At Open-Door Playhouse we bring the theater to you. Now Playing …

Penny Slots Part 4 by Kim Hlavac

Skylight Theatre Company
Presents The World Premiere of
Roger Q. Mason’s
Hide & Hide

Directed by Jessica Hanna

Thursday, May 15 – Sunday, June 29, 2025

Skylight Theatre Company proudly presents the World premiere of Hide & Hide, written by Roger Q. Mason and directed by Jessica Hanna. Previews begin May 9, 10, and 14, with opening night on Thursday, May 15. The production runs through Sunday, June 29, 2025, at Skylight Theatre. This new work marks the playwright’s return to Skylight Theatre Company following the success and critical acclaim of their 2022 production, Lavender Men. Hide & Hide is the second in Mason’s Califas Trilogy. It is a Homeric critique of the American Dream told through Billy (played by Ben Larson), a queer rent-boy from Texas fleeing a Christian sex conversion camp, and Constanza (played by Amielynn Abellera, The Pitt), a Filipina immigrant with a soon-to-expire visa, who together form a sham marriage to pursue their version of that dream in seedy 1980 Los Angeles.

“Hide & Hide excavates the myth of the American Dream, how it motivates, corrodes, and ignites people to do the unspeakable in the name of freedom,” shares the playwright and creator, Roger Q. Mason. “The piece is based in 1980, the year my mother immigrated to the United States from the Philippines. In times like these, she—and our family at large—wonder, ‘Was the plane ride even worth the journey?’ I think so, but we have to fight for the freedom promised in the dream.”

At Open-Door Playhouse we bring the theater to you. Now Playing…

Set in the Winslow home in 1935, a wife and mother of five is pregnant again, but she is keenly aware that something is very wrong with this pregnancy.Bernadette Armstrong directs a cast that includes Ayla Rose Barreau as Mary, Gilbert Glenn Brown as James, Omari Williams as Doctor #1, and David Purdham as Doctor #2.

Melissa May Curtis is a playwright. Her play, The Deal, was warmly received at the 2024 Hollywood Fringe Festival. She also starred in the Netflix series Pet Stars.

Listen Here:
https://www.opendoorplayhouse.org/opendoortheaterplays/awomansworth
Run Time: 15:18

Founded by playwright and filmmaker Bernadette Armstrong, Open-Door Playhouse is a Theater Podcast- like the radio dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. The Playhouse launched on September 15, 2020. At the time, Open-Door Playhouse provided Playwrights, Actors, and Directors a creative outlet during the shutdown. Since its inception, Open-Door Playhouse has presented short and one-act plays by playwrights across the country and internationally. In 2021 Open-Door Playhouse received a Communicator Award for Content for the play Custody. In 2023, the play What’s Prison Like was nominated for a Webby Award in the Crime & Justice Category.

Over 16,000 downloads since published !

Sound Production: Oak House Recording Studio in Altadena, CA with Sound Engineer David Peters. The team behind the mic, Producer and Founder of Open-Door Playhouse Bernadette Armstrong, Assoc. Producer Laree Griffith, who manages our website and newsletter.

Ophelia’s Jump Theatre Presents THE SLOW DRAG, a Jazz Play

by Carson Kreitzer
May 30 through June 29, 2025

Ophelia’s Jump (OJP) celebrates Pride Month with it’s production of The Slow Drag – a Jazz Play by Carson Kreitzer. The production will be performed at the OJP Theater located at 2009 Porterfield Way, Ste I, Upland, from May 30 through June 29, 2025. The Slow Drag is a play with a full complement of musical selections from the jazz era along with one original composition written for Ophelia’s Jump’s production by resident Music Director/Composer Janette Combs in consultation with Kreitzer.

About The Slow Drag – a Jazz Play: Inspired by the real-life story of Billy Tipton, a jazz musician, bandleader, and talent promoter who upon his death at home in 1989 of a bleeding ulcer, was discovered to have been a biological woman. A fact that he had kept secret even from his common-law wife and three adopted sons. Though varying ac-
counts exists about the events surrounding Tipton’s transition from female to male sometime during his high school, many stories mention his having wanted to play in his high school band, but not having been allowed because it was not considered an ap-
propriate activity for a girl. Though the details are hazy, there is not question that a few years after he graduated from high school, Tipton was working in bands as a musician and had transitioned to life as a man. Over the years, Tipton found a measure of success in music and was involved with three women who each during their time together referred to themselves as his wife. He adopted three sons with his third wife and later died at the age of 74 after refusing to go to a doctor for treatment.

Kreitzer’s play draws inspiration from Billy’s story in creating three fictional characters, a
cornet playing bandleader named Johnny Christmas, his beautiful and vibrant wife,
June Wedding, and their friend pianist Chester Kent, who is a black man passing as
white. The play picks up Johnny at the moment of death. As life is seeping away from him, he enters a liminal “cabaret” space where he performs his final show for the gathered audience-a survey of his life and love with June told through dialogue and the music that underscored all the important moments of his life and for which he may have kept the biggest secret of all.

The play includes jazz standards such as The Man I Love, The Way You Look Tonight,
Love Me Or Leave Me, Tea for Two, More than You Know, My Blue Heaven, They Can’t
Take that Away From Me and others, along with two original songs, Sweet Melinda and
Dream Waltz with lyrics by Carson Kreitzer.

2009 Porterfield Way, Suite I,
Upland , CA 91786
909-734-6565
opheliasjump.org
@opheliasjump

Production history: The Slow Drag was first performed at the American Place Theatre
in New York in 1996. It was subsequently performed in London at the Freedom Theater on February 4, 1997 and then moved to the Whitehall Theater in the West End in November, 1997. In the United States, the play requires that rights be separately acquired for each of the songs which has resulted in few US productions of The Slow Drag since the conclusion of it’s West End run.
About the Playwright:
Carson Kreitzer is an award winning playwright whose works center women often in messy, complicated, and/or extreme circumstances. Plays include: Freakshow, Self Defense or the death of some saleman, The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Slither, 1:23, Flesh and the Desert, and Lempicka among others.

Ticket Information: $57 general admission, High School & College Students 25% off,
College Student Rush– 50% discount at the box office starting 15 minutes to curtain;
Kids (13 and under) $46.
Online ticketing available at opheliasjump.org. Please call 909-734-6565 for tickets and
information on group discounts.

About Ophelia’s Jump
Ophelia’s Jump is a non-profit Performing Arts Theatre producing plays, the Midsummer
Festival in Claremont and music and various performances at our OJP Music Lounge.
Ophelia’s Jump Productions was founded by artists and educators who believe that the purpose of theatre is to create unending conversations, spark imagination, incite conscience, and elicit a visceral response. Ophelia’s Jump aims to invigorate the creativity and intellect of the community by working with local emerging artists. Ophelia’s Jump is
a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. Additional information available at opheliasjump.org
or info@opheliasjump.org

Rogue Machine Presents the West Coast Premiere of

“Nice Girl”

In suburban Massachusetts, 1984, thirty-seven-year-old Josephine Rosen has a dead-end job, still lives with her mother, and has settled into the uncomfortable comfort of an unintended spinsterhood. But when a chance flirtation with an old classmate and a new friendship at work give her hope for the possibility of change, she dusts off the Jane Fonda tapes and begins to take tentative steps towards a new life. A play about the tragedy and joy of figuring out who you are and letting go of who you were supposed to be.

A tenderly drawn drama…NICE GIRL presents a slice of middle-class life with unpatronizing honesty and simplicity” —The New York Times.

Melissa Ross (Playwright) is twice commissioned by both South Coast Repertory and Manhattan Theater Club and is currently commissioned by Atlantic Theater Company, Raven Theatre and San Francisco Playhouse. Her plays include Thinner Than Water, A Life Extra Ordinary, Nice Girl, An Entomologist’s Love Story, Of Good Stock and The Luckiest. Melissa’s plays have been produced at Manhattan Theater Club, LAByrinth Theater Company, South Coast Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse, The Gift Theater, Raven Theater Company, Kitchen Dog Theater, and San Francisco Playhouse. Melissa is a graduate of Bennington College and the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Program at The Juilliard School, and is a proud member of LAByrinth Theater Company.

Ann Bronston (Director) is an active member of City Garage Theatre, Rogue Machine, and Pacific Resident Theatre. She directed the West Coast premiere of Bryon Lavery’s Dirt at the Raven Playhouse, and numerous productions at Pacific Resident theatre’s Co-op. Ann has performed throughout Los Angeles, including the West Coast premiere of Wallace Shawn’s Marie and Bruce at the Odyssey Theatre, and the world premiere of John Pollono’s Lost Girls at Rogue Machine Theatre. She has guest starred on many TV shows, movies of the week, and in films. Her award-winning short fiction has been published in numerous literary reviews, and she recently published her collection of stories “Bad Mothers and Other Miscreants.”

CAST: Anaïs Fairweather as Jo (actress/comedian/writer most known for her role as Supergirl in DC’s animated series DC Super Hero Girls. Credits include The Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater where she acted on Maude Night and performed, wrote and directed on Character’s Welcome); Bailey Humiston as Sherry (TV includes The Sex Lives of College Girls, Pam & Tommy, The Bold and the Beautiful, and the films Sid Is Dead and the Cannes-screened short Backlog. A member of IAMA Theatre Company); Jeff Lorch* as Donny (Corktown ’39, Earthquakes in London, and Need to Know at Rogue Machine, Ameryka at Kirk Douglas Theatre; Rhinoceros, A View from the Bridge at Pacific Resident Theatre, improv at Groundlings, iO West, and UCB); Susan Peahl* as Francine (5 ACME Comedy awards for best performance by a female improvisor, and Bass Ale Comedy Award for The Liquid Radio Players 1940s improvised radio plays. Selected appearances at Impro Theatre, ComedySportzLA, ACME, TheatresportsLA, Chicago City Limits NY. Starred as the mom Sandy, in the TV pilot Shooting the Baxters, Galaxy Quest, and Megan Mullally Show).

PRODUCTION TEAM: Barbara Kallir (Scenic and Lighting Design), Christopher Moscatiello (Sound Design), Christine Cover Ferro (Costume Design), Rachel Frost (Props coordinator), Lauren Lovett (Dialect Coach), Grant Gerrard (Technical director), Victoria Hoffman (Casting), Rachel Manheimer (Production Stage Manager).

Rogue Machine is the only company to receive the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Polly Warfield Award for “Best Season” three times (2023, 2016, 2011). Additionally, they won the Ovation Award for “Best Season” (2017). Rogue Machine produces new plays 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 staging’s 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 the category of “Best Adapted Screenplay.” 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 Perenchio Foundation, Shubert Foundation, Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, David Lee Foundation, the City and County of Los Angeles, The Ahmanson Foundation, and the Richenthal Foundation. Rogue Machine is a recipient of the American Theatre Wing’s National Theatre Company Grant.

“Nice Girl” opens at 8pm on Saturday, May 31 and runs at 8pm Fridays, Mondays; 5pm Saturdays, Sundays through July 13, 2025 (no performances on Monday, June 2, Monday, June 9, Friday, July 4). Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre, upstairs on the Henry Murray Stage, is located at 7657 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046. Tickets are $45 – $60; Seniors: $35; Students with ID: $25. Shows4Less: Friday, June 6 ($15+) Friday, June 20 ($20+) Friday, June 27 ($20+), Saturday, July 5 ($25+). Reservations: https://www.roguemachinetheatre.org/ or for more information 855-585-5185.

After show gatherings to “spill the tea” at Nice Girl will begin on June 1 with the cast. Additional dates with special guests will be announced on the website.

Sorry.

By Melissa R. Randel

Co-Directed by Larry Biederman
Produced by Dana Schwartz
Featuring Lea Floden, Anna Giannotis, Jeffrey Johnson, Denise Leitner, Melissa R Randel, Denise Scheerer, Jacqueline Wright

In present day, Francine, a lawyer, looks the other way from the harassment of a female colleague. Oh, and then she murders her husband. From the 19th century, Lillian terminates pregnancies with herbs. And she gets institutionalized for being a lesbian. Persephone, of Ancient Greece, fights breast cancer AND domestic violence. Three mythical Furies reflect these women to themselves, championing their power and questioning their participation in their own oppression. Sorry. challenges the many ways women defer, adapt, comply, and apologize in a man’s world. What if they just couldn’t anymore?

June 20-July 19, 2025
Fri-Sat at 8p, Sun at 4p

“A Rose Called Candace” by Candace Nicholas-Lippman.

A Rose Called Candace is the remarkable life story of a woman in bloom.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland and raised in Sacramento, actress and spoken word poet Candace Nicholas-Lippman shares her story of family, faith, fear, and freedom—and finds her truth and transformation along the way.

Performed by Candace Nicholas-Lippman. Co-directed by Bernadette Speakes. Presented by JuVee Productions and The Robey Theatre Company in association with Los Angeles Theatre Center.

Fri. & Sat. at 8:00, Sun. at 3:00.

http://therobeytheatrecompany.org

facebook.com/therobeytheatrecompany

Hot Off the Press by Tricia Cruz, Ginney Bilbray, Rebecca Silberman, Mikkel Simons.

Assaults, Autographs, & Auditions. Written and performed by Tricia Cruz. The title says it all. An actor shares some of her experiences that include physical assaults, celebrity moments, and the world of auditioning.

A Pretty Normal Life. Written and performed by Ginney Bilbray. This piece is a collection of personal experiences that move from childhood, to teen years, and adulthood that deal with poverty, trauma, bipolar disorder, and hope.

Of a Woman. Written and performed by Rebecca Silberman. This piece focuses on the  struggle of mothers and daughters, how they feel about themselves, and how they let their bodies define them. This piece is also about shame and loss and how through Burlesque, some of these patterns can be broken.

#Peasant Vibes. Written and performed by Mikkel Simons. #PeasantVibes is a comedic, satirical solo piece that explores the timeless, often invisible labor of the working class – blending historical perspectives with the everyday struggles of modern-day workers. From peasants of old, working the land to little or no reward, to the frustrations and realities of the modern-day worker being abused by the people and industries they serve,  #PeasantVibes gives a glimpse of the people who labor behind the scenes.

Presented by Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival.

Saturday at 7 p.m.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hot-off-the-press-2025-tickets-1366421426269

facebook.com/losangeleswomenstheatrefestival

At Open-Door Playhouse we bring the theater to you. Now Playing…

Set in the Winslow home in 1935, a wife and mother of five is pregnant again, but she is keenly aware that something is very wrong with this pregnancy.Bernadette Armstrong directs a cast that includes Ayla Rose Barreau as Mary, Gilbert Glenn Brown as James, Omari Williams as Doctor #1, and David Purdham as Doctor #2.

Melissa May Curtis is a playwright. Her play, The Deal, was warmly received at the 2024 Hollywood Fringe Festival. She also starred in the Netflix series Pet Stars.

Listen Here:
https://www.opendoorplayhouse.org/opendoortheaterplays/awomansworth
Run Time: 15:18

Founded by playwright and filmmaker Bernadette Armstrong, Open-Door Playhouse is a Theater Podcast- like the radio dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. The Playhouse launched on September 15, 2020. At the time, Open-Door Playhouse provided Playwrights, Actors, and Directors a creative outlet during the shutdown. Since its inception, Open-Door Playhouse has presented short and one-act plays by playwrights across the country and internationally. In 2021 Open-Door Playhouse received a Communicator Award for Content for the play Custody. In 2023, the play What’s Prison Like was nominated for a Webby Award in the Crime & Justice Category.

Over 16,000 downloads since published !

Sound Production: Oak House Recording Studio in Altadena, CA with Sound Engineer David Peters. The team behind the mic, Producer and Founder of Open-Door Playhouse Bernadette Armstrong, Assoc. Producer Laree Griffith, who manages our website and newsletter.

Rogue Machine Presents the West Coast Premiere of

“Nice Girl”

In suburban Massachusetts, 1984, thirty-seven-year-old Josephine Rosen has a dead-end job, still lives with her mother, and has settled into the uncomfortable comfort of an unintended spinsterhood. But when a chance flirtation with an old classmate and a new friendship at work give her hope for the possibility of change, she dusts off the Jane Fonda tapes and begins to take tentative steps towards a new life. A play about the tragedy and joy of figuring out who you are and letting go of who you were supposed to be.

A tenderly drawn drama…NICE GIRL presents a slice of middle-class life with unpatronizing honesty and simplicity” —The New York Times.

Melissa Ross (Playwright) is twice commissioned by both South Coast Repertory and Manhattan Theater Club and is currently commissioned by Atlantic Theater Company, Raven Theatre and San Francisco Playhouse. Her plays include Thinner Than Water, A Life Extra Ordinary, Nice Girl, An Entomologist’s Love Story, Of Good Stock and The Luckiest. Melissa’s plays have been produced at Manhattan Theater Club, LAByrinth Theater Company, South Coast Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse, The Gift Theater, Raven Theater Company, Kitchen Dog Theater, and San Francisco Playhouse. Melissa is a graduate of Bennington College and the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Program at The Juilliard School, and is a proud member of LAByrinth Theater Company.

Ann Bronston (Director) is an active member of City Garage Theatre, Rogue Machine, and Pacific Resident Theatre. She directed the West Coast premiere of Bryon Lavery’s Dirt at the Raven Playhouse, and numerous productions at Pacific Resident theatre’s Co-op. Ann has performed throughout Los Angeles, including the West Coast premiere of Wallace Shawn’s Marie and Bruce at the Odyssey Theatre, and the world premiere of John Pollono’s Lost Girls at Rogue Machine Theatre. She has guest starred on many TV shows, movies of the week, and in films. Her award-winning short fiction has been published in numerous literary reviews, and she recently published her collection of stories “Bad Mothers and Other Miscreants.”

CAST: Anaïs Fairweather as Jo (actress/comedian/writer most known for her role as Supergirl in DC’s animated series DC Super Hero Girls. Credits include The Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater where she acted on Maude Night and performed, wrote and directed on Character’s Welcome); Bailey Humiston as Sherry (TV includes The Sex Lives of College Girls, Pam & Tommy, The Bold and the Beautiful, and the films Sid Is Dead and the Cannes-screened short Backlog. A member of IAMA Theatre Company); Jeff Lorch* as Donny (Corktown ’39, Earthquakes in London, and Need to Know at Rogue Machine, Ameryka at Kirk Douglas Theatre; Rhinoceros, A View from the Bridge at Pacific Resident Theatre, improv at Groundlings, iO West, and UCB); Susan Peahl* as Francine (5 ACME Comedy awards for best performance by a female improvisor, and Bass Ale Comedy Award for The Liquid Radio Players 1940s improvised radio plays. Selected appearances at Impro Theatre, ComedySportzLA, ACME, TheatresportsLA, Chicago City Limits NY. Starred as the mom Sandy, in the TV pilot Shooting the Baxters, Galaxy Quest, and Megan Mullally Show).

PRODUCTION TEAM: Barbara Kallir (Scenic and Lighting Design), Christopher Moscatiello (Sound Design), Christine Cover Ferro (Costume Design), Rachel Frost (Props coordinator), Lauren Lovett (Dialect Coach), Grant Gerrard (Technical director), Victoria Hoffman (Casting), Rachel Manheimer (Production Stage Manager).

Rogue Machine is the only company to receive the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Polly Warfield Award for “Best Season” three times (2023, 2016, 2011). Additionally, they won the Ovation Award for “Best Season” (2017). Rogue Machine produces new plays 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 staging’s 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 the category of “Best Adapted Screenplay.” 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 Perenchio Foundation, Shubert Foundation, Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, David Lee Foundation, the City and County of Los Angeles, The Ahmanson Foundation, and the Richenthal Foundation. Rogue Machine is a recipient of the American Theatre Wing’s National Theatre Company Grant.

“Nice Girl” opens at 8pm on Saturday, May 31 and runs at 8pm Fridays, Mondays; 5pm Saturdays, Sundays through July 13, 2025 (no performances on Monday, June 2, Monday, June 9, Friday, July 4). Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre, upstairs on the Henry Murray Stage, is located at 7657 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046. Tickets are $45 – $60; Seniors: $35; Students with ID: $25. Shows4Less: Friday, June 6 ($15+) Friday, June 20 ($20+) Friday, June 27 ($20+), Saturday, July 5 ($25+). Reservations: https://www.roguemachinetheatre.org/ or for more information 855-585-5185.

After show gatherings to “spill the tea” at Nice Girl will begin on June 1 with the cast. Additional dates with special guests will be announced on the website.

Sorry.

By Melissa R. Randel

Co-Directed by Larry Biederman
Produced by Dana Schwartz
Featuring Lea Floden, Anna Giannotis, Jeffrey Johnson, Denise Leitner, Melissa R Randel, Denise Scheerer, Jacqueline Wright

In present day, Francine, a lawyer, looks the other way from the harassment of a female colleague. Oh, and then she murders her husband. From the 19th century, Lillian terminates pregnancies with herbs. And she gets institutionalized for being a lesbian. Persephone, of Ancient Greece, fights breast cancer AND domestic violence. Three mythical Furies reflect these women to themselves, championing their power and questioning their participation in their own oppression. Sorry. challenges the many ways women defer, adapt, comply, and apologize in a man’s world. What if they just couldn’t anymore?

June 20-July 19, 2025
Fri-Sat at 8p, Sun at 4p

SheLA Theater Festival is the premier festival for new, original, creative works from gender-marginalized playwrights in Los Angeles. This year’s 10th anniversary festival will be from July 8 to 14 at The Zephyr Theatre in West Hollywood. We have four amazing shows in this year’s festival, including a historical drama offering a striking exploration of womanhood and a musical Spanish retelling of the Weeping Woman. Each play is running twice during the festival’s runtime. The plays featured in this year’s festival are as follows:

• The Great Tikka Tour — Aditi Pradhan
  • A love story between a mother and her daughters.
  • July 8 7:30pm, July 11 7:30pm 
• The Tears of La Llorana — Celeste Moreno
  • A gothic musical ghost story.
  • July 9 7:30pm, July 12 8:30pm 
• Eléphant — Eva MeiLing Pollitt
  • An intimate, raw, and visually striking exploration of girlhood, womanhood, and the cost of survival.
  • July 10 7:30pm, July 12 5:00pm
• Bacchanalia — Regan Lavin
  • An intoxicating play about artists chasing transcendence — and spiraling into ritualistic madness.
  • July 12 2:30pm, July 13 3:00pm

For tickets and more information, please visit the following site: https://shenycarts.org.