Company in the News Nov-2021

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

Jully Lee just booked a guest star on YOUNG SHELDON that shoots this month and will be performing in several online play readings: OH, I REMEMBER THE BLACK BIRCH by Velina Hasu Houston on 11/9 (with Moment Magazine), FIREWATER by Samantha Marchant (Inkwell Theatre) on 11/12 and 11/13, and GREAT WHITE by Deborah Yarchun (The Living Room Series at The Blank Theatre) on 11/15. She will also be performing in SCRIPT TEASE with COLD TOFU IMPROV on 11/18, available on Improv Theatre’s YouTube channel. For more info, please visit jullylee.com

Allie Costa recently booked three very different roles – Stay tuned! Mum’s the word until the projects are wrapped. Meanwhile, check out her latest appearance on A Moment of Your Time https://www.curtco.com/amoyt-312-allie-costa and the immersive audio production Wayward, which she wrote and directed. https://youtu.be/HyeNuz0cmvA For more information on any of Allie’s projects, visit http://www.alliecosta.com and Allie Costa

Stephanie T. Keefer was just interviewed by the online magazine Fan Pop about her work in the TV show IMPEACHMENT: American Crime Story, which you can read at https://www.fanpop.com/clubs/television/articles/278022/title/interview-actress-stephanie-keefer-from-american-crime

Tahirih Moeller’s photography work will be featured in the second issue of the Long Beach based magazine 562medium. Learn more at 562 Medium (@562medium) • Instagram photos and videos

Anthony Rutowicz booked a part on a Blumhouse feature and got a theatrical agent on the same day.

Peter Pasco will be acting in a zoom reading of the play FIREWATER  by Samantha Marchant through Inkwell Theatre. He is also slowly transitioning to an all cereal diet to honor his college years. Peter thanks you in advance for your support. 

Evan Baughfman, a member of the Horror Writers Association, has a brand-new non-fiction piece published on the HWA website. The article, titled “Pennywise Smiles from My Classroom Wall,” is about Baughfman’s experiences using Horror to teach middle school students. It’s available to read for free at Halloween Haunts: PENNYWISE SMILES FROM MY CLASSROOM WALL by Evan Baughfman

Ron Burch’s new novel, JDP, is NOW IN PRINT! If you’d like to ORDER a copy — c’mon, you want to read a funny novel about an ex LA tour guide trying to find James Dean’s penis, which is floating around LA somewhere — here’s the link: http://wp.blazevox.org/product/jdp-by-ron-burch/?fbclid=IwAR2hV2a1wE5guhHdBCHywyQWE_m9cgRTw0QS1cJSVwgQg73hrQqRcuTAYXw

Jonathan Josephson‘s short play DOSTOEVSKY is now published in the Smith and Kraus collection “Best Ten-Minute Plays: 2021.” The play is available for licensing through Original Works Publishing at jonathanjosephson.com. Learn more at THE ANNUALS

Mark Jacobson can be heard as nearly a dozen roles – including the iconic Frank the Pug – in Dreamscape Immersive’s newest VR experience, Men In Black: First Assignment, now playing at their flagship location in Century City. Learn more at A Virtual Reality Experience Like No Other

Joni Ravenna‘s play,  BEETHOVEN AND MISFORTUNE COOKIES is now a film script, with the working title, “The Secret Notes of Professor Thomas.’  This week, George Clooney and Grant Heslov of Smokehouse Productions discussed the screenplay. The successful play was seen by Joshua Townshend- Zellner last year when PlayGround featured it in Solo Fest. Zellner then contacted Ravenna, and the two spent nearly a year on the screenplay. “The Secret Notes of Professor Thomas” (working title) is based on the true story of a much-loved, black music professor from Detroit teaching in the Deep South for eleven years who really mattered to his students … until the university decided that he didn’t. It is based on the play which was written years ago when Kabin Thomas approached Ravenna after he’d been fired from the University of Arkansas, and asked her to write a play.  The play has been very successful, produced scores of times and honored.  But it was only when PlayGround produced it virtually last year that it was seen by the right person, Joshua Townshend-Zellner, who worked with Joni Ravenna to create  the screenplay . The zoom meeting happened this week while Grant and George were still in quarantine in Australia, waiting to shoot. Learn more at www.beethovenandmisfortunecookies.com