Gabriel Rivas Gómez received his MFA in Dramatic Writing from USC in 2007. His plays, including Chasing Monsters, Circus Ugly, Swarm Cell and Scar Tissue, have been produced in various LA theaters. Scar Tissue was subsequently published in The Best American Short Plays of 2010–2011. He developed his play Carnivores as an inaugural member of the Latino Theatre Alliance Writer’s Circle.
His multi-generational play Level Up! was commissioned and developed by Latino Theater Company and Children’s Theatre in Minneapolis and was produced by LTC.
His work focuses on justice issues and giving words to the voiceless. His plays have been taught, read and performed at numerous theaters and universities across the country and internationally. His work has been called everything from surreal, to abstract, to unstageable.
He is tenured faculty at Glendale Community College — and when he is not busy writing or teaching, he can often be found lego-ing and baseballing with his children who, along with his wife, Elsie, are the source of his drive and strength.
In print & honors
- Scar Tissue — The Best American Short Plays 2010–2011
- Best Monologues from Best American Short Plays, Vol. 3
- Scenes for Latinx Actors: Voices of the New American Theatre
- Writer in Residence, Teatro Latina/o Reading Series, UNC Chapel Hill, 2012
- Inaugural member, Latino Theater Alliance/Los Angeles Writer’s Circle (Playwrights Nest)
- Circle of Imaginistas, Latino Theater Company