Sowmya Ashokkumar

Sowmya is an LA-based playwright, screenwriter, and educator from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work centers women of color, queer folk, and immigrants in narratives about healing and finding joy after loss and grief.

As a playwright, she has had her work 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. Additionally, Seven Words, An Exercise in Friendship was a finalist for the 44th Bay Area Playwrights Festival.

As a screenwriter, Sowmya is a 2022 CAPE New Writers Fellow and a 2019 winner of the CMU/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Script Competition.

Sowmya has also been an educator for over two...

Sowmya is an LA-based playwright, screenwriter, and educator from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work centers women of color, queer folk, and immigrants in narratives about healing and finding joy after loss and grief.

As a playwright, she has had her work 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. Additionally, Seven Words, An Exercise in Friendship was a finalist for the 44th Bay Area Playwrights Festival.

As a screenwriter, Sowmya is a 2022 CAPE New Writers Fellow and a 2019 winner of the CMU/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Script Competition.

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

In her spare time, Sowmya video chats with her toddler niece, adds new cooking techniques to her repertoire by watching food documentaries and competition shows, and keeps up her years of vocal training by singing in her car.

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

Scripts

Seven Words, An Exercise in Friendship

by Sowmya Ashokkumar

Synopsis

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.

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

Synopsis

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.

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

Synopsis

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.

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.