Amanda L. Andrei

Rosaura, a supernatural guardian of the Santa Ana Winds, falls in love with Felipe, a human firefighter in an alternative Los Angeles. With the help of her mother and a magical mask, Rosaura transitions from air to earth as she descends to LA to pursue this curiosity called love. But if she spreads fires and Felipe puts them out, how can the land sustain this love? When lightning strikes, do we put it out, or let it burn?

An adaptation of El Animal de Hungría by Lope de Vega. Commissioned by the 2022 Golden Tongues Festival (UCLA Diversifying the Classics and Playwrights Arena).

It’s 1976, and the Philippines is a mess. Some crazy filmmaker named Francis Ford Coppola is shooting an “epic action-adventure” war movie called “Apocalypse Now”, and he and his crew are treating the homeland like it’s a neocolonial playground. Amidst a civil war between the government and the communists, a typhoon goddess brewing a storm, land and people that need material and spiritual liberation – do you really wanna make a movie? Maybe that’s the strange thing about war and Hollywood – if power isn’t just about being seen, but controlling how other people see you, how do you wield the spotlight?

Work-in-progress with Echo Writers Lab -- reading in Feb 2022.

Inspired by Euripides’ Hecuba and the American eugenics movement, this surreal drama set in Los Angeles focuses on a Philippine-born baker and mother, Hecuba, as she struggles to remember and reconcile with the past violence done to her and her children – who may or not be imaginary, but are very real. In an alternate thread of reality, her children – activist Cassandra and scholar Polyxena – clash over Polyxena’s unexpected/unwanted pregnancy. All the women orbit the question: How do I obtain justice for my body in an unjust world?

On a cold January day in 2020, Sofia and Ariel, two estranged Filipina American half-sisters, reunite in Virginia to clean out the photographs, papers, and letters of their recently deceased mother. When they find a cassette tape seemingly recorded during martial law in the Philippines, when Ariel was born, they realize that what their mother left behind has a life of its own.

[A Lena Bala Play] This year will be the BEST. At least, that’s what Saint and Maria, the co-heads of the Filipino American student dance troupe vow to their dancers. This year holds the promise of breaking the centuries old curse that keeps Saint bound to their college campus, as well as allowing Maria to perform in front of her parents – but only if the dance is flawless. However, the appearance of a new student, Lena Bala, threatens to disrupt the traditions of the group when her presence breaks their dance props to pieces. Despite Lena’s clumsiness and lack of skill, her passion shines through, laying bare the insecurities of Saint, Maria, and the other troupe members and causing them to question who they perform for and why. In this supernatural drama, Filipino culture nights are sources of pride, chances to reinterpret diasporic stories, and ways to ask: how can we be our true selves?

[A Lena Bala play] A young Filipina Romanian American woman travels to her ailing father's homeland of Romania to find a magical cure for her father. As she navigates culture shock, shapeshifters, and devils, she finally reaches her family’s dark history and must confront the question: where do we come from, and what are we made of?

In a near future world where the government trains teenagers to manage disasters, five young women embark on a training scenario in the Appalachian Mountains to fix a regional electrical grid. As the girls hide secrets about their pasts and what is installed in their bodies, leadership and friendship become fractured. And when a freak electromagnetic storm hits the grid and injures the teens, they must fight for their bodies, relationships, and lives, struggling with a question that faces many of us today: how do we grow up in a world that is falling apart?

Currently under option in the New York City area by Parity Productions.

A professional box-opener receives her most intriguing yet dangerous assignment yet -- to open a large, mysterious box that beckons her to its twisted interior world. An adaptation of Stanisław Witkiewicz's "The Pragmatists."

On her fourth birthday, Palmie receives a dream pillow from her mother and uses it to go on an adventure to meet her Filipina grandmother in dreamland.

Two detainees in a Japanese internment camp in the Philippines struggle to survive through jokes and songs until they must make a potentially violent decision.

An adaptation of Lewis Carroll's poem of the same name, where a lonely man and a mischievous ghost become friends.

A young woman struck with lovesickness can only recite the dictionary. When her sister takes her to a doctor/magician, another patient shows up -- a heartsick fellow who can only recite the thesaurus.

If a robin redbreast in a cage puts all heaven in a rage, does a lovelorn robin in a mirror make the state of love that much clearer? Two strained relationships are tested over brunch: a woman and her long-distance lover, and a bird and its reflection. This ten-minute comedy explores the poignancy of spreading one’s wings and flying out of love.

Relocated by the Romanian communist party to “reeducate” a mountain village, Costica encounters the best and worst people under a totalitarian society. While Florian the jokester attempts to liven his new comrade’s spirits, Trajan the patriot is determined they complete their mission at any cost. In this dark comedy, reeducating roses will only get you cut by thorns.

In the near future bizzaro world, justice is determined by a complex algorithmic system that has virtually wiped out crime. But the computer program is only as smart as its programmers... allowing one woman with a grudge to slip through the laws.

When a man wakes up from the dead, he is surprised to find that a panel of experts disagrees.

An old Odyssey of the Mind team is reunited at a white elephant gift exchange of absurd futuristic technologies. Will they resolve their bad blood or end up annihilating each other with their new presents?

Three siblings attempt to fulfill their dying father's last wish to share a meal with his family. Except dear dad doesn't know that during his treatment, a zombie apocalypse has been brewing.

A young woman considers an opportunity to trade places with a Yule Log, a ceremonial log of wood burnt during Christmas.

A contemporary retelling of a deceased soul traveling to their eternal rest -- but first having to deal with a rose bush guardian, pine tree gatekeeper, and the Mother of God. Based on the Romanian folk poem "The Pilgrimage of the Soul After Death"

A volunteer on the Your! Amazing! Galaxy! tour in search of enlightenment meets her anti-volunteer self.

On her wedding day, a young star in a constellation must decide her future. Part of the Retrograde Astrology showcase (Libra).