LAFPI

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.