Writers Rising With Giovanny Camarena and Zharia O’Neal

In this special episode of Writers Revealed, we join two up-and-coming young playwrights, Giovanny Camarena and Zharia O’Neal. These two bright and energetic artists share a little about how they got to where they are today and where they hope to go in the future. 

 

This Month: 

• Giovanny and Zharia discuss their background and how the settings of the pieces were inspired by where they grew up.
• Giovanny discusses the origins of the symbolic and iconic names in THE AMERICAN DREAM. 
• Zharia talks about how reality television inspired her play ROOST. 
• Giovanny talks about his process of writing a play and how immigration inspired THE AMERICAN DREAM. 
• Both writers discuss how their understanding of the American Dream has evolved over time. 
• Both writers break down their writing process. 
• Zharia talks about inaccessible theatre norms and how she wants to make going to a theatre show more available to all types of people in her work. 
• Giovanny emphasizes the importance of BIPOC writers telling stories about people who do not have the same racial makeup as themselves. 
• Zharia and Giovanny tell us about their experience dealing with COVID and racial violence and how it changed their writing and their lives. 
• Both writers answer the question, “Who are we (as BIPOC artists) writing for?”

 

Pieces Read

• Monologue from the play, THE BLOOD OF A HIBISCUS, by Zharia O’Neal
• Monologue from the play, ROOST, by Zharia O’Neal
• Excerpt from a work-in-progress play, THE AMERICAN DREAM, a play by Giovanny Camarena

 

About Giovanny Camarena 

Giovanny Camarena is a latine actor and playwright. He received his first commission from The Breath Project 2020 to write a full length play. He is currently developing a short he wrote to be entered into film competitions. Giovanny also has experience on stage and dubbing foreign tv shows for Netflix. He received his bachelor degree from the University of Southern California and has also studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He currently works for Lower Depth Theatre as their Program Assistant. 

 

About Zharia O’Neal 

Zharia O’Neal is a playwright, poet, and multi-medium storyteller hailing from the British Virgin Islands. Her work, seasoned with fistfuls of fish, fungi, and B/black comedy tends to explore liminal spaces between places, nationalities, languages, and genres, and has been recognized and commissioned by HUMANITAS PLAY LA and the Association of Los Angeles Playwrights. O’Neal is currently an International Artists’ Fellow and third-year candidate for an MFA in Dramatic Writing at the University of Southern California. She is also Associate Literary Manager at Playwrights’ Arena, and has worked in association with the Ojai Playwrights’ Conference.