Company in the News Oct-2021

See what PlayGround-LA Writers, Alumni, and Company Members are up to as we begin the 2021-22 season!

Jully Lee is directing a live Zoom play reading of STAINS by Sarah Cho with Moving Arts’ MadLab Theatre Festival, playing on October 9th, as well as an excerpt from LONG by Charlie Oh, playing on Oct. 9th with IAMA Theatre’s Pass The Mic Festival. She will also be performing in a reading of CHINESE MASSACRE (ANNOTATED) by Tom Jacobson, which will be available Oct. 22nd-24th, presented by Artists At Play and the Chinese American Museum, commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Chinese Massacre in 1871. For more information about any of Jully’s upcoming work, go to https://jullylee.com/index.html

Jennie Webb‘s ADAPTATION.RESILIENCE, a play about sustaining love and navigating grief in times of extreme disruption, will be performed on Friday, October 1 at 7:30 pm (live, in person!) as part of The Road Theatre’s “Under Construction 1” at the Road’s Magnolia Theatre in North Hollywood. Directed by Susan Vanita Diol, the reading features Andrea Lwin, Amy Tolsky, Carl Johnson, Alaska Jackson & Michelle Gillette. No reservations necessary; any donations gratefully accepted. For more information, visit The Road Theatre Company: Home

Mildred Inez Lewis‘ JAB, CROSS, HOOK, which began at PlayGround has been selected for the Fade to Black Fest in Houston. Learn more about Mildred’s work at https://newplayexchange.org/users/3320/mildred-lewis

Frieda de Lackner is directing a staged reading of the winning screenplay for the Ojai Film Festival’s screenplay competition. The cast includes PlayGround members Arthur Keng, Christine Liao, Rogelio Douglas III, Roshan Matthews, and Tony Kim. Learn more at https://ojaifilmfestival.com/screenplay-competition-2021-finalists/

Sarah Congress’ ten-minute comedy DON’T BE A PEST will be performed virtually on Wednesday, September 29th at The Inkwell Theatre’s September Virtual Playwrights’ Night. Her TV pilot “Old Toaster City”, also advanced to the second round of the Comedy Pilot Category in the Austin Film Festival 2021. She’s also teaching the course “Everybody Can Write One Ten Minute Play” with The Knowledge Project to teens and to adults this October (online). Find out more and enroll for the course at https://www.theknowledgeproject.org/product-page/adults-fall-into-playwriting-with-sarah-a-congress

Jonathan Josephson’s THE LEGEND(S) OF SLEEPY HOLLOW has performances coming up at the California University of Pennsylvania (California, PA) and the American International School of Chennai (Tamil Nadu, India), and his short comedy CHUBBY BUNNY will receive its 16th production in Lexington, Kentucky and was produced in Nordfjordeid, Norway this past May. The opening speech of THIS HUNGRY CHURCHYARD is included in Smith and Kraus’ Best Monologues for Women in 2020, and DOSTOEVSKY will be included in Smith and Kraus’ Best Short plays of 2021. You can access all of Jonathan’s work here: https://www.jonathanjosephson.net/

Stephanie T. Keefer appears in episode 5 of American Crime Story: Impeachment on FX this coming month. Connect with her on Instagram @stephanietkeefer

Allie Costa booked the new animated series Nim the Last Red Witch! Her play CUT AND RUN recently had its Midwest premiere at Eden Prairie Players, and two of her pieces, THIS USED TO BE MY PLAYGROUND and SUZY’S SUMMER, were produced by 1st Street Players. For more information on any of Allie’s projects, visit http://www.alliecosta.com and http://www.imdb.me/alliecosta

Rachel Borders wrapped production on her second short film Those We Carry, starring Nancy Travis and Adrienne Visnic. She wrote and directed the piece, which was shot in the Big Bear area.

Tahirih Moeller is currently attending Long Beach City College to acquire a certificate in Interactive Design and Animation. Her artwork has been featured in 562 Medium Magazine and her piece “Inner Critic” was featured in the L.E.A.H. Long Beach Virtual Art Show. She’s also in the midst of crafting an comedic spoken word piece with Greenway Court Theatre as a member of the 2022 LA Get Down Festival’s Inaugural Playwrights Group.

Nicholas C. Pappas‘ screenplay, BABY GIRL, was a quarterfinalist for the Academy Nicholl Fellowship.

Evan Baughfman’s new horror story, WE SEE YOU, will be published in the suspenseful anthology, “Released,” by No Bad Books Press on October 13th. The premise for WE SEE YOU: “Julia drives through a nice neighborhood, admiring Halloween decorations and displays, when a particularly creepy animatronic catches her eye. Only, it turns out the terrifying thing is actually alive, and it wants Julia to be its friend…”