ABOUT DESERT PLAYWRIGHTS’ RETREAT
Writing in the desert…
Desert Playwrights’ Retreat was established in 2018 as the first writing retreat solely for LGBTQ playwrights. After spending many self-imposed, solo writing retreats in Palm Springs, Los Angeles-based playwright Sean Abley asked Daniel Rover Singer (The Complete Works of Wm. Shakespeare (Abridged)) to join him in the desert for some uninterrupted writing time and camaraderie of the blank page. Both writers had productive weekends – many pages were written and shared, feedback was given, and writing sessions were bookended with endless conversations about theatre.
From that weekend the idea for a yearly retreat was borne. The first Retreats were groups of gay men; the intention was for writers to not only spend quiet time writing, but engage in fellowship and open conversation in a safe, creative, gay-only space. After the first full Retreat, the decision was made in 2021 to remove the barrier of money to participation. DPR’s first fundraising season was a success – the first fully funded cohort (six playwrights) was offered reimbursed travel, lodging, and a food stipend in October 2021; the Retreat has been all-expenses-paid every since. Also in 2021, Desert Playwrights’ Retreat expanded to include cohorts of trans and lesbian playwrights. The first trans cohort met in October 2022; the first lesbian cohort in April 2023. Today, Desert Playwrights’ Retreat hosts up to 24 LGBTQ playwrights, twice a year, April and October.
On a more personal note… (From Sean)
I love playwriting retreats! Having been on many (probably too many!) over the years, I’ve met and shared work with some amazing playwrights. And every time I come away feeling as though I’ve upped my game as a writer.
I was inspired by my friend Chris Bogia, an artist who, in a conversation / context the specifics of which I can’t recall, expressed his view that someone’s personal artistic practice can include artistic advocacy. I realized that in establishing an experience in which artists can create, I, too, am creating. After watching Chris and another artist / friend, Evan Garza create FIAR, The Fire Island Artists Residency, a summer residency for queer-identified artists founded in 2011, I was moved to do the same for playwrights.
Although there are many playwriting retreats, residencies and development opportunities in the United States, as of this moment there aren’t any retreats designed solely to promote and uplift LGBTQ playwrights in identity-based cohorts. And while most of the retreats I’ve attended (or in which I have interest) are located on the East Coast or in the Midwest, I felt there was a need for a West Coast retreat, and more specifically in southern California.
Even as we continue to make progress legally and socially, in 2024 the LGBTQ community is facing unprecedented hostility from all levels of government. There are those that would have us erased, made pariahs, forced back into the shadows based solely on their ignorance and fear of who we are and who we love. This means LGBTQ art is more important than ever, and the space to create without fear desperately needed.
Art has been, and continues to be, a driving force behind every major political, scientific, or social development in the world’s history. Regimes fall from power, buildings crumble, civilizations disappear, but the art remains. I believe we must flood the world with our art, LGBTQ art, to stave off the tide of anti-gay laws and sentiments that seem never ending. Our stories must be told, our history preserved, in as many ways and as often as possible. And the Desert Playwrights’ Retreat is the perfect place to start.
WHO WE ARE
STAFF
SEAN ABLEY (Founder, Retreat Director)
SEAN ABLEY (Founder, Retreat Director) is a screenwriter, journalist, dramaturg, novelist, and award-winning playwright. He has over thirty plays published by Playscripts, Brooklyn Publishers, Heuer Publishing, Next Stage Press, Stage Partners, Plays to Order, and Eldridge Plays and Musicals with titles like End of the World (With Prom to Follow), The Adventures of Rose Red (Snow White’s Less-Famous Sister), Horror High: The Musical and Two-Faced: A Tragedy…Sort Of. Most recently his play Unabridged was included in the Best American Short Plays 2018-19 from Applause Books.
His plays have been developed and performed at the Kennedy Center, Antaeus Theater Company, Goodman Theatre, Celebration Theatre, Provincetown Theater, Fuse Theatre Ensemble, St. Louis Actors’ Studio, Write/Act Repertory, Factory Theater, Merry-Go-Round Youth Theatre, SkyPilot Theatre Company, Broom Street Theater, Virginia City Players, and academically at the Playwrights Lab at Hollins University and California State University-Stanislaus.
His plays for young audiences have been performed internationally in over 300 professional and educational productions. His play Popcorn Girl was the 2nd place winner of the National Partners of the American Theatre Award as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival 2017, and his play Absence Makes the Heart… was a national finalist for the John Cauble Short Play Award at KCACTF the same year. His short play Zombie? was a regional finalist for the Gary Garrison National Ten-Minute Play Award as part of KCACTF 2018.
Before moving to Los Angeles, he was the co-founder and co-Artistic Director (1992-1997) of Chicago’s prolific Factory Theater (still going strong as of this writing), where his plays Bitches, Attack of the Killer B’s, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians: The Musical and Nuclear Family all enjoyed long runs. His recent Los Angeles theatrical endeavors include readings of Tea Party and Ghost Bicycle as part of Antaeus Theatre Company’s Lab Results, and the world premieres of Dr. Frankincense and the Christmas Monster (Write/Act Repertory), L.A. Tool & Die: Live! (Celebration Theatre), Larva! (SkyPilot Theatre Company), the L.A. premieres of Bitches! (Magnum Players), Attack of the Killer B’s (Factory Theater West, Backstage West Garland Award winner-Best Adaptation), and Absence Makes the Heart… (SkyPilot Theatre Company.)
His television writing includes multiple episodes of So Weird (Disney Channel), Sabrina, the Animated Series (Disney/UPN), Digimon and Mega Babies (both Fox Family), as well as several pilots including Bench Pressly, The World’s Strongest Private Dick with Ahmet Zappa. His produced screenplays include the B-movies Socket, Rope Burn, Witchcraft 15: Blood Rose, Witchcraft 16: Hollywood Coven and Camp Blood 8: Bride of Blood. Sean has an MFA in Playwriting from The Playwrights Lab at Hollins University, and is a member of the Antaeus Theater Company’s Playwrights Lab, the Writers Guild of America, Playwrights Union (Los Angeles), and the Dramatists Guild.
NATALIE NICOLE DRESSEL (Cohort Director)
NATALIE NICOLE DRESSEL (Cohort Director) is a transgender writer/actress currently living in North Hollywood, CA. In 2019 she attained her MFA in writing for the Stage and Screen from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA, and in 2013 she earned her BFA in Theater from Michigan State University. She is a graduate of the UCB LA improv program, and her play There is Evil in This House (that she wrote and performs in) was a Second Rounder at AFF and a 2019 O’Neill NPC finalist. She did various voices on the English language dub of Veneno and dubbed the lead on Todo Lo Otro (or Dafne and the Rest).
Her play Now and Never was adapted into a short film which won “Best Dark Fantasy Film” at Austin After Dark, and appeared in festivals like Chelsea, Chicago South Asian Film Festival, 4th Dimension Film Fest, DCSAFF, The Valley Film Festival and others. Natalie recently wrapped a movie on the East Coast and had a grant show of her work put on and funded by the City of West Hollywood. She has written on-the-spot love poetry for strangers passing by at Pride in Los Angeles and Denver on an old fashioned typewriter.
MEREDITH DAYNA COPE-LEVY (Cohort Director)
MEREDITH DAYNA COPE-LEVY (she/her) (Cohort Director) is a playwright based in Roanoke, Virginia. Her queer, political epic, The Hills, was named a finalist for the 2020 season of the National Playwright’s Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Her full-length historical drama Decision Height garnered regional and national attention by winning several awards through the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF), including the 2014 Harold and Mimi Steinberg National Student Playwriting Award. Decision Height was published by Samuel French in November 2014. Her lyrical monodrama She Made Space and whimsical Underground comedy Coupler have been produced as part of the Hollins-Mill Mountain Theatre Winter Festival of New Works (in 2017 and 2016, respectively). Coupler is the recipient of the 2016 David L. Shelton Full Length play award from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, region IV, in March 2016. She Made Space placed first in the short play award category at the same festival in February 2017. Cope-Levy earned her M.F.A. in playwriting as a member of the Playwright’s Lab at Hollins University and is a member of the Dramatist’s Guild. She identifies as a lesbian and an episcopalian.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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