LAFPI

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.