KEEP YOURSELF SAFE, OR U-HAUL PLAY To Kick Off New LA Season

Los Angeles-based This Is A Front has announced the world premiere of KEEP YOURSELF SAFE, OR U-HAUL PLAY by Jay Stalder, directed by Producing Artistic Director Brian Eckert. The production will run April 30 through May 3 at MiViDa as part of the company’s first fully-programmed season, Break-Up Season.

Set entirely around a U-Haul truck, this dark comedy features two queer relationships pushed to their absolute limits – one breaking up and moving out, the other moving in together for the first time. Through shocking revelations, internet trolling, and some questionable china, the play asks just how far we’ll go to not be alone.

The production will be immersively staged in a converted warehouse anchored by a real U-Haul truck with seating composed of couches, chairs, and moving boxes to invite audiences into a world in transition, both literal and emotional, as reflected in the play.

BREAK-UP SEASON

KEEP YOURSELF SAFE, OR U-HAUL PLAY is the first of two world-premieres in Break-Up Season, a series of productions and events staging private relationships in public settings examining why we can’t let go. The second production, PLAYBACK by Jessica Marie Fisher, is set in a live podcast studio and will be staged later this summer at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

“This season is about attachment, about the structures and narratives we build around relationships and why we struggle to leave, even when they’re no longer serving us,” says Eckert. “In U-HAUL PLAY, we see partners at the ends of their ropes. This provides endless opportunities for humor, but also a real interrogation of when we should let go. When your partner does something bad, should you extend grace and forgive, or draw clear boundaries and get out? How do you know when it’s time for each?”

CAST & CREATIVE TEAM

The cast includes Maya Knell, Jill Young, Santi MacLean, and Mikel Farber. Knell and Young also serve as co-producers, alongside Eckert and Stalder, following a sold-out reading of the play at the Zephyr Theater in October 2025.

This Is A Front is a company that aims to stage connection through theatre and social moments. They envision a vibrant creative community that reshapes how we understand our role in each other’s lives. Their most recent production, Mikvah Girls by Emmy Weissman, received two extensions and numerous awards including the Hollywood Fringe Award for Best Drama and was a finalist for the International Fringe Encore Series hosted by SoHo Playhouse in New York. 

TICKET INFORMATION