Season 11 (2022-23)

  • Sister, Braid My Hair

    a new play by Sarahjeen François

    Directed by Melissa Coleman-Reed

    Featuring:

    Eboni Alexander, Tamara McMillian, Tyree Marshall, Dionne Robinson, Naïma Hebrail Kidjo
    Djembefola - Mizan Willis

    "Sister, Braid My Hair" is about four sisters who exist as figures in a living tableaux but find reasons to escape the monotony of their frame… for a good time in the real-world. However, the sisters quickly discover that the real-world ain’t as pretty as their picture, and that their real-world Black and Brown counterparts are being over policed.

  • O: A Rhapsody in Divorce

    a new play by Jami Brandli

    Directed by Jessica Hanna

    Featuring:

    Amielynn Abellera, Ann Noble, Alexis Genya, Jacqueline Misaye, Andrew Brian Carter,
    Shirley Jordan

    The Odyssey reimagined as a rhapsodic dramedy.
    O, a childless female neurobiologist in her 40s, is blindsided by her husband who wants a divorce, but he refuses to leave the house. With that, her life is upended and she’s thrown into an epic couch-hopping odyssey. As O hops from one couch to the next, we’ll not only learn about the science behind love and heartbreak, O discovers unconventional and magical ways to reassemble the blown-up pieces of her life while she struggles to find her way back toward a “new home.”

  • The Taste of Emeralds

    a new play by Amy Dellagiarino

    Directed by Carly DW Bones

    Featuring:

    Kathleen Leary, Dana DeRuyck, Zachary Bones, Veronica Tjioe

    Sisters Margot and Caitlin meet up at their mother’s small, decrepit apartment to go through her possessions after her recent death. As the day slowly turns into night, they begin to unpack the secrets of their past until the haunting influence of their mother throughout the years begins to look a lot like an actual haunting.

  • Two Stop

    a new play by David Johann Kim

    Directed by Alberto Isaac

    Featuring:

    Suzen Baraka, Tristina Lee, Albert Park, Shirley Jordan

    On the verge of the ’92 LA Riots.
    A Korean market.
    A murder scene.
    A store owner and a neighborhood teenaged girl face off.
    When her wild card mother arrives, secrets from the past explode in this tiny store.
    History and histories go head to head, as LA starts to burn.
    Together they reach back decades and across the globe through war, strife, love and life, finding connection and even hope…but will it be enough?

  • Human Resources

    a new play by Daniel Hirsch

    Directed by Annie McVey

    Featuring:

    Christine Dunford, Luke Medina, John Lavelle, Sharon Freedman

    Kate is having a rough Monday. On top of the fact that she has a chatty, emotionally needy new coworker named Alan who won’t shut up, she’s realizing that her job in the User Systems QA team might be utterly devoid of meaning. Also, she’s probably going to die… As the Mondays accumulate, Kate’s small world is upended when Alan wrangles her into an unexpected friendship. However, neither can predict how the forces of late-stage, techno-capitalism or one’s impending mortality might muck up their non-romantic, workplace romance.

Season 10 (2021-22)

  • WAITING (4.380,000 HOURS AND COUNTING)

    a new play by Aja Houston

    Directed by Susan Dalian

    Featuring:

    Carlis Shane Clark, Cherish Monique Duke, Mihara India, Rickey Junior, Geri-Nikole Love, Portland Thomas, Inger Tudor, E.E. Williams

    When Proctor passes into the afterlife, she finds herself a captive of “The Middle” — a place where Black souls killed for the sin of being “Spooks” are held until they earn their redemption. Proctor pushes back against the other members and the omnipresent system that governs them so she may be released into the promised paradise of “The Away.”

  • LET.HER.RIP.

    a new play by Maggie Lou Rader

    Directed by Randee Trabitz

    Featuring:

    Alexis Genya, Kaitlin Huwe, Portland Thomas, Kay Wilson
    Live Original Music performed by Michael Fleming

    LET. HER. RIP. is the story of camaraderie, activism, and ferocity which lies within the crosshairs of the Match Women labour movement and the Ripper murders in White Chapel, 1888

  • here comes the night

    a new play by Lisa Kenner Grissom

    Directed by Melissa Coleman-Reed

    Featuring:

    Madelynn Fattibene, Erika Soto, Paige Taylor

    When Olivia (mid-40s) invites her old friend, Maggie (mid-30s), to spend the weekend to provide support as Olivia goes through an at-home abortion, their opposing worldviews lead to unexpected insights and consequences for both of them. What happens when a woman’s right to choose becomes a litmus test for all of her life choices?

  • Into The Sky

    a new play by Matt Schutz

    Directed by Kimberlea Kressal

    Featuring:

    David J. Cork, Felipe Figueroa, Noelle Romano

    Aboard the spacecraft Passage, Roderick and Johann tend to caterpillars while journeying towards a habitable planet. The long journey allows the two to simply drift through space – and towards each other.

  • Poolside Glow

    a new play by Luis Roberto Herrera

    Directed by Claudia Duran

    Featuring:

    Timothy Mark Davis, Zamara Jimenez, Julie Peralta Reyes

    Afraid of her true desires, Serena searches for what she believes is love and whether she deserves it. Through a series of late-night swims, she explores how much she is willing to sacrifice and endure in the pursuit of it.

  • Firewater

    a new play by Samantha Marchant

    Directed by Lauren Campedelli

    Featuring:

    Sara Acevedo, Max Faugno, Alexandra Hellquist, Jully Lee, Sierra Santana, Miebaka Yohannes

    A reimagining of the Prometheus myth told from the point of view of fire and her sister.

  • A Witness

    a new play by Jordan Elizabeth Henry

    Directed by Hannah Wolf

    Featuring:

    Robyn Cohen, Sol Marina Crespo, Jimmy Jo, Hailey McAfee, Susan Louise O’Connor, Geri-Nikole Love, Kacie Rogers

    Billie, an end-of-life nurse, begins working with Chuck, a woman in the final stages of ALS, as the one-year anniversary of the death of Billie’s brother, Kosmo, approaches.

Season 9 (2020-21)

  • Gertrude

    a new play by John Lavelle

    Directed by Randee Trabitz

    Featuring:

    Keliher Walsh, Sandi McCree, Kacie Rogers, Deborah S. Craig, Parvesh Cheena, Tony Abatemarco

    After the death of Hamlet, the Nordic invaders were hoping for a bloodless transition of power. What they got, was Gertrude.

  • Long Division

    a new play by Aja Houston

    Directed by Melissa Coleman-Reed

    Featuring:

    Geri-Nikole Love, David J. Cork, Nardeep Khurmi, Alexandra Grossi, Cherish Monique Duke

    Long division is hard. In Jo’s world dividing up years of marital memories with her ex-husband is even harder. When he sends someone to be his stand-in, Jo is forced to sift through intimate moments with a stranger, who challenges her to solve the problem of moving on.

  • Gone

    a new play by Lolly Ward

    Directed by Hannah Wolf

    Featuring:

    Cherish Monique Duke, Alexandra Hellquist, Peter James Smith, Mitchell Bisschop, Tyree Marshall, Shirley Jordan

    A will provides peace of mind as four stepsiblings divide their anticipated inheritance with generosity…with suspicion…with greed. Gamble the night away, but whatever you do, don’t leave the house – your family is watching. “Gone” is a dramedy that tests whether blood is thicker than wine.

  • The String's the Thing

    a new play by Veronica Tjioe

    Directed by Lisa Sanaye Dring

    Featuring:

    Susan Lucas, Vico Ortiz, Alexandra Hellquist

    The String’s the Thing uses the framework of the Minotaur myth to explore the complexities of being mixed-race, specifically half-asian. This play is for anyone who has ever felt lost and a profound sense of “in-betweenness” and would please like to know which way is out, thankyouverymuch. It is also good for lovers of cheap wine, close friends, and the merits of a nice ball of string.
    (Originally written for the SF Olympians, a mythology adaptation festival of staged readings,)

  • Teen Dad

    a new play by Adrienne Dawes

    Directed by Claudia Duran

    Featuring:

    Krysta Gonzales, Brandon Curry, Elena Sancho, Kelvin Morales, Anna Maria, Tyler Rainer

    Abby, a precocious emo-goth teenager, orchestrates a surprise reunion for her mother Tanya, and birth father, Tom, with the help of her mom’s fiancé/healer John. Hoping to provoke long-lasting reconciliation between her parents before her high school graduation, Abby’s plans completely derail when Tom arrives with his new girlfriend Alisha. Can this family confront their past traumas, “deal and heal?

  • Day of Saturn

    a new play by Leviticus Jelks

    Directed by Melissa Coleman-Reed

    Featuring:

    Moe Irvin, Rickey Junior, Brandon Rachal, Geri-Nikole Love

    For Achilles Jones, the reality of his son, Icarus’, attempted suicide still haunts him a year later as he works tirelessly to repair his run-down hardware store. His plans get more complicated, however, when he hires a charismatic young volunteer with a painful past of his own. Through Achilles’ recovered memories and Icarus’ journal entries, the secrets about his son and the truth about their relationship come to light. ‘Day of Saturn’ is a planetary collision of loss, humor, Black masculinity and the generational scars that follow us through life.

Season 8 (2019-20)

  • Original Tenants

    a new play by Carole Braverman

    Directed by Randee Trabitz

    Featuring:

    Helen Duffy, Sharon Freedman, Kathe Mazur, Bruce Nozick, Noelle Romano

    A middle-aged woman returns to the Brooklyn neighborhood where she grew up to care for her ailing mother, and encounters some formidable ghosts from the past: an old friend with the seemingly perfect life, a candy store owner who was once her teenage boyfriend, and the shocking power of old grievances, the kind that can explode on you like long-buried minefields. "You've always been a joker, Nina" her old friend tells her, but mortality is no joke. Or is it?

  • The Sister House

    a new play by Stephanie Alison Walker

    Directed by Randee Trabitz

    Featuring:

    David Adler, Carrie Barrett, Leandro Cano, Aidan Elyse McCollough, Paula Weston Solano

    When Ramona decides to rent out her deceased husband’s office to a mysterious stranger, her daughter Ryan rebels. Three women and one imaginary vampire collide in a historic Victorian home with a past of its own, in this play about immortal love, mothers and daughters, and redemption.

  • Abigail

    a new play by Sarah Tuft

    Directed by Jessica Hanna

    Featuring:

    William Salyers, Christine Dunford, Meg Cashel & Eddie Goines

    A masterpiece of the American Theater, “The Crucible” would be the perfect comeback for blacklisted film director Ben Meyers after allegations of sexual harassment nearly derailed his career. So perfect, that Ben’s wife – the renowned stage actress Savannah Wainscott – arranges for him to helm the Broadway production in which she stars as Goody Proctor. But when Ben casts YouTube star Ashley Hart as Abigail Williams, Ashley’s objections to the play’s portrayal of women bring everything to a grinding halt. ABIGAIL looks at our post-#MeToo culture and asks: Has anything really changed?

  • Space Available

    a new play by Jennie Webb

    Directed by Judith Moreland

    Featuring:

    Cherish Monique Duke, Alexandra Hellquist, Tamika Katon-Donegal, Beth Lane, Peter James Smith

    This is the story of Jane, a woman who’s managed to survive an absurd litany of profound misfortunes, but ends up taking a closer look at her own life choices – and what it means to have options – when faced with a surreal future no woman should have to live with. ‘Space Available’ is a play about a woman’s place and what (& who) we let define us.

  • Geneis

    a new play by Leenie Baker

    Directed by Rosie Glen-Lambert

    Featuring:

    Sutton Arabe, Nadege August, Jonathan Cho, Noah James, Hailey McAfee, Ammy Ontiveros

    In a time-bending journey from the Garden of Eden to modern-day, we follow God, envisioned as a young woman, in her quest to discover herself. ‘Genesis’ explores issues of faith, love, and power as God develops personal relationships with her creations. ‘Genesis’ asks, what does it mean to succeed—or fail–as a creator?

  • Broken

    a new play by Aaron Braxton

    Directed by Susan Dalian

    Featuring:

    Elisa Perry, Brandon Rachal, Derek Shaun, Celestial, Pamela Shaddock, Mihara India, Patricia Belcher, Eddie Goines, James T. Lawson II, Yvans Jourdain

    A witty two-act dramatic play centered on the traumatic experiences of a woman rejecting psychological help while suffering hallucinations, pathological guilt, and addiction, “Broken” centers around the stigma of mental illness in an African American family.

Season 7 (2018-19)

  • No Place Like Gandersheim

    a new play by Elizabeth Dement

    Directed by Randee Trabitz

    Featuring:

    Marguerite Moreau, Meeghan Holaway, Nicole Erb & Tyree Marshall

    Roz is a nun and newbie playwright in medieval Gandersheim, Germany. When she and her fellow nuns present her brazen, feminist comedy for the Holy Roman Emperor, his rejection of her work catapults Roz on a journey of millennial proportions to Hollywood and beyond. No Place Like Gandersheim reimagines the never-ending question, “Can women have it all?”

  • Inhalation

    a new play by John Lavelle

    Directed by Melissa Coleman-Reed

    Featuring:

    Ronald Auguste, Frank Faucette, Felipe Figueroa, Chet Grissom, Noah James, Devere Rogers, Graham Sibley

    In 1978, Brooklyn was on fire. This is the story of the Soul Patrol, the firemen who tried to put out the flames. Through laughter, brotherhood, and psychedelic war stories, this haunting, disco dancing dark comedy asks us all: “How much wreckage can one man breathe in before they become a ghost?”

  • The Last Croissant

    a new play by Veronica Tjioe

    Directed by Rosie Glen-Lambert

    Featuring:

    Taylor Bennett, Brandon Blum, Tyler Bremer, Meg Cashel, Kat Devoe-Peterson, Julia Finch, Luke Medina, Conor Murphy, Victoria Ortiz

    A one-act farce that replaces the rooms and doors of a traditional farce with the great outdoors, The Last Croissantemploys magical realism, clowning, and whimsy to tell the story of nine crowded campers who hope to find what they’re looking for in the woods.

  • Ollie & D

    a new play by Ilana Turner

    Directed by Jessica Hanna

    Featuring:

    Marguerite Moreau and Joseph Will

    Driving an endless loop of New England country road, two long-time friends-with-benefits discover they are stuck in a Maserati prison — and that only dealing with their relationship will break them out. OLLIE & D takes a darkly comedic look at the intersection of love and the long-term relationship.

  • Not A Monster

    a new play by Susan Josephs

    Directed by Diana Wyenn

    Featuring:

    Madeline Fair, Rachel Kann, Solomon Shiv & Ivy Strohmaier

    On the heels of sexual abuse allegations, a controversial New Age guru welcomes a veteran journalist into his backstage greenroom so she can interview him for a retrospective piece about his transformation from obscure Orthodox Jewish rabbi to celebrity spiritual leader. As their conversation unfolds, revelations emerge about a shared past and the truth becomes a slippery, malleable tool in this timely drama about sexual and spiritual abuse, male privilege, and female agency.

  • Chickenheads

    a new play by Ruth Fowler

    Directed by Rosie Glen-Lambert

    Featuring:

    Leo Oliva, Emily Reas, Bart Tangredi

    Porn is hard. Relationships are harder.

Season 6 (2017-18)

  • Motherland

    a new play by Lisa Kenner Grissom

    Directed by Laura Stribling

    Featuring:

    Abigail Marks, Jayne Taini, Alexis Genya, Ross Kramer, Schoen Hodges

    With her life in crisis, Lizzie returns home to hide from the world, but when her Russian grandmother Bella starts telling “stories” and her mother Sarah tries to meditate the past away, Lizzie goes down a rabbit hole of discovery. This time-bending drama features four generations of women and asks us all, can you reclaim your life without knowing your roots?

  • Match

    a new play by Jennifer Maisel

    Directed by Dianna Wyenn

    Featuring:

    Carolina Hoyos, Josh T. Ryan, Ilana Turner, Ray Xifo, and Miebaka Yohannes

    Leo has a wife and needs a kidney. Leyla needs Leo and wants a baby—or is it the other way around? Ben needs a kidney and desperately longs for human connection. Maddy needs redemption—will donating a kidney give her that? Moss deals in flesh, seeking the highest bidder. As a bromance flourishes and organs are harvested, as faith is tested and baked goods are devoured, these five New Yorkers find themselves asking: Can there really be such a thing as a gift with no strings attached? Match is an audacious new dramedy from award-winning playwright Jennifer Maisel about failing kidneys, delicious muffins, and the lengths we will go to to save the people we love.

  • Last Stop

    a new play by Katherine Cortez

    Directed by Rosie Glen-Lambert

    Featuring:

    Tyler Bremer, Ronnie Clark, Marian Gonzalez, Ammy Ontiveros, Victoria Ortiz, Kevyn Richmond, Deborah Strang, Julian Yuen

    Society has changed. Fear has de-civilized. A new underground railroad arises for those oppressed peoples seeking freedom. ‘Last Stop’ looks at the world as it could become and the resilience of “ordinary” people, asking the question: what will you do when push comes to shove?

  • Journey to Alice

    a new play by Aja Houston

    Directed by Annie McVey

    Featuring:

    Shirley Jordan, Sola Bamis, Alma Collins, Nadège August, and Leonard R. Garner Jr.

    Flying with her mother to a wedding, Lynè encounters the unexpected and inexplicable, threatening her struggle to hold her own world together. ‘Journey to Alice’ grapples with family, loss, as well as the weight and power of inheritance.

  • Friends With Guns

    a new play by Stephanie Walker

    Directed by Randee Trabitz

    Featuring:

    Arianna Ortiz, Joe Fria, Justin Huen, and Paula Weston Solano

    Two sleep-deprived moms meet at a West LA park, and it’s instant sisterhood. Their husbands hit it off, too, and it seems as though they’ve found their ‘tribe’ — until the issue of guns comes up. Friends With Guns explores the question of what we can compartmentalize…and what we can’t.

  • Ascent

    a new play by Henry Ong

    Directed by Diana Wyenn

    Featuring:

    West Liang, Kara Wang, Bart Tangredi, and Russell Edge

    Born in China. Trained by America. Ascent is the story of how one promising Chinese immigrant shaped the rise of not one, but two, world nuclear powers.