keyanna
i write plays, pilots, and films.
who is she?
Hi, I'm Keyanna Khatiblou. I'm an Arizona-raised, Chicago-based writer and performer. After four years acting and devising in the Chicago storefront theatre scene, I now split my time between playwriting and screenwriting. I like the immediacy of having an audience right in the room with my plays, and I also love the longform storytelling of TV.
I'm currently a Core Apprentice with the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis. My plays have been developed and produced in Chicago at About Face Youth Theatre, Theater on the Lake, The Women's Theatre Alliance, The Jackalope Playwright's Lab, Prop Thtr, and the Evanston Children's Theater, as well as Theatre Masters (Aspen, CO and Off-Broadway, NYC). The first three episodes of my queer rom com web series, THE REBOUND, was read at The Crowd Theater also in Chicago.
You can read some press about me here, here, and here.
BA: The University of Arizona, 2014
MFA: Northwestern University, 2020
coming up
Fall 2020
Fall 2020
March 26-29 2021
Fairies Court will be produced virtually with the Evanston Children's Theater
No Fairies in Winter w/ Broken Nose Theatre's Bechdel Fest @ Steppenwolf
Reading of 2020: a going away party play @ Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, GA
went down
July 2020
May 21
Spring 2020
Spring 2020
Spring 2020
Fall 2019 - Spring 2020
Oct 21-23 2019
Summer 2019
Selected as a Core Apprentice at the Playwrights' Center
a live feed is produced virtually as part of the small hours festival
My Yellow is Yours, Your Red is Mine is published with Samuel French
Excerpt of 2020: a going away party play is published in the Avalanche Biannual
Penelope's Odyssey @ Evanston Children's Theatre (canceled due to COVID-19)
Intro to Screenwriting instructor @ Northwestern University
Fish and Wildlife w/ Nomads Art Collective's SPARKS: A Ten-Minute Play Laboratory
@ The Frontier
Original Programming Intern
@ Starz / The Television Academy
news
Twelve princesses are testing the boundaries set by an overprotective parent. With a reward at stake, the kids in town want to figure out where the twelve princesses are sneaking off to every night. A modern adaption of the Grimms Fairytale with a flexible cast and plenty of roles for girls.
Commission: The Evanston Children's Theatre
Production: The Evanston Children's Theatre, Spring 2019
First generation Iranian-American Mina is throwing a party for her closest friends and for you, the audience. Using games, flashbacks, and storytelling, the ensemble reflects on the modern American identity and shares a retelling of Mina's parents falling in love and staying in love while fleeing the Iranian Revolution. 2020: A GOING AWAY PARTY PLAY is a celebration of multicultural identities and exploration of what it means to leave or lose your home country.
Finalist: Alliance/Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition
Finalist: Theater on the Lake In the Works New Play Commission
Reading: Theater on the Lake, Loyola Park, 2019
The Tower
Lily, a millennial Chicagoan, has lived with her monsters for as long as she can remember. They've developed an understanding so they can more or less coexist, until one day the monsters begin acting erratically and Lily decides she's had enough. Teaming up with her cool girl roommate, a woke frat bro, a Wiccan sorority girl, and a really nice, really pretty girl that Lily may actually like ("umm!!!!"), Lily decides to take back her life from the creatures that haunt her. THE TOWER is a queer horror play about literally killing your demons.
The Chicago Women Theatre Alliance New Play Development Workshop, excerpt performed Summer 2019
Workshop: Theater Masters Take Ten, workshopped with playwright Craig Lucas
Workshop: The Jackalope Playwright's Lab, Fall 2018
Excerpt performed: About Face Youth Theatre's SCARY STORIES TO SAVE YOUR LIFE, Summer 2018
Losing All Your Friends
Stuart, Therese, and Ava are third year grad students who love literature, parties, and each other. LOSING ALL YOUR FRIENDS takes place on the CTA during the 2016-2017 school year, with the audience serving as fellow passengers during their tos and fros. During their last moments in academia, the women are ultimately forced to reckon with misplaced trust as they discover the potential cost of success in the arts.
Reading: Prop Thtr, Fall 2018
Excerpt performed: The Bughouse Theater, Spring 2017
The Twelve Dancing Princesses
Twelve princesses are testing the boundaries set by an overprotective parent. With a reward at stake, the kids in town want to figure out where the twelve princesses are sneaking off to every night. A modern adaption of the Grimms Fairytale with a flexible cast and plenty of roles for girls.
Commission: The Evanston Children's Theatre
Production: The Evanston Children's Theatre, Spring 2019
My Yellow is Yours, Your Red is Mine
10-minute play about two blended culture Iranian-Americans celebrating the Persian New Year.
Selected as 2019 Take Ten Aspen Play Lab / National MFA Playwrights Festival
Reading in Aspen, CO (dir. Meredith McDonough)
Workshop: Theater Masters Take Ten, workshopped and developed with playwright Craig Lucas
Production: Theatre Row (Off-Broadway, dir. Martha Banta), Spring 2019
Will be published with Samuel French, 2020
Short Attention Span Theatre
60-minute variety show comprised of original microplays written and devised by the ensemble.
Production: 5 original variety shows at Live Theatre Workshop in Tucson, AZ, 2013-2014
Production: A "best of" fundraiser performance at The University of Arizona, Spring 2014
Selected by and performed at the 2014 Cincinnati Fringe Festival
"It's a half-marathon of theatrical creativity. A sprint of skill and originality." -- Tucson Weekly
"The wide variety of scripts are smart, clever and funny." -- Behind the Curtain Cincinnati
"It's a wild ride." -- The Cincinnati Enquirer