East West Players Announces 
Cast & Crew of Kairos
A National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere

Rubicon Theatre Company of Ventura

Continues 25^th Anniversary Season with West Coast Premiere Run of 

“A” TRAIN

Written and Performed by Broadway Veteran Annie Torsiglieri 

(Top Girls, Parade & Miss Saigon)

Directed by Risa Brainin

Original Music by Brad Carroll

Limited Engagement –

April 10 – 28, 2024 at the Rubicon Theatre!

Rubicon Theatre continues the company’s 25^th Anniversary Season with the West Coast Premiere run of “A” TRAIN, an award-winning play-with-music about a mother’s journey on the autism train. Told with humor, insight and a few choice expletives, “A” TRAIN is written and performed by Broadway veteran ANNIE TORSIGLIERI (Top Girls, Parade and Miss Saigon) and directed by RISA BRAININ, with original music by BRAD CARROLL. Rubicon’s production of “A” TRAIN begins previews April 10 at The Karyn Jackson Theatre in Ventura’s Downtown Cultural District, 1006 E. Main Street. There will be a Gala Opening on April 13 (also press night). Opening night tickets include a post-show reception at the theatre with Torsiglieri, the creative team and special guests, and a tax-deductible donation to support Rubicon’s education programs. The production runs Wednesdays through Sundays through April 28, 2024. For tickets, go to www.rubicontheatre.org or call (805) 667-2900. During the production of “A” TRAIN, Rubicon will partner with The Art of Autism, a nonprofit which empowers and connects individuals within the autism community through participation in the Arts. Artwork from talented autistic artists will be on display in The Rose Room and downstairs gallery throughout the entire production.

Set against the backdrop of an imagined subway station, “A” TRAIN takes audiences on an exhilarating theatrical ride as the character of Amy struggles to understand why her young son can memorize the names of every subway stop in the correct sequence but doesn’t seem to want to play with his brother. When her son is diagnosed with autism, she tries to understand just what that means and struggles with her preconceptions of what “happiness” looks like. As we travel with Amy on her hilarious and sometimes emotional journey, we meet other parents, family members, educators, medical professionals, and individuals who identify as autistic.          

Says Rubicon Artistic Director KARYL LYNN BURNS, “Annie’s courageous performance gives us a visceral sense of what it’s like to be different, or to love someone who is different. She seamlessly weaves together multiple perspectives and provides a powerful and profound experience for us as audience members, filled with unexpected dramatic twists, humor, pathos and song. It’s a true tour-de-force and we are thrilled to share her artistry and talents with our audiences!”

“A” TRAIN is inspired by Torsiglieri’s own family’s journey. ““A” TRAIN was born out of a desire to share the messiness of life,” says Torsiglieri. “I hoped that by telling my story, I could create a softer landing for my son, shining a light on our search for happiness.”

Once she had the idea, Torsiglieri, began working with friend and director Risa Brainin to develop the piece. She began her process by talking with others whose lives were touched by autism. Says Torsiglieri, “Many excerpts are verbatim from those interviews and I’m grateful to those who generously shared their stories and gave me permission to embody them onstage.”

The first developmental production of “A” TRAIN was through the LAUNCH PAD program at University of California Santa Barbara, with Brainin directing and working dramaturgically with Torsiglieri. The workshop production won an Indy Award and Charles Donelan of The S.B. Independent called the piece, “The best solo show, and quite likely the best original play of any kind, to come out of Santa Barbara this decade…the emotional impact cannot be overstated.”

Jen Maxcy of the Skirball Cultural Center described “A” TRAIN as, “…a near perfect example of how a talented storyteller has the power to change the world.”

Playmakers Repertory Company produced a short run of “A” TRAIN in North Carolina. At the United Solo Festival in New York City, “A” TRAIN received awards for Best Production and Best Encore. Rubicon’s production is the first full run of “A” TRAIN.

ANNE TORSIGLIERI’s Broadway credits include Top Girls, Parade, Blood Brothers and Miss Saigon. She also performed in the National Tour of Les Misérables (as Fantine). Off-Broadway and regional credits include work with Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, McCarter Theater, The Huntington, Playmakers Rep, Northern Stage and more. Annie is the recipient of Back Stage West/DramaLogue and Garland Awards for her performance in The Heiress (Berkeley Rep), the NH Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her titular role in The Drowsy Chaperone (New London Barn Playhouse), and a Santa Barbara Indy Award for Stupid F*ing Bird (as Emma, Elements Theater Collective). Other recent favorite roles include Tracey in Lynn Nottage’s Sweat and Donna in Mamma Mia! (both Northern Stage), Shakespeare’s Falstaff (The Death of Kings), and Rose (Gypsy). Annie is a professor and Director of the B.F.A. Acting program at UCSB and founder of AMPLIFY, a theatre initiative to support underrepresented voices. Annie received both a Fox Fellowship and Hellman Family Fund Fellowship and is a graduate of Princeton University and the Juilliard Drama Division. 

Director RISA BRAININ makes her Rubicon debut with “A” TRAIN. A freelance director and Founder/Artistic Director of the groundbreaking new play development program LAUNCH PAD at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Brainin served as Artistic Director of Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Associate Artistic Director for both Kansas City Repertory Theatre and Indiana Repertory Theatre, and Resident Director at the Guthrie Theater. Other directorial credits include plays at American Players Theatre, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Clarence Brown Theatre, Commonweal Theatre, Denver Center Theatre, Elements Theatre Collective, Ensemble Theatre, Great Lakes Theatre, History Theatre, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Illusion Theatre, Kansas City Actors’ Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Mixed Blood, New Harmony Project, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Playmakers Repertory Company, Portland Stage Company, Red Bull Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, Skylight Theatre, Syracuse Stage and TheatreSquared. She directed the premiere of Bob Stromberg’s That Wonder Boy in Minneapolis and the United Solo Festival in NY (Winner – United Solo Festival and Backstage Award, Best One Man Show and Best Direction). She is honored to have worked with Annie Torsiglieri on “A” TRAIN from the very beginning through LAUNCH PAD and also at the United Solo Festival in NY (Winner – Best Production and Best Encore) and Playmakers Repertory Company. A graduate of the Carnegie-Mellon University Drama Program, Brainin has served on grant panels for the Theatre Communications Group and the National Endowment for the Arts. Brainin is past President of the Board of Trustees of the National Theatre Conference and a member of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.

Composer BRAD CARROLL is a recognized regional theatre director, music director and composer. His work has taken him all over the U.S. as well as to Europe, the UK and Japan. His musical works include Lend me a Tenor, The Musical (Gielgud Theatre, London); Christmas is Here Again (with Renegade Animation and PCPA Theaterfest); Amelia Lost (Librettist), with Composer Larry Delinger; A Christmas Carol: On the Air(Composer/Co-Author) for Utah Shakespeare Festival; and Cio Cio San, an opera-theatre piece (Composer/Arranger). He has created music for dramatic productions ranging from Cyrano de Bergerac and King Lear to Death of a Salesman and To Kill a Mockingbird. Carroll worked in various capacities for companies including the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre, PCPA Theaterfest, Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, Idaho Shakespeare, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Anchorage Opera, UN Las Vegas, UC Santa Barbara, University of Illinois – Urbana/Champaign and Roosevelt University in Chicago, as well as the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in L.A. and Perry Street Theatricals in NY. He served as a writer, director and musical arranger for Walt Disney Entertainment International, Tokyo DisneySea, and his musical arrangements and orchestrations have been performed by such prestigious ensembles as the San Francisco Symphony and the Boston Pops.

The creative and technical staff for “A” TRAIN includes Set, Lighting & Projection Designer MICHAEL KLAERS, Assistant Director INDIGO RUNGE, Production Stage Manager JULIA DONLON, Technical Director ANTHONY M. COLOMBO, and Associate Artistic Director STEPHANIE A. COLTRIN.

Rubicon’s 25^th Anniversary Season is dedicated to MARY ANN COHEN. Annie Torsiglieri’s performances is generously underwritten by DR. JEANNE P. ADAMS, who is also a 25^th Season Sponsor, along with DR. JEFFREY GROVE.

“A” TRAIN previews April 10 through 12, with a Gala Opening on April 13 (also press night). Opening night tickets include a post-show reception at the theatre with Torsiglieri, the creative team and special guests, and a tax-deductible donation to support Rubicon’s education programs. Performances continue through April 28, Wednesdays at 2 and 7 p.m. (talkback following), Thursdays and Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 7 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. Ticket prices range from $30 – $79.50 with discounts available for subscribers, students, seniors, active military and groups of 10 or more. 

To purchase tickets online, or for more information about “A” TRAIN, visit www.rubicontheatre.org. Tickets are also available by phone at 805.667.2900, or may be purchased in-person at The Karyn Jackson Theatre, located at 1006 E. Main Street, Ventura, CA  93001 (Laurel entrance). Guest Services is open from Noon to 6:00 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.  

Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046

Award-winner Hitler’s Tasters will be Rogue Machine’s next offering during their 16^th season. Written by Los Angeles playwright Michelle Kholos Brooks and scheduled to open at 5pm on Saturday, April 27^th, the play is a powerful reimagining of historical protocol at Wolf’s Lair, directed by Sarah Norris on the immersive Henry Murray Stage upstairs at the Matrix Theatre.

An earlier production of the play was set for a run in Los Angeles, under the direction of Sarah Norris, but managed to realize only two performances in March of 2020 before COVID forced it to shut down. With this new production, LA audiences will finally experience Michelle Kholos Brooks’ bold play that eerily connects our current society with our history from almost a century ago.

A dark comedy based on the largely unknown story of young German women conscripted to taste Adolf Hitler’s food for poison, this fictional account explores the way girls navigate sexuality, friendship, and patriotism during the Third Reich. Using an anachronistic retelling of a historical footnote, Hitler’s Tasters considers what girls discuss as they wait to see if they will survive another meal. Inspired by a 2014 interview with 94-year-old Margot Wölk who, for the first time, revealed her harrowing past as one of Adolf Hitler’s food tasters. Margot, a German secretary at the time, was among fifteen young women selected for this “honor” at Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair.

“I thought I had heard every crazy, twisted story possible about Adolf Hitler, until a 94 years old woman named Margot Wölk told her extraordinary tale of being conscripted to be one of his food tasters. Times change, people don’t. One day, as I was thinking about this story, I watched a group of young women take photos of themselves in pursuit of the perfect selfie, and I realized that those women…those girls, really, were likely the same age that the Tasters would have been. Their dreams and desires would be the same. I determined that I wanted the girls of Hitler’s Tasters to feel very present and very alive. I did not want them to be sepia-toned people in history. That is why Hitler’s Tasters is woven with anachronisms and contemporary references. Hitler very specifically chose young, German women, the future of the Reich, to test his food for poison. The idea of young women stuck in a room together waiting to see if they were going to live or die after every meal – could there be a riper situation for drama and (dark) comedy? Isn’t adolescence hard enough?” –  Michelle Kholos Brooks (playwright).

Michelle Kholos Brooks (Playwright) is an award-winning playwright with her work produced and staged internationally. Awards and distinctions include the Susan Glaspell Award for Hitler’s Tasters, the Reva Shiner Comedy Award for Kalamazoo, co-written by Kelly Younger. Hitler’s Tasters was named Best of Fringe at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival by The Stage (UK). Hostage was a finalist for the Woodward/Newman Drama Award, The Fratti-Newman Political Play Contest and a Showcase finalist for the National New Play Network. Chair received second place in the Firehouse Theatre Festival of New American Plays. Michelle’s plays have been produced and/or developed at the Skylight Theatre (World Premiere, Hostage), Centenary Stage (World Premiere, Hitler’s Tasters), Pacific Resident Theatre, Adirondack Theatre Festival, Bloomington Playwright’s Project (Rolling World Premiere, Kalamazoo), The Colony Theatre (World Premiere, Family Planning), Florida Repertory Theatre, Boston Court Theatre, The Road Theatre Company, Wordsmyth Theatre, The Barrow Group, Bay Street Theatre, Venue 9 Theatre, Wings Theatre, Laurel Grove Theatre Company, Drama West, Vox Humana Theatre Ensemble, iTheatre Collaborative, New Light Theater Project, 59E59 Theaters, Olive Theatre Greenside Venue at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Adobe Rose Theatre, Pendragon Theater, and Guild Hall. Brooks’ play War Words made a six-city appearance for Veteran’s Day, 2021. Publications include Dramatists Play Service, Room Literary Magazine and The Daily Beast. Brooks earned a B.A. from Emerson College and an M.F.A. in Fiction from Otis College of Art and Design. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, The Playwright’s Center and Pacific Resident Theatre. In addition, she is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.

Sarah Norris (Director) is the founding Artistic Director of New Light Theater Project. Her work has been seen around the country including in NYC, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, and internationally in Scotland, Australia, England and Ireland. Select producer and production credits include: Playwrights Horizons (I Am My Own Wife Off-Broadway and Tony Winning Broadway transfer), Disney Theatrical Productions, Bisno Productions (Hughie on Broadway w/ Forest Whitaker; My Report to the World w/ David Strathairn). Select New Light credits and acclaim: Hitler’s Tasters, The American Tradition (TimeOut NY Critics Pick; Best of Theater – Slant Magazine; “The gleefully anachronistic show…has a rambunctious punk-rock energy that’s all too rare on our increasingly sanitized stages!” – The New Yorker), Imagining Madoff (This Week in Arts – NY Times; “Engrossing and philosophically lively” – The New Yorker), Breeders (“Both ridiculously and strangely moving!” – Jesse Green, NY Times; TimeOut NY Critics Pick; “An unexpected marvelous new comedy!” – Huffington Post). Select directing credits include: Everything is Super Great (TimeOut NY Critics Pick), This Wrestling Place (w/ Executive Producer Ben Folds), Picture Ourselves in Latvia (Best of Theater, The L Magazine), Hitler’s Tasters (Best of the Edinburgh Fringe; featured in the Chicago Tribune, LA Times and the BBC).

The Cast: Ali Axelrad (Anna), Olivia Gill (Hilda), Paige Simunovich (Liesel), Caitlin Zambito (Margot).

Creative Team: Joe McClean and Dane Bowman (Scenic & Lighting Design), Ashleigh Poteat (Costume Design), Christine Cover Ferro (Costume coordinator), Chris Moscatiello (Sound consultant), Carsen Joenk (Sound Design), Ashlee Wasmund (Choreographer), Emmy Frevele (Choreography for Rogue Machine).

Rogue Machine is the only company to receive the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for “Best Season” three times (2023, 2016, 2011). Additionally, they won the Ovation Award for “Best Season” (2017) and in the last 9 years the company has won three Ovation Awards and four LADCC awards for “Outstanding Production of the Year.” Rogue Machine produces new plays, primarily by Los Angeles based playwrights, and important contemporary plays not yet seen in Los Angeles. Nine of their productions have been published by Samuel French, Dramatists Play Service or Broadway Play Publishing, and six of the productions have had subsequent stagings at significant theatres, including Off Broadway, major regional houses and the Donmar Warehouse in London. Four world premieres, Razorback, Small Engine Repair, Lone-Anon, and One Night in Miami… were made into feature films, and playwright Kemp Powers was nominated for an Academy Award. In recognition of its artistic achievement, administrative strength, development of new work and other significant contributions to the field of professional theatre in the United States, Rogue Machine is supported by the Shubert Foundation, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, The David Lee Foundation, The City and County of Los Angeles, The Ahmanson Foundation, and The Richenthal Foundation. RMT is a recipient of the American Theatre Wing’s 2014 National Theatre Company Grant.

“Hitler’s Tasters” opens at 5pm on April 27, 2024 and runs at 8pm Fridays, Mondays; 5pm Saturdays; 7pm Sundays through June 3, 2024 (no performances on Monday, April 29, May 13). Rogue Machine, in the Matrix Theatre (upstairs on the Henry Murray Stage) located at 7657 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046. Tickets are $45 (Students $25 / Seniors $35); Show4Less: May 3 ($10+), May 10 ($15+), May 17 & 24 ($20+). Reservations: https://www.roguemachinetheatre.org/ or for more information 855-585-5185.

Rogue Machine has upgraded their HVAC system at the Matrix Theatre to exceed compliance with current COVID protocols. They have installed HEPA air purifiers in all public spaces.

IAMA, Boston Court team up to present world
premiere of poetic, surprising ‘The Body’s Midnight’

LOS ANGELES (March 18, 2024) — IAMA Theatre Company and Boston Court Pasadena have joined forces to present a poetic and surprising new play about the complicated, ridiculous, awe-inspiring trajectory of life. Boston Court artistic director Jessica Kubzansky directs the world premiere of The Body’s Midnight by Tira Palmquist, running April 27 through May 26 at Boston Court Pasadena. Six preview performances take place April 18 through April 26.

What does it mean to discover America? Anne (IAMA ensemble member Keliher Walsh) and David (Jonathan Nichols–Navarro) are determined to find out, as they embark on the perfect American road trip. They have a map, an impressive list of sights to see, and an itinerary that should get them to St. Paul, home of daughter Katie and son-in-law Wolf (IAMA members Sonal Shah and Ryan W. Garcia), just in time for the birth of their first grandchild. But their perfect plan is derailed by a troubling diagnosis and the beautiful impermanence of the world around them. As Anne and David veer off of their intended path, they are forced to grapple with the unavoidably messy and breathtaking journey of their lives.

“How do you make a memory palace of your whole life?” asks Palmquist. “This play is about how weird and beautiful and surprising the world is, how we have to be open to that and be willing to improvise in life. You can’t plan your way through every celebration, or through every adversity.”

“Stef (IAMA artistic director Stefanie Black) and I have been talking about doing a co-production for a very long time, and this is a play we both immediately responded to,” says Kubzansky. “It speaks to so many things: to long-time marriage, to mothers and daughters, to what we pass on and what we pass down, to aging, to memory loss, and to the way the world disappears around us. I love the way it moves to define what’s happening in different spaces in a highly theatrical way — a reality space, a surreal space, a phantasmagorical space, a memory space.”

One of the philosophies shared by IAMA and Boston Court is the development-to-full production pipeline for new work. During IAMA’s current “Sweet 16” anniversary season, the company produced two new plays it commissioned from Los Angeles-based playwrights: Radical or, are you gonna miss me? by Isaac Gómez and Arrowhead by Catya McMullen. Similarly, The Body’s Midnight was developed with Boston Court’s Playwrights Group and given a staged reading as part of that company’s 19th annual New Play Reading Festival before being selected for the current co-production.

“IAMA is thrilled to collaborate with Boston Court on this beautiful, complex play that is all at once funny, sad and profound,” says Black. “Tira gives us a fresh, unexpected perspective on a universal, intergenerational story. Audiences are sure to lose themselves in this expansive experience.”

The creative team for The Body’s Midnight includes scenic designer Nicholas Ponting; lighting designer Benedict Conran; sound designer John Zalewski; video and projections designer David Murakami and associate projections designer Sam Clevenger; costume designer Mylette Nora; properties designer Cindy Campos; intimacy director Carly DW Bones; and dramaturg Adrian Centeno. IAMA ensemble member Anisha Adusumilli is associate director. Jasmine Kalra is the production manager, Jesse Soto is the technical director and Jasmine Leung is the production stage manager. The IAMA team includes season producer Quinn O’Connor and co-producer Katharine Means.

Founded in 2007, IAMA is a Los Angeles-based ensemble of artists committed to cultivating new voices and creating new works that push boundaries and take risks, while fostering an inclusive community that inspires theater-makers of future generations. Invested in challenging audiences with an authentic experience that reflects our complex modern world, IAMA frequently works together with like-minded companies to produce new work; past collaborations have included Center Theatre Group (Our Dear Dead Drug Lord at the Kirk Douglas Theatre); the Los Angeles LGBT Center (The Bottoming Process); Pasadena Playhouse (American Hero, A Kid Like Jake); Latino Theater Company (Canyon); Washington, DC’s Woolly Mammoth (Hi, Are You Single?); and New York City’s Queens Theatre (Fly on the Wall series).

Located in Pasadena, California, Boston Court Pasadena is an intimate performing arts center that creates and nurtures innovative, boundary-pushing art that invokes the power of collective imagination to illuminate our common humanity. The 75-seat Marjorie Branson Performance Space and the 99-seat Main Stage serve as homes for Boston Court’s season of adventurous theater, its richly eclectic music series, the annual New Play Reading Festival and a rotating visual art program, among other engagement and education offerings, under the leadership of artistic director Jessica Kubzansky and executive director Manny Prieto. Boston Court Pasadena was founded in 2003 by philanthropist Z. Clark Branson and founding producing director Eileen T’Kaye.

The Body’s Midnight opens on Saturday, April 27 at 8 p.m., with performances thereafter on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through May 26. Six preview performances take place April 18 through April 26 on the same schedule. Tickets range from $22 to $65, including fees.

Boston Court Pasadena is located at 70 N Mentor Ave., Pasadena, CA 91106. Parking is free in the on-site lot. For reservations and information, call (626) 683-6801 or go to bostoncourtpasadena.org.

Join us on Saturday, April 27th while we present three plays from our playwrighting class taught by resident playwright Mildred Lewis!

Towne Street Theatre’s 10 Minute Play class embodies what’s special about this dynamic company. The effortlessly intergenerational and multiethnic group produced excellent work that made audiences feel, laugh, think and cry. Don’t miss the chance to experience this magic again.

A.I. STEIN by Sonia Jackson
A budget smart home system tries to take over the Clark home in “A.I. Stein”. Surprise! There’s only one mama allowed in the Clark household. Sonia Jackson’s play tells truths about A.I. in this timely comedy.

TINA GOES ON A DATE by Veronica McClelland
In “Tina Goes on a Date”, Veronica McClelland explores mental illness with so much heart, truth and compassion that when Tina finally walks out the door past her anxiety and depression, you’ll cheer for her.

THE GRUDGE by Jacqueline Castañeda
When Karina and Nora turn the tables on cheater Michael, Jacqueline Castañeda rewrites the rules of the revenge in her coming of age comedy “The Grudge”. The Real Housewives couldn’t have done any better. 

Our Mission:

The Towne Street Theatre’s mission is to create, develop and produce original work that is reflective of the African American experience and perspective and how it intersects with other cultures. A Black female-led theatre arts organization, we cultivate voices of all backgrounds, experiences, and identities. Towne Street envisions a future where every artist is free to express their creativity without constraints, and where social justice issues are continually explored, dismantled and acknowledged through the healing power of theatre.

Please visit https://www.townestreetla.org/stella-adler-theatre for more details on getting to the theatre.

Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046

Award-winner Hitler’s Tasters will be Rogue Machine’s next offering during their 16^th season. Written by Los Angeles playwright Michelle Kholos Brooks and scheduled to open at 5pm on Saturday, April 27^th, the play is a powerful reimagining of historical protocol at Wolf’s Lair, directed by Sarah Norris on the immersive Henry Murray Stage upstairs at the Matrix Theatre.

An earlier production of the play was set for a run in Los Angeles, under the direction of Sarah Norris, but managed to realize only two performances in March of 2020 before COVID forced it to shut down. With this new production, LA audiences will finally experience Michelle Kholos Brooks’ bold play that eerily connects our current society with our history from almost a century ago.

A dark comedy based on the largely unknown story of young German women conscripted to taste Adolf Hitler’s food for poison, this fictional account explores the way girls navigate sexuality, friendship, and patriotism during the Third Reich. Using an anachronistic retelling of a historical footnote, Hitler’s Tasters considers what girls discuss as they wait to see if they will survive another meal. Inspired by a 2014 interview with 94-year-old Margot Wölk who, for the first time, revealed her harrowing past as one of Adolf Hitler’s food tasters. Margot, a German secretary at the time, was among fifteen young women selected for this “honor” at Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair.

“I thought I had heard every crazy, twisted story possible about Adolf Hitler, until a 94 years old woman named Margot Wölk told her extraordinary tale of being conscripted to be one of his food tasters. Times change, people don’t. One day, as I was thinking about this story, I watched a group of young women take photos of themselves in pursuit of the perfect selfie, and I realized that those women…those girls, really, were likely the same age that the Tasters would have been. Their dreams and desires would be the same. I determined that I wanted the girls of Hitler’s Tasters to feel very present and very alive. I did not want them to be sepia-toned people in history. That is why Hitler’s Tasters is woven with anachronisms and contemporary references. Hitler very specifically chose young, German women, the future of the Reich, to test his food for poison. The idea of young women stuck in a room together waiting to see if they were going to live or die after every meal – could there be a riper situation for drama and (dark) comedy? Isn’t adolescence hard enough?” –  Michelle Kholos Brooks (playwright).

Michelle Kholos Brooks (Playwright) is an award-winning playwright with her work produced and staged internationally. Awards and distinctions include the Susan Glaspell Award for Hitler’s Tasters, the Reva Shiner Comedy Award for Kalamazoo, co-written by Kelly Younger. Hitler’s Tasters was named Best of Fringe at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival by The Stage (UK). Hostage was a finalist for the Woodward/Newman Drama Award, The Fratti-Newman Political Play Contest and a Showcase finalist for the National New Play Network. Chair received second place in the Firehouse Theatre Festival of New American Plays. Michelle’s plays have been produced and/or developed at the Skylight Theatre (World Premiere, Hostage), Centenary Stage (World Premiere, Hitler’s Tasters), Pacific Resident Theatre, Adirondack Theatre Festival, Bloomington Playwright’s Project (Rolling World Premiere, Kalamazoo), The Colony Theatre (World Premiere, Family Planning), Florida Repertory Theatre, Boston Court Theatre, The Road Theatre Company, Wordsmyth Theatre, The Barrow Group, Bay Street Theatre, Venue 9 Theatre, Wings Theatre, Laurel Grove Theatre Company, Drama West, Vox Humana Theatre Ensemble, iTheatre Collaborative, New Light Theater Project, 59E59 Theaters, Olive Theatre Greenside Venue at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Adobe Rose Theatre, Pendragon Theater, and Guild Hall. Brooks’ play War Words made a six-city appearance for Veteran’s Day, 2021. Publications include Dramatists Play Service, Room Literary Magazine and The Daily Beast. Brooks earned a B.A. from Emerson College and an M.F.A. in Fiction from Otis College of Art and Design. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, The Playwright’s Center and Pacific Resident Theatre. In addition, she is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.

Sarah Norris (Director) is the founding Artistic Director of New Light Theater Project. Her work has been seen around the country including in NYC, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, and internationally in Scotland, Australia, England and Ireland. Select producer and production credits include: Playwrights Horizons (I Am My Own Wife Off-Broadway and Tony Winning Broadway transfer), Disney Theatrical Productions, Bisno Productions (Hughie on Broadway w/ Forest Whitaker; My Report to the World w/ David Strathairn). Select New Light credits and acclaim: Hitler’s Tasters, The American Tradition (TimeOut NY Critics Pick; Best of Theater – Slant Magazine; “The gleefully anachronistic show…has a rambunctious punk-rock energy that’s all too rare on our increasingly sanitized stages!” – The New Yorker), Imagining Madoff (This Week in Arts – NY Times; “Engrossing and philosophically lively” – The New Yorker), Breeders (“Both ridiculously and strangely moving!” – Jesse Green, NY Times; TimeOut NY Critics Pick; “An unexpected marvelous new comedy!” – Huffington Post). Select directing credits include: Everything is Super Great (TimeOut NY Critics Pick), This Wrestling Place (w/ Executive Producer Ben Folds), Picture Ourselves in Latvia (Best of Theater, The L Magazine), Hitler’s Tasters (Best of the Edinburgh Fringe; featured in the Chicago Tribune, LA Times and the BBC).

The Cast: Ali Axelrad (Anna), Olivia Gill (Hilda), Paige Simunovich (Liesel), Caitlin Zambito (Margot).

Creative Team: Joe McClean and Dane Bowman (Scenic & Lighting Design), Ashleigh Poteat (Costume Design), Christine Cover Ferro (Costume coordinator), Chris Moscatiello (Sound consultant), Carsen Joenk (Sound Design), Ashlee Wasmund (Choreographer), Emmy Frevele (Choreography for Rogue Machine).

Rogue Machine is the only company to receive the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for “Best Season” three times (2023, 2016, 2011). Additionally, they won the Ovation Award for “Best Season” (2017) and in the last 9 years the company has won three Ovation Awards and four LADCC awards for “Outstanding Production of the Year.” Rogue Machine produces new plays, primarily by Los Angeles based playwrights, and important contemporary plays not yet seen in Los Angeles. Nine of their productions have been published by Samuel French, Dramatists Play Service or Broadway Play Publishing, and six of the productions have had subsequent stagings at significant theatres, including Off Broadway, major regional houses and the Donmar Warehouse in London. Four world premieres, Razorback, Small Engine Repair, Lone-Anon, and One Night in Miami… were made into feature films, and playwright Kemp Powers was nominated for an Academy Award. In recognition of its artistic achievement, administrative strength, development of new work and other significant contributions to the field of professional theatre in the United States, Rogue Machine is supported by the Shubert Foundation, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, The David Lee Foundation, The City and County of Los Angeles, The Ahmanson Foundation, and The Richenthal Foundation. RMT is a recipient of the American Theatre Wing’s 2014 National Theatre Company Grant.

“Hitler’s Tasters” opens at 5pm on April 27, 2024 and runs at 8pm Fridays, Mondays; 5pm Saturdays; 7pm Sundays through June 3, 2024 (no performances on Monday, April 29, May 13). Rogue Machine, in the Matrix Theatre (upstairs on the Henry Murray Stage) located at 7657 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046. Tickets are $45 (Students $25 / Seniors $35); Show4Less: May 3 ($10+), May 10 ($15+), May 17 & 24 ($20+). Reservations: https://www.roguemachinetheatre.org/ or for more information 855-585-5185.

Rogue Machine has upgraded their HVAC system at the Matrix Theatre to exceed compliance with current COVID protocols. They have installed HEPA air purifiers in all public spaces.

IAMA, Boston Court team up to present world
premiere of poetic, surprising ‘The Body’s Midnight’

LOS ANGELES (March 18, 2024) — IAMA Theatre Company and Boston Court Pasadena have joined forces to present a poetic and surprising new play about the complicated, ridiculous, awe-inspiring trajectory of life. Boston Court artistic director Jessica Kubzansky directs the world premiere of The Body’s Midnight by Tira Palmquist, running April 27 through May 26 at Boston Court Pasadena. Six preview performances take place April 18 through April 26.

What does it mean to discover America? Anne (IAMA ensemble member Keliher Walsh) and David (Jonathan Nichols–Navarro) are determined to find out, as they embark on the perfect American road trip. They have a map, an impressive list of sights to see, and an itinerary that should get them to St. Paul, home of daughter Katie and son-in-law Wolf (IAMA members Sonal Shah and Ryan W. Garcia), just in time for the birth of their first grandchild. But their perfect plan is derailed by a troubling diagnosis and the beautiful impermanence of the world around them. As Anne and David veer off of their intended path, they are forced to grapple with the unavoidably messy and breathtaking journey of their lives.

“How do you make a memory palace of your whole life?” asks Palmquist. “This play is about how weird and beautiful and surprising the world is, how we have to be open to that and be willing to improvise in life. You can’t plan your way through every celebration, or through every adversity.”

“Stef (IAMA artistic director Stefanie Black) and I have been talking about doing a co-production for a very long time, and this is a play we both immediately responded to,” says Kubzansky. “It speaks to so many things: to long-time marriage, to mothers and daughters, to what we pass on and what we pass down, to aging, to memory loss, and to the way the world disappears around us. I love the way it moves to define what’s happening in different spaces in a highly theatrical way — a reality space, a surreal space, a phantasmagorical space, a memory space.”

One of the philosophies shared by IAMA and Boston Court is the development-to-full production pipeline for new work. During IAMA’s current “Sweet 16” anniversary season, the company produced two new plays it commissioned from Los Angeles-based playwrights: Radical or, are you gonna miss me? by Isaac Gómez and Arrowhead by Catya McMullen. Similarly, The Body’s Midnight was developed with Boston Court’s Playwrights Group and given a staged reading as part of that company’s 19th annual New Play Reading Festival before being selected for the current co-production.

“IAMA is thrilled to collaborate with Boston Court on this beautiful, complex play that is all at once funny, sad and profound,” says Black. “Tira gives us a fresh, unexpected perspective on a universal, intergenerational story. Audiences are sure to lose themselves in this expansive experience.”

The creative team for The Body’s Midnight includes scenic designer Nicholas Ponting; lighting designer Benedict Conran; sound designer John Zalewski; video and projections designer David Murakami and associate projections designer Sam Clevenger; costume designer Mylette Nora; properties designer Cindy Campos; intimacy director Carly DW Bones; and dramaturg Adrian Centeno. IAMA ensemble member Anisha Adusumilli is associate director. Jasmine Kalra is the production manager, Jesse Soto is the technical director and Jasmine Leung is the production stage manager. The IAMA team includes season producer Quinn O’Connor and co-producer Katharine Means.

Founded in 2007, IAMA is a Los Angeles-based ensemble of artists committed to cultivating new voices and creating new works that push boundaries and take risks, while fostering an inclusive community that inspires theater-makers of future generations. Invested in challenging audiences with an authentic experience that reflects our complex modern world, IAMA frequently works together with like-minded companies to produce new work; past collaborations have included Center Theatre Group (Our Dear Dead Drug Lord at the Kirk Douglas Theatre); the Los Angeles LGBT Center (The Bottoming Process); Pasadena Playhouse (American Hero, A Kid Like Jake); Latino Theater Company (Canyon); Washington, DC’s Woolly Mammoth (Hi, Are You Single?); and New York City’s Queens Theatre (Fly on the Wall series).

Located in Pasadena, California, Boston Court Pasadena is an intimate performing arts center that creates and nurtures innovative, boundary-pushing art that invokes the power of collective imagination to illuminate our common humanity. The 75-seat Marjorie Branson Performance Space and the 99-seat Main Stage serve as homes for Boston Court’s season of adventurous theater, its richly eclectic music series, the annual New Play Reading Festival and a rotating visual art program, among other engagement and education offerings, under the leadership of artistic director Jessica Kubzansky and executive director Manny Prieto. Boston Court Pasadena was founded in 2003 by philanthropist Z. Clark Branson and founding producing director Eileen T’Kaye.

The Body’s Midnight opens on Saturday, April 27 at 8 p.m., with performances thereafter on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through May 26. Six preview performances take place April 18 through April 26 on the same schedule. Tickets range from $22 to $65, including fees.

Boston Court Pasadena is located at 70 N Mentor Ave., Pasadena, CA 91106. Parking is free in the on-site lot. For reservations and information, call (626) 683-6801 or go to bostoncourtpasadena.org.

International City Theatre revives Heidi Schreck’s
hilarious, hopeful ‘What the Constitution Means to Me’

LONG BEACH, Calif. (March 19, 2024) — What if we were in charge of creating America today? What kind of future do we want for ourselves? International City Theatre artistic director caryn desai [sic] directs a new production of What the Constitution Means to Me, the hilarious, witty and refreshingly honest play by Heidi Schreck that garnered Obie and New York Drama Critics’ Circle awards for best new American play and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The limited, three-week engagement takes place May 3 through May 19 at ICT’s home in the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, with two low-priced previews on May 1 and May 2.

Inspired by her experiences at age 15 when she traveled the country entering Constitutional debate competitions to earn scholarship money for college, Schreck’s funny, hopeful and achingly human play digs deep into the document’s beauty and contradictions. Actor Kelley Dorney (last seen at ICT in The Andrews Brothers) resurrects Schreck’s teenage and present self to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women in her family and the founding document that shaped their lives. Joining Dorney onstage are Tom Trudgeon (ICT’s The Legend of Georgia McBride) and Sheila Correa (Long Beach Shakespeare Company’s Love’s Labor’s Lost).

“Though the show is designed to feel spontaneous, it’s very carefully constructed and hasn’t really changed much, because everything that’s happening right now is a result of decisions that were made 400 years ago,” Schreck said in an interview with TIME magazine. “The big reckonings we’re having in terms of race and the original crimes of slavery; of women’s bodies and the law; of the co-equal branches of government and whether those are functioning well right now—these are all current, topical issues, but they were all set into motion so long ago.”

“This wonderfully entertaining play offers a fresh perspective and challenges us to reexamine our core values, which is more important than ever in this election year,” says desai.

The creative team for What the Constitution Means to Me includes set designer Tim Mueller, lighting designer Donny Jackson, costume designer Kim DeShazo, sound designer Dave Mickey and prop designer Patty Briles. Casting is by Michael Donovan, CSA and Richie Ferris, CSA.

What the Constitution Means to Me runs May 3 through May 19 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Two preview performances take place on Wednesday, May 1 and Thursday, May 2 both at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $49 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays (except May 3, opening night, for which tickets are $55 and include a post show reception), and $52 at Sunday matinees. Low-priced tickets to previews are $37.

International City Theatre is located in Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center’s Beverly O’Neill Theater at 330 East Seaside Way, Long Beach, CA 90802.For more information and to purchase tickets, call (562) 436-4610 or go to InternationalCityTheatre.org.

Jay “Juggernaut” Hayes thinks that she has been called by God to be an MMA fighter. She is single-minded and focused on what she sees as her purpose: she is going to fight ex-champion fighter Maria Rodriguez. Maria is reluctant to return to the octagon after a year off but her manager Lena convinces her otherwise. As the fight looms, Jay becomes more and more resolved while Maria starts to feel doubtful – does she really want to fight the so-called “Daughter of God”? 

“We’re Not Your Cup of Tea” by Evie Abat, Meg Lin, Cyndy Fujikawa., Pamela Najera.

We’re Not Your Cup of Tea takes its title from the fact that the evening’s performers are boundary-breakers who shatter expectations and stereotypes regarding AAPI performers.

Evie Abat (Filipina-American) will share her experience as director of Survivors by Wendy Kout. Survivors is an educational play with a diverse cast, about 10 Holocaust survivors, that is touring schools and organizations along the West Coast.

Cyndy Fujikawa (Japanese-American) will perform an excerpt from her solo show Old Man River, which had its West Coast debut at Theatre West in 1997. It relates the story of her father, actor Jerry Fujikawa, who was one of those forced into internment camps for Japanese Americans in 1942. Additionally, she will read publicly for the first time, his eyewitness statement of his experience at that time.

Meg Lin (Taiwanese-American) breaks the tradition of “saving face” by sharing her darkest pain and deepest desires in an excerpt from her award-winning solo show What Am I, Chopped Suey? Meg was recently seen on Theatre West’s stage in Love Stinks; Moose on the Loose; and Aladdin, the Princess, and the Magic Lamp.

Pamela Najera (Filipina-American) performs an excerpt from her solo show Too Old, Too Asian, Too Short in which she demonstrates how she destroyed the skepticism of others by achieving success as a professional dancer, cruise ship entertainer, and magician’s assistant.

Consulting director: Arden Teresa Lewis.

Saturday at 8 p.m.

http://theatrewest.org

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“The Explorers Club” by Nell Benjamin.

London, 1879. The prestigious Explorers Club is in crisis: their acting president wants to admit a woman, and their bartender is terrible. True, this female candidate is brilliant, beautiful, and has discovered a legendary Lost City, but the decision to let in a woman could shake the very foundation of the British Empire, and how do you make such a decision without a decent drink? Grab your safety goggles for some very mad science involving deadly cobras, irate Irishmen and the occasional airship.

The cast includes David Hunt Stafford, Matt Landig, Christopher Franciosa, John Combs, Meghan Lewis, Hovannes John Babakhanyan, Kevin Dulude, Daniel Leslie, and Michael Mullen.

Melanie MacQueen directs.

Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. Sundays at 2:00 p.m. Dark on Friday, June 7. On Saturday, June 22, there will be a 2 p.m. matinee and no evening show.

http://theatre40.org

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Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046

Award-winner Hitler’s Tasters will be Rogue Machine’s next offering during their 16^th season. Written by Los Angeles playwright Michelle Kholos Brooks and scheduled to open at 5pm on Saturday, April 27^th, the play is a powerful reimagining of historical protocol at Wolf’s Lair, directed by Sarah Norris on the immersive Henry Murray Stage upstairs at the Matrix Theatre.

An earlier production of the play was set for a run in Los Angeles, under the direction of Sarah Norris, but managed to realize only two performances in March of 2020 before COVID forced it to shut down. With this new production, LA audiences will finally experience Michelle Kholos Brooks’ bold play that eerily connects our current society with our history from almost a century ago.

A dark comedy based on the largely unknown story of young German women conscripted to taste Adolf Hitler’s food for poison, this fictional account explores the way girls navigate sexuality, friendship, and patriotism during the Third Reich. Using an anachronistic retelling of a historical footnote, Hitler’s Tasters considers what girls discuss as they wait to see if they will survive another meal. Inspired by a 2014 interview with 94-year-old Margot Wölk who, for the first time, revealed her harrowing past as one of Adolf Hitler’s food tasters. Margot, a German secretary at the time, was among fifteen young women selected for this “honor” at Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair.

“I thought I had heard every crazy, twisted story possible about Adolf Hitler, until a 94 years old woman named Margot Wölk told her extraordinary tale of being conscripted to be one of his food tasters. Times change, people don’t. One day, as I was thinking about this story, I watched a group of young women take photos of themselves in pursuit of the perfect selfie, and I realized that those women…those girls, really, were likely the same age that the Tasters would have been. Their dreams and desires would be the same. I determined that I wanted the girls of Hitler’s Tasters to feel very present and very alive. I did not want them to be sepia-toned people in history. That is why Hitler’s Tasters is woven with anachronisms and contemporary references. Hitler very specifically chose young, German women, the future of the Reich, to test his food for poison. The idea of young women stuck in a room together waiting to see if they were going to live or die after every meal – could there be a riper situation for drama and (dark) comedy? Isn’t adolescence hard enough?” –  Michelle Kholos Brooks (playwright).

Michelle Kholos Brooks (Playwright) is an award-winning playwright with her work produced and staged internationally. Awards and distinctions include the Susan Glaspell Award for Hitler’s Tasters, the Reva Shiner Comedy Award for Kalamazoo, co-written by Kelly Younger. Hitler’s Tasters was named Best of Fringe at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival by The Stage (UK). Hostage was a finalist for the Woodward/Newman Drama Award, The Fratti-Newman Political Play Contest and a Showcase finalist for the National New Play Network. Chair received second place in the Firehouse Theatre Festival of New American Plays. Michelle’s plays have been produced and/or developed at the Skylight Theatre (World Premiere, Hostage), Centenary Stage (World Premiere, Hitler’s Tasters), Pacific Resident Theatre, Adirondack Theatre Festival, Bloomington Playwright’s Project (Rolling World Premiere, Kalamazoo), The Colony Theatre (World Premiere, Family Planning), Florida Repertory Theatre, Boston Court Theatre, The Road Theatre Company, Wordsmyth Theatre, The Barrow Group, Bay Street Theatre, Venue 9 Theatre, Wings Theatre, Laurel Grove Theatre Company, Drama West, Vox Humana Theatre Ensemble, iTheatre Collaborative, New Light Theater Project, 59E59 Theaters, Olive Theatre Greenside Venue at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Adobe Rose Theatre, Pendragon Theater, and Guild Hall. Brooks’ play War Words made a six-city appearance for Veteran’s Day, 2021. Publications include Dramatists Play Service, Room Literary Magazine and The Daily Beast. Brooks earned a B.A. from Emerson College and an M.F.A. in Fiction from Otis College of Art and Design. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, The Playwright’s Center and Pacific Resident Theatre. In addition, she is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.

Sarah Norris (Director) is the founding Artistic Director of New Light Theater Project. Her work has been seen around the country including in NYC, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, and internationally in Scotland, Australia, England and Ireland. Select producer and production credits include: Playwrights Horizons (I Am My Own Wife Off-Broadway and Tony Winning Broadway transfer), Disney Theatrical Productions, Bisno Productions (Hughie on Broadway w/ Forest Whitaker; My Report to the World w/ David Strathairn). Select New Light credits and acclaim: Hitler’s Tasters, The American Tradition (TimeOut NY Critics Pick; Best of Theater – Slant Magazine; “The gleefully anachronistic show…has a rambunctious punk-rock energy that’s all too rare on our increasingly sanitized stages!” – The New Yorker), Imagining Madoff (This Week in Arts – NY Times; “Engrossing and philosophically lively” – The New Yorker), Breeders (“Both ridiculously and strangely moving!” – Jesse Green, NY Times; TimeOut NY Critics Pick; “An unexpected marvelous new comedy!” – Huffington Post). Select directing credits include: Everything is Super Great (TimeOut NY Critics Pick), This Wrestling Place (w/ Executive Producer Ben Folds), Picture Ourselves in Latvia (Best of Theater, The L Magazine), Hitler’s Tasters (Best of the Edinburgh Fringe; featured in the Chicago Tribune, LA Times and the BBC).

The Cast: Ali Axelrad (Anna), Olivia Gill (Hilda), Paige Simunovich (Liesel), Caitlin Zambito (Margot).

Creative Team: Joe McClean and Dane Bowman (Scenic & Lighting Design), Ashleigh Poteat (Costume Design), Christine Cover Ferro (Costume coordinator), Chris Moscatiello (Sound consultant), Carsen Joenk (Sound Design), Ashlee Wasmund (Choreographer), Emmy Frevele (Choreography for Rogue Machine).

Rogue Machine is the only company to receive the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for “Best Season” three times (2023, 2016, 2011). Additionally, they won the Ovation Award for “Best Season” (2017) and in the last 9 years the company has won three Ovation Awards and four LADCC awards for “Outstanding Production of the Year.” Rogue Machine produces new plays, primarily by Los Angeles based playwrights, and important contemporary plays not yet seen in Los Angeles. Nine of their productions have been published by Samuel French, Dramatists Play Service or Broadway Play Publishing, and six of the productions have had subsequent stagings at significant theatres, including Off Broadway, major regional houses and the Donmar Warehouse in London. Four world premieres, Razorback, Small Engine Repair, Lone-Anon, and One Night in Miami… were made into feature films, and playwright Kemp Powers was nominated for an Academy Award. In recognition of its artistic achievement, administrative strength, development of new work and other significant contributions to the field of professional theatre in the United States, Rogue Machine is supported by the Shubert Foundation, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, The David Lee Foundation, The City and County of Los Angeles, The Ahmanson Foundation, and The Richenthal Foundation. RMT is a recipient of the American Theatre Wing’s 2014 National Theatre Company Grant.

“Hitler’s Tasters” opens at 5pm on April 27, 2024 and runs at 8pm Fridays, Mondays; 5pm Saturdays; 7pm Sundays through June 3, 2024 (no performances on Monday, April 29, May 13). Rogue Machine, in the Matrix Theatre (upstairs on the Henry Murray Stage) located at 7657 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046. Tickets are $45 (Students $25 / Seniors $35); Show4Less: May 3 ($10+), May 10 ($15+), May 17 & 24 ($20+). Reservations: https://www.roguemachinetheatre.org/ or for more information 855-585-5185.

Rogue Machine has upgraded their HVAC system at the Matrix Theatre to exceed compliance with current COVID protocols. They have installed HEPA air purifiers in all public spaces.

“The Explorers Club” by Nell Benjamin.

London, 1879. The prestigious Explorers Club is in crisis: their acting president wants to admit a woman, and their bartender is terrible. True, this female candidate is brilliant, beautiful, and has discovered a legendary Lost City, but the decision to let in a woman could shake the very foundation of the British Empire, and how do you make such a decision without a decent drink? Grab your safety goggles for some very mad science involving deadly cobras, irate Irishmen and the occasional airship.

The cast includes David Hunt Stafford, Matt Landig, Christopher Franciosa, John Combs, Meghan Lewis, Hovannes John Babakhanyan, Kevin Dulude, Daniel Leslie, and Michael Mullen.

Melanie MacQueen directs.

Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. Sundays at 2:00 p.m. Dark on Friday, June 7. On Saturday, June 22, there will be a 2 p.m. matinee and no evening show.

http://theatre40.org

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