Starina Johnson News

PlayGround-LA, Los Angeles's leading incubator for a new generation of playwrights, has shared plans for its eleventh season.

GRoW @ The Wallis presents The Wallis Studio Ensemble production of RECKONING – A Short Play Festival, featuring the work of ten emerging and established writers, with three World Premieres and seven L.A. Premieres of unique, witty and daring stories on contemporary life.

Following the successful opening of Season 10 earlier this month, Los Angeles playwright incubator PlayGround-LA has recently announced the prompt for the next Monday Night PlayGround short play staged reading event. Thirty-six Los Angeles writers had just four-and-a-half days to generate their original scripts inspired by the prompt 'WHODUNNIT' as they vie for one of six slots in the second round of this year's Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series, presented live at The Broadwater Second Stage and simulcast online on November 8th at 7pm PT.

On the eve of the return to in-person theatre and PlayGround's expansion to New York, Los Angeles playwright incubator PlayGround-LA has chosen the prompt of 'rebirth' as inspiration for the opening Monday Night PlayGround of Season 10.

PlayGround-LA will cap off its ninth season on Monday evening, April 12, with Best of PlayGround-LA, a one-night gala celebration of the best playwrights and short plays selected from more than 150 submissions and 36 works developed as part of the season's Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series.

Founded in 2002 as an artists' ensemble, Little Fish Theatre presents classic and contemporary plays in an intimate setting on Centre Street in the Arts District of downtown San Pedro. With the pandemic forcing the shutdown of live theatre, Little Fish Theatre’s 2021 Virtual Season offers up a tasty serving of this year’s best short plays with Pick of the Vine.

After the 1992 riots, the City of Los Angeles appealed to artists with the question Can the Arts Help Heal L.A.? In response, actresses Nancy Cheryll Davis, Nancy Renee, and artist Nathaniel Bellamy, produced a series of readings by multicultural writers centered on universal themes.

Trick or Treating has been cancelled this year...but you're invited to celebrate Halloween with Towne Street Theatre (TST) -- It's TST's Virtual Halloween Bash!! Join us on Saturday, October 31st at 7:30 pm for an online party featuring Halloween storytelling, costume contests, door prizes, raffles, and more spooktacular surprises.

Towne Street Theatre (TST), Los Angeles' premier African-American theatre company, lifts at-home audiences' spirits during the strangest of times with a presentation of Corona and Other Maladies live on Zoom.

On May 18, Kairos Italy Theater and NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò held the online event KIT Intl playwrights series 2020 dedicated to Women in Comedy.

The award-winning SkyPilot Theatre Company will premiere seven original short plays during its inaugural SkyPilot One-Act Festival this November at Oh My Ribs! Entertainment, 6468 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood. The plays (titled Series A and Series B) will be performed over four nights (two nights for each Series) for three weekends. Tickets are $15 per night with the option of a Festival pass to see all works for $20.

This season over 75 California Playwrights have been invited by PlayGround to write ten-minute plays in competition for Monday Night PlayGround Readings. In San Francisco and Los Angeles well over 1,000 audience members statewide have seen the winning 26 plays  to date. Play topics have included Reap What You Sow, Probable Future Or Possible Future, Home For The Holidays  and In The Beginning… This February cycle invites playwrights to write ten-minute plays inspired by "TALL TALES" for Monday Night PlayGround Readings on February 12, 8PM at the Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles and on February 19, 8PM at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley.

PlayGround is the only theatre company in California to have Statewide, Northern, and Southern California New Play Competitions. PlayGround's 78 Member Statewide Writers Company, primarily based in San Francisco and Los Angeles, compete to write original plays in four-and-a-half days. The tremendous diversity of California has infused the writers pool with many writers new, not only to California, but to the rest of the country as well. The November plays will be inspired by the topic REAP WHAT YOU SOW . As you sow, so shall you reap. (Galatians VI)

Broads' Word Ensemble, in partnership with the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative (LAFPI), announces LA Broads: a staged reading festival of original 15-minute plays and short excerpts of original full-length scripts from Los Angeles based female playwrights. Each play is partnered with a female director to tell a woman's story with at least 50% female cast.

Towne Street Theatre, L.A.'s premiere African-American theatre company, is excited to announce the Opening Night Reception for their 9th Annual TST Ten-Minute Play Festival, at the Stella Adler Theatre on April 8th.  Attendees are invited to join the cast and crew in the Stella Adler's Speakeasy for a wine reception, following the Opening Night production.

I rarely use the word brilliant to describe the work I've seen. There are so many good actors, directors and writers in this town that one must be careful not to be too generous and overuse one's praise. Unlike one reviewer who calls everything he sees the best and gives an award of merit to all of them, I choose to be more selective. This is my very first time at Neo Ensemble Theatre under the new artistic direction of Paul Elliott, and I am exceedingly impressed with the acting, direction and particularly the writing. Airport Encounters, onstage at the Lounge on Santa Monica Blvd through October 16 only, is a collection of 10 vignettes that all take place in a big city airport.

Neo Ensemble Theatre has been busy! When new Artistic Director Paul Elliott took over, he wanted to increase the talent pool of both writers and actors. Through a series of showcases, workshops, festivals and just general recruiting the highly revered company has done just that. And what better way to highlight all that new talent than with a new original show that features 24 actors, eight writers and two directors…all working together in one all-encompassing show.

Neo Ensemble Theatre has been busy! When new Artistic Director Paul Elliott took over, he wanted to increase the talent pool of both writers and actors. Through a series of showcases, workshops, festivals and just general recruiting the highly revered company has done just that. And what better way to highlight all that new talent than with a new original show that features 24 actors, eight writers and two directors…all working together in one all-encompassing show.

Neo Ensemble Theatre has been busy! When new Artistic Director Paul Elliott took over, he wanted to increase the talent pool of both writers and actors. Through a series of showcases, workshops, festivals and just general recruiting the highly revered company has done just that. And what better way to highlight all that new talent than with a new original show that features 24 actors, eight writers and two directors…all working together in one all-encompassing show. 

In August, 2001, the United States was hit with a surprise attack by mermaids. For nearly 14 years, we've been fighting The Mermaid Wars, badly. In this converging collection of scenes and monologues, our enemies have never been so deadly or so lovely.