Women Writers Over 50 Workshop with Che’Rae Adams and Angeline Larimer

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Women over 50 are on our minds. Wise. Storied. Underrepresented. We want to change that!

Join us for this special three-hour writing StoryLab where 50+ women writers can develop their work and share ideas, and build a vibrant creative community. In this supportive, craft-focused space, we'll explore form, structure, and the unique demands of stage and screen.

Working on a stage play? Bring your pages.
A screenplay? Bring your pages.
A new TV or streaming pilot? BRING. YOUR. PAGES.

Each session blends targeted writing exercises with the sharing of new pages for feedback from the instructors and other StoryLab participants.

Drawing on decades of experience in new play development, Che'Rae Adams, brings the same clarity and intention she discovered while working in the room with Luis Alfaro, Jon Bastian, Lee Blessing, Patricia Cardosa, Anthony Clarvoe, John DiFusco, Ken Hanes, Tony Kushner, Oliver Mayer, Ellen McLaughlin, Abi Morgan, Han Ong, Peter Parnell, Tim Toyoma, Alice Tuan, and Mac Wellman.

About The Instructors

Che’Rae Adams has been the Producing Artistic Director of the LA Writers Center since 2006 where she develops new work with local writers. She was the Director of Operations and Programming for the Moss Theater in Santa Monica for seven years and has been the Development Executive for Playhouse Pictures Studios, Co-Artistic Director of the Road Theatre Company, and Managing Producer for the LA Women’s Theatre Festival. Che'Rae joined PlayPenn's staff as its second Artistic Director in 2023.

Angeline Larimer, MFA, MA, GCMH, is a playwright, dramaturg and the Executive Director of Propel New Works, a nonprofit organization that provides a variety of support for story development. Angeline is also a public health bioethicist, and an applied theatre professional who works at the intersection of health humanities, community, and theatre.

Angeline incorporates applied theatre and ethics into health and medical education and community outreach, helping individuals share their stories while ensuring they retain ownership of their narratives. She utilizes methods and principles borrowed from verbatim theatre, narrative medicine, critical fabulation, and ethnodrama.

About the 2026 New Play Development Conference

PlayPenn’s nationally recognized New Play Development Conference brings together readings of new plays alongside a citywide series of civic gatherings, workshops, artist exchanges, and public conversations focusing on art, democracy, historical memory, belonging, and collective imagination. This community-focused approach to new play development reflects a broader vision of theatre in a shared civic life that illuminates what theatre can do, who participates in it, how it unfolds, and why it matters. 

The 19-event Conference brings together 22 playwrights participating across workshops, conversations, and five new work presentations while expanding its scope to include an interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Eboni Booth (Primary Trust), free playwriting workshops for adults, teens, and women over 50, and a public conversation examining constitutional history and civic identity.

Additional programming includes a community workshop for queer theatre makers; a convening on innovation in theatre-making with leaders from Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Cannonball Festival, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Lemonade Stand, and Tiny Dynamite; and an acting lab focused on approaches to new play development and cross-community exchanges among theatre artists.