THE PLAYWRIGHT'S ROUNDTABLE
August 18-24, 2025: Round Table Readings!
Producer: Justin Okin
Roundtable Director: Lina Patel
Announcing Rogue Machine Theatre's 2nd Annual Playwright's Roundtable writers! We are beyond excited to announce our 2025 cohort, Rich Andrew, Makeda Declet, Joy Gregory, Hannah Kenah, David Myers, and Megan Tabaque.
The Playwright's Roundtable is a platform dedicated to connecting, hosting, and empowering a bold and diverse group of playwrights based in Southern California. During a seven-month residency, Roundtable playwrights meet bi-weekly at the historic Matrix Theater in West Hollywood to begin work on a new play in a peer-led, supportive environment.
Rooted in Rogue Machine's belief that stories have the power to change the world, the Roundtable supports emerging and mid-career writers as they create original new works that speak to timeless themes, entertain, provoke dialogue, and create community. Rogue Machine's 2024 inaugural Playwright's Roundtable included Mando Alvarado, Joshua Conkel, Brian Otaño, A. Rey Pamatmat, David H. Parker, and Lina Patel.
The 2025 residency will culminate with Rogue Machine’s PLAYWRIGHT'S ROUNDTABLE NEW PLAY FESTIVAL, taking place August 18-24, 2025 and run by Roundtable alum, Lina Patel.
Sponsored by the Los Angeles Playwrights Project.
MAKEDA M. DECLET
Playwright
Makeda M. Declet is a Guyanese-American playwright, TV writer, and performer originally from Brooklyn, NY. Her work, shaped by network television, bootleg CDs, and Y2K, explores themes of nostalgia and the American Dream. Makeda holds an MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage from Northwestern University and a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has developed work at EST/LA, Moving Arts, and Mara Brock Akil’s Story 27 Writer’s Colony. Her play Darlings was an honorable mention for the prestigious Leah Award in 2024. Looking ahead, Makeda is excited to continue queering Black stories for both the stage and screen.
JOY GREGORY
Playwright
Joy Gregory (she/her) is a proud LA theater nerd. Member of Ammunition Theatre Company and EST/LA Playwrights Unit, founding member of Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company. Her newest play, The Lonely Ape, A Melancholy Comedy, was a semifinalist in the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference and has had readings at The Road Theatre, Echo Theater Company and Ammunition Theatre Company. Her musical The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World at Playwrights Horizons was nominated for a Drama Critics’ Circle Award and Lucile Lortel for Book and Lyrics of a Musical. Currently writer/producer and show runner for the Hallmark Television series, When Calls the Heart. Other TV writing credits include Madam Secretary, The Resident and Switched At Birth.
LINA PATEL
Playwright/Moderator
Lina Patel is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work explores disability, non-traditional relationships, and power in an unstable world. Upcoming: her new play, Sick Girl or Don't Hate Me Cuz I'm Pretty is invited to PlayFest Indy/Summit Theater; and her UCLA/Playwright's Arena commissioned play, Traces of Desire, is being published by Bloomsbury, U.K. On television, Lina was co-producer on Ava DuVernay's nuanced series, Cherish the Day, which explores Black love; previously on DC's character-driven sci-fi drama, Krypton. Currently, Lina is developing her original pilot about mental health and law enforcement for BET Plus.
HANNAH KENAH
Playwright
Hannah Kenah is a playwright, performer, and devised theatre artist. She has developed work with the Rude Mechs, Salvage Vanguard, New Dramatists, and Yale University, among others. Hannah has performed in national and international tours, including runs at Lincoln Center, Humana Festival, and Yale Repertory Theatre. Her plays have been finalists and semifinalists for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and the Relentless Award, among others. Hannah received a BA from Dartmouth College, a certificate of physical theatre from Dell’Arte International, and an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin.
DAVID MYERS
Playwright
David Myers writes for stage and screen. His plays have been developed at Center Theater Group, Berkeley Rep, South Coast Rep, The Skylight Theater, and Labyrinth Theater Co. and more. Produced in London at Riverside Studios, in NYC at Rising Phoenix Rep, in Denver with Local Theatre Co. For TV, he’s worked on The Resident (Fox), Devil in Ohio (Netflix), Cruel Summer (Hulu), Cross (Amazon) and The Greatest (Amazon). MFA, UCSD, BA, Brown University. Originally from Houston, Texas, David writes about impossible dreamers wrestling with their place in history.
MEGAN TABAQUE
Playwright
Megan Tabaque is a playwright, actor, and arts educator. Her work has been developed, commissioned, and produced by the Alliance, The Road, Salvage Vanguard, Tofte Lake, Workshop Theater, Vanderbilt University, Inner City Arts, and Theatrical Outfit among others. She’s James A. Michener Fellow, Kundiman Fiction Fellow, Seattle Public Theater Emerald Prize finalist, the 2021-2023 Emory Fellow of Playwriting, and is the current 4 Seasons Resident Playwright in cooperation with the Seven Devils Conference, Tofte Lake, UCSB, and Ignition Arts. She has an MFA in Playwriting from the Michener Center for Writers and lives in Los Angeles, where she’s an Assistant Professor of Playwriting, Screenwriting, and Acting at UC Riverside.
RICH WONG
Playwright
Rich Wong is a graduate of UCLA where he earned a BA in film and television. His theatre credits include Company of Wayward Saints, Reservations For Two, Gruesome Hotel, Measure For Measure, Come Get Maggie, Blue, The Shadow, Lines in the Dust, Sukkot, H*tler’s Tasters, Psycho Beach Party, and A Good Guy. When he’s not stage managing, you may find him forcing blood from a stone (or what he likes to call writing).