Recently on a pleasant Sunday afternoon, I listened to a collection of short theatre pieces that will go into the next Gunfighter Nation show, L.A. History Project: Pio Pico, Sam Yorty and the Secret Procession of Los Angeles, and I was in playwriting nirvana.

 Led by playwright John Steppling, Gunfighter Nation aims to create text driven theatre that causes anarchy of soul.

 When I first heard of the gunfighters, I thought of playwriting outlaws. I thought of hard grizzled men and kick ass women riding horses, camping out, and drinking whiskey. I thought of dust and rocks and the hot sun bearing down on you so hard that the water in your canteen turns to tea.

 What I found was a group of writers who love to laugh and can write like a charging band of wild horses. I thought, yeah, these are my kind of writers, and I joined the posse.

 L.A. History Project: Pio Pico, Sam Yorty and the Secret Procession of Los Angeles will be at the Lost Studio in September. For more information, check out the Gunfighter Nation website.