NORMAN JUDD: A LIFE IN CONCERT Premieres at Hollywood Fringe Festival

World premiering at the 2024 Hollywood Fringe Festival, Norman Judd: A Life in Concert finds Judd, minor legend of the mid-century avant-garde, emerging from seclusion in his Death Valley compound for one last performance of his pioneering electronic music. Joining him onstage is his estranged daughter, Corinthia. But when Corinthia resists playing the dutiful child, the show goes off the rails in uproarious, unsettling, and blistering ways, opening wounds old and new.

Norman Judd: A Life in Concert grew out of a series of workshops through notable new work incubator Naked Angels Tuesdays@9 Los Angeles, and was conceived by Tuesdays@9 Co-Creative Director, playwright Kyle Therral Wilson. Previous and current Tuesdays@9 Co-Creative Directors Allison Youngberg and Omari Williams play Corinthia and The Professor, respectively. And L. A. theater veteran Matt Chait plays the role of Norman Judd, with original music by his son, composer and performer Ross Wallace Chait (Total Heat, Girlpool).

NORMAN JUDD: A LIFE IN CONCERT

Presented by Frank's Wild Lunch Productions

Directed by Gloria Iseli

Written by Kyle Therral Wilson

Music by Ross Wallace Chait

Featuring Allison Youngberg, Matt Chait, Omari Williams

Location:

The Madnani Theater - 6760 Lexington Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90038

Dates:

Sunday, June 9 - 5:30 PM (preview)

Friday, June 14 - 7:00 PM

Wednesday, June 19 - 9:00 PM

Saturday, June 22 - 1:30 PM (Streaming performance on June 22 also available)

Monday, June 24 - 8:30 PM

Admission:

$18 | Streaming: pay-what-you-can

Show Runs Approximately 1 hour. Ages 16 and up

CREATIVE TEAM

Kyle Therral Wilson (playwright) writes stories about queer and underrepresented characters, informed by his Arkansas preacher's-kid roots and his fascination with secret histories. Author of several plays and screenplays, he is a 2018 Eugene O'Neill Finalist for his play Yucca Corridor, an Arch & Bruce Brown Foundation Finalist for his screenplay War and Jim, and Co-Creative Director of Naked Angels Tuesdays@9 Los Angeles. Kyle's plays have been developed or performed by La MaMa, National Queer Theater, HBMG Foundation, Great Plains Theatre Conference (2013 and 2017 PlayLabs playwright), The Lark, Theatre of NOTE, Theatricum Botanicum, The Blank Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre/Los Angeles, Psychic Visions Theatre, and L.A.'s Homo-Centric, among other organizations. His monologues were published in LGBTQ Comedic Monologues that are Actually Funny, edited by Alisha Gaddis.

Ross Wallace Chait (composer) is a composer and performer from Los Angeles. He has composed scores for award-winning television, theater, and film. After graduating from Oberlin College in 2013 with majors in Music and English, he moved back to Los Angeles and took a position as assistant to songwriter and Oscar-winning composer Randy Newman from 2013-2015. Subsequently, pursuing career opportunities as a performer, he toured extensively throughout North America, South America, Asia, and Europe. Chait continues to play, write, and record as a songwriter, singer, pianist, and drummer with multiple ensembles including his own group Total Heat, and as a drummer with the notable indie rock group Girlpool. In addition to work as a musician, Ross is an A&R Representative for ORG Music, Programmer and Curator at The John & Alice Coltrane Foundation / Jowcol Music, Manager at the Pico Union Project, and runs his own experimental music label Steady Hand Records.

Gloria Iseli (director) is a Los Angeles based writer/director/producer with credits spanning theatre, film, TV, podcasts, and web series. Iseli began her theatre career in Chicago before making the leap to LA. She is currently in post-production

for Delta County, a scripted feature she's directing, as well as several projects in development to produce and direct for Brilliant Move Productions. Iseli has also worked as an English language dubbing director and script adaptor, working on over 40 foreign films and TV shows streaming on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and Disney+. In the winter of 2023, her feature film King Chess won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Golden State Film Festival.

CAST

Allison Youngberg is thrilled to act in Norman Judd: A Life in Concert. She previously co-produced and acted in Tiffany Cascio's world premiere play Thanksgiving as a part of the 2017 Hollywood Fringe and she produced and acted in the world premiere of The Gentrification Cycle - 2 plays by G.D. Kimble - which was nominated for the Inkwell Theater's Playwright's Promise Award as a part of the 2016 Hollywood Fringe. Other Los Angeles theatre credits include 365 days/plays and Anniversary with the Alliance Repertory Company and Picturing Mare with the New American Theatre Company. Television and film credits include Let's Be Real, All My Children, and the award-winning pilot The Hit Factor. She also co-produced and co-starred in the award-winning short Abigail and Libby, the webseries When Mary Met Betsy and the webseries EX-Sisters-in Law which she also co-wrote. She received her MFA in acting from the American Conservatory Theater and her BFA in acting from Emerson College. She is an Emerita Co-Creative Director of Naked Angels' free cold reading series Tuesdays@9 Los Angeles.

Matt Chait is happy to be a part of this journey. A graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse, he acted in major roles at the Eugene O'Neill Foundation, the Theatre Company of Boston, Cafe La MaMa, the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, the American Place Theater, and many others. He taught acting at AADA, UCLA and in his private studios for many years. He started and ran the Complex Theaters in 1990 and Theatre Row in 1992. Recently, he's been trying his hand at playwrighting. His last two plays were Bearings which won a scenie award for best world premiere and 'outstanding ensemble' and A Family Business which opened at The Hudson to wonderful reviews last holiday season.

Omari Williams, a Houston native and a BFA alumnus of Baylor University, moved out to LA to pursue his acting career and has various credits in film/TV, theater, voiceover, and the ever-popular quarantine hobby, scripted podcasts. Some of his theater performances include Dun in Pipeline (the Art of Acting Studio), Jake in Clownfish (Theatre of NOTE), Chip Skipper in Space Captain: Captain of Space (Boomstick Theatre), Ronnie in Mirror Mirror (Firefly Theatre Group), Actor 4 in We Are Proud to Present... (Third Culture Theatre), and Lyons in Fences (Jubilee Theatre). You can hear his voice in podcasts such as Alpha 8, Quiet Please (2020), Premiere the Play Podcast, Open Door Playhouse, and The Disappearance of Olivia Perry. He is ecstatic to be a part of such a loving community with the cast and production of this show.

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