Playwright Artist Categories

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Elmaz Abinader

Literary Arts: Playwright, Poet, Writer

To be born a writer and an Arab-American in this lifetime creates an imperative for my work and despite an education that led me away from politically charged writing, my life, my family’s country and the political climate demanded I give voice that nuanced characters and moments that have no complication in the media. My work has been inspired by the dislocation of my parents from Lebanon to the US, and has radiated outward to dislocations, occupations, and disenfranchisement of other people in the Arab World and Diaspora. My first book, a memoir, The Children of the Roojme: A Family’s Journey from Lebanon was the story of three generations of Lebanese and their various challenges in finding a home away from their country. Based on diaries, interviews and letters, the book covers two centuries, ending in 1947. My second publication, a poetry collection, In the Country of My Dreams…. Provides a collection of very specific dislocations—not only the family immigration but my own transition from New York to the Midwest and the shock of the open terrain of Nebraska and the intimate relationships with natural elements. In addition to these publications, I have written and performed several one-women plays: Country of Origin, Ramadan Moon, 32 Mohammeds, Voices from the Siege and The Torture Quartet. Each uncovers a personal perspective on the lives of Arabs in the middle of political trauma. For instance, 32 Mohammeds is an intersection with the death of Mohammed al-Durra, a boy killed in Palestine before the second Intifada; Ramadan Moon explores the mythology associated with women who are veiled and the different reasons and responses to the veil. My new poetry collection, This House, My Bones draws parallels between the changes of the earth through natural means to the changes in our bodies during unnatural traumas and how that trauma moves through generations. This collection is being published by Willow Press in October 2014 My current project is a novel, When Silence is Frightening (Working title)

Leah Halper

Literary Arts: Playwright

Leah Halper has worked as a journalist, activist, house-cleaner, translator, interpreter, file clerk, mediator, and freelance writer. She’s picked coffee in Nicaragua, studied disarmament at the UN, jogged in Romania, and interviewed cannery workers in Gilroy. Her literary non-fiction has been published in the Northwest Review, Trivia, Bad Subjects, and elsewhere. She teaches history and mediation at Gavilan College in Gilroy. She’s a member of writers pool for SF PlayGround at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre (eight seasons), Pear Avenue Theatre Writers Guild (eight seasons), Dramatists Guild, Theatre Bay Area, and Playwrights Center San Francisco. She’s been the grateful recipient of two Arts Council Silicon Valley grants: in 2001, a Playwriting Fellowship, and in 2007, a grant administered through Calaveras Repertory Theatre to produce Scene Nights in the South Bay for Emerging Playwrights. Leah’s been a Heideman Award finalist, and participated by invitation in the Theatre for Higher Education play development workshop in 2012. Her short plays have been performed from Seattle to LA.

Jeffrey Lo

Literary Arts: Playwright

Jeffrey Lo is a Filipino-American playwright and director based in the Bay Area. He is the recipient of the 2014 Leigh Weimers Emerging Arist Award, the 2012 Emerging Artist Laureate by Arts Council Silicon Valley and Theatre Bay Area Director’s TITAN Award. His plays have been produced and workshopped at The BindleStiff Studio, City Lights Theatre Company, Custom Made Theatre Company and the Orange County Playwrights Alliance. Recent directing credits include Eurydice at Palo Alto Players Some Girl(s) at Dragon Productions and The Drunken City at Renegade Theatre Experiment. Jeffrey has also worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, TheatreWorks & San Jose Repertory Theatre. He is the FutureWorks Fellow at TheatreWorks, the founding artistic director of The 06 Ensemble and a proud alumnus of the UC Irvine Drama Department.

Diane Yohn

Literary Arts: Playwright, Writer

Writer for stage, television, film, novella, & poetry. Visual artist in photography & computer art with showings at San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, CA, Santa Barbara Arts Pavilion; cover art for numerous books (“The Secret Power of Naming”, “Love in the Fast Lane”, “I Was Indian” Volume II) CURRENTLY: Advisory Board Member for Wild Blackhorse Press ~ Where Indigenous Writing Thrives: www.wildblackhorsepress.com Currently accepting and perusing submissions for an anthology of indigenous erotica. Retired from the following: Founder & Artistic Director of Ableza & Facyt – Native American Arts Association & its youth theatre counterpart, First Americans Conservatory Youth Theatre. Endowed Chair for Radio, T.V., & Film – San Jose State University Intersession programs in Oral Tradition at Stanford University. Guest lectures include: Stanford University University of Washington – Seattle University of California – Santa Barbara, Riverside, Hayward Humboldt State University University of Georgia – Athens. Keystone Speaker & Presenter for the American Alliance of Theatre & Education – Salt Lake City, UT. Feature Presenter of original works: American Literary Association National Conference in Long Beach, CA: “Full Circle” – a one-woman multimedia play. Native American Literature Symposium: In Puerto Vallarta, Mexico: “EverySkin’s Day In Court” In Mystic Lake, MN: “Raw Pearl” Presenter: International Alternative Theatre Conference: Alternative Space – University of San Francisco California Arts Council Conferences – Lake Pomo, CA & Asilomar Awards: Arts Council of Silicon Valley Fellowship in Playwriting for “Tiospe” Frank Silvera’s Writers Workshop Award (NYC) for “Tiospe” American Theatre Association National Award for “The Aftermath” National as well as International Women’s Conference Arts Awards for “Pros & Cons” Recent Publications: Volumes I & II of “I Was Indian” Native American Literature Anthologies of 2010 & 2012 SableLit Magazine 2010 – Indigenous Writers Issue Yellow Medicine Review 2008 Alleged co-conspirator in Kolawin-gate & The Lodgepole Bar; cover-art and poetry contributor for Native American erotic literature collection entitled “Moon of the Popping Cherries”; and even wilder controversies.

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