Damon Rutledge News

One year ago, The Robey Theatre Company presented a World Premiere play, A Heated Discussion, a drama that resonated powerfully with audiences. Now the company is bringing the production back to the stage. 

The Robey Theatre Company will present a Zoom reading of the play Providence Part 1 by Albert Cowart, Jr. on Friday, July 2, 2021, at 7:00 p.m. PDT.

Theatre companies from Los Angeles and New York unite to create the Black Wall Street Festival. 2021 marks the centennial of the Black Wall Street Massacre, a two-day event that concluded on June 1, 1921.

The Matrix Theatre Company's award-winning production of Scraps by Geraldine Inoa is now available for viewing on the company's Youtube page.

The Wrong Kind of People. World Premiere engagement of a new comedy. WHO: Written by George W. Corbin. Directed by C. Julian White. Presented by The Robey Theatre Company. Producing Artistic Director: Ben Guillory.

The opening prologue of SCRAPS, masterfully performed by Tyrin Niles as Jean-Baptiste Delacroix sitting on the front stoop of his Brooklyn brownstone, captured my attention and took me inside his close-knit neighborhood three months after the fatal shooting of black teenager by a white police officer. The ramifications of that event, told through a provocative mash up of poetry, realism and expressionism, reverberated among his friends, lover, and most importantly, his young son, the real focus of the West Coast premiere of this daring new play, written by Geraldine Inoa and directed with attention-grabbing flair by 2019 Obie Award winner Stevie Walker-Webb.

What we always hear: "Black Male Shot by White Police Officer." What we never see - how loved ones struggle to cope in the aftermath.The Matrix Theatre Company presents theWest Coast premiere of a daring new play from a significant emerging voice in theater. Scraps, written by Geraldine Inoa and directed by 2019 Obie Award winner Stevie Walker-Webb, opens at the Matrix Theatre onJuly 6, with previews beginning June 27. 

At Broadway and 52nd Street in New York City, the nightclub Birdland was the legendary center of the jazz world, where the glitterati of Broadway, Hollywood and the sports world regularly filled its 500 seats. In August 1959, the biggest star in jazz was Miles Davis, who earlier that year recorded Kind of Blue, regarded then and now as the most innovative and best jazz album of all time. The Miles Davis Sextet, as constituted that summer, was regarded as the best jazz combo ever. Honoring his love of all things jazz, Randy Ross Ph.D., an accomplished saxophonist and member of the jazz group the Blue Morning Quintet, spent several years researching Miles Davis and the amazing musicians in his Sextet. After gathering enough information to paint a clear picture of these jazz greats, Ross wrote his world premiere play BIRDLAND BLUE, directed by Ben Guillory, Artistic Director and Co-Founder of The Robey Theatre Company, the group producing the show at LA Theatre Center through May 12.

Birdland Blue, a new play with music, will have its world Premiere engagement. The show is written by Randy Ross Ph.D. Produced and directed by Ben Guillory. It is presented by The Robey Theatre Company at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, in the intimate Theatre 4, 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013.

On May 20, the Long Beach Playhouse presents August Wilson's Fences, a play that examines the effects of one man's regrets and resentment on his family. It is part of Wilson's ten-part 'Pittsburgh Cycle' which observes the African American experience across several decades.

On May 20, the Long Beach Playhouse presents August Wilson's Fences, a play that examines the effects of one man's regrets and resentment on his family. It is part of Wilson's ten-part 'Pittsburgh Cycle' which observes the African American experience across several decades.

Kentwood Players, the community theater group based at the Westchester Playhouse, was founded in December 1949 by Jan and Arky Marcom, for whom the group's annual Marcom Masque Awards are named. The first Marcom Masque Awards were presented for the 1957-1958 season with 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' winning the award for Best Play.

Kentwood Players presents "Clybourne Park" by Bruce Norris from May 13 through June 18, 2016 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm and Sundays at 2:00pm at the Westchester Playhouse, located at 8301 Hindry Avenue in Westchester, CA 90045. The production directed by George L. Rametta and produced by Lauren A. Jarvis by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service. Inc. The cast features (in alphabetical order) Pauline Bugembe, Harold Dershimer, Jeremy Patrick Hamilton, Jen Kerner, Matt Landig, Damon Rutledge, and Andrea Stradling.

Kentwood Players proudly welcomed Mamie Hansberry, the sister of "A RAISIN IN THE SUN" playwright Lorraine Hansberry, to their production of the classic family drama on Sunday, January 10, 2016. Ms. Hansberry attended the play with several family members and shared how proud her entire family is of "everyone who has ever been a part of it." She has seen hundreds of productions in the past six decades and remarked that each member of the Kentwood Players cast "brought their own unique understanding and insights into her sister's remarkable characters."

Kentwood Players proudly presents Lorraine Hansberry's classic family drama "A RAISIN IN THE SUN" from Friday, January 8 through Saturday, February 13, 2016, with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm at the Westchester Playhouse, located at 8301 Hindry Avenue in Westchester, CA 90045. The production is directed by Harold Dershimer. Here's your first look at the cast! The production directed by Harold Dershimer and produced by Kathy Dershimer by special arrangement with Samuel French. Featured in the cast in alphabetical order are Rashod Davenport, Ruth Featherstone, Lawrence Hatcher, Daniel Kruger, Jean Michels, Patricia Newman, Shannon O'Connor, Damon Rutledge, Isaiah Suber, and Charlotte Williams.