Jon Lawrence Rivera News

Greenway Arts Alliance (Whitney Weston and Pierson Blaetz, Co-Founders and Co-Artistic Directors) and Urban Theatre Movement (Paul Tully, Artistic Director and Gisla Stringer, Company Manager) present the world premiere of YERMA IN THE DESERT by Oliver Mayer (Off-Broadway's Blade to the Heat at The Public Theater) and co-directed by Marlene Forte and Edgar Landa. Urban Theatre Movement is the first Los Angeles theatre company recipient of Greenway Arts Alliance's Greenway Residency Program, created in celebration of GAA's 20th Anniversary Celebration. YERMA IN THE DESERT will open to the press at Greenway Court Theatre (544 N. Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles) on Friday, November 17 and play through December 16, 2017.

Playwrights' Arena, the only theater created and dedicated to discovering, nurturing, and producing original works written exclusively by Los Angeles playwrights, is presenting the World Premiere of BILLY BOY by Nick Salamone as part of its 25th Anniversary Season.

THE ROAD THEATRE COMPANY, Taylor Gilbert (Founding Artistic Director) and Sam Anderson (Artistic Director), remain committed to their meaningful mission to produce and develop New Work for the Stage. They are thrilled to announce in this, their 26th season, the Eighth annual SUMMER PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL (SPF8).

The Playwrights' Arena production of "The Hotel Play," written by seven female Los Angeles playwrights and directed and conceived by Playwrights' Arena Artistic Director Jon Lawrence Rivera will open this Saturday, April 1 at 8 p.m. "The Hotel Play" will be presented in six different rooms and poolside at the Radisson Hotel Midtown at USC and will run through April 16, 2017. (Specific dates and times are below.) The world premiere marks the 25th anniversary of Playwrights' Arena.

Casting is announced for the Playwrights' Arena production of 'The Hotel Play,' written by seven female Los Angeles playwrights and directed and conceived by Playwrights' Arena Artistic Director Jon Lawrence Rivera.

Playwrights' Arena, the only theater created and dedicated to producing new works for the stage written exclusively by Los Angeles playwrights, will be marking its 25th Anniversary at their annual gala HOT NIGHT IN THE CITY on Tuesday, April 11, 2017, at Barnsdall Gallery Theater in Hollywood.

Playwrights' Arena will celebrate 25 years with the world premiere of "The Hotel Play," written by seven female Los Angeles playwrights and directed and conceived by Playwrights' Arena Artistic Director Jon Lawrence Rivera. "The Hotel Play" will be presented in six different rooms and poolside at the Radisson Hotel Midtown at USC and will run April 1 through 16, 2017. (Specific dates and times are below.)

Skylight Theatre Company, recognized for their unwavering commitment to developing new works, has confirmed a 2017 lineup of four plays, new to Los Angeles. Works include plays from Luis Alfaro, Inda Craig-Galvan, Louisa Hill, and Queerwise.

The only Equity theatre company dedicated exclusively to developing and producing new work by Native American artists, Native Voices presents the world premiere of Fairly Traceable by Mary Kathryn Nagle (Cherokee). This production is presented as part of Native Voices' 2016-17 season, themed "Take Back the Land."  

Center Theatre Group received submissions from 76 local theatre companies from North Hollywood to San Pedro, Topanga to Sierra Madre for the inaugural Block Party: Celebrating Los Angeles Theatre at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Block Party will highlight some of the remarkable work being done on stages throughout Los Angeles by fully producing three previously staged productions.

For those adverse to sitting through cult orientation lectures, the world premiere of playwright Jesse Mu-En Shao's THE END TIMES might be ninety minutes to avoid. Shao vividly recreates the militaristic recitation of a cult's teachings which all members continuously repeat, either to re-enforce the lessons to each other or to convince themselves they're doing the right way.

Skylight Theatre Company is proud to announce that they will be co-producing the World Premiere of Jesse Mu-En Shao's THE END TIMES, in collaboration with Jon Lawrence Rivera's Playwrights' Arena. This marks Jesse's first produced work. The collaboration between the two companies is a longtime in planning. Both companies pride themselves on nurturing and developing new works.

High finance, family dysfunction, death -- and laughs. The world premiere of DINNER AT HOME BETWEEN DEATHS, a pitch-black comedy by Andrea Lepcio (Looking for the Pony), directed by Stuart Ross (Forever Plaid) and presented by Indie Chi Productions, opens as a guest production at the Odyssey Theatre tonight, April 2.

Skylight Theatre Company is proud to announce that they will be co-producing the World Premiere of Jesse Mu-En Shao's THE END TIMES, in collaboration with Jon Lawrence Rivera's Playwrights' Arena. This marks Jesse's first produced work. The collaboration between the two companies is a longtime in planning. Both companies pride themselves on nurturing and developing new works.

High finance, family dysfunction, death -- and laughs. The world premiere of DINNER AT HOME BETWEEN DEATHS, a pitch-black comedy by Andrea Lepcio (Looking for the Pony), directed by Stuart Ross (Forever Plaid) and presented by Indie Chi Productions, opens as a guest production at the Odyssey Theatre on April 2.

The East West Players' latest, the world premiere of Giovanni Ortega's CRIERS FOR HIRE, most entertainingly introduces a wonderful injection of Filipino culture in early 1990's Los Angeles via a fusion of laugh-inducing situations and tear-duct-emptying relationships. Jon Lawrence Rivera quite ably directs his talented ensemble in Ortega's depiction of a group of professional funeral criers.

Musical Theatre Guild, the winner of the Los Angeles Drama Critic's Circle Margaret Harford Award for sustained excellence in the theatre, will continue their 20thAnniversary Season with the Broadway musical A CLASS ACT. The one-night-only concert will take place at Glendale's historic Alex Theatre on Sunday, February 21, 2016 at 7:00 PM.

East West Players (EWP), the nation's longest-running professional theatre of color in the country and the largest producing organization of Asian American artistic work, continues its 50th Anniversary Season, Golden, with the world premiere production of "Criers for Hire," by playwright Giovanni Ortega and directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera.

Playwrights' Arena's world premiere of @thespeedofJake by Jennifer Maisel extends its run through Sunday, December 20, 2015.

Los Angeles, CA - 11/12/15 - A father unable to let go, a mother with nine months to move on - these characters are at the heart of a provocative new play by award-winning playwright Jennifer Maisel. A meditation on love, connection and disconnection in this increasingly distant time, @thespeedofJake uses the backdrop of our rapidly evolving technological world to contemplate the universal desire to cheat death and the human need to find hope in life.