What?
Perennial Workshop is a Los Angeles-based collective and model for developing new musical theatre work outside traditional institutional pipelines.
Perennial Workshop will bring together playwrights, composers, lyricists, directors, dramaturgs, and actors who contribute their skills toward developing one another’s work through staged readings and workshops. In other instances, artists must independently raise money to hire a full creative team.
I am leveraging my experience in the nonprofit development sector to build Perennial Workshop into a sustainable, collective structure in which artists will share expertise, creative labor, and resources. A playwright might contribute dramaturgical support to one project, for example, while receiving directing and acting support when their own work is being developed. All artists involved wil receive a stipend, because time is money, honey!
Why?
My motivation for creating Perennial Workshop stems from a concern about the economics of musical theatre, and in such an economy, what kinds of stories have the luxury of being told.
Musicals are increasingly expensive to develop and produce, and as costs rise, the field has become increasingly dependent on commercial viability, large institutions, and work that can justify enormous capitalization. I do not believe the answer is fewer musicals.
I want to see a broader ecosystem of musicals.
Perennial Buds
Making theatre is > anything. Reach out if you’re interested in joining us.
Nedelle Torrisi
Founder, Composer & Lyricist
Nedelle has released multiple albums on respected independent labels such as French Kiss and Kill Rock Stars. Two albums in collaboration with Chris Cohen were released under the name Cryptacize on Sufjan Stevens’ Asthmatic Kitty record label.
Nedelle also spent time as a background vocalist, keyboardist, and violinist for Stevens, touring for his Age of Adz album. Her voice is featured on his albums Carrie and Lowell and Javelin.
She and jazz organist Larry Goldings collaborated on an EP of standards and covers entitled, Five Songs. Other collaborators include Rodrigo Amarante, Blood Orange, and Julia Holter.
In 2024 she completed the NYC-based Lehman Engel BMI Musical Theater Workshop before returning to her beloved California, and is currently writing a full-length musical called Dust Bunnies.
Dust Bunnies was selected as a 2026 semifinalist for the National Music Theater Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.
Workshops and residencies include Andy’s Summer Playhouse and Mercury Store. Proud member of Dramatists Guild and Maestra.
Angela Parrish
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger, Vocalist, Violist, Pianist
Angela Parrish is a songwriter, composer, record producer, artist, and multi-instrumentalist.
She has sung alongside THE WEEKND, BEN FOLDS, PAUL WILLIAMS, JIMMY KIMMEL, FLORENCE + THE MACHINE, and the famous, beloved trio of DONALD DUCK, GOOFY, and MICKEY MOUSE. Millions of cinema devotees heard her buoyant vocals on “Another Day of Sun,” the song that opens the Academy Award-winning film musical LA LA LAND.
Angela’s 2015 debut EP, FAITHFUL AND TALL, which featured guest vocals from SEAN WATKINS (Nickel Creek), was nominated for a pair of Independent Music Awards. Her song “Borrowed Time” was selected as a Grand Prize Winner in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Angela is a past recipient of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and ASCAP Abe Olman Scholarship for Excellence in Songwriting and a recent New Folk Competition Finalist.
Angela co-wrote original songs for the 2020 film CHANCE starring Matthew Modine, one of which was nominated for a Hollywood Music in Media Award. She is currently writing a musical with collaborator Ali Gordon.
Antwon Mason Jr.
Actor, Vocalist, Director, Director, DEI Specialist
Antwon Mason Jr. is a Los Angeles–based actor, storyteller, and multi-hyphenate artist originally from Stockton, California. A graduate of the Pacific Conservatory Theatre (PCPA), he has worked across theatre, film, television, and music production.
His stage credits include Orsino in Twelfth Night at Actors Co-op, Isaac Jaggard in Lauren Gunderson’s The Book of Will, Daryl in Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s Bright Star, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. On screen, Antwon has appeared in The Nameless Luna and numerous Dhar Mann Studios productions.
Rooted in a lifelong commitment to art and community, Antwon is passionate about storytelling that celebrates connection, shared experience, and the voices that shape our communities.
Somebody Jones
Playwright, Dramaturg, Educator
Somebody Jones is a Los Angeles native playwright and dramaturg, currently living, working, and dreaming in London. Jones received a Bachelor’s in Theatre with an Emphasis in Playwriting from the University of Southern California and a master’s in Dramaturgy and Writing for Performance from Goldsmiths University of London. Jones’s work celebrates and champions Black culture in all of its charms and complexities. Jones primarily works within the genres of horror, magical realism, verbatim, and recently, Black fantasy.
Jones's debut play, HOW I LEARNED TO SWIM premiered at Roundabout at the Edinburgh Fringe and then toured to Brixton House and Bristol Old Vic. SWIM was a finalist for the Women's Prize for Playwriting and shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award in 2021. In 2022, Jones won the Tony Craze Award for the play ALL MY FRIENDS ARE DEAD.
Formerly, Somebody Jones was a Paines Plough's Playwright Fellow (2023/2024), a part of Soho Theatre's Writers' Lab (London, 2022), an Artistic Associate with Nouveau Riche (London, 2022), a Creative Associate at Jermyn Street Theatre (London, 2021), and a part of Boston Court's first Playwrights' Group (Los Angeles, 2021).
Tiago Santos
Actor, Vocalist, Producer
Tiago Santos is a Los Angeles native and graduate of the Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts (PCPA). His theater credits include the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s School Visit Program, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Actors Co-op, and Red String Company. Drawn to emotionally grounded, character-driven work, Tiago performs across theater, musicals, television, and independent film. He believes great storytelling can help people feel seen, understood, and a little less alone.
Dr. Ryan Lisman
Actor, Producer, Artistic Director of Catharsis Theatre Collective, Dramaturg, and Drama Therapist
Ryan Lisman holds a Doctorate in Psychology and is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and Registered Drama Therapist. He earned his MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Drama Therapy from Lesley University, where his graduate research explored the use of drama therapy with transgender adolescents. His work as a drama therapist informs his approach to theatrical storytelling, drawing on embodied, experiential, and narrative practices to create work that invites audiences into perspectives beyond their own.
Through Catharsis Theatre Collective, Ryan has written, directed, and produced original theatrical work including Schizm, inspired in part by his experience working as a therapist in a psychiatric setting, and And What of the Children.... Catharsis Theatre Collective recently produced a successful run of Will Arbery’s play, Heroes of the Fourth Turning at The Broadwater Second Stage in Hollywood.
Perennial Workshop is a fiscally sponsored project of COUNTERPART. For more information or to donate, visit this profile.