MEDIA ADVISORY

Professional directors hold reins

of six new student plays

John Lion New Plays Festival at

Cal State L.A. Thursday, Feb. 19

WHAT: The 2009 John Lion New Plays Festival Anthology and Play Readings.

WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 19, 3-6 p.m. for play readings, followed by signing of play anthologies.

WHERE: Arena Theatre (Music 101), on the Cal State L.A. campus.

TICKETS: Free to the public. For more info, call (323) 343-4110.

Los Angeles, CA  -- Introducing six new plays by Cal State L.A. students, the Cal State L.A. Theatre Arts and Dance Department presents the John Lion New Plays Festival featuring play readings and free signed copies of the 2009 play anthology. The plays—to be held TOMORROW, Feb. 19, 3-6 p.m., at the Arena Theatre of the CSULA campus—will be performed by students, and professionally directed by some of L.A.’s most innovative theatre directors.

Guy Friends by Tamir Mostafa

Directed by José Cruz González, Assistant Director Hyrum Fedje, Tim Zajac

Guys Friends is a comedy that follows two introverted, culturally elitist men attempting to find a platonic male companionship in Los Angeles. Brian and Neil cross each other’s paths and realize while they share the same interests they have conflicting personalities. After Neil moves into Brian’s apartment, things start to get crazy when a girl shows up.

Home Sweet Home by Kolleen Richards

Directed by Diane Rodriguez, Assistant Director Sharon L. Williams, Dramaturg Charles Degelman

What happens when you find love before you find yourself? How do you know it’s real? What do you do when life mucks it up? How do you laugh through the tears? What do you call home?

Sisyphus in Tartarus by Brandon Massey

Directed by Jon Kellam, Assistant Director Bethany Kraemer

Sisyphus in Tartarus is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Greek myth. Sisyphus is sent to the Underworld after a lifetime of dirty deeds. Running out of time and with nothing left to lose, he must either accept his fate – or do whatever he can to change it.

Lake Life by Cory Rickard

Directed by José Cruz González, Assistant Director Lemuel Harrison Thornton III

Lake Life follows three women who set out to spread the ashes of their friend. They sit and drink at a crossroads in a barren town in Kern County, hoping to hitch a ride to the site where they will lay their friend to rest. As they wait, they try to come to terms with their loss.

Sellout by Whitney Le Barge

Directed by Tony Christopher

Alex is an aspiring screenwriter in Hollywood with a difficult choice before him: to sell out or not to sell out. It seems that everyone has an opinion, even the characters in his screenplay.

Catch by Paul Diem

Directed by Jesus Reyes, Assistant Director Marla Ulloa

In Catch, a son desperately wants the understanding and acceptance of his father who cannot possibly give it. Catch relies heavily on symbols and silence to examine the unspoken and unfulfilled bond between father and son.

PROFESSIONAL GUEST DIRECTORS:

Diane Rodriguez is an OBIE winning theatre artist who directs, writes and performs. Recently, at the Fountain Theater in Los Angeles, she directed And Her Hair Went With Her by Zina Camblin with Tonya Pinkins and Trace Thoms. For Mattel/Theme Star Productions, she wrote the book and was supervising director for the international tour of the musical, Barbie Live/The Adventures of a Princess. Regionally, she has directed at South Coast Repertory, Victory Gardens-Chicago, Phoenix Theatre, Actors’ Theatre of Phoenix, Borderlands Theatre-Arizona, Hartford Stage-Connecticut, San Jose Repertory, Mixed Blood-Minneapolis, City Theatre-Pittsburgh, PA, and in Los Angeles, for Cornerstone Theater Company, The Group at Strasberg, Playwrights Arena and the Mark Taper Forum. She won an OBIE for Performance in 2007 for playing 23 characters in Heather Woodbury’s Tale of Two Cities. 

Jon Kellam was a member of New Crime Productions in Chicago from 1988 to 1992. He has been an ensemble member of the Actors’ Gang since 2002 and is a founding member of Zoo District, two critically acclaimed theatre companies in Los Angeles. He has also worked or performed for such theatres nationally as Steppenwolf, the Organic Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, PS 122, the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Open Fist, American Blues Theatre, Circle in the Square and Lincoln Center. His directing credits include Tartuffe by Moliere, adapted by David Ball, The Ass by Parviz Sayyad for the Edge-of-the-World Theatre Festival, The Exonerated national tour. He directed Drums In The Night by Bertolt Brecht, also at the Actors’ Gang. Most recently he co-directed a multi cast production of Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight LA. He currently teaches theatre and Commedia dell Arte at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (Arts High) and has been on the faculty for the past six years.

Jesus A. Reyes is the founder and artistic director of East LA Rep and currently the New Play Production Associate at Center Theatre Group (CTG). He is a member of the Actors Studio West Playwrights/Directors Unit, on the national reading committee for Native Voices at the Autry, and the recipient of the 2007 TCG New Generations Program–Future Leaders grant, mentored by Diane Rodriguez, associate producer/director of New Play Production at CTG. In April Mr. Reyes will produce Encuentro 2009, a convergence of Latino theatre artists of Los Angeles.

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