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"Cultural Stages: The Woodward International Drama and Dance Initiative" is designed to promote a greater understanding of world cultures through drama and dance.
Welcome to Your Life, Jiro Yamaguchi, about a man who not only survived the bombing of Hiroshima in WWII, he dedicated himself to saving the people around him. The play is inspired by the true-life story of Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto.
From the USC SDA website:
“On June 12, 2016, the nation’s deadliest mass shooting committed by a single perpetrator killed 50 patrons, and wounded 53 more, at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
Theatre artists, with their historically close alliances with LGBTQ communities, responded by making art in historic fashion. Within weeks, two New York City-based production companies reached out to playwrights across the country to create short plays in response to the shootings. More than 70 playwrights responded, including USC School of Dramatic Arts associate dean Oliver Mayer.
These 70-plus plays, collectively called After Orlando, are being performed across the country and globally this fall. Instead of presenting a single staged reading of the plays, as many theatre companies and universities are doing, USC Dramatic Arts has taken an innovative tack. It used its professional sound studio in the McClintock Building to have first year MFA acting students record a dozen of the plays, which are available to be heard on a podcast through December 11, 2016.”
AFTER ORLANDO is an international theatre action curated by Missing Bolts Productions and NoPassport Theatre Alliance & Press (Caridad Svich, founder) comprised of over 70 plays written in response to the tragic shooting at Pulse Nightclub, June 12, 2016.
Readings will be held internationally from September 12, 2016 through January 31, 2017. An anthology of the plays will be published by NoPassport Press later in 2017.
The play I wrote was inspired by 911 and police dispatch transcripts the night and early morning of the shooting, primarily utilizing the text from the transcripts themselves.
Click here to see a list of participating playwrights.
Click here to see a list of readings to find one in a city near you.
An Epidemic of Temporary Lunacy (or The Mexico Plan) will be presented in The Blank Theatre's Living Room Series on Monday, November 7th.
The workshop is directed by Jeremy Lelliott. Cast TBD.
Monday November 7th
AN EPIDEMIC OF TEMPORARY LUNACY (OR THE MEXICO PLAN)
Written by Brian James Polak
Directed by Jeremy Lelliott
A fledgling scientific genius and his little sister grow tired of being teased and neglected by their overprotective mother and deadbeat uncle. When the boy witnesses what he thinks is his uncle’s nefarious deed, he decides to devote himself to creating a miraculous invention that will save him and his sister from their miserable life.
Click here for reservations ($10 suggested donation).
I was recently commissioned to write a short narrative to be presented as part of the LMU CSJ Center for Reconciliation and Justice's annual Hidden Heroes Award. Each year a writer is assigned to each award recipient and tasked with interviewing them and crafting a narrative using their own words.
This is the third year I've participated in this event that has given me the opportunity to connect with some amazing people doing vital work.
For the 2016 award I have worked with Fr. Luis Arriaga, a Jesuit priest and attorney who is deeply committed to social justice work.
The awards take place October 22nd at 2:30pm on LMU's campus.
I have a short play in Chalk Repertory Theatre's FLASH Festival October 13, 14, and 15. Click on the image above for details about the festival and to purchase tickets.
In the fourth biennial FLASH Festival, Chalk Rep has invited fifteen Los Angeles playwrights to create original ten-minute plays inspired by a space, to be performed in that location. This year Chalk Rep is in residence at St. John's Cathedral, with plays written on the timely theme of Religion & Politics!
Week 2 features new plays by: Boni B. Alvarez, Cory Hinkle, Elizabeth J.B. Klaviter, Eric Reyes Loo and Brian James Polak
With performances:
Thursday, October 13 at 7PM
Friday, October 14 at 7PM
Saturday, October 15 at 7PM
Come back each week to catch them all!
All tickets $20.
Running time approximately 80 minutes.
Seating provided in some spaces and for all those who need it.
Limited lot parking and street parking available.
"News for the Deaf Man" will be presented in the gallery space of The Road on Lankershim, August 4th at 8pm. Directed by Michael Peretzian and featuring Mark Costello, Chet Grissom, and Joshua Wolf Coleman.
This festival functions as a fundraiser. The Road Theatre Company requests $15 (or the best you can do) at the door - no advance ticket sales.
The 7th Annual SUMMER PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL
38 plays! 8 days!
Staged readings, receptions, live music nightly.
July 31 - August 7, 2016
**at The Road On Lankershim**
Click here for more information.
"Welcome to Keene, NH" is part of Cypress College's 17th Annual New Play Festival.
The Cypress College New Play Festival provides student actors and directors a place to help develop new plays with professional playwrights from Los Angeles.
Festival playwrights include Israel López Reyes, Erik Patterson, Daniel Herman, Rebin Zangana, and Brian James Polak.
Performances: Thursdays 7:00 P.M. (June 30, July 7, 14, 21, 28, @ 7 P.M.) through July 28th. There will be a discussion with the writer following each reading. Admission is $5.00 to support the festival.
Studio Theater, Theater Building 9200 Valley View, Cypress 90630
The presentation of "Welcome to Keene, NH" will take play Thursday, July 28th at 7pm.
Click here for more information.
I contributed two monologues for this Toronto Fringe Festival event, opening July 1st.
Click here to read an interview with Jordan Mechano, the creator of Monologues for Nobody.
Would you like to read a monologue?
In a room all to yourself choose any genre, style, and character and create a performance just for you. Like singing alone in the shower just because it feels good, read passages from Fringe veterans Kat Sandler, Laura Anne Harris, Jiv Parasram, Rebecca Perry, and more.
No audience, no cameras, no pressure. Just play.
*This is a shed show taking place in the Fringe Club, located in Honest Ed’s parking lot (581 Bloor St. West)
July 1st, 4.30-6.30 PM
July 2nd, 6.30-8.30 PM
July 4th, 8.30-10.30 PM
July 5th, 6.30-8.30 PM
July 7th, 8.30-10.30 PM
July 8th, 6.30-8.30 PM
July 10th, 8.30-10.30 PM
My new play, WELCOME TO KEENE, NH will have it's first public reading on Sunday, June 5th at 6pm.
Click here to reserve a seat (no payment necessary).
This part of Playwrights Union annual annual First Peek series. Every year several PU members set out to write new plays from soup-to-nuts in the month of February. First Peek is the unveiling of these plays to the public for the first time.
A complete schedule of the readings is below.
WHEN:
Saturday, June 4
4:00 PM - AN UNTITLED NEW PLAY BY JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE by Matt Schatz
An ambitious Literary Manager finds the nonprofit theatre she works for making questionable programming choices—and must suddenly question her notions of what stories are worth telling.
6:00 PM - THE ABUELAS by Stephanie Alison Walker
A visit from two strangers exposes a 37-year-old secret in this play about the long repercussions of Argentina's "Dirty War."
8:00 PM - THE HOUSE OF THE NEGRO INSANE by Terence Anthony
Attius builds coffins at the Taft State Hospital for the Negro Insane, where he has been locked up for over a decade; when two new patients ask him to help them escape, he dares dream of a life beyond the hospital walls.
10:00 PM (or immediately following the final reading) - Reception
Sunday, June 5
2:00 PM - THE SUPER VARIETY MATCH BONUS ROUND! by Deb Hiett
A small-town Texas couple find themselves launched on an unexpected, soul-searching, 1970s game show adventure when they rent out their son’s bedroom to a visiting young concert-goer.
4:00 PM - PERPETUAL GIRL by Wendy Weiner
A modern fairy tale about the most forbidden thing a woman can do in Hollywood: age.
6:00 PM - WELCOME TO KEENE, NH by Brian James Polak
Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," 115 years later . . . a three-act play telling the story of a small American town through the everyday lives of its citizens.
WHERE: VS. Theatre 5453 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90019