions and the ADL. For his climate-crisis satire, THE PLANET EARTH FAREWELL CONCERT, Jonas received a 2024 “Best Director” award from Stage Raw and an Individual Artist Grant from the California Arts Council. Jonas is a story producer on AMERICAN GANGSTER: TRAP QUEENS for BET+, and developed an original sitcom with CBS/Warner Brothers. His podcast sitcom, THE LOVE ARK (it’s THE LOVE BOAT on Noah’s Ark!), is available everywhere.

ANGELA BULLOCK

Actor and Writer Angela Bullock has received an NAACP Local Theater nomination for her lead performance in Cassiopeia at The Boston Court Theater and both Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and Stage Raw nominations for her lead performance in Watching OJ at Ensemble Studio Theater Los Angeles. Her television appearances include guest and costar roles on Shameless, Dexter, Californication, Oz and The Sopranos. She has appeared on stages nationwide including The Guthrie, Yale Repertory Theater and Actors Theater of Louisville. A member of Writer at Work in LA she has published in Arts & Letters and Lunch Ticket, and has read at Roarshack, Library Girl, LA Lit Crawl and First Mondays at The Last Bookstore., Angela holds a BA in Music and Liberal Arts from Hunter College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University. She is working on her first book, a memoir.

Saturday, March 14

New West Playwrights is dedicated to fostering and developing the work of Los Angeles area playwrights under 30 years of age through weekly meetings, readings, and workshop productions.

"PICK"

NW "PICK" - Changeling by Aubrey Clyburn
3:00PM - 5:00PM
A headstrong faerie trapped in the body of a quirky seven-year-old must save her homeland while navigating first grade.
Run time: 2 Hours

AUBREY CLYBURN

Aubrey Clyburn is an autistic writer, actor, and amateur mathematician based in LA. She grew up in North Carolina, went to school in Texas, and lived in NYC for two years as one of Off-Off-Broadway’s most caffeinated performers. Her first full-length play, Axioms, has been chosen for Caltech’s MACH 33 Festival (2024) and the Neurodivergent New Play Series (2024) in NYC. She holds a BFA in Acting from Texas State University and is an alum of Yale’s Summer Conservatory for Actors. Her current fixations include Stardew Valley and reanimating a dead succulent.

Journey to Alice Written by Aja Houston, Initiated by Makeda Declet
8:00PM - 10:00PM
While flying cross country to a wedding, Lynè, unmoored by divorce has encounters with the unexpected and inexplicable, such as the cutting spirit of Alice, her dead grandmother come to reveal Lynè's dark inheritance.
Run time: 1 Hour 40min

Saturday, March 14

JOE LUIS CEDILLO

Joe Luis Cedillo—Is a left-handed Chicano playwright, director & actor specializing in new plays, devised work, site-specific & intersectional performance. He’s a Cancer survivor and former Marine Corps Paratrooper. LA Credits include: Mark Taper Forum, Casa 0101, Watts Village Theatre Company, Playground LA, Chalk Rep, MET Theater, Highways Performance Space, The Edge of the World Theater Festival and Hollywood Fringe. Two-time Runner-Up for the Kennedy Center’s Latino Playwriting Award, and performed on a flat bed truck with Luis Valdez. Former Artistic Director of El Teatro Campesino, current Associate Artistic Director at Texas State’s Black and Latino Playwright’s Celebration, former Literary Manager/Production Dramaturg for Houston’s Alley Theatre. Recently a Finalist for the Many Voices Fellowship and member of EST/LA’s Playwright’s Unit. His plays include: NOCHE Y MOURNING; TEXTBOOKS & FENCES; 7, 8IGHT, 9… ; and THIS IS NOT A PICTURE OF CLAUDE CAHUN.

Sunday, March 15

AJA HOUSTON

Aja Houston is a nomadic writer, actor, and teaching artist from Everywhere, USA, due to her army brat adjacent childhood. She writes for theatre, television, and film, drawing on passion, politics, and magical realism to build off-kilter, uncanny worlds that tell nuanced, monolith-breaking Black stories centered on women.

MAKEDA DECLET

A Prayer Ain't Nothin' But Written and initiated by Joe Luis Cedillo
3:00PM - 4:30PM
A man wars with two street preachers, leading to fellowship. Run time: 90min

Monday, March 16

The Secret History of the Mahulley Monster (or the Cryptid Play) Written by Chelsea Sutton, Initiated by Mara Klein
8:00PM - 10:00PM
Dr. Kam Vandermeer is presenting her research on the mysterious Mahulley Monster at the Midland Paranormal Convention when C-List paranormal TV personality Peter McGillis starts poking holes in her story – but their bickering gradually unearths something stranger than either could have imagined. Run time: 100min

CHELSEA SUTTON

Chelsea Sutton is a writer and theatre maker of what she likes to call gothic whimsy. She’s a PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, a Humanitas PlayLA award-winner, a graduate of the 2022 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Workshop, and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Riverside. Chelsea was a 2018 Sewanee Writers Conference Playwright Fellow and has been an invited playwright at the 2023 South Dakota State University New Works Festival, the 2024 Valdez Theatre Conference Play Lab, and the 2024 Kayenta New Works Lab. Her first flash fiction chapbook Only Animals is now available through Wrong Publishing.

MARA KLEIN

Bio: Mara Klein is an accomplished actor on stage & screen, as well as audition coach and founder of Your Audition Friend, for actor coaching and self-tapes. You can currently catch her recurring on Season 2 of HBOMax’s Emmy Award winning series The Pitt. Other TV credits include roles on: 9-1-1, Suits LA, Netflix's The Upshaws, Hulu's Casual, Start Up, Fresh Off The Boat, and more! Notable stage work: starring in An Octoroon at the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood, the World Premiere of Measure Still For Measure an immersive play, plus the West Coast premiere of The Judas Kiss at Boston Court Pasadena. She's also been in productions at: A Noise Within, Coeurage Theatre Company, IAMA, The Road, The Echo Theatre Company, and The Porters of Hellsgate, among others. She dabbles in producing short films from time to time too. Originally hailing from the suburbs of Washington, DC Mara holds a BFA in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with training from the Stella Adler Studio of Acting (NYC) and Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (London).

WEEK 4

Friday, March 20

Extermination Written by Donnie Jarman, Initiated by Christopher Reiling
8:00PM - 9:30PM
Graham the shut in, Stan the Exterminator, two men at the point of no return engaged in a battle for their very souls.

Run time: 75min

DONNIE JARMAN

CHRISTOPHER REILING

Christopher Reiling has called EST/LA his theatre home since 2015 where he's had the gift of working and growing as an actor, producer, sound designer, musician, and director, and served as EST/LA's Producing Director from 2018-2020. As an actor, Christopher appeared in the award-winning indie film How to Make Movies at Home, the web series Vacationlanders, EST/LA's own multi-award-winning series In Search of A P.I.G., and a few shorts along the way. Regional theatre credits include Larry in Burn This, Tom in The Glass Menagerie, Charlie (and others) in Stones in His Pockets, Solomon in Speech and Debate, and Chris in Killer Joe. LA theatre credits include Pigs and Chickens (EST/LA), Charlotte Stay Close (EST/LA), and The Water Tribe (EST/LA and VS. Theatre Company). His original music was featured in EST/LA's In Search of A P.I.G. and in 2022's Data by Bil Charlton (part of the EST/LA program, The Early Bird Special) which also Christopher's directorial debut.

Symbiotic Written by Baylee Shlichtman, Initiated by Jennie Webb
3:00PM - 4:30PM
Marichka, an aquarist at the Jellyfish Museum in Kyiv, begins to form an unlikely connection with a veteran of the Russo-Ukrainian war while trying to keep the memory of her friend alive. Content warning: death, war, strong language. Run time: 90

Saturday, March 21

BAYLEE SHLICHTMAN

Baylee Shlichtman writes magical plays about love and autonomy. Most recently, her work was developed or recognized by Great Plains Theatre Commons, Best of Playground-LA, Otherworld Theatre Paragon Play Festival, and Trinity Theatre New Works Festival. Her work has been additionally produced or developed with AlterTheatre Ensemble, Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble, Curtis Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre/ LA Ignite Project, Flamboyán Theatre, The Larking House, Long Beach Shakespeare Company, New Relic Theatre, Playground-LA, Secondary Location Productions, South Texas College Latinx New Play Festival, UC Irvine, Urbanite Theatre, The Vagrancy Theatre, and The Workshop Theatre among others. MFA, UC Riverside '27.

JENNIE WEBB

Jennie Webb is an LA-based playwright and dramaturg (she created the new play development program, Seedlings, at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum and co-created EST/LA’s Ignite Project), with works produced locally by Inkwell Theater, Rogue Machine, EST/LA, Santa Monica Rep, Virginia Avenue Project, Road Theatre, Theatre of NOTE, La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival as well as in Canada, the UK, Europe, India, Iceland and at numerous colleges/universities. Her plays have been developed by Great Plains Theatre Conferences, Playwrights’ Center, Moving Arts, Clamour Theatre, PlayGround, Rogue Artist Ensemble and Road Theatre’s Summer Playwrights Festivals & inaugural Under Construction. National recognition includes Finalist (O’Neill, Gulfshore Playhouse, City Theatre, Utah Shakespeare) and Semi-Finalist (O’Neill, PlayPenn, Athena Project, Trustus Theatre Festival) nods; she is the recipient of Max K. Lerner Fellowships and a Women in Theatre Award. Member: Playwrights Union, EST/LA, TCT Writers Lab, Honor Roll!, Dramatists Guild; co-founder: LA Female Playwrights Initiative (LAFPI). Co-Founder of EST/LA's The Ignite Project.

Saturday, March 21

"PICK"

Playwrights Unit is EST/LA’s weekly development program for new plays.

Playwrights read and critique each other’s work in a professional, supportive environment.

PU "PICK" - Reckoning in Mombasa Written and initiated by by Steve Burleigh
8:00PM - 9:30PM
An international arms merchant is confronted by a Sudanese rebel leader in his Mobassa villa. Run time: 90

STEVE BURLEIGH

Playwright:
Makepeace (full production Matheson Art Center, Mendocino 2012)
The Pile (Reading, EST/LA Launchpad 2016)
Bethany (Readings: EST/LA Winterfest 2019, EST/LA Launchpad 2019, The Road Theatre 2019). Bronzeville (Sequel to Bethany, Reading EST Playwrights Unit 2021)
Sleeping Dogs (EST Playwrights Pick of the Unit, Winterfest 2023)

Theatre Producer:
Produced award winning play, Watching OJ - EST/LA.
Produced award winning play, Colorado Catechism, Coast Theatre, LA.

Film producer:
Edge of America - Winner 2006 George Foster Peabody Award for Edge Of America,
Opening Night Film, Sundance FF
Bereft – Tribeca, Nantucket, Hamptons FF
Execution of Justice - Winner GLAAD Media Award Outstanding TV film.

Sample Acting: A Talent for Murder (Broadway); Translations, Crimes of the Heart, One Wedding, Two Rooms,Three Friends (Manhattan Theatre Club), The Revenger’s Tragedy (Playwrights Horizon) Scenes and Revelations (Hudson Guild), Blue Window (The Production Company); Regional: Stanley - A Streetcar Named Desire at Lexington Conservatory Theatre, Brick - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Trinity Square Rep., Blue Window at The Long Wharf Theatre. Numerous television shows, films, and commercials.

Sunday, March 22

Shorts Program #2
12:00PM - 2:00PM

The Battle at 6th and San Pedro Written and initiated by Nicholas Cormier III
A homeless Vietnam Veteran left behind in Skid Row is needed by the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration to end a media war centered on unhoused Veterans.
Run time: 20min

Taylor's Backpack Written and initiated by Elin Hampton
At a school where carrying a gun is considered essential to childhood safety, two parents are coerced into deciding whether to arm their six-year-old. Run time: 15min

Front of House Written by Aïda Mashaka Croal, Initiated by Tracey A. Leigh
The drama is supposed to be onstage… but on a buzzy opening night, a serious conflict erupts among a theater’s front of house staff. Run time: 8min

Jesus, Maury and Joseph Written and initiated by Keith Szarabajka
oseph, Mary and God go on the Maury Povitch Show to determine just who is the Father of Jesus. Run time: 25min

NICHOLAS CORMIER III

Nicholas Cormier III (BIPOC) is a United States Air Force Veteran. Graduated from Texas State University with an MBA—and from University of Texas at Arlington— where he studied Art and concentrated in Film. He received a minor in Theatre. Actor. Writer. Director. Nicholas advocates for unhoused Veterans. He’s on the Community Veterans Engagement Board. USC Warrior Bard. Nicholas’ short films have won awards and appeared on PBS. His writing appears in Solstice, MAYDAY, Lolwe, LEON Literary Review, the Good Life Review, OneBlackBoyLikeThat Review, and Iskanchi, and Isele, and many other publications. His short play D-Pod was presented in Winterfest 2025, and he has performed in EST/LA's True Stories.

ELIN HAMPTON

Elin Hampton is a Playwright, Lyricist and Screenwriter. Regional: The Bells of West 87th (w/Carol Locatell & James Marsters) at The Greenway Arts Theatre in Hollywood. Mommy! Mommy! The musical musical! (co-written w/composer Gerald Sternbach, & dir. by Kay Cole) at the Hudson Guild Theatre, then optioned for development, dir. by Lynne-Taylor Corbett for The York Theatre, featuring Allie Mauzy, Mary Gordon Murray, & Alison Cimmet. F4: Hollywood Fringe Festival, then City Theatre in Miami, was a finalist for the National Playwright Award, & was included in Samuel French’s OOB Festival. Casey 229 was produced by The Collective NY and published by Smith & Kraus in the anthology: “The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2015.” The Collective produced it as a short film. It played the indie film circuit & garnered nominations for “Best Comedy.” The Candidate was performed at Open Eye Theatre and Red Eye’s 10 International Play Festival. “Faux Pas” is published in “Best Contemporary Monologues for Kids Age 7-15.”

TV credits include: "Mad About You," “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” "Dream On," "Pinky and the Brain,” "Rugrats,” “The Wild Thornberries,” “Baby Bob,” “Life’s Work,” “The Gregory Hines Show,” “The Jackie Thomas Show,” and John Leguizamo's "House of Buggin.

TRACEY A. LEIGH

Tracey A. Leigh is an Obie Award and NAACP Theatre Award-winning actor and director, with an extensive career in theatre-making and new play development. She was recently seen in UNRAVELLED at the Wallis, and has appeared on stages throughout the U.S. and internationally, including a Broadway National Tour and performances Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, Primary Stages, Signature Theatre, Soho Rep, P.S. 122 and La Mama Experimental Theatre Club. Other credits include productions at The English Theatre of Frankfurt, San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, the Guthrie Theatre, The Denver Center, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, South Coast Repertory Theatre, The Old Globe Theatre, The La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Boston Court Pasadena, Ensemble Theatre Company of Santa Barbara, Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, Playwrights Arena, Sacred Fools, Echo Theater Company, Lower Depth Theatre, and Rubicon Theatre Company.

Tracey is also the Artistic Director of Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA, where she directed the company's multiple award-winning world premiere of TWO STOP.

TV and film appearances include “The Rookie: Feds,” “Modern Family,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Criminal Minds,” “Strong Medicine,” and “Law and Order.”

KEITH SZARABAJKA

Keith Szarabajka (sarah-bike-ah) was co–artistic director at EST-LA from January 2015 to July 2021. Keith directed David McMillan’s WATCHING O.J. in 2015 -16. He was a co-author and original cast member of BLEACHER BUMS. Keith works extensively in stage , film, tv, audio books and video games. Keith produced with Tony Pasqualini the award-winning web/tv series IN SEARCH OF A P-I-G. He is currently raising funds to start a new theater company, AFT (a Few Thoughts ) Theater Co.

Sunday, March 22

Complicity Written by Paul Frellick, Initiated by Tony Foster
3:30PM - 5:00PM
An intergenerational futuristic dystopian comic drama. Run time: 90min

PAUL FRELLICK

Paul Frellick (playwright): Founding Artistic Director of the Deep Dish Theater Company, Chapel Hill, NC, 2001-2015; directed at Chicago’s Organic Theater, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Old Globe Theatre, Denver Center Theatre Company, Weathervane Theatre, among others. Currently living and writing in Los Angeles.

TONY FOSTER

Sunday, March 22

Spoiled Written by Ken Narasaki, Initiated by David Johann Kim
7:30PM - 9:00PM
In a darkly comedic struggle between a second-generation Japanese American mother and son, we see the mother's trauma from the concentration camp and the legacy it’s wrought.
Run time: 100min

KEN NARASAKI

Ken Narasaki is an actor/writer whose plays include the recent adaptation of NO-NO
BOY (Los Angeles, New York, Washington DC, LA Theatre Works), Kuma Kuhua Pacific Rim Award-winning plays INNOCENT WHEN YOU DREAM (Los Angeles, LA Theatre Works), THE MIKADO PROJECT (co-written with Doris Baizley), and GHOSTS AND BAGGAGE (LATC, Third Place C.Y. Lee Playwriting Competition), OUR WAR (Arena Stage, Washington DC). His latest, SPOILED, has had readings at the Magic Theatre (San Francisco, 2024) and a workshop at the Kayenta Play Labs (St. George, Utah, 2025)

DAVID JOHANN KIM

David's award-winning plays TWO STOP and PANG SPA had their Los Angeles premieres produced by EST/LA and CHALK REP respectively in Spring of 2024, to critical acclaim. Both plays were awarded the Los Angeles New Play Project Award, as well as Venturous Theatre Fund Grants.

As an actor on both coasts for over two decades, David was part of the development of many new plays. He recently taught playwriting at Loyola Marymount for 3 semesters. He holds an MFA from UC San Diego and is a member of The Dramatists Guild, The Playwrights Union, Circle X Theatre's 2024 Evolving Playwrights Group, Chalk Rep’s Writers group, Playwrights ThinkTank, EST/LA’s Playwrights Unit and is a co-founder of EST/ LA’s Ignite Project.
His latest play IMAGINED NOISE... is currently in development...

BUY TICKETS

FULL SCHEDULE

WEEK 1

Saturday, February 28 Opening Reception 5:00PM - 6:30PM Join us as we celebrate the opening of Winterfest 2026!

Sunday, March 1

@ WINTERFEST SPECIAL PRESENTATION EST/LA’s DevLAb is designed to take a script from its current draft to a draft that is ready for a full production.

Mad Carson's Last Stop Bar and Grill Written and Directed by Laura Stribling 4:00PM - 6:00PM Escaping LA, Elizabeth lands at Mad Carson's in Carsonville, New Mexico -- the furthest stop from nowhere, still being run by ghosts from the past. Early draft presented in Winterfest 2025. Run time: 90min

Sunday, March 1

WEEK 2

Friday, March 6

Women, Birds, Stars Written and initiated by Jennie Webb 8:00PM - 10:00PM A play about being present amidst chaos, and what it means to be gone, in which four women of a certain age take refuge together when their habitat is threatened. Run time: 100min

Saturday, March 7

Two Dreamers Go On a Walk Written by Sol Lagos, Initiated by Aditi Pradhan 3:00PM - 4:30PM Two Dreamers go on a walk to discover: can Dreamers choose their future or must they repeat a predetermined violent cycle? Run time: 90min

Saturday, March 7

"PICK"

The Ignite Project is an 8 week lab for artists to create brand new plays written for or inspired by our company.

IP "PICK" - Play On Written Andrew Grace 7:00PM - 9:30PM A lonely tech journalist seeks to reconnect with his childhood friends by investigating how the video games they grew up loving fractured their lives. Run time: 90min

Sunday, March 8

The Captain Written by Kate McMorran, Initiated by Makeda Declet 2:00PM - 3:30PM On the eve of her 30th birthday, Liz hatches a plan to reclaim her sexuality by hiring a Jack Sparrow impersonator. Run time: 90min

Sunday, March 8

@ WINTERFEST SPECIAL PRESENTATION EST/LA’s DevLAb is designed to take a script from its current draft to a draft that is ready for a full production.

This Place Stinks by Jacob Surovsky 7:00PM - 9:30PM A highly theatrical and disarmingly funny retelling of Noah’s Ark, where Noah chooses to destroy his family in order to save the world. Early draft presented in Winterfest 2025. Run time: 90min

WEEK 3

Friday, March 13

What "All Cops Are Bastards" Means to Me Written by Jonas Oppenheim, Initiated by Angela Bullock 8:00PM - 10:00PM A dark satire about policing, copaganda, and the prison-industrial complex. destroy his family in order to save the world. Run time: 100min

Saturday, March 14

New West Playwrights is dedicated to fostering and developing the work of Los Angeles area playwrights under 30 years of age through weekly meetings, readings, and workshop productions.

"PICK"

NW "PICK" - Changeling by Aubrey Clyburn 3:00PM - 5:00PM A headstrong faerie trapped in the body of a quirky seven-year-old must save her homeland while navigating first grade. Run time: 2 Hours

Saturday, March 14

Sunday, March 15

A Prayer Ain't Nothin' But Written and initiated by Joe Luis Cedillo 3:00PM - 4:30PM A man wars with two street preachers, leading to fellowship. Run time: 90min

Monday, March 16

WEEK 4

Friday, March 20

Extermination Written by Donnie Jarman, Initiated by Christopher Reiling 8:00PM - 9:30PM Graham the shut in, Stan the Exterminator, two men at the point of no return engaged in a battle for their very souls.

Run time: 75min

Saturday, March 21

Saturday, March 21

"PICK"

PU "PICK" - Reckoning in Mombasa Written and initiated by by Steve Burleigh 8:00PM - 9:30PM An international arms merchant is confronted by a Sudanese rebel leader in his Mobassa villa. Run time: 90

Sunday, March 22

Sunday, March 22

Complicity Written by Paul Frellick, Initiated by Tony Foster 3:30PM - 5:00PM An intergenerational futuristic dystopian comic drama. Run time: 90min

Sunday, March 22

Spoiled Written by Ken Narasaki, Initiated by David Johann Kim 7:30PM - 9:00PM In a darkly comedic struggle between a second-generation Japanese American mother and son, we see the mother's trauma from the concentration camp and the legacy it’s wrought. Run time: 100min

Saturday, February 28

Opening Reception
5:00PM - 6:30PM

Join us as we celebrate the opening of Winterfest 2026!

@ WINTERFEST
SPECIAL PRESENTATION

EST/LA’s DevLAb is designed to take a script from its current draft to a draft that is ready for a full production.

Mad Carson's Last Stop Bar and Grill Written and Directed by Laura Stribling
4:00PM - 6:00PM
Escaping LA, Elizabeth lands at Mad Carson's in Carsonville, New Mexico -- the furthest stop from nowhere, still being run by ghosts from the past. Early draft presented in Winterfest 2025. Run time: 90min

Women, Birds, Stars Written and initiated by Jennie Webb
8:00PM - 10:00PM
A play about being present amidst chaos, and what it means to be gone, in which four women of a certain age take refuge together when their habitat is threatened.
Run time: 100min

Two Dreamers Go On a Walk Written by Sol Lagos, Initiated by Aditi Pradhan
3:00PM - 4:30PM
Two Dreamers go on a walk to discover: can Dreamers choose their future or must they repeat a predetermined violent cycle? Run time: 90min

IP "PICK" - Play On Written Andrew Grace
7:00PM - 9:30PM
A lonely tech journalist seeks to reconnect with his childhood friends by investigating how the video games they grew up loving fractured their lives. Run time: 90min

The Captain Written by Kate McMorran, Initiated by Makeda Declet
2:00PM - 3:30PM
On the eve of her 30th birthday, Liz hatches a plan to reclaim her sexuality by hiring a Jack Sparrow impersonator. Run time: 90min

@ WINTERFEST
SPECIAL PRESENTATION

EST/LA’s DevLAb is designed to take a script from its current draft to a draft that is ready for a full production.

This Place Stinks by Jacob Surovsky
7:00PM - 9:30PM
A highly theatrical and disarmingly funny retelling of Noah’s Ark, where Noah chooses to destroy his family in order to save the world. Early draft presented in Winterfest 2025.
Run time: 90min

What "All Cops Are Bastards" Means to Me Written by Jonas Oppenheim, Initiated by Angela Bullock
8:00PM - 10:00PM
A dark satire about policing, copaganda, and the prison-industrial complex. destroy his family in order to save the world.
Run time: 100min

NW "PICK" - Changeling by Aubrey Clyburn
3:00PM - 5:00PM
A headstrong faerie trapped in the body of a quirky seven-year-old must save her homeland while navigating first grade.
Run time: 2 Hours

A Prayer Ain't Nothin' But Written and initiated by Joe Luis Cedillo
3:00PM - 4:30PM
A man wars with two street preachers, leading to fellowship. Run time: 90min

Extermination Written by Donnie Jarman, Initiated by Christopher Reiling
8:00PM - 9:30PM
Graham the shut in, Stan the Exterminator, two men at the point of no return engaged in a battle for their very souls.

PU "PICK" - Reckoning in Mombasa Written and initiated by by Steve Burleigh
8:00PM - 9:30PM
An international arms merchant is confronted by a Sudanese rebel leader in his Mobassa villa. Run time: 90

Complicity Written by Paul Frellick, Initiated by Tony Foster
3:30PM - 5:00PM
An intergenerational futuristic dystopian comic drama. Run time: 90min

Spoiled Written by Ken Narasaki, Initiated by David Johann Kim
7:30PM - 9:00PM
In a darkly comedic struggle between a second-generation Japanese American mother and son, we see the mother's trauma from the concentration camp and the legacy it’s wrought.
Run time: 100min