LAFPI

Skylight Theatre Company’s 40th Season Celebrates the World Premiere of  “Hungry Ghost” Written by Lisa Sanaye Dring / Directed by Jessica Hanna This  installment of the season’s enthralling lineup, by female playwrights and directors, keeps focus on “Her Vision, Her Voice,” the theme for Skylight’s 40th anniversary. Breaking barriers for female voices in theatre, phenom playwright Lisa Sanaye Dring will have two simultaneous world premiere productions gracing our stages in Southern California. While Hungry Ghost is playing at the Skylight Theatre in Los Angeles, renowned for championing emerging playwrights, SUMO debuts at the La Jolla Playhouse in mid-September. “I came across an interview with Christopher Thomas Knight, an infamous hermit who lived in the forest for 27 years without conversing with another human, and I thought — how did this man find freedom in solitude while the rest of us feel alienation, especially during the pandemic? The story grew from there to include those parts of ourselves that chase us around whether we want them to or not. It’s those forces beyond our consciousness that keep breaking in,” says playwright Dring. Bringing together an exceptional cast and creative team, this thought-provoking story delves into the lives of Dean and Amanda who are ready to start a family. Dean’s estranged mother has left her a secluded house in the woods where the couple have decided to settle. Their plans suddenly take a twisted turn when the new home is burglarized by a mysterious hermit—a Stevie Nicks worshiping, hot Cheetos eating trickster—who haunts the forest. Hungry Ghost is a chillingly humorous meditation on identity and isolation, seeing and being seen, and the insatiable hunger in us all to be truly free. “Our theatrical season proudly shines a spotlight on the powerful voices of women – on the page and presentation, on the direction, and on the exceptional ensemble of actors we’ve worked with this year. With each new play we celebrate the diversity of perspectives and the strength of these storytellers,” says Skylight’s Producing Artistic Director Gary Grossman. Lisa Sanaye Dring (Playwright) will have two world premiere stage productions running simultaneously this year at Skylight Theatre (Hungry Ghost) and at the La Jolla Playhouse with Ma-Yi Theater Company (SUMO). She has recently worked on multiple projects with Meow Wolf and was a member of the Geffen Playhouse Writers’ Room. Lisa was honored as a recipient of the 2020/21 PLAY LA Stage Raw/Humanitas Prize. Her play The Wicked One was a finalist for the Relentless Award, a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, a finalist for the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference and a semi-finalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference. Kaidan Project: Walls Grow Thin, a piece she co-wrote with Chelsea Sutton, was nominated for 8 Ovation Awards including Best Production (winner of 5). Lisa’s work has been developed/produced by LA’s top theatre companies, and nationwide. She was a member of East West Players’ Playwrights Group and has been awarded fellowships at MacDowell, Blue Mountain Center and Yaddo. Her play SUMO was recently named as a finalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference and was a part of La Jolla Playhouse’s DNA New Works Series. Lisa graduated from the University of Southern California. She was awarded the 2021 Dorothy and Granville Hicks Residency at Yaddo, which honors one promising young writer a year. Lisa is working on commissions for Antaeus Theatre Company and Rogue Artists Ensemble. She has been nominated for an Emmy for her work as a writer and director. Jessica Hanna (Director) is a Los Angeles based director, producer, space maker, member of The Kilroys, Chair of SITI Company’s Board of Directors, and co-founded of the Bootleg Theater. Her focus as a director is on new works development, most recently directing the world premiere of 3 Little Girls Down a Well at Under the Radar Festival at the Public Theatre NYC (2023), and Lottie Plachett Took a Hatchet, in Los Angeles and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2022), both written by Justin Elizabeth Sayre. Selected directing credits include works at Circle X (the world premiere of Deathplay, written & performed by Lisa Sanaye Dring), Celebration Theatre (Ovation Award winning Priscilla, Queen of the Desert), Bootleg Theater, Inkwell Theatre, UCLA, CalState University Long Beach, CalArts, Adobe Rose Theatre (Hostage by Michelle Kholos Brooks), Santa Fe Playhouse (#Undertheinfluence by Kristin Goodman), and Orlando Opera (As One). Jessica is the producing artistic director of Outside In Theatre, a new non-profit theatre company working at the intersection of Theatre and Digital, based in Highland Park, CA. Cast: Tasha Ames as Amanda (Do You Feel Anger? and Trevor at Circle X, Hooded or Being Black for Dummies at Echo Theater, Miss Lilly Gets Boned and Honky at Rogue Machine, Kimberly Akimbo and Rabbit Hole at Malibu Stage–Ovation Award “Featured Actress.” TV: Little Fires Everywhere, The Originals); Ben Messmer as Hermit (appeared on stage at A Noise Within, The Evidence Room, Cornerstone, Pacific Resident Theatre, Bootleg Theater, and Ray Bradbury’s Pandemonium Co. Performed in WoodBoy Dogfish, D is for Dog, and the Gogol Project with Rogue Artists Ensemble); Jenny Soo as Dean (West Adams with Skylight Theatre, Gloria with Echo Theater – Stage Raw Award for Best Female Comedy Performance, Dry Land, Hot Cat and most recently, The Untitled Baby Play. Film/TV: Parks & Rec, LA to Vegas, and Reverie). Creative Team: Yuri Okahana-Benson (Scenic Design), Brandon Baruch (Lighting), Mylette Nora (Costume Design), Joseph “Sloe” Slawinski (Sound Design), Nick Santiago (Projection Design), Benjamin Rawls (Technical Director), Victoria Hoffman (Casting), Cedes Sifuentes (Production Manager). Skylight Theatre Company is recognized as a “powerhouse of new play development” by Dramatist Magazine and as “a leader in play development” by the L.A. Times. In just the last five years, three plays originating at Skylight have been performed Off Broadway and on Broadway, The Wrong Man, and Church & State (which had 65+ productions in 33 states), and Lavender Men (which received a staged reading at Circle in the Square). In 2015, Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea (a co-production with Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble) received the prestigious Steinberg/ATC New Play Citation. In 2019, Center Theatre Group remounted their multiple award-winning production of Rotterdam at the Kirk Douglas Theatre as part of Block Party. The production won the 2017 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Production, and awards for Writing and Lead Actress. It also received top honors at the 2018 Stage Raw Awards, winning Production of the Year and Leading Actress awards. More at www.skylighttheatre.org HUNGRY GHOST  plays 8:30pm Fridays & Saturday, 3:00pm Sunday, 7:30pm Monday through October 2, 2023. Added performance at 8:30pm on Thursday, September 28 Skylight Theatre is located at 1816 1/2 N. Vermont Ave, LA, 90027. Tickets are $20 – $38, pay it forward: up to $76, opening Aug. 26: $45+ (recommended age 14 +). Information and reservations: (213) 761-7061. Online ticketing: http://SkylightTix.org Masks are no longer required, but are encouraged, for audiences in our theater and lobby areas. Sunday matinee performances of Hungry Ghost have been designated as “Mask Required” to accommodate our immunocompromised patrons who are still at high risk, and for patrons who feel more comfortable attending with an audience that is fully masked.