New Works Festival: The LA Chapters Kicks Off This Week

The Morgan-Wixson Theatre will present its 2025 NEW WORKS FESTIVAL: THE LA CHAPTERS to Santa Monica for two weeks only, presenting nine original short-plays all about the diverse stories that make up the Los Angeles community. A must-see tribute to our home, these nine plays are written, directed, and performed by Los Angeles residents, bringing their own unique perspectives to an evening of empathy, sorrow, laughter, and conversation.

NEW WORKS FESTIVAL: THE LA CHAPTERS is in two acts, each play presented as a staged-reading. The plays range from 5 minutes to 30 minutes, with a total approximate runtime of 2 hours and 30 minutes including intermission. The nine plays feature a troupe of 15 actors, playing various roles throughout the pieces.

ABOUT THE PLAYS:

All the Things She Never Said (written by Sophie Goldstein and directed by Cybelle Kaehler): Sisters, Lupita and Mari, are cleaning out the house of their recently deceased mother, Monse. As they go through the boxes, they discover that she was part of the Madrigal 10, a group of Latina women who sued the LA County medical Center in 1978 for committing forced sterilization.

Bricks Laid Bare in University Park (written by Cris Eli Blak and directed by Elijah Green): When their daughter expresses her desire to be an actor, a struggling couple living in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles must decide whether to support her newfound dream, or convince her to play it safe.

Busted Open (written by Damian Alejandro Arteaga and directed by Madai Antunes): Gabriella has returned to her family’s piñata store after another year at college. However, after changing her major to Chicano Studies, her father judges her suddenness to embrace her Mexican identity.

Dreaming of Richard Ramirez (written by Sophie Goldstein and directed by Rubén Gabriel Hernández): Marcos and Hector are brothers living in Boyle Heights. It’s the 80s and Richard Ramirez, known as the Valley Intruder, is being hunted by the police. Hector, who is grieving for his wife and who has never dealt with the abuse he received from his father, starts to believe that he and the Valley Intruder are similar.

Hope (written by Dana Schwartz and directed by Collette Rutherford): Two unhoused people meet in a gentrified LA neighborhood and decide to share body heat and actual connection for a moment.

LA Birthday (written by Rody Villegas and directed by Calliope Weisman): Javi, Angélica, and Ty are on a mission to make sure their friend Maggie has the best LA themed birthday possible. They focus on gathering the most important party supplies, a piñata and an ice-cream cake. A story about how when things go wrong, things can still be alright.

Mr. Fireman, Can You Help Me Get Home? (written by Deanne Stillman and directed by Elle Cantwell): Following the death of her mother, a woman dreams that she is a leaf disconnected from her tree. Blown this way and that, she finally finds herself in a fire station. A fireman guides her home, though it’s not the expected place.

When Jo Met Mel (written by Sam Ciavarella and directed by Bonnie McHeffey): It’s 1999 and Jo just moved to LA. A chance encounter at a bar leaves her entering a whirlwind of romance with Mel, an LA native. The two move rapidly through vital stages of a relationship, doing more in one year than most couples do in 10. Lesiban relationships often move too fast, but do Jo and Mel put even the stereotypes to shame?

When LA Burns (written by Rena Patel and directed by Syona Varty): As the Santa Ana winds sweep through Los Angeles, Sapna, a disheartened writer, and Sam, a rising actor, grapple with identity, ambition, and the cost of resilience, revealing the fragile line between chasing dreams and succumbing to reality in a city ablaze with contradictions.