Cynthia Wands
Some of my plays appear as magic realism, exploring the mystic and molecular memories of our consciousness. I also write comedies because I love it when an audience recognizes something in a script that takes them by surprise and makes them laugh.
In my young years, I performed in new works with the Magic Theatre, San Francisco Rep, and the Celebration Theatre; and these roles sparked my interest in hearing new voices for theatre. I pursued readings of new works with the Theatre Series on KCRW (The House In The City), the Coast Playhouse (The Crimson Thread), The Burbage Theatre (Pearls & Marlowe), and the Marin Playwright’s Festival (Sarah Bernhardt). During our pandemic years I’ve performed in online readings for new scripts, including: Running For My Life, (CCCT...
Cynthia Wands
Some of my plays appear as magic realism, exploring the mystic and molecular memories of our consciousness. I also write comedies because I love it when an audience recognizes something in a script that takes them by surprise and makes them laugh.
In my young years, I performed in new works with the Magic Theatre, San Francisco Rep, and the Celebration Theatre; and these roles sparked my interest in hearing new voices for theatre. I pursued readings of new works with the Theatre Series on KCRW (The House In The City), the Coast Playhouse (The Crimson Thread), The Burbage Theatre (Pearls & Marlowe), and the Marin Playwright’s Festival (Sarah Bernhardt). During our pandemic years I’ve performed in online readings for new scripts, including: Running For My Life, (CCCT Theatre), Shloshim, (Words That Speak Workshop), and Flora Welles, (Words That Speak Workshop).
Some of my current work includes:
“THE LOST AND FOUND OF 2020”, a full-length comedy, follows a magical tarot reader who helps people search for their lost identity in 2020. This script is currently in development.
“CHANGE FOR MARTHA WASHINGTON”, is a full-length play exploring the afterlife trial for Martha Washington as she tries to negotiate her way to heaven. An online reading of this work was performed in a workshop directed by Jennie Webb in 2021.
“THE HOARDING HOUSE”, examines the gluttony of hoarding, the molecular memory of slavery in a historic home, and the permission to grow beyond one’s legacy. This full-length drama had a reading with the Seedlings Dramaturg Workshop, directed by Jennie Webb.
My full-length play “THE LOST YEARS”, centering on the backstage life of women during Shakespeare’s time, had it’s premier at the Contra Costa Civic Theatre in 2017, under the direction of Marilyn Langbehn.
My writing is included in “ALICE IN QUARANTINE”, a collaborative script written by eleven playwrights, in a peculiar pandemic-proof play: ALICE IN QUARANTINE: A Drive-Thru Adventure, and is published by Next Stage Press.
I’ve had some incredible teachers; as an actor I studied with Jose Quintero in Los Angeles, and also with Peter Frisch when he taught in Boston and Sydney Walker in San Francisco. I studied writing with Dakota Powell and Leon Martell at UCLA, Murray Mednick, Jack Grapes, Lee Wochner in his “Words That Speak” workshops. I also studied with Jennie Webb at the Seedlings Dramaturg Workshop that she developed with the Theatricum Botanicum. I’ve been involved in the reading and development of new scripts with the Dramatist Guild of America, Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative (LAFPI), and the International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP).
I am the author of two novels, Gift of Afternoon Light, and Improbable Fiction. My short stories have been published in Mo+h Magazine and Bombshelter Press.
I am a member of the Dramatist Guild, Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative (LAFPI), International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP), and the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights (ALAP).