Company in the News April-2025

Posted by on April 1, 2025

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

Aaron Higareda’s play You Don’t Even Speak Spanish! will be produced at Cal State San Bernardino (April 25 – May 4). This Chicano farce follows a first-gen college student who unknowingly falls for an FBI agent trying to entrap him. Purchase tickets here.

Mae Ruling’s short film Carole & Clark has been accepted into the Pasadena International Film Festival, screening April 4 at Laemmle NoHo 7. The film captures an intimate moment between movie legends Carole Lombard and Clark Gable before he leaves for WWII. Tickets to the screening are available here.

Allie Costa’s play Boxes Are Magic, which originated at PlayGround-LA, will be featured at the CATastrophe Play Festival at Pan Theater in Oakland (April 4 & 6) and the Cushing Community Theatre One-Act Play Festival in Oklahoma (May 3 & 4). Several of her other plays, including How I Know Her (NY), Failure to Communicate (NC), and Mindstream (NY), have also been recently produced.

Tiana Randall-Quant will speak on the Keeping the Arts Equitable panel at the Center Theatre Group Going Pro Career Fair (April 5th, 10:30–11:40am). Register here.

Janet Song will perform in the EST/LA reading of Rooftop Koreans by J. Kwang Lee on April 6. Purchase tickets here.

Jonathan Josephson will lead a Play Cafe workshop The Art of Theatrical Adaptation (April 6) and moderate a panel at Lit Fest in the Dena on Social Justice in American Theatre (May 4). He also joins Ensemble Theatre Company Santa Barbara’s Young Playwrights Festival as a mentor.

Frieda de Lackner’s film adaptation of 172 Push-Ups by Scott Mullen will screen at the Pasadena International Film Festival (April 8, tickets here) and Poppy Jasper Film Festival (April 10). The film features PlayGround actors Krystal Mosley, Christina Wren, Jahnavi Alyssa, Jonathan Wray, and Jon Gentry.

House Theater presents two major events in April:

Abby Normal Wellbeing Forum: A Musical About Epilepsy (April 10, virtual event) blends music and storytelling to raise awareness about epilepsy. Register here.
Fundraiser for Abby Normal: Songs from the Musical & Three 10-Minute Plays by Sandra Cruze (April 25-26 at Studio A Dance, LA). Tickets here.

Damian Alejandro Arteaga is a Semi-Finalist for Full Circle Player’s Emerging Voices: A New Play Festival. A free virtual reading will be held April 12 at 2pm via Zoom.

Evan Baughfman’s sci-fi/horror play The Wolf Man: 2092 will have its Chicago premiere at Otherworld Theatre’s Paragon Science Fiction and Fantasy Play Festival, running April 17-27. The play follows astronauts uncovering monstrous secrets as they approach Mars.

Bailey Jordan Garcia’s full-length play Is This Beauty, originally commissioned by PlayGround-NY, will have a staged reading with Neurodivergent Theatre Company on April 20 at 2pm EST (also livestreamed). Directed by PlayGround-NY’s Em Hausmann. More info here.

Isabel Siragusa’s short film MotherEarth Inc. will premiere at SeriesFest (April 29-May 4) as an official selection in the Digital Short Series Competition. More info here.

Abel Marquez’s My Brother’s Keeper will receive a full production at Boston Court Pasadena following its successful workshop in October 2024. Preview: June 12, with performances June 13-15. Marquez is also writing and directing for Brown and Out 7, a Latin/Queer 10-minute play festival in April (tickets here), and his play Group Sesh will be featured at the Frida Kahlo 10-Minute Play Festival (tickets here).

Tony Kim stars in a play based on Konosakuya Hime at Write Act Rep’s Write of Spring festival, directed by Anne Mesa. Opens in May.

Adrian A. Babatunde Thomas’s new play Hot Gals will have a reading at the Venice Library on May 24, produced by the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights.

Arthur Keng guest stars in Seth Rogen’s The Studio on Apple TV+.