A.R. Nicholas

Anna is a writer, actor and director whose career spans 30 years and is comprised of work for stage, film, television and individual consumption. Produced plays include "Our Dark Connection," "The Elegant Dinner," "Searching for Mary Jane," commissioned for Theatre In The Dark, The Odyssey Theatre, Los Angeles (2012-13) Nominated for LA Weekly Theatre Award; LU/LOU (Dorothy Lyman), The Beaver Suite (Friends and Artists Theatre and Metropolitan Stage NYC) and Incunabula, performed for radio by Los Angeles Theatre Works, available on Audible. Her plays have been included in reading series at Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Women's Theatre Project in Ft. Lauderdale, FL (2014) and Rogue Machine Theatre, Los Angeles. Her play, VILLA THRILLA, will have its world premier at the Atwater Village Theatre in the Fall of 2014. She wrote, produced and directed the international festival prize-winning film, Univers'L (starring Tony Todd), a multilingual mockumentary about the LA riots of 1992, rebroadcast on PBS; Her short film, The Big Bowling Ball, with James Remar, was nominated for best live action short. Nicholas is the author of the novels, The Muffia, the first of a "chick lit" series published in 2013 by Water Street Press and Homegrown: The Terror Within (written under the pseudonym, Cialan Haasnic). She has contributed columns for Vine Times and Touring & Tasting Magazines, as well as articles for the Los Angeles Times, The Chronicle of the Horse and others. Her first book of non-fiction, Royal Mack's Teeny Tiny Wine Guide (2005), was reissued in 2012, and an essay, "On Wine and Men," appears in Penguin Books' In My Mother's Kitchen. She blogs at themuffia.us As an actress, Nicholas was a member of Theatre In The Dark at the Odyssey Theatre, Los Angeles (nominated for LA Weekly Award 2013 for Best Ensemble). Other favorite roles include Lane in Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House (also at The Odyssey), Alice in A.R. Gurney's Post mortem, Kate in Harold Pinter's Old times (Ensemble Theatre), Shakespeare in Snoo Wilson's More Light and Eva in Alan Ayckbourn's Absurd Person Singular. Films include: Final Analysis, Cotton Club, Bloodstone And Funny About Love. She's been on TV as Sue Ellen's secretary on Dallas, Mike Hammer's sidekick, and Mary Tyler Moore's foil. She has taught writing at the University of Oregon, and has been involved with the Ojai Playwrights Conference, both as dramaturg and Managing Director (2010). She is a member of the Playwrights Unit of Ensemble Studio Theatre LA and the Dramatists Guild of America.