Free with RSVP
Light bites provided!

Sunday, May 10, 2026
TIME 12:30 PM

Chicago Cultural Center
5th Floor
Millennium Park Room
78 E. Washington St.
Chicago, IL 60602

Screenwriters Workshop

A community event of The 29th Annual Asian American Showcase, this screenwriting workshop for filmmakers offers participants direct exposure to working screenwriters and an industry-based educator, creating a practical and inspiring space to develop their craft.

Topics of discussion will include writing monologues, sharpening dialogue, and creating work in times of uncertainty, the live workshop combines craft discussion with hands-on exploration. Participants will gain concrete tools, creative insight, and the confidence to push their writing forward. This is a space for writers and those interested in screenwriting to convene, learn, and share their work.

About the Facilitators

Amalia Aquino is a Filipina-American writer, performer, filmmaker, and artist based in Los Angeles, raised in the Bay Area, CA. She is a graduate of the UCLA Professional Program in Writing for Television. She has studied improv comedy and sketch at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles. She is currently enjoying a creative coming of age (in midlife adulthood). Through her work, she explores how funny/horrifying it can be. Her short film The Strawberries will be screening at The Asian American Showcase as a part of THE OTHER SIDE: AAPI SHORTS program on May 10th!

Amy B Tiong is a Chinese-American director, playwright, and screenwriter. Inspired by her immigrant parents, she devoted herself to her love of learning, becoming a Gates Millennium Scholar and NYU Tisch Dean's Scholar, and is currently obtaining her MFA in Northwestern's Writing for the Screen and Stage Program. She believes in showing solidarity on-screen and using film as a medium of generational healing; she aims to inspire empathy through genre-bending storytelling. Her feature script, When You're Ready To Go, a horror immigration story, ranked in the top 3% on Coverfly, advancing to the finalist rounds of WeScreenplay, Stowe Story Labs, and Screen Craft Competitions. She has directed short films with The Dolby Institute, Ghetto Film School, Bustle Media, PictureStart, Wavelength Productions, and The NAACP. Outside of film, she enjoys boxing, reading, dancing, baking, and serving her community. Her website can be found at amybtiong.com.

Meg Mateo is a writer, editor, and filmmaker based in the SF Bay Area. Her career spans editorial and visual roles--journalist, designer, stylist, illustrator. She was creative director at Anthology Magazine and an editorial director at Zeitgeist (Penguin Random House). She is the author of seven nonfiction books including Craft Inc. and Crafting a Meaningful Home. Her current film and writing projects are deeply personal, drawing from her own life and family history. YOU COULD’VE BEEN A NURSE is her first short film and directorial debut and will world premiere at The Asian American Showcase on May 8th as a part of the KAPWA (SHARED IDENTITIES): FILIPINO AAPI SHORTS program!