The Ebell of Los Angeles and the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble are excited to announce Still Life, Spoken Word a new arts education collaborative project. Teaching artists selected from Odyssey Theatre Ensemble’s Writers’ Odyssey will be teamed with Ebell members for the creative monologue writing workshop inspired by the vast and storied painting collection of the Ebell, which culminates in a public presentation of the monologues.

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The workshop will begin with an introduction by Sally Essex- Lopresti, Producer and Literary Manager of the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, and Velina Hasu Houston, Associate Artist of the Odyssey’s Writers’ Odyssey writers’ group. Workshop series takes place over four Saturdays (1/24, 2/7, 2/21, 2/28), Member fee $35. Non-member fee $45.

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TEACHING ARTIST INFORMATION Members of Writers’ Odyssey of the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble.

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Diana Burbano

Diana Burbano is a Colombian immigrant playwright, actor, and teaching artist based in Southern California. Her work, which often explores themes of identity, resistance, and belonging, has been produced at theaters nationwide. Works include Sapience, Ghosts of Bogota, and Flickers. She is committed to elevating underrepresented voices through her writing and her work with Breath of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble, where she mentors new storytellers using anti-racist and anti-bias techniques. Diana serves on the Dramatists Guild Council as the representative for Southern California.

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Jennifer Maisel

Jennifer Maisel is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter whose work has been produced off-Broadway, nationally and internationally. Her plays include Eight Nights, Out of Orbit, Provenance, There or Here, Yellow Wallpaper 2.0 2020, and @the speedofJake, and have been workshopped, produced and honored by the Sundance Theatre Lab, the Ojai Playwrights Conference, The Kennedy Center, the Ovation Awards, Jewish Plays Project, the Woodward/Newman Award, the Asolo Theatre, Antaeus Theatre Detroit Public Theatre and the PEN West Literary Awards. She also writes for film and television; the screenplay adaptation of her The Last Seder is in pre-production with Rosalind Productions.

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Velina Hasu Houston

Velina Hasu Houston, a Distinguished Professor of Theatre in Dramatic Writing at the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts and USC’s Resident Playwright, is a multi-genre writer working in theatre, musical theatre, opera, essays, poetry, and film whose artistic creation explores the global and domestic intersectionalities of ethnicity, culture, and gender; and the disintegration of artificial borders that support identity formation. Currently, she is working on four writing commissions in Honolulu, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

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