Company in the News July-2024

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

Frieda de Lackner’s film adaptation of Scott Mullen’s play 172 Push-Ups will have its premiere at the LA Shorts International Film Festival in July. The film stars Playground LA’s company members Krystal Mosley, Christina Wren, Jahnavi Alyssa, Jonathan Wray, and Jon Gentry. For screening time and tickets click here.

Krystal Moseley performed in the short film 172 Push-Ups, which will be premiering this September at LA Shorts! Krystal also plays a supporting role in the upcoming film The Neon Highway, which is set to hit Netflix end of July.

Mildred Inez Lewis‘s play Louisiana Shoal, which began at PlayGround, is a finalist for the Samuel French OOB Festival. Timonia @ Nashville will receive a staged reading at Lifeline Theatre (Chicago). Through Water Into Blood, a piece commissioned along with four others by ReproEco, is in talks for an Off-Broadway production. We Four has been accepted into the Play Development Lab (Washington, D.C.). Find out more about Louisiana Shoal and Timonia @ Nashville.

Allie Costa appeared in three films which are now in post-production, ranging from sci-fi to horror to modern-day drama. Her play, Boxes Are Magic, which started at PlayGround-LA, was recently performed in London, and Wolves Change Rivers had a reading in San Diego. Learn more at on her website and IMDb page.

Andrew Joseph Perez (and his alter ego Julio Cly Maxwell) will be signing and presenting at the Steamy Lit Con in Anaheim August 2nd and 3rd! Get your tickets here.

Playwrights Center of San Francisco will have a one-night Zoom reading of M.J. Kang‘s play, Blyth Visitations, on July 1st at 7:30 pm PT. It’s a comedy about identity, family, and friendships. Trigger warning – it has frank discussions about sex. Free (by donation); register here.

Tony Kim recently became a core member of This Week This Week, a weekly sketch comedy show led by Second City Alumni Ron West. Tony will be in most of the summer shows, which will be at Open Fist Theatre Company. To help keep sketch comedy accessible to all, DM Tony on IG to get Pay What You Can Tickets A hilarious program with some very talented actors covering This Week’s news. In addition, Tony is a guest star on the web series (God)Mother, written and starring Melissa Collins. (God)Mother will be available to stream on YouTube on July 2nd.

Grant Gottschall‘s 10-minute play Merciful Stalagmites just closed after a successful run at the Santa Paula Theatre Company. A staged reading of Grant’s full-length play Dog Door will be held at the Kentwood Players in Westchester on July 28. Grant’s short play In the Stacks will be read at the Westwood Branch Library as part of the ALAP Library Plays series on August 3.

Anthony Rutowicz can be witnessed in the wild feature film Hanky Panky, which is now streaming for free on Tubi.

Sandra Cruze is a storyteller in the upcoming Iron Skirt Stories Salon at RD Studio. The Salon has performances August 2-4. Sandra also recently won the 2024 Marina del Rey Film Festival Award for Best Family Drama Short for her short film about epilepsy called “Let’s Roll.”

Evan Baughfman‘s play, BOOKWORM’S DILEMMA, will soon be published by Heuer Publishing. “Two bookworms discuss the merits of consuming literary ‘Classics.'” This script was originally written for Season 11 of PlayGround, in response to the theme/prompt, “Resolution.” More info coming soon here.

Collette Rutherford is working as Associate Producer on a new musical written by Danielle Moore and inspired by the groundbreaking female animators who worked for Disney in the 1930’s – Ink & Paint. It will run at Santa Monica Playhouse July 5th and 6th and as part of the SheLA Festival at the Zephyr Theater on July 17th and 20th. Tickets available here.