Shoshana Bean Musical DEAR JOHN MAYER to be Featured at LA's First Look Festival

Open Fist Theatre Company is gearing up for its third First Look Festival of Plays which is a two month celebration of contemporary American theatre and music. Eight new works will be represented in production or in staged reading/concert format. According to musicalsinla.com, the festival will include a workshop production of the new musical DEAR John Mayer with music and lyrics by Shoshana Bean and book by Eydie Faye.

Produced by Shoshana Bean, Gregory Sieradzan, Scott Paulin, John LeMay, and John Bobek, directed by Martha Demson and featuring choreography by Eboni Nichols, DEAR John Mayer will preview Wednesday, July 20 at 8pm, open Friday, July 22 and run through Saturday, September 3.

The story involves Stevie Steinman, who has a skill of doing what people expect her to do. So when she finds herself divorced at 30, living in her childhood bedroom and styling old ladies' hair for a living she decides it is finally time to do what she has wanted to do all along: Sing. Not knowing where to begin, she turns on her computer and creates a video blog in the hopes of catching the attention of her muse, John Mayer. When a heavy-hitter from the music industry stumbles upon her videos, life changes very quickly for Stevie. The decision to follow her heart and enter the music game quickly reveals that the realities of the business are much different than the fantasies that play out in her bedroom.

Additional shows appearing in the festival include:

Quake
By D. Tucker Smith
Directed by D. Tucker Smith with Anjali Bhimani
Produced by Anjali Bhimani and Mark Atteberry

Life On This Couch
Written by Laura Richardson
Directed by Benjamin Burdick
Producer by Laetitia Leon

Neither Here Nor There
By Rebecca Sue Haber
Directed by Michelle Lema

Singapore
By Philip William Brock
Directed by: BjØrn Johnson

An Ignorant Man
By Richard Manley
Directed by John Hindman

The Power and the Glory: The Tale of Phil Ochs (American)
By Jesse Bernstein
Directed by Martha Demson

She's The Best
By Jim Bontempo
Directed by Andrew Dodson

The Festival will begin on Friday, July 15 and runs through Saturday, September 10 at The NEW Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd. (former home of The Actor's Gang) in Hollywood.

For complete schedule, details about the shows, and ticket information, please call 323-882-6912 or visit www.openfist.org.