Company in the News July-2025

See what PlayGround-LA Writers, Alumni, and Company Members are up to this July!

Jennie Webb’s “Women, Birds, Stars” received a reading as part of the Playwrights Union First Peek reading series on Friday, June 13th. Directed by Marya Mazor, the reading featured Jayne Taini, Camillia Monet, Shirley Jordan, Angela Bullock & Melody Butiu. “Women, Birds, Stars” tells 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.

Back on June 26, Jonathan Josephson took part in Rogue Artist Ensemlble’s “Puppets and prose” event at the Valley Relic Museum. He shared pages of his new fiction piece “The Monster is confused.” In August, he will present the next installment of his play-in-progress “Life is Pain, a comedy!” as part of Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA’s Sunday Best. He’s currently working on a project that might be a series of flash fiction pieces or a chapter book or a TYA play or a little bit of all of those things. We’ll see! jonathanjosephson.com

Collette Rutherford will be performing in Jen Silverman’s “Witch” at The Garage Theatre in Long Beach. July 11 – August 9, 2025.

Writer/performer Jon Joseph Gentry’s award-winning solo show “Black Bastard” makes its Atlanta premiere July 17th and 19th at the 2025 Lavender Fest hosted by OutFront Theatre. “Black Bastard” isn’t just a one-person show—it’s an every-person show where humor meets heart and style meets substance. Don’t miss this fervently personal yet universally resonant theatrical memoir that proves coming home to yourself is the greatest adventure of all.

Allie Costa recently sang at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood, singing selections from the new musical The Whirlwind by Michael Gordon Shapiro. Her play Remembrance, which began at PlayGround-LA, wrapped its successful world premiere production with Nomad Theatre Company, followed by a special one-night-only encore performance at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. Her piece Amelia, Still was performed in both London and Los Angeles, Other People was performed in Cambridge, and Cat Burglar was performed in Houston. For more information, visit http://www.alliecosta.com and http://www.imdb.me/alliecosta

Evan Baughfman’s short play, A BERRY NICE MEMORY, kicked off the Broken Arts Entertainment audio play series, “Good Vibes Summer: Season 2”! A BERRY NICE MEMORY is inspired by The Beatles and contains elements from their songs, “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “When I’m Sixty-Four,” “Eleanor Rigby,” and “Here Comes the Sun.” What is A BERRY NICE MEMORY about? “A man takes his niece on a trip to a strawberry field, in order for him to re-live a happy childhood memory.” Listen to the play at: https://youtu.be/IKxSjxc7up0

MJ Kang’s play, James & Eddie will be performed at the Toronto Fringe Festival. It features, Katherine Ko, who performed in an iteration of MJ Kang’s Watermelon Love, which was a Best of Playground season. If you have family and friends in Toronto, please tell them to see James & Eddie. It has already received numerous awards. Click here for more information

Andrew Joseph Perez was just seen at the Love & Devotion book convention in Burbank, and on screen in Glendale and at the Chinese Theatre in the feature film Astral Plan Drifter and the short Unfaithful.

Ivan Rivas is associate producing the Los Angeles premiere of John Kolvenbach’s “Reel to Reel” at the Matrix theatre opening on July 18th. It is a co-production between Horsechart Theatre and Rogue Machine Theatre.

Mildred Inez Lewis: The Repository of Joy was part of Puppets and Prose with Rogue Artists Ensemble at the Valley Relics Museum on June 26. Aretha and the G-Man goes up on Saturday, July 13th at 8 p.m. in IAMA’s Emerge Festival. Free, but reservations needed. https://www.iamatheatre.com/get-tickets

New Playground-LA company member Kyla Tucaya Garcia stars in this powerful short which amplifies the impact of the MMIWG2S (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Girls 2-Spirit) crisis on one Native family in Montana. Written and directed by Mikaela Bruce and starring JaShaun St. John, the film is now available on YouTube. Please share far and wide! https://youtu.be/EBLnqYwTIX4?si=zkx1AJM8fhHsU27l Learn more about how you can help: www.niwrc.org

Carolyn Deskin recently wrapped on a feature. She’s now looking for work! You can also catch her onstage with her sketch team, Paperback, at the Pack Theater.