By Darlene Donloe
Contributing Writer
LOS ANGELES — When James Anthony Tyler found out he had snagged a spot in the prestigious Geffen Writers’ Room, he realized he would finally have a chance to work on an idea he had for a play that had been running through his head for several years.
“This idea has been in my head for a while,” Tyler said. “This was a good time to get it out of my head and onto the page.”
A graduate of the Juilliard School’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program, Tyler, who is African American, is one of six participants in the 2024-25 cycle of The Writers’ Room, a forum for engagement and collaboration between Los Angeles playwrights. Other participants include Sunny Drake, Keiko Green, Andrew Zepeda Klein, maatin and Samah Meghjee.
The Writers’ Room is a product of Geffen Playhouse’s commitment to supporting new plays and specifically to fostering bold, relevant work by the vibrant artistic community of Los Angeles.
During the 12-month residency, Writers’ Room members gather monthly to share their work and receive feedback from their peers in a forum facilitated by Geffen Playhouse Literary Manager and Dramaturg Olivia O’Connor.
The 2024-25 Writers’ Room cycle begins this month.
Tyler, who has a master’s in fine arts in film from Howard University and another in dramatic writing from New York University, always loved writing as a child. His mother would buy notebooks that he would quickly fill up.
“I don’t know what it was,” said Tyler, who was born in Oceanside, grew up in Las Vegas and now lives in Los Angeles and New York. “I remember in second grade, we would write a story from a picture. I would write all the time. I would fill up the notebooks all the time.
:When I got older, I saw a lot of films. One day my uncle said, ‘You know people write those films.’ That was it for me.”
I recently caught up with Tyler via phone, while he was working in Brooklyn, to talk about his upcoming participation in the Geffen Writers’ Room.
DD: Why did you want to participate in the Geffen Writers’ Room, and what will it do for your career?
JAT: I have had this idea for the play I proposed in my head for a few years now. I just haven’t had the opportunity to write it. When I saw this program, I thought this was a good time to apply to something that gives me structure. I’d be required to write the play within that timeline.
DD: And what will it do for your career?
JAT: I gave up thinking about what things would do for my career. I like focusing on the best project I can write.
DD: What is the project you’re going to work on?
JAT: It’s about a group of Black mothers of incarcerated sons. They are in a church group. I want to explore the shame and guilt that mothers often live with when they blame themselves for their child’s actions. This particular mother is trying to convince her son not to plead guilty. It’s not a comedy, but there will be lighter moments to get through this heavy topic. I want to talk about the over-policing and over-incarceration of Black folks.
DD: What specifically are you hoping to gain through the program besides finishing the play?
JAT: Networking, finishing a solid first draft, second or third draft, and meeting other artists. Some friendships will be formed. I hope to have a positive relationship with the Geffen. I hope to learn. I don’t know all the specifics of the justice system. I hope to learn more about it. The Ear Hustle podcast is one of my favorites. It talks about how you deal with the emotional terrain of having a loved one locked up.
DD: What were the criteria for participation?
JAT: To apply we had to write out our idea for a new play. We had to submit a sample of a prior play we had written. We had to send a resume and a bio. I had to interview before they accepted me. What’s important to Tarell Alvin McCraney (Geffen artistic director) is works about social justice and incarceration.
DD: What happens at the end of the residency?
JAT: After the residency, each one of us will have the opportunity to further develop our completed draft in a culminating reading produced by the Geffen. I’m looking forward to that. I’m looking forward to feedback from other writers and a dramaturg (a literary expert who works with playwrights). Hearing how the words sound. Each of us can decide if we want an audience or not. I will want an audience. That’s another part of learning.
DD: You’ve won various awards including the Horton Foote Playwriting Award and an inaugural playwright to receive a commission from Audible. There was the 2018 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. You were also recently the Playwrights’ Center’s McKnight Theater Artist Fellow and a playwright participant in the 2024 Durango PlayFest. What are your feelings about awards?
JAT: It’s validation to keep going and creating in your voice. They have made me more confident in the way I write. It’s the rhythm of my words.
DD: You were a staff writer for the OWN Network show “Cherish the Day.” What did you take away from that gig?
JAT: I learned a lot. It was my first TV staff writing job. The nature of writing for TV is different from plays. When I write my play, it’s specifically my play. I am the owner of the play. When I’m staff my job is to service the showrunner’s vision. I enjoy doing that, but it’s a different animal.
DD: You’ve done several plays.
JAT: Yeah, I have. I’ve done “Into the Side of a Hill” at the Flint Repertory Theatre, “Artney Jackson” at Williamstown Theatre Festival, “Some Old Black Man” (Berkshire Playwrights Lab at Saint James Place and 59E59 Theaters), and “Dolphins and Sharks” (LAByrinth Theater Company and Finborough Theatre in London).
DD: Talk about the life of a playwright.
TAJ: It’s a lot of writing, reading and observing human behavior and trying to artfully put that on the page in a way that keeps the audience engaged.
DD: How do you know when you’ve gotten it right?
JAT: I’m the barometer. If I’m emotionally invested, then I think an audience will be also.
DD: Talk about your writing process.
JAT: I’m by myself. There’s no music, no sound. I write when it’s late at night when it’s quiet. It’s me and a laptop or a notepad. I also make notes on my phone. When I’m in California, I write by a window. I have a place where the doors open up. I look at greenery and people walking by all the time.
DD: Do you have a favorite playwright?
JAT: There is a bunch of folks I love. August Wilson (“Fences,” “The Piano”), Alice Childress (“Trouble in Mind”) and Larraine Hansberry. Richard Wesley (“The Mighty Gents,” “The Black Terror”) is a hero.
DD: What does writing do for you?
JAT: It gives me a way to process our shared humanity. It’s an outlet for all of the things I think and feel about my own life and the world in general. It relaxes me. I can process feelings.
DD: Talk about the upcoming “The Drop Off,” the world premiere production at New Jersey Repertory Company in 2025.
JAT: It’s a play about the day a woman has to drop her mother off at an assisted living facility because she can’t take care of her anymore. I started it in 2014. The first production will be in 2025. It doesn’t sound like it, but I promise there is some humor.
Darlene Donloe is a freelance reporter for Wave Newspapers who covers South Los Angeles. She can be reached at ddonloe@gmail.com.
