East West Players announces Amanda L. Andrei’s play REDPOINT MY HEART as the recipient of the 2028 Open Call Commission for a new sports play
July 2, 2026 | Los Angeles, CAEast West Players (EWP), the nation’s largest and longest-running Asian American theater, announces Amanda L. Andrei’s play Redpoint My Heart as the recipient of the 2028 Open Call Commission for a new sports play. Andrei’s pitch for “a rom-com about humans and ropes. And rocks!” taking place at a climbing festival and competition will receive a world premiere in summer 2028 in conjunction with the Los Angeles Olympics. Along with a $10,000 commission, Andrei will receive dramaturgical support and developmental workshops as she develops her play with East West Players. The first workshop for Redpoint My Heart will culminate in a public reading as part of East West Players’ Inaugural New Works Festival in 2027.
From Andrei’s proposal–“With its competition at the Long Beach Climbing Theater in 2028, the L.A. Olympics describes climbing as ‘a dynamic and explosive sport that sees athletes demonstrate endurance, power, creativity and coordination to scale climbing walls.’ I also see it as a relationship between you and yourself. Who are you on the wall? Who are you when you struggle? What does the rock have to teach you? How do other people help you, and how do you trust that they’re there to catch you? These are themes I’d love to explore further in this play, especially when it comes to intimacy, attraction, and vulnerability. And while I see the major dramatic question of the play being, ‘Will our heroine fall in love?’ I also see an overarching theme and question as: ‘Everyone has a climber inside them. What does it take to bring them out?’”
Andrei is joined by finalists Robin Berl (Bowling), Cris Eli Blak (Track and Field), Carolina Đỗ (Soccer), Oscar K. (Fencing), Samah Meghjee (Skateboarding), Susan H. Pak (Running), Nico Pang (Equestrian), Aditi Pradhan (Archery), and Kit Yan (Powerlifting). Each finalist received a $500 mini-commission from East West Players to generate 15-25 pages of a first draft, which was evaluated alongside the proposal.
The first of its kind at EWP, the open call invited playwrights at all stages of their practice to submit proposals for new plays or musicals that explored the intersection of sports and the Asian American experience. Andrei’s proposal was selected first from a pool of 112 proposals, and then from 10 finalists, by a panel of artistic leaders from EWP and from peer theaters across the country. Over 42 sports were represented in the initial applicant pool; among the most popular were martial arts, basketball, and track, with some more unusual disciplines including sailing, shotput, cricket, and e-sports. The open call attracted applicants from across the country, with about 50% being local to Southern California."
“A commission can represent a lot of things for a company,” says Annie Jin Wang, EWP’s Associate Artistic Director and facilitator of the Open Call, “who we stand behind, what we want to and feel capable of exploring artistically, and what we want to encourage more of in the world. To EWP, all of our finalists represent the future of theatre that we want to see and encourage–work that is smart, ambitious, and–most importantly–expands the vision of Asian American theatre beyond representation. We look at open calls like this as just one way towards a national conversation around how American institutions steward new work, as well as a deeper relationship with individual artists who align with our vision. Amanda’s proposal pitched rock climbing as both an inherently competitive and social activity, and the dramatic possibilities inherent in both the sport and the rom-com genre are thrilling. Our panel was attracted to Redpoint My Heart for its humor, warmth, and willingness to take a big theatrical swing, and we are very delighted to work with and support her writing over the next two years.”
The panelists for this commission include victor cervantes jr., Associate Producer - New Works at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Leean Kim Torske, Director of Literary Programs at Denver Center Theatre Company; Jane Peña, former Literary Manager at Theater Mu, and Alison Qu, Co-Founder and Executive Director at Chuang Stage.
More information about all our finalists and their plays can be found below. Some finalists have made their mini-commission pages available for the perusal of other organizations and producers–please reach out to Associate Artistic Director Annie Jin Wang at awang@eastwestplayers.org for more information.
COMMISSIONED PLAYWRIGHT BIOAmanda L. Andrei is a playwright, literary translator, and theater critic/journalist residing in Los Angeles by way of Virginia/Washington DC. She writes epic, irreverent plays that center the concealed, wounded places of history from the perspectives of diasporic Filipina women, and she co-translates from Romanian to English with her father. Her play Mama, I wish I were silver won the 2022 Jane Chambers Award for Feminist Playwriting. Her plays have been produced by Relative Theatrics and developed with Boston Court, La MaMa, Echo Theatre, Artists at Play, Circle X, and more, as well as received finalist status with the Princess Grace Award, Eugene O’Neill Conference, Playwrights Realm, and Ashland Festival. Her articles appear in the L.A. Times, American Theatre Magazine, Stage Raw, Howl Round, Rappler, 3Views, and more, and her translations in Asymptote Journal, Another Chicago Magazine, and Lunch Ticket. She is a Theatre Communications Group Rising Leaders of Color (2023). MFA: University of Southern California. www.amandalandrei.com
FINALIST BIOSRobin Berl (she/her) is a playwright, director, educator, and theatre collaborator. Her work is filtered through the lens of her lived experience as a parent and mixed race woman of the CHamoru diaspora. Robin’s plays have received readings or productions with HB Studio, NY; SUNY Plattsburgh, NY; Asian Pasifika Arts Collective and Strand Theater Company, MD; Sandy Spring Theatre Group, MD; Spooky Action Theater, Washington D.C.; Theatre Prometheus, Washington D.C.; The Kennedy Center, Washington D.C.; Winthrop University, S.C.; Duluth Playhouse, MN; Winding Road Theater Ensemble, AZ; Soul Rep Theatre, TX; Little Fish Theatre, CA; Breaking Wave Theatre Company, Guam. Robin is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
Cris Eli Blak was a staff writer on the hit series Power Book III: Raising Kanan. He is the inaugural winner of the Black Broadway Men Playwriting Initiative, the 2024 Charles M. Getchell New Play Award, and the Atlanta Shakespeare Company’s inaugural winner of the Muse of Fire BIPOC Playwriting Festival. He is currently the recipient of the 2025-26 Signpost Fellowship, a 2024-2027 Core Writer with The Playwrights Center, and the inaugural LDK Productions Writers’ Residency. He was previously an artist-in-residence with Ojai Playwrights Conference, Abingdon Theatre Company, The State University of New York - Oswego, Liberation Theatre Company, La Lengua Teatro en Español/AlterTheater Ensemble, Fosters Theatrical Artists Residency, Paterson Performing Arts Development Council, and Quick Silver Theatre. He was the recipient of the Emerging Playwrights Fellowship with The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre Company and an inaugural fellow with the Black Theatre Coalition.
Carolina Đỗ is a theatre maker, community organizer, and proud descendant of Vietnamese freedom fighters and refugees. An alum of the Soho Rep Writer-Director Lab, JACKLabs, Fresh Ground Pepper Playground Playgroup, Ma-Yi Lab Playground, Episodic Theater Project Writers Cohort, and Orchard Project Greenhouse Lab and Homegrown Lab, Carolina’s work is an ever-evolving exploration of how theater can be a tool for rebellion and collective healing. Carolina’s writing has been supported by residencies and fellowships at MACDOWELL, JACK, The Hearth, Fault Line Theatre, Piper Theater, and Naked Angels. Her play Ăn Chơi: eat. play. rage. was shortlisted for the 2025 Yale Drama Series Prize, judged by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and was a finalist for the O’Neill. She is the recipient of the Venturous Theater Fund and the inaugural The Movement Theatre’s Jody Falco and Jeffrey Steinman Ladder Commission. Co-Founding Producing Artistic Leader of The Sống Collective and Creative Director of Mai House Studio and Betterfly Productions.
Oscar K. is a playwright, producer, performance poet, and filmmaker based in NYC and LA. His work has been produced in London, New York City, Fire Island, Boston, Cambridge, and Los Angeles, with The Divine, The Brick, HERE Arts Center, Boston Center for the Arts, National Queer Theater, Skylight Theatre, Celebration Theatre, and Harvard College. He was a semi-finalist for O’Neill National Playwrights Conference (2026, 2023) and a semi-finalist for the Terrence McNally New Works Incubator (2026, 2025). He was a 2021 Queer (Re)Public Resident Artist at The Theater Offensive and the recipient of the 2023 Phyllis Anderson Prize from the American Repertory Theater. He is a three-time Lambda Literary Fellow in Playwriting and Screenwriting, and a 2026 Queer|Art|Mentorship Fellow in Performance. His work has been published in The Brooklyn Rail. bit.ly/velvetxxn, @velveteen_fxggot.
Samah Meghjee is an award winning playwright and screenwriter. Her plays include blood party (IAMA Emerging Playwrights Lab), The Deep End (Geffen Playhouse Writer’s Room), and Maybe You Could Love Me (Theatrical Rights Worldwide; World Premiere: Theater Mu). Her work has been recognized by the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Faultline Theater, The Road Theater, GLAAD, MPAC, The Black List, and more. Her TYA plays, co-authored by her identical twin Salwa, are published by Brooklyn Publishers. Samah's original feature QURAN CAMP is in development, and her television credits include SUNNY (A24/Apple TV+) and GOOD AMERICAN FAMILY (20th Century Studios/Hulu). MFA: Northwestern University. BA: Emory University.
Susan H. Pak is a Chicago-based playwright, who received an MFA in writing for the screen and stage at Northwestern University. She received both a BA and a JD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Productions and readings of her work include: The F*ck House at Strawdog Theatre, The Name Jar at Stages Theater in Minneapolis, Masks Off at the Goodman Theater, Miguk Saram at Denver’s Local Lab 2021, Election at the Goodman Theater, The Fixer at the Steppenwolf Theater, Ghost Girl at the Workshop Theater, T.A.B. at New York’s Downtown Urban Theater Festival and the Manhattan Repertory Theater Festival, and Incredible Invisible at Chicago’s Bailiwick Director’s Fest. Susan’s plays Miguk Saram and The F*ck House were both finalists at the 2020 and 2021 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. Susan was also a member of the 2021/2022 Goodman Playwrights Unit, and the 2023/2024 BIPOC Resident Playwright at Strawdog Theatre Company.
Nico Pang is a Cantonese writer and director exploring diasporic belonging, memory, and queerness as possibility. Plays include: I Think I Was Born Missing You (IAMA Theatre Company Emerging Playwrights Lab Series), Moonbow (Hantext Festival at East West Players), and My Body Is a Season (SpeakEasy Stage). Nico is an alum of IAMA’s Emerging Playwrights Lab and Company One’s PlayLab. Nico has directed with Celebration Theatre, Greenway Court Theatre, Chance Theater, The Theater Offensive, and CHUANG Stage. They are currently leading the writers’ room for Celebration Theatre’s Trans Lineage: Rites of Passage and will direct its world premiere this December. nicopang.com
Aditi Pradhan writes about family relationships, social change, and the South Asian diaspora. Her work has been produced at SheArts and has been recognized by the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, the Princess Grace Fellowship, the Ojai Playwrights Conference, and the Seattle Public Theatre Distillery New Works Festival. She has been a resident at Blue Mountain Center, at Soaring Gardens, and has a new play commission through Artists at Play. Aditi was the finalist for the 2025 Blacklist x The Movement Theatre Company Ladder Commission. She has developed work through Ensemble Studio Theatre Los Angeles, The Workshop Theatre, The Dramatic Question Theatre, and Rickshaw Foundation. She was one of the recipients of the inaugural Signpost Fellowship for BIPOC writers. She graduated from UC Berkeley and is currently getting her MFA in Dramatic Writing at USC. In high school, she was nominated as “Most Dependable,” which is the highest honor she’s received.
Kit Yan is an award-winning writer for stage and screen. A recipient of the Kleban Prize, the Jonathan Larson Grant, and the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, his theatrical work has been produced or developed by Lincoln Center, the American Repertory Theater, Playwrights Horizons, and MCC.
Alongside writing partner Melissa Li, Kit has developed film and television projects with Disney Channel, Archer Gray, and actor Poppy Liu. His short films, co-written with Jess X Snow, are available on Criterion and have screened globally at festivals including the London Film Festival and Outfest. Kit is a current 2026 Rideback Rise fellow and an alum of the Hermitage, MacDowell, Dramatists Guild Foundation, and Sundance fellowships, among others.
PANELIST BIOSvictor cervantes jr. (they/elle/iel) is a theatermaker, educator, and community organizer from Phoenix, AZ. currently, they are the Associate Producer - New Work at Berkeley Repertory Theater. they are the Founder and CEO of la mission project, a social impact production company that specializes in the development and execution of wide-scale, immersive arts projects and their intersection with community mobilization. they aim to support and uplift BIPOC+ Queer and Trans artists and stories to more visible platforms, and to reach communities that have been pushed to the margins; as such, they are the Founding Creative Producer for New Roots: A Queer Artist Residency at Walhalla Farm. recently, they served as Executive Producer for A Good Day to Me Not to You by Lameece Issaq w/Waterwell Productions and Plate Spinner Productions at The Connelly Theater. they were the Associate Producer of New Work and Innovation & Strategy at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. in 2022, they produced 7 Minutes by Stefano Massini (The Lehman Trilogy on Broadway) and directed by Mei Ann Teo with Waterwell Productions. in 2021, they produced a sold-out run of The Pool Plays (3 Premieres in Rep by Kate Cortesi, Brenda Withers, and Emily Zemba) at The New Ohio Theater. in 2020, they were the Creative Producer for The Homebound Project, a fundraiser for No Kid Hungry, which raised over $150K. they are the former Associate Producer at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (Seasons 23 + 24), former Co-Artistic Director of Middle Voice at Rattlestick (2013 - 2018). they have enjoyed teaching for NTI at The O'Neill Theater Center, ASU, Hunter College, NYU, and schools serving the ASD community. 1st-Generation College Graduate: BFA NYU/Tisch School for the Arts, Lee Strasberg Centennial Scholar + Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar.
Jane Peña is a dramaturg, librarian, and arts administrator based in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has worked with: Theater Mu, Yale Cabaret, the Playwrights’ Center, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Goodman Theatre, the Playwrights’ Realm, and many others. Jane holds a Master's in Library and Information Science from UW-Milwaukee, and she currently serves as Office & Literary Manager at Theater Mu, where she takes great pride in nurturing and expanding Mu’s community of writers.
Alison Yueming Qu (she/they) is a Chinese American theatre producer, director, and community organizer recognized as a regional leader in Asian American theatre. As Co-Founder and Executive Director of CHUANG Stage, Boston’s Asian American theatre company and a LaunchPad Resident at the Boston Center for the Arts, she leads the organization’s artistic vision, producing strategy, fundraising, and growth, building a vital home for translingual, pan-Asian new work in Greater Boston.
Under Alison’s leadership, CHUANG Stage has advanced emerging AAPI playwrights from workshops to world premieres, expanded access through its Pay-As-You-Are ticketing model, and deepened partnerships with artists, audiences, and immigrant communities across the region. She was named a 2023 ARTery Maker by WBUR for her role in shaping Greater Boston’s cultural landscape.
Selected producing and directing projects include Boston Chinatown Musical: Stories on Our Streets, a multi-year oral-history-based musical project culminating in public concerts and site-specific events; Busing the Buffer Zone, a new play development process paired with a public exhibition and staged readings tracing Chinatown mothers’ resistance during Boston’s 1975 busing crisis; Did You Eat? (밥 먹었니?), the world premiere of Zoë Kim’s autobiographical solo show; My Home on the Moon by Minna Lee, an East Coast premiere; Learning How to Read by Moonlight by Gaven Trinidad, a world premiere and neighborhood tour of a Filipino immigrant story in music and puppetry; and I Love XXX by Meng Jinghui, translated by Claire Conceison, at Emerson Stage.
Alison served as Associate Producer at HowlRound Theatre Commons from 2022 to 2025 and currently works as a Seasonal Line Producer at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, contributing to Summer for the City and large-scale public activations. She serves on the boards of the Boston Cultural Council and the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists.
Leean Kim Torske is the Director of Literary Programs for the Denver Center Theatre Company, where she supports a variety of artistic and administrative projects, including the curation, development, and production of new work through the Colorado New Play Summit. Her recent DCTC dramaturgy credits include Cowboys and East Indians, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Suffragette’s Murder, and Hamlet. In the past, she’s served as the Literary Manager and Casting Associate at Northlight Theatre, Director of the Russ Tutterow Fellowship at Chicago Dramatists, a publicist and discussion facilitator at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and a freelance dramaturg and theatre artist working with regional theatres and playwrights across the country.
