IAMA Theatre Company Goes Virtual With 2020-21 Online Season

IAMA Theatre Company has announced a full 2020-21 virtual season of four new, solo works-in-progress and a new works playreading series, beginning Oct. 22 and running through June 10. Although presented digitally, the season will be managed the way it would if the productions were presented live on-stage, with each production available to stream on demand for a full multi-week run and reservations required for a specific date and time. Tickets will start at $15, except for the company's annual, four-day New Works Festival, which will be free. For more information on ticketing and streaming, go to www.iamatheatre.com.

Each of the four solo works-in-progress explores topics such as isolation, identity, race and connection.

According to IAMA co-artistic directors Stefanie Black and Katie Lowes, the phrase "connection in an isolating age," written by Jonathan Larson in 1993, seems strangely prophetic now, in 2020.

"We are all 'works in progress' in this moment, as we face uncertainty about our future in all aspects of life," they explain. "At IAMA, we look toward the future by elevating voices that need to be heard to promote change in our world. By supporting a season of virtual solo performance workshop productions, we are proclaiming that the road to change and transformation deserves a spotlight. Let's illuminate this path together by supporting 'essential' and diverse voices as they break down the walls of isolation and encourage connection and community."

IAMA's virtual season will open on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020 with the company's annual New Works Festival. Six new plays will be presented over the course of four days (through Oct. 25), each with a curated, post-reading Q&A. All readings will be free and open to the public.

Then, for six weeks, running Friday, Dec 11, 2020 through Sunday, Jan 17, 2021, IAMA will present Making Friends, a "gay-tastic" look at anger through the eyes of a quick-witted rageaholic, written and performed by IAMA ensemble member Tom Detrinis.

Friday, Feb 19, 2021 brings two new solo works presented in rep through Sunday, March 28. The Oxy Complex written and performed by ensemble member Anna Lamadrid and directed by Michelle Bossy, is a dark comedy exploring love, sex, loneliness, trauma and the chemical that affects it all. An as-yet untitled project written and performed by Sheila Carrasco and directed by Margaux Susi, both ensemble members, is about identity and truth - told from the viewpoint of characters who can't stop lying.

Finally, opening on Friday, April 30, 2021 and running through Sunday, June 6, 2021, The Latrell Show written and performed by Brandon Kyle Goodman and directed by IAMA co-artistic director Stefanie Black brings us the character of fabulous talk show host Latrell Jackson, who, in the midst of the final dress rehearsal for his 100th episode, is forced to confront the position Blackness, queerness, and Black-queerness plays in the media and in America.

Conclude Black and Lowes, "This is an unprecedented time during which we must take a deeper look at the meaning of the word 'essential': Equality is essential; justice is essential; empathy is essential. And yes, theater is essential. The ability to provide a place for celebration, questioning, reckoning, dismantling, this is the 'essential' service that theater and art provide to a community and to humanity. IAMA takes this responsibility very seriously and in this moment we promise to keep the 'doors' to our theater open. We are so proud to be able to continue to share our mission of developing new work with our now global community."

Designated by Playbill as "one of 20 regional houses every theater lover must know," IAMA is a Los Angeles-based ensemble of artists committed to invigorating live performance for a streaming generation. Through cutting-edge, cool and hyper-modern stories, IAMA is invested in the immediacy of production and strives to bring audiences out of their personal space and into a shared experience. The Ovation award-winning company has seen many plays generated at IAMA travel to off-Broadway, Second Stage and the Roundabout Underground, then go on to be performed regionally and internationally. Recent productions include West Coast premieres of A Kid Like Jake by Daniel Pearle and Found, a new musical based on the Found books and magazines by Davy Rothbart, featuring a book by Hunter Bell and Lee Overtree and music and original lyrics by Eli Bolin. IAMA members have been featured in numerous critically acclaimed TV shows and films as well as in a vast array of theater and live performances all over the country, including off-Broadway and Broadway. IAMA has been dedicated to developing plays and musicals by new, emerging and established playwrights since 2007.

For more information about IAMA Theatre Company's 2020-21 season, call 323-380-8843 or go to www.iamatheatre.com.

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