As an artist-driven theater company, Antaeus believes in the power and importance of storytellers as architects of culture and stewards of history. NEXT offers financial, dramaturgical and logistical support for the development of original, full-length works based on or inspired by the classics. The goal is to produce these plays as part of future Antaeus Seasons.
Current NEXT Commissioned Playwrights
Diana Burbano
Diana Burbano was named one of the L.A. Times “Latinx Vanguardia,” and is a resident artist at Center Theatre Group, The Latino Theatre Company, and Breath of Fire Latina Ensemble. She is a Colombian immigrant, a playwright, and an actor. Burbano’s plays include Ghosts of Bogotá, Sapience, Beheading Columbus, and Fabulous Monsters, a Latinx Punk Rock play that premiered at The Public Theatre of San Antonio in 2023, featuring the music of FEA. She also wrote Marie Dressler: Good Gal for the third season of “The Zip Code Plays” produced by Antaeus. Recently, Burbano played Izzy in Drunk at the Base of the Bohdi Tree at Mile High Theatre and Marisela in La Ruta at Artists Repertory. You can also see her as Viv the Punk in the cult musical Isle of Lesbos. She currently represents Southern California on the Dramatists Guild council.
Khari Wyatt
Khari Wyatt is a twice selected MacDowell Fellow in Theatre (Playwriting). His drama, Some Type of Ecstasy, is published by Next Stage Press. His plays have been workshopped and presented in concert readings at Antaeus Theatre Company, Moving Arts, Circle X Theatre Company, The Road Theatre Company, Chalk Repertory Theatre, and Morgan-Wixson Theatre, among others. His work has been a finalist or semifinalist for New Dramatists, Ashland New Play Festival, Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Street Theatre New Works Festival, The Geffen Writers’ Room, and the Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellowship. He was one of eleven writers of #While We Breathe: A Night of Creative Protest, a streaming theatrical event produced by Brian Moreland and Arvind Ethan David. A member of Moving Arts, The Playwrights Union, and Independent Writers’ Caucus, he is an alum of Howard University and earned an MFA in Film from Columbia University in the City of New York.
PREVIOUSLY Commissioned Playwrights:
Alex Alpharaoh
Alex Alpharaoh is a formerly undocumented, Guatemalan born actor, dramatic writer, spoken word poet, solo performer and teaching artist from Los Angeles, CA. He is the recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award for solo performance as well as the recipient of a Stage Raw award for writing and performance for WET: A DACAmented Journey, a story about what it means to be an American in every sense of the word except on paper. Alpharaoh’s plays have been produced and workshopped throughout the country. Some of his plays include Don’t Talk About It, SP!T About It; Why Won’t You Remember?; Vile-Let; Freddy Fender’s Last Concert; and O-Dogg: An Angeleno Take on Othello.
As a formerly undocumented citizen, Alpharaoh believes in the transformative power of sharing one’s truth and vulnerability, especially in the face of danger. His writing reflects the struggles of the common person, and is often inspired by the works of Anton Chekhov, William Shakespeare, August Wilson, Octavio Solis, Luis Alfaro, Anna Deavere Smith, John Leguizamo, Roger Guenveur Smith and Stephen Adly Guirgis, to name a few. Alex’s stories, poems and spoken word narratives address issues pertaining to race, class, immigration, assimilation, family, love and Los Angeles. Alpharaoh is the founder of SP!T: Spoken Word Theatre, which focuses on telling stories about Los Angeles by fusing street culture with acting as the basis of storytelling. Alpharaoh has been acting professionally for over a decade and has been a lyricist and poet for over 30 years.
Zola Dee
Zola Dee is an L.A.-based emerging theater artist, poet and vocalist from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She believes her work has a strong responsibility to investigate trauma and how it is passed down generationally; the black psyche; mysticism; and ancient spirituality. Her most notable work, Gunshot Medley: Part 1, was Ovation award-recommended and published in Routledges Contemporary Plays by Women of Color. Dee was named by Los Angeles Times theater critic Charles McNulty as a front-runner in “a vibrant new era in African-American playwriting.” Other notable works include her one-woman show Rain, River, Ocean; African Hyphen American; and Smile, Goddamnit, Smile.
Dee has been a member of Center Theatre Group’s Writer’s Workshop and the Skylight Theatre’s PlayLab. Other accomplishments include: 2017-2018 Core Apprentice at the Playwright's Center in Minneapolis, where she was recently awarded the Many Voices Fellowship, and 2018 Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights Diversity Fellow. Currently, Zola serves as the artistic associate at the Pasadena Playhouse. zoladee.com
Lisa Sanaye Dring
Lisa Sanaye Dring appeared in the Antaeus production of Everybody, and she directed Alex Goldberg's The Six Pianos of Miradero for “The Zip Code Plays.” Her play Hungry Ghost was produced by Skylight Theatre, followed by a production of SUMO at La Jolla Playhouse with Ma-Yi Theater Company. Lisa has recently worked on multiple projects with Meow Wolf and was a member of The Geffen Writers' Room.
She was a recipient of the 2020/21 PLAY LA Stage Raw/Humanitas Prize. She’s been a finalist for the Relentless Award, the O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival and the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. Lisa's work has been developed/produced by the Geffen, The New Group, Actors Theatre of Louisville, East West Players, Circle X, CalArts and Rogue Artists Ensemble. Lisa has been awarded fellowships at MacDowell, Blue Mountain Center and Yaddo. She has worked in the VR Space with Double Eye Studios on multiple projects which have gone to the Venice International Film Festival (winner: Best VR Immersive Experience) and Raindance. She co-wrote and co-directed Welcome to the Blumhouse Live, which won a Silver Clio Award and was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Interactive Program.
Marlow Wyatt
Actor and playwright Marlow Wyatt is a magna cum laude graduate of Howard University’s College of Fine Arts. Her plays include SHE, Robbin, from the Hood, a 2021 Eugene O’Neill semi-finalist developed in MADLab with Moving Arts; and Listen, A Black Woman Is Speaking, chosen for the Playwrights Union “Sneak Peek” live reading series. She is a featured playwright in “50IN50: Shattering The Glass Ceiling,” curated by Dominique Morriseau, and in Letters To Our Daughters at the Kumble and Billie Holliday Theaters in NYC and WACO Theater in L.A. Other produced plays include: Mourning of The Sons: Spirit Lives; Sweeties Confession; and Say Something. Marlow has received numerous honors as a playwright, arts activist and founder of the Girl Blue Project. She was recently lauded as a 2021 As We Grow We Sow artist by Support Black Theater. She is a 2018 Many Voices Fellowship finalist, a 2018 Howard Players honored alumna, 2016 CTG/Humanitas Playwrights Prize finalist, Long Beach Playhouse New Works winner, a two-time Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Discretionary Grant recipient, Women In Theatre Red Carpet Award-winner, Pine-Sol/Ebony Magazine Powerful Difference Award-winner and Spirited Woman Grant recipient. As an actor, she appeared during the pandemic in the Zoom series Isolation Inn as Millie Baker, and as Bird Ivy in the Antaeus Zip Code series play 90011: South Central Los Angeles–Speakeasy. Pre-pandemic, Marlow performed the role of Arlene in the critically acclaimed Antaeus production of Eight Nights. Marlow is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, Playwrights Union, Alliance for Los Angeles Playwrights, Antaeus Playwrights Lab, AEA, SAG/AFTRA, D.I.V.A. Society for Women in the Arts and most recently Moving Arts.
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Invest in the transformative power of live theater! Antaeus Theater Company is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, and we rely on contributions for the majority of our income. Everything we do, including the NEXT Commissions, is made possible by the extraordinary generosity of this community! Donations support our productions, signature reading series, subsidized ticket program, arts education (both in our Academy and in the community), and much, much more.