PlayGround-LA Company in the News October-2020

See what PlayGround-LA Writers, Alumni, and Company Members are up to as we get ready for the October 12th Monday Night PlayGround on Zoom!

Allie Costa‘s timely film FUTURE SHOCK is screening October 10th-18th at the BoxFest Detroit Film Festival. Allie wrote, directed, and performed in the film. Also look for Allie in YOU ME & HER (now on Amazon), GIDEON AND THE BLUNDERSNORP (streaming October 11th), and CHOREOGRAPHY CONFINED (currently on the film festival circuit). The world premiere of Alice in Quarantine will take place October 15th-17th. Written by Tiffany Antone, Jennie Webb, Allie Costa, Jen Huszcza, and Micki Shelton, based on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. This innovative script offers multiple scene options written by eleven different playwrights. Learn more. Learn more about these and other projects: http://www.alliecosta.comhttp://www.imdb.me/alliecosta

Jennie Webb has had a terrific time workshopping her play BLOOD REPLACEMENT through Rogue Machine Theatre with director Victoria Hoffman and an amazing cast (Anna Khaja, Taylor Shurte and Sohm Kapila). She’s also working with the Road Theatre as a member of Under Construction; her short play REACH (directed by Susan Diol, with Brian M. Cole, Judith Moreland and Carlyle King) will be part of a Zoom Festival on October 24; she is also developing a full length as part of Under Construction called adaptation.resilience which will be presented in December. And she’s pleased to have a piece produced as part of PlagueWrites “Alice in Quarantine” along with Playground-LA alum Allie Costa.  

Arthur Keng played Marc Antony in Evergreen Theatre Collective’s online production of JULIUS CAESAR, which can be seen on Youtube here.  

Jerome Joseph Gentes is producing PLAYING AT THE INTERSECTION OF PRIDE & JOY, a short play Zoomformance on Thursday October 15 at 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern. Donate at least $5 here to get the Zoomlink for the performance. All proceeds will go to 6 nonprofits in need around the country, including Casa San Jose (Pittsburgh, PA), Haiti Cultural Exchange, Casa Ruby (Washington, DC), Alliance San Diego, Howard Brown Health Center (Chicago, IL), and Southern Poverty Law Center.

Ivan Rivas  will be directing a Zoom reading of Linda Amayo-Hassan’s CHEER for Theatre Cultura on October 17th.

Jully Lee is directing the staged reading of (UN)RIVALED by Rosie Narasaki with The Road Theatre as part of their Road Readings, presented on October 5 at 6pm, and directed the digital short play A FORK IN THE MIDDLE by Annette Lee for Together LA: A Virtual Stage Festival with LA Stage Alliance and Playwrights’ Arena, premiering October 9 at 7pm. She also just filmed an episode for S.W.A.T. (Season 4 Episode 3), and will be performing in two upcoming staged readings: THE SNAKE GOD OF FIJI by Katherine Vondy for The Blank Theatre’s Living Room Series on October 19, and RESET by Howard Ho for Moving Arts’ MadLab on October 25. 

Uma Incrocci co-wrote the tv movie CHRISTMAS CAROUSEL that will be airing on Dec 19 on Hallmark Channel.

Christina Wren recently released her “lockdown short” film LAZARETTO, following a group of women breaking out of a corrupt government system. It was filmed following social distancing guidelines and premiered on the social media platform Vero (https://bit.ly/36fQK4x).

Aside from biting her fingernails as election day approaches, Sylvia Blush has been busily working with former PlayGround-LA writer Forrest Hartl on the virtual improv production GIPS HOMECOMING: THE SHOW MUST GO ONLINE. The show is FREE and easily accessible via Zoom. For show links, click here.  

Evan Baughfman‘s collection of horror stories, THE EMACIATED MAN AND OTHER TERRIFYING TALES FROM POE MIDDLE SCHOOL, is now available for purchase from Thurston Howl Publications. In other news, Evan’s horror script, OPEN MIC NIGHT, is in the running for Best Short Screenplay at Nightmares Film Festival’s annual screenwriting competition.

Desireé York is directing a virtual reading for The Blank Theatre’s Living Room Series.  The play THE SNAKE GOD OF FIJI: A HEDDA GABLER PREQUEL by Katherine Vondy, is scheduled for broadcast on October 19 at 7PM.  Desireé ‘s slam poetry piece entitled “Tomorrow…” was selected and performed as part of the We the People events produced by Sacred Fools Theater Company in September. 

Rhea MacCallum won Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga’s PROPPED playwriting competition with her short play, STRIPPER GLITTER, which can be heard in the theatre’s latest episode of LIGHTS UP!

Jackie Marriott  has a national commercial currently running for Bristol Myer Squibb/Opdivo. 

Jessica June Rowe‘s short play FEMINISM FOR DUMMIES will be performed in Neo Ensemble Theatre’s Show of Shows, streaming via Zoom on Friday, Oct 2 & Saturday, Oct 3 at 7:30PM PST. Jessica is also Fiction Editor at Exposition Review, which is now accepting submissions in all genres (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, stage & screen, experimental, and visual art) for our sixth issue, “Hunger.” Learn more here.

Carolyn Deskin has just completed her second directorial project, is somehow continuing to act through the pandemic, and will be applying for film schools in the coming months.

Briggs Hatton is working on the production team of Season 3 of THE MISERY INDEX, a hilarious game show with new episodes coming to TBS this October. He’s also reading scripts as a Semifinalist Judge for the 27th annual Austin Film Festival.

Starina Johnson recently played a frazzled mom fighting squirrels and spooling in Towne Street Theatre’s CORONA AND OTHER MALADIES. Her play, ROAD TRIP, was performed by Skypilot Theatre and can be viewed here.   Her short film, THE NEW NORMAL, has been selected for BENT LGBTQ Film Festival and Flip the Script Fest, and can be viewed here.  Her play, BORDER TOWNS, won the first round of The Hive’s The Ten Show Competition and can be viewed here.

Jonathan Josephson‘s short play PHONE FRIEND will be included in Short+Sweet Dublin 2021.  His short play, THE TALE OF DAKOTA DAWSON (originally written for Playground-LA) was shortlisted for the same festival. Jonathan’s evening-length ole-timey baseball play BIG ED,THE KING OF SWATSVILLE was recently named a Semi-Finalist for the Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition. More about Jonathan’s doings here. 

Mildred Inez Lewis‘  HOW’S THE STORE? was produced in the Company of Angels’ What’s Going On? festival. Her play SUITCASES was read by Plays for Us at the NYC Actors Center in August. It will be produced by Ensemble Studio Theatre-Los Angeles as part of their Early Bird Special festival and podcasted by the Open Door Theatre.  Her play SUBMERGED will be published by Extinction Rebellion and OUR DAYS AFTER will be submitted to the Breath Project. MIldred is  continuing her exploration of comedy with the Company of Angels’ Angel City Improv troupe.

Scott Mullen has been writing way too many short plays specifically taking place on Zoom, which is this weird new medium now but will hopefully cease being a thing sometime next year.  Also, he had a play performed at the South Pole, which he didn’t even know was on his bucket list until it happened.

Tiana Randall-Quant has just finished co-writing an episodic digital series with the Wallis Studio Ensemble, called FAIRYLAND FOIBLES. It is available both through the Wallis Studio Ensemble Facebook page and through their YouTube. 

Tahmus Rounds drove from Los Angeles to Lincoln City Oregon to be in nature away from home and crowds, dug clams and made chowder that was unbelievably delicious. He misses his community of excellent humans known as PlaygroundLA. 

Charles Velasquez-Witosky just recently released a trilogy of feature films that he produced with a group of frequent collaborators over the past few years online. All three films, THE GENERAL SPECIFIC, SHANTY TOWN, and DUKELAND can be found for free here. He acted in two out of them and produced all three.

Jennie Webb is grateful to have had opportunities to develop a few plays in August with amazing artists: THE BIG RED NAUGAHYDE BOOTH (OR, WOULD-BE ELKS) directed by Laura Stribling, SEPARATE LOADS directed by Patty Cornell (part of EST/LA’s LTD Program) and plays with Rogue Machine Theatre and as part of The Road Theatre Company’s Under Construction.  She’s excited that the organization she runs, LA Female Playwrights Initiative , has been able to support women+ writers and directors and create community since March through virtual Micro-Read Hook-Ups – the next event is September 13… and there may be room for a few more female-identifying playwrights to submit 1-pg Micro-Reads! More Info here.  

Christina Wren‘s comedy series, HICKSTERS, recently won Best Series in MOM Film Fest for episodes 4 and 5 which highlight issues – and hilarity – around pregnancy and motherhood . Her newest short film, LAZARETTO, filmed during quarantine following social distancing guidelines, premiered as part of Women of Color Filmmakers’ quarantine film challenge and will be released on the social media platform, Vero, on September 17! LAZARETTO follows a group of badass women who band together to breach the system when a corrupt government forcibly imprisons 35% of the population due to a quickly spreading outbreak. And she’s been recording voice overs. Lots and lots of voiceovers

Jonathan Josephson will be leading a playwriting workshop for Short+Sweet Dublin on October 13 (starting at 9a PST for you West Coast early-risers). His short play DOSTOEVSKY will be produced at the 2020 Stage It! 10-Minute Play Festival in Bonita Springs, FL from October 9-11, and his super-villain sheltering-in-place play DR. SOULSLAYER, MISTRESS MINDTHEIF, AND THE CAPTOR RAPTOR HAVE A ZOOM will be digitally produced at the University of Arkansas sometime later in the fall.

Michael P. Adams‘s play THE FORMER VIRGIN MARY will be featured in the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights Fall Reading Festival (and will be directed by Jully Lee) on October 11. His play MEETINGS has been named a winner of the Camarillo Skyway Playhouse’s Voices Not Heard competition, and is scheduled for performance on October 24.

Rondrell McCormick is directing POLAR BEARS, BLACK BOYS & PRAIRIE-FRINGED ORCHIDS in Orlando Shakespeare Festival’s PlayFest. He is directing a virtual reading of  VOL 1. A POST RACIAL AMERICA at Boston Court.