A big weekend of play readings gives an advance look at plays scheduled for full production at Los Angeles Theatre Center during the Spring and Fall seasons of 2010. Taking place at Los Angeles Theatre Center during the weekend of January 29 through 31, it’s The 1st Annual LATC Playwrights Festival. Admission to all events is free and will take place at The LATC, 514 S. Spring St. in downtown Los Angeles, CA 90013. No reservations are necessary. www.thelatc.org
The writers presented constitute a mix of established and emerging playwrights. In addition to the readings, there will also be Roundtable Discussions with playwrights, directors, critics and open dialogue with the audience. Plays will be produced by The LATC or by one of its resident companies (as noted below) in association with The LATC in 2010. The schedule follows:
Friday, January 29. 6:30 p.m.: Opening Reception.
7:30 p.m.: “Dementia.” Written by Evelina Fernandez. Directed by Jose Luis Valenzuela. From Latino Theater Company. His name is Moises, but his friends call him Moe. He’s having a going away party because he’s dying of AIDS. He’s a theater artist working on a one man, uh…. one woman show. He invites his closest friends over for his “going away for good” party, but his plans go awry when his best friend, who has given himself to the Lord, and his ex, who he hasn’t seen in 15 years, show up. All the while his alter-ego, a torch singing drag queen, wants to take him for “the ride of his life.”
Saturday, January 30. 10 a.m. “Calligraphy.” Written by Velina Hasu Houston. Directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera. From Playwrights Arena. About the lives of two cousins—one in Los Angeles and one in Tokyo —who are confronted with their mothers’ aging and the fragile relationships between a family separated not only by the vast Pacific Ocean, but also by jealousy, discrimination and betrayal.
12 Noon: Roundtable Discussion #1, followed by lunch break.
2 p.m.: “Mexican Trilogy.” Written by Evelina Fernandez. Directed by Jose Luis Valenzuela. From Latino Theater Company. “Mexican Trilogy” follows the diaspora of Mexicans in the U.S. by following a family during the time of three transformational figures: FDR, JFK and Pope John Paul II. Nobody knows how old their great-great-grandmother is, but her life has spanned three centuries and she has seen it all.
4 p.m.: Roundtable Discussion #2, followed by dinner break.
6 p.m. : “Sick.” Written by Erik Patterson. Directed by Diane Rodriguez. From Playwrights Arena. Pamela keeps digging herself deeper into the frightening-yet oddly soothing- world of hypochondria. But when one of her loved ones is faced with a real illness, she’s going to find that being sick isn’t always so easy.
Sunday, January 31. 1 p.m. Roundtable Discussion #3.
2 p.m. “1951-2006.” Written and directed by Donald Freed. Cast: Debra DeLiso, Leo Marks, Christopher Fairbanks. From Los Angeles Theatre Center. A 50-year love story centered on the 4th floor of a brownstone on the east side of Manhattan . A time capsule of America from Joseph McCarthy through George W. Bush, from a very unexpected and original angle of refraction.
4:30 p.m. “The Reckoning.” Written by Kimba Henderson. Directed by Ben Guillory. From Robey Theatre Company. One plantation, two families, so many secrets. Rubaiyat, a Louisiana crawfish farm owned by the Robillards, an affluent African-American family, was once a sugar plantation worked by slaves, and is consequently filled with all manner of secrets and treacheries. As LJ, the family’s fiery but aging patriarch prepares to hand over control of his estate to his devoted yet defiant daughter, Nathalie, secrets long buried gradually come to light, and the resurgence of an age-old betrayal will bring the Robillards face to face with the family whose long-held claims to Rubaiyat and bitter desperation have made them a dangerous force with which to be reckoned.
The Festival is being coordinated by the LATC’s Literary Manager, Chantal Rodriguez Ph.D., for the Emerging Playwrights Initiative. The E.P.I. is designed to nurture and support new works in development while also creating opportunities for collaboration and community between emerging and established playwrights. For more information about the E.P.I., contact Dr. Chantal Rodriguez at Chantal@thelatc.org or call (213) 489-0994 ext. 108.
Feature image from the 2009 Latino Theatre Company performance of Solitude by Ed Krieger
