Sorry

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

Eat the Mama

Welcome to motherhood: the gravity’s crushing, the breast pump’s relentless, and the only escape is orbit. In this critically-acclaimed solo performance, Jessica reimagines herself as an astronaut after giving birth—not to explore new worlds, but to survive the unforgiving terrain of early parenthood. Eat the Mama is a wildly funny, deeply tender crash landing into being a mom, where love, shame, and everything you once knew comes undone. It’s comedy on the surface, truth at the core, and a journey into being completely devoured by love.

Writer/producer/performer Jessica Mele is a comedy writer and performer who co–founded San Francisco’s longest-running female-driven sketch comedy group, Chardonnay. Now based in LA, she spends her time as an unwilling participant in her son’s Lego Star Wars games and writing parody songs about the patriarchy.

Instagram @eatthemamaplay

Friday June 6 2025, 6:30 PM | 75 mins

Friday June 20 2025, 6:30 PM | 75 mins

Saturday June 21 2025, 6:30 PM | 75 mins

Sunday June 22 2025, 2:30 PM | 75 mins

 

Reviews & Reactions

A “tangy, refreshingly honest solo show about motherhood.” – San Francisco Chronicle

“As a mother and advocate, I’m so incredibly grateful that you gave light to this in the way that you did. The darkness and lightness of motherhood and the dichotomy of love and torture is so hard to explain – and to do so in the way that you did, so artistically and bravely, is truly remarkable.” – Georgia Etheridge, The Pod Family Center

Anak ni Tapia: Leaving Mother

In Anak ni Tapia: Leaving Mother, Lani T. Montreal takes her audience to a  personal and poignant journey through memory, identity, and reconciliation. Through vivid storytelling, humor, and heartfelt introspection, this solo performance unpacks the complexities of life as a queer Filipina immigrant, a daughter living in the shadow of a larger-than-life mother, and a woman discovering her own voice.

June 13, 7 PM
June 14, 12 PM
June 16, 5 PM

Captive Audience

Zeus McGuire is the well loved host of popular live stream and wannabe TV talk show “Hey Zeus! What’s Happening?”. He’s witty, charming and apparently for sale,  as his producer has scheduled a softball interview and ego fluff piece for a sleezy politician that Zeus just can’t stand. When exactly did he sell out?

Unable to get a clear answer or any semblance of an honest conversation going: Zeus becomes increasingly frustrated with his guest, his producer and, most of all himself… until he cracks.

It’s a dog day afternoon when, live on air, Zeus takes his guest, his crew, the Security Guard and YOU captive, until this guy admits he’s nothing but a crook.

Content Warning: Faux Firearm, Sexual Harassment

Slay Me

Victoria has a massive crush on her neighbor. He fixes her kitchen sink and men being useful is sexy.

As can be expected, he turns out to be a serial killer. Should Victoria call the cops? Maybe.

But not before she confronts him.

She was sure there was a spark between them. Then he murdered twelve women and none of them were her. She deserves an explanation.

She’s just gotta do her makeup first.

“Slay Me” is a one-woman show, written by and starring first time Fringe artist Veronica Rosas and directed by Fringe veteran Ashley Karp.

Please note there will be no late seating for this show.

Content Warning: This show includes conversations about suicide.

Dates/Times:
6/8 – Sunday: 12:30 PM (Pay What You Can!)
6/15 – Sunday: 6:30 PM
6/20 – Friday: 7 PM
6/22 – Sunday: 3 PM
6/28 – Saturday: 5:30 PM

Space Rock Opera

SPACE ROCK OPERA by Liz Eldridge

SPACE ROCK OPERA is a one-ish woman musical about getting hit by a meteorite and surviving. This darkly comedic rock-show-meets-space-revival-meets-country-music revue with a five piece rock band in a beautifully restored Hollywood theater with a full bar. 7 original songs, 50 minutes, and a twisted discovery of the divine.

By the end, we may not have all the answers, but we will be sweaty, transported, and singing along.

Created by & starring Liz Eldridge as Mrs. Hughes, Directed by Christine Briehan with Phil Cobb, Scott Cornish, Gabe Saucedo, and Marty Sataman as the Band & Space Rock as Space Rock (built by Zachary Bones)

Monday June 9th 7:30pm; Friday June 13th 9pm; Thursday June 19th 10pm; Wednesday June 25th 6:30pm; Friday June 27th 10pm

Visit hollywoodfringe.org/projects/12318

nstagram.com/nolizzie

‘Ms. Edwards’

Ms. Edwards by Sidney Edwards and Byron Coolie

SYNOPSIS:

It’s the early 2000s and Ms. Edwards (all of them) works at Seaboard Coates Elementary School in rural North Carolina. Young Sidney sits at the meeting of two Edwards families, linked by marriage. Everywhere she looks there’s a “Ms. Edwards’ to be found…all different from one another… and she wants to be like all of them. Luckily for Sidney, each Edwards woman is an educator in her own right. School is in session y’all! And Sidney has a lot to learn about family, community, and faith.

Performed by: Sidney Edwards

Directed by: Byron Coolie

Produced by: Sacred Fools Theatre Company

DATES:

Tuesday June 10 2025, 6:30 PM | 50 mins

Saturday June 14 2025, 5:00 PM | 50 mins

Monday June 16 2025, 8:00 PM | 50 mins

Friday June 20 2025, 10:30 PM | 50 mins

Sunday June 22 2025, 8:00 PM | 50 mins

Thursday June 26 2025, 8:00 PM | 50 mins

Saturday June 28 2025, 12:30 PM | 50 mins

TICKETS HERE: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/11840

INSTAGRAM: @ms.sidneyedwards — @byroncoolie8 — @sacredfoolsla

All Cats go to Hell

All Cats go to Hell is a new dark-comedy by Mandy Rubeli about a group of tweens who accidentally kill their elderly neighbor’s cat and are forced to face their own mortality for the first time. It is a coming of age story about death, growing up too fast, and wild misinformation on reddit.

Thursday June 5 2025, 6:30 PM | 90 mins

Saturday June 14 2025, 2:30 PM | 90 mins

Sunday June 15 2025, 11:30 AM | 90 mins

Wednesday June 25 2025, 10:00 PM | 90 mins

Sunday June 29 2025, 7:00 PM | 90 mins

LOCATION:

The Madnani Theater

6760 Lexington Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90038

See more on our Broadway world listing! https://www.broadwayworld.com/los-angeles/regional/All-Cats-go-to-Hell-4322611

More about the production company:

My production company “Nightmare Lizard Productions” had two incredibly successful Hollywood Fringe runs with our shows Arizona Rain ‘23 and Dinosaurs ‘24. 

Arizona Rain received the “Hollywood Encore Producer Award,” the “Theater Theatre Playwright Award,” and was a finalist for “Best Drama” and the “Loud Karma Emerging Female and Nonbinary Playwright Award.” Reviewers called it “A beautifully written show with an incredible and deserved arc” and “A really well-done play I’ll think about for a while.” Arizona Rain went on to receive press mentions in Broadway World, Fanbase Press, and The StageCrafts, and was featured on the podcasts Theater Theatre and Media Industry Guru.

Dinosaurs had an entirely sold out fringe run and received the “StageCrafts Official Selection” Award, as well as another finalist spot for “Best Drama” and the “Loud Karma Award.” One reviewer noted, “I felt like I was watching a show Off-Broadway or a Netflix series,” and another said it was, “A very human piece and a creative way to discuss a sensitive and important topic” and “The best play I have ever seen.”

Playwrights Union First Peek 2025

Join LA artists for the Playwrights Union’s 15th Annual FIRST PEEK reading series featuring the brand new work of  member playwrights. Come participate in the process and explore the creation of five new full-length plays, four by women playwrights:

FRIDAY, JUNE 13

8:00 pm – WOMEN, BIRDS, STARS by Jennie Webb

Women, Birds, Stars is the story of four women of a certain age who take refuge together when their habitat is threatened. Rocked by uncertainty, they find themselves weighing their losses and options for survival in an increasingly surreal world. But there’s always ice cream.

SATURDAY, JUNE 14

8:00 PM – ELEPHANTS by Jennifer Maisel

Who is going to be there for you when nobody else is? Five disparate women discover a tenuous connection binds them together for eternity. Meet THE ELEPHANTS.

SUNDAY, JUNE 15

2:00 PM – WE’RE TRYING TO HEAL!! by Ashley Rose Wellman

Four women use the settlement payout from a predatory university doctor to go on a spontaneous, chaotic vacation together. As the trip veers wildly between awkward intimacy, rage, and bad decisions, a sudden bombshell threatens to explode their fragile connections. A play about broken systems, price tags on pain, and how all of us are just TRYING TO HEAL!!

5:00 PM – WE WILL BE TAKING NO FURTHER QUESTIONS ABOUT CULT AUTEUR STANLEY KUBRICK by Brianna Barrett

A film historian tasked with curating a major retrospective starts to unravel his lifelong obsession with the genius auteur, navigating a shifting cultural landscape, a contentious collaboration with the director’s daughter, and a relationship with a radical performance artist who refuses to let him look away.

FIRST PEEK 2025 also features BIGGEST MAN ON CAMPUS by Eric Rudnick, Saturday  June 15 at 5:00 PM

After the readings, raise a glass at our Post-Reading Gatherings

Admission to all FIRST PEEK readings is FREE; reservations highly suggested and donations welcome

M A K E  A  R E S E R V A T I O N

For more info visit playwrightsunion.com

facebook.com/playwrightsunion

instagram.com/playwrightsunion

 

 

Outdated

OUTDATED is a dating guide veiled as a fringe show for your average insecure, super fantastic, bi, queer, demisexual, femme creative with a disorganized attachment style. A feminine bent creature named Kirsten entered the forest of dating, she made recordings of her dates and her various experiments on the dating apps, and has come out with a magical realism solo play including very pragmatic steps to keep yourself intact (and hopeful) in the swamp that is the search for partnership. OUTDATED is Kirsten’s first solo work since her multiple city hit Mess which was also part of the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe.

A Los Angeles theatre staple, Kirsten has most recently been seen onstage at Theatre of NOTE playing the titular character in Phinny Kiyomura’s Nimrod and here at the LGBT Center as Lottie in the world premiere of Justin Elizabeth Sayre’s Lottie Platchett Took a Hatchett.  Kirsten has been published in the anthology Women of Letters, the Los Angeles Times, and Roxane Gay chose her as a  “Feminist as Fuck” writer for the 2024 Vulture Fest. Kirsten has co-written 5 episodes of Criminal Minds where she plays Penelope Garcia and she can also be seen as Bigelow McFigglehorn on Disney’s Wizards Beyond Waverly Place. In 2020 Kirsten wrote, starred and directed the animated short Curtains which can be found on Vimeo for free. She is executive producer and star of the film noir spoof Kill Me Deadly and the creator and host of Bits! , an art salon which you can come to (and participate in!) every month. She is the recipient of the Open Fist Excellence in the Arts Award, Los Angeles Drama  Critics Circle Natalie Schafer Award, the HRC Visibility Award  and she has a monkey enclosure named after her at the Wildlife Learning Center.