Sowmya Ashokkumar

Sowmya Ashokkumar

Sowmya is an LA-based playwright, screenwriter, and educator from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her writing centers women of color in narratives about home, hope and healing.

She was a member of PlayGround SF’s Writers Pool (23rd Season) where her short plays were selected for S.T.E.M Night and WomenArts Night. She has been a member of City Light Theater’s LightSource Writers’ Group and is a...
Sowmya is an LA-based playwright, screenwriter, and educator from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her writing centers women of color in narratives about home, hope and healing.

She was a member of PlayGround SF’s Writers Pool (23rd Season) where her short plays were selected for S.T.E.M Night and WomenArts Night. She has been a member of City Light Theater’s LightSource Writers’ Group and is a current member of EST/LA’s NewWest Playwrights Group.

Her play Phoenix has been read at Playwrights Foundation’s A Night of New Works and EnActe Arts Inc.’s staged reading series, Playful@EnActe. Her MFA thesis play, Santosha or The J3ng@ Play, was a semifinalist for the 2019 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference & received an honorable mention from the Jane Chambers 2019 Student Playwriting Contest.

Sowmya has also been an educator for over two decades, specializing in English, Dramatic Writing, US History, World History, and US Government.

In her spare time, Sowmya video chats with her toddler niece, and watches food documentaries and competition shows, picking up tips to add to her cooking routine.

BA in English: UC Berkeley. MFA in Dramatic Writing: Carnegie Mellon University.

Plays

  • Seven Words, An Exercise in Friendship by Sowmya Ashokkumar
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama, experimental
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    Keyword: female friendship, full length + 6 more
    Genre: drama, experimental
    Keyword: female friendship, full length, black box, close friendship, anxiety, grief, Bay Area, experimental
    How many words does it take to start a friendship? How about to end a friendship? In Amina’s case, it took one sentence, seven words long, to unravel everything she thought she knew about a close friend. This meditation examines the stuff that makes up and breaks up female friendship.
  • Santosha or The J3ng@ Play by Sowmya Ashokkumar
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller
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    Keyword: lesbian love, queer women of color + 6 more
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: lesbian love, queer women of color, metoo, dramedy, healing, love story, discussions of childhood sexual abuse, yoga
    Melissa, a survivor of multiple instances of sexual abuse, has finally found a woman she likes dating, Simone. When their relationship becomes exclusive, Melissa's trauma resurfaces as a haunting figure who cannot stop playing the famous block-stacking game. Part thriller part dramedy, Santosha or The J3ng@ Play highlights the beauty and joy of new relationships while navigating past trauma.
  • Phoenix by Sowmya Ashokkumar
    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: family, first generation + 5 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: family, first generation, Bay Area, money, business, family legacy, siblings
    When two South-Asian American siblings discover money is missing from their family business, they begin investigating their three older siblings. As the family business falls apart and their patriarch dies, these siblings must decide whether or not they can survive the shame and secrecy that plagues them.