Who’s looking to spend time amongst some of the most AWESOME female artists in LA this Sunday? Well, get your calendars out, because you are in luck! The Los Angeles installment of our 2017 ONSTAGE semi-finalist readings will go up at this Saturday (May 21) @ 2 pm at the always awesome Samuel French Bookshop (located at 7623 Sunset Blvd., 90046) ! This year’s event is hosted by the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative, with wrangler-in-chief (and fabulous playwright in her own right) Jennie Webb doing her magic to make it all go like butter. Jennie and the LAFPI have assembled such a kick ass roster of talent for this reading that we kind of can’t handle it. So make sure you get your booty over to the Samuel French Bookshop (7623 Sunset Blvd., 90046) this Sunday, May 21st at 2pm for some fantastic new plays helmed by fantastic LA directors, and performed by fantastic LA actors!
And in the mean time, why not read up on the fab female playwrights whose work you’ll be going to hear?
HOT/MESS by Jen Huszcza
Jen Huszcza is a playwright currently based in Los Angeles. Five of Jen’s plays (Rinse, POP, Flowers, This, and Big Belly) were performed in Little Black Dress INK’s first five Women Onstage festivals. Big Belly and This were also read at Theatre N16’s Herstory Festivals in Balham, UK. Her short play, It Has to End in Tears, was produced by Greenlight Productions in Santa Monica in March 2015. Four of her plays have been presented as staged readings in the Monday Night Living Room Series at The Blank Theatre in Hollywood. BFA in Dramatic Writing and MFA in Musical Theatre Writing both from NYU. **Jen has two plays in this year’s semi-finalist list: HOT/MESS and SNAKES**
Something Wicked, by Elizabeth Coplan
Elizabeth Coplan is a forty+-year PR and marketing veteran. She is an author (most recently Just a Little More Time) and playwright. Her critically acclaimed play Hospice: A Love Story (also an LBDI semi-finalist) ran for six weeks at the Group Rep in Los Angeles in the summer of 2016. During the run, Elizabeth discovered that sharing her own story about death and grief encouraged others to share their grief stories. Fellow playwrights sent her short plays on the topic, and out of grief came art in the form of the Grief Dialogues.
Grief Dialogues is an artistic movement and website supporting essential and healthy conversations. It is also a live theatre production and will premiere on September 8, 2017 at the Seattle Death Salon co-sponsored with University of Washington School of Social Work, the Order of the Good Death, People’s Memorial. The 90-minute production is followed by a discussion moderated by grief counselor Dr. Sharon Stanley.
Elizabeth is president of the board for People’s Memorial in Seattle, Washington and a trustee of Bainbridge Performing Arts on Bainbridge Island where she lives.
Zero-Six-Two-Eight, by Katherine James
Katherine James (MFA from A.C.T.) has been in the theatre since her father first put her onstage in one of his shows at the age of five. An accomplished actress and director as well as playwright, she currently makes her home in Los Angeles where she is part of The Athena Cats (http://www.theathenacats.org) the Theatricum Botanicum Company and on The Seedlings (new plays) Committee. Recent projects include multiple productions of her play, THE PLAN including The GLO Project and Hall Pass. Several of her shows have been produced as part of Little Black Dress Ink. A proud member of LAFPI, her company, Free Association Theatre, has helped produce L.A.’s Swan Day. www.katherinejamesplays.com
Boxes Are Magic, by Allie Costa
ALLIE COSTA is an actress, writer, director, singer, and voiceover artist. Her theatre credits include Spring Awakening, Hamlet, Pope Joan, Alien vs. Musical, and Wake. Film/TV credits include 90210, Unusual Suspects, Solace, and You Me & Her. She has also appeared in commercials, narrated audio books, and lent her voice to video games. A published playwright and screenwriter, Allie’s original works have been produced internationally, including Femme Noir (Best Script, 2015 One-Act Festival), Don’t Shoot the Messenger Pigeon (Barrington Stage Company 10×10 New Play Festival), She Has Seen the Wolf (Best of PlayGround-LA), A Taste of the Future, and Can You Keep a Secret? Her critically-acclaimed duologue Two Girls has been performed in Los Angeles, New York, London, Ireland, and otherwhere. Her dream role? Starring in the TV series she wrote and created. Watch for it. http://www.alliecosta.com
Mommy Knows Best, by Tiffany Antone
Tiffany’s plays have been read and/or performed in Los Angeles, New York, D.C., and Minneapolis. Her play Twigs and Bone was a 2014 Great Plains Conference selection and received a developmental workshop production by Acadiana Repertory Theatre in 2015. Tiffany’s play The Low Tide Gang was a 2016 O’Neil semi-finalist and her play Cricket Woman Mother Earth (or) A Nasty Comeuppance, was a 2011 O’Neil finalist. Her plays Ana and the Closet and Twigs and Bone were both Jerome Finalists and O’Neil semi-finalists for 2009 & 2010. Her play The Good Book is available through Samuel French. Tiffany is also a contributing writer for LAFPI.com and Howlround.com.
You can find Tiffany’s plays on the National New Play Exchange, or read more about her work at www.TiffanyAntone.com.
Priorities, by Teresa Peterson
Teresa is a writer, director and actor who honed her talents in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her plays have been performed in the San Miguel International Diez Minutos Festival and in Ashland, Oregon’s Moonlight Festival. New works with hints of dark comedy are in the wings.
Writing a ten minute play is a challenge. Grab the audience, get to the point as quickly as possible and resolve the situation in reality-time, all the while, keeping the viewer engaged and unsuspecting of the play’s outcome. And, of course, there’s all that dialogue. But, I love dialogue, snappy not sappy.
“Priorities” is real time…decisions and choices to be made ‘in the now’. Haven’t we all been there, tackling a truly difficult decision in the moment? Gregory and Claire’s particularly uncanny situation gives new meaning into how to deal with the improbable. Of course, there are consequences.
Lesbian Lipstick, by Allison L. Fradkin
Allison L. Fradkin is quite the play girl. Scriptly speaking, her plays lift the curtain on topics and populations that are often upstaged: women, queer folk, people of colorful stories. Her work has been featured in festivals with Modern-Day Griot Theatre Company, Theatre Out, Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga, The Kennedy Center, 20% Theatre Chicago, and The Women’s Theatre Project, among others. As a complement to her playwriting endeavors, Allison performs in community theatre, inhabits the role of Literary Manager for Pride Films & Plays, and acts as Dramatist for Special Gifts Theatre by adapting scripts for actors with disabilities. Currently, she is working on a musical parody of The Golden Girls commissioned by Chicago’s Gorilla Tango Theatre. Visit Allison backstage at allisonfradkin.blogspot.com.
Co-Workers, by CJ Ehrlich
C.J. Ehrlich’s award-winning plays have been performed in many states, notably of undress and panic, around the US and on five continents. Full-lengths include: The Cupcake Conspiracy: “Terrorism is Easy. Marriage is Complicated” (w/Philip J. Kaplan): performed in NE, TX, HI, WA, NY; finalist, Getchell award; Mountain Playhouse International Comedy competition. Zane to Gate 69 (TX, AK) The Maltese Babka (NY, AK). Published: Best American Short Plays of 2014-15 (Applause/Hal Leonard); five S&K Best Ten-Minute Plays anthologies; Heuer: Rutledge. C.J. is thrilled and honored to again be part of the Female Playwrights Onstage project with her brand new piece, Co-Workers (no heroes were harmed in the writing of this play). With great appreciation to the actors, Kila, Jennie, and Tiffany, who makes all good things happen. Visit at CJ-Ehrlich.com.
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