LAFPI

What if true love never happens? Or worse… what if it does? Theatre Planners presents the world premiere of an award-winning comedy by Sharon Sharth. Waiting for Grace opens as a guest production at the Odyssey Theatre on November 12, directed by Lee Costello.

Grace has it all. Or does she? A successful New York actor, she’s always put her career first. But now she’s ready for marriage and a baby. Suddenly, the clock is ticking. A fast-paced comedy, Waiting for Grace features characters that many women will relate to, although some may find Sharth’s views controversial.

“Grace thinks she knows what her life should be, what she should want,” explains Costello. “But she doesn’t really know her own heart. We as women are presented with a labyrinth of emotion and expectation. Sometimes it can be hard to figure out which path is the right one for us as individuals.”

“This is the story of a woman who doesn’t fit into today’s zeitgeist,” Sharth says. “She didn’t know she had waited too long, She wakes up one morning and thinks she wants to be married, and she puts all her energy into that. But is what she wants really what she needs?”

Sharth, who takes on the title role, is joined onstage by Pamela Dunlap (Pauline Francis on Madmen; HBO’s Doll and Em; HBO’s Girls; premiere of A.R. Gurney’s Love and Money at New York’s Signature Theatre) and Lily Knight (LADCC and Stage Raw Award nominations for her role in Echo Theater Company’s A Small Fire; Edna in Odyssey Theatre’s LADDC Award-winning A Delicate Balance; Antaeus productions of The Crucible, Peace in Our Time and The Autumn Garden). The three were members together at New York’s prestigious Circle Repertory Theatre Company. The male members of the ensemble include Todd Babcock (Gods and Monsters), Jeff LeBeau (member, Open Fist and Skylight Theatre companies) and Christopher Pennock (Wendy Wasserstein’s Third at Actors Workout Studio, original cast of Dark Shadows).

Waiting for Grace is the recipient of the Best New American Play Award from the Firehouse Theatre Project; the Collaboration Award from the New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts and Media; an Honorable Mention from the NYC New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest; and it was a semi-finalist at the Edward Albee Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, AK.

Performances of Waiting for Grace take place Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., Nov. 12 through Dec. 11 (dark Thursday, Nov. 24). There will be two preview performances on Thursday, Nov. 11 and Friday, Nov. 12, both at 8 p.m. All tickets are $35 (reserved seating) except opening night (Nov. 12), for which tickets are $50 and include a post-performance catered reception with the actors, and previews, which are $25. The Odyssey Theatre is located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles, 90025. For reservations and information, call (323) 960-7788 or go to www.plays411.com/waiting.