Experimental Theatre Company Barker Room Rep to Make West Coast Debut Next Month

Making its West Coast debut next month, Barker Room Rep, a new LA-based theater company with extensive NY roots, is committed to bringing stories that are inclusive and diverse to audiences in the Los Angeles theater community and producing new and inspiring works catering to the modern mind.

Barker Room Rep will premiere Erin Courtney's award-winning play A Map of Virtue starting November 2 through 18 at Atwater Village Theater. With a strong held belief that plays should be meaningful and relevant but also entertaining and not exclusive from other weekend pursuits, BRR is building creative density by presenting two additional productions during the shows run. Audiences can also catch Real Talk / Kip Talk discussion and performance of Sam's Tea Shack during the shows run, details below.

SCHEDULED PERFORMANCES:

A MAP OF VIRTUE explores coincidence, circumstance and the relationship between people and objects, and examines how the most significant events in our lives can alter the landscape of our reality.

Written by Erin Courtney

Directed by Mark Sitko

Starring Megan Branch, Sam West, Donald Rizzo, Ryan Ashton, Mary Jane Gibson, Ian Merrigan, and Michael Rahhal

Produced by Mark Sitko, Barker Room Rep

Show Dates:

Preview performances Thursday, November 2 and Friday, November 3 at 8 p.m.

November 4-18, Thursdays through Sundays at 8 p.m.

Matinee showings on Sunday, November 5 and Sunday, November 18 at 4 p.m.

REAL TALK / KIP TALK is a series of live talk shows about the state of contemporary performance, hosted by Kippy Winston, media mogul, internet sensation, and citizen of the world. Formatted like a talk show but with room for debate, REAL TALK / KIP TALK blurs the lines between art and life and challenges participants of all stripes and creeds to engage in real talk about our starry performance landscape. Featuring special guests from creative performance backgrounds, the conversations will focus on the intersection of playwriting and screenwriting, and the relationship between local and national theater.

Executive Produced by Eliza Bent

Directed by Sarah Hughes

Musical guest Ian Merrigan

Show Dates:

Friday, November 10, 10 p.m.

*Featuring Michael John Garces, Artistic Director, Cornerstone Theater Company, with panelists Sylvan Oswald, LaShea Delaney and Ken Greller

Saturday, November 11, 10 p.m.

*Featuring panelists Jeff Augustin, Christopher Peña and Daria Polatin and an interview with an LA-based Artistic Director, to be announced

SAM'S TEA SHACK is steeped in a reverence for the NYC subway system as the new Silk Road, an Ashkenazi Jewish boy's fantasy he is among his ancestors: central Asian nomads. In this malleable exchange between audience and Sam, he serves tea and snacks, talks about the neighborhood, Persian emperors, fatherhood, drugs, high school plays with Lin-Manuel Miranda, and whatever is on your mind. If you let him, he's determined to cut through the haze and light up the path between the dumpling and the knish once and for all. It's a piece about cultural identity vs. national identity. It's a comedy.

Text by Sam Soghor & Ben Gassman

Directed by Meghan Finn

Designed by Normandy Sherwood

Show Dates:

Thursday, November 16 and Friday, November 17, both at 10 p.m.

Saturday, November 18 matinee performance at 1 p.m.

ALL PERFORMANCES WILL BE HELD AT:

Atwater Village Theater

3269 Casitas Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90039

www.atwatervillagetheatre.org

TICKET INFO:

Previews: $15 in Advance; $20 at Door

All other shows: $20 in Advance; $25 at Door

Late night performances: $15 in Advance; $20 at Door

Available online at www.artful.ly/barker-room-rep and at the Theater Box Office

Barker Room Rep is a new experimental theatre company based in Los Angeles, established in 2016 with the production of two one-acts; Playing Uno with Gil by Jacob Burstein-Stern and Paki-Man by Mark Sitko. Named for the room on the Brooklyn College campus where MFA playwriting students gather to workshop their plays with Mac Wellman, Barker Room Rep aims to showcase the work of the most creatively ambitious playwrights writing today; providing a space for inclusive, diverse, and controversial stories, and fostering artists and art that reflect these values. With a simple philosophy, Barker Room Rep aims to produce plays that are pieces of art. Plays that speak to the modern mind. Plays that challenge the [ ]. Fill in the blank.

Mark Sitko graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2000 with a B.A. in Theater Arts. After producing Waiting for Godot in Los Angeles in 2004, Mark moved to New York and worked for companies such as Soho Rep, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, The Ohio Theater, and The Bushwick Starr. Through his theater company Van Cougar, Mark wrote and directed three plays: Rocky Philly, Gonna See a Movie Called Gunga Din, and TUBE. Van Cougar's work juxtaposed text from personal interviews with movement from Hollywood films and home movies. These productions received reviews from The New York Times, The New Yorker, Village Voice, Time Out NY, and other publications. Mark graduated from Mac Wellman's program with an MFA in Playwriting from Brooklyn College in 2011.

 

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