The SheLA Summer Theater Festival Begins July 12

SheLA Arts, the West Coast branch of entertainment industry equity nonprofit SheNYC Arts, has announced the five plays selected for the 2022 SheLA Summer Theater Festival.

The SheLA Summer Theater Festival opens on July 12th at Hollywood's Zephyr Theatre. Now in its fourth year, the Festival features full-length plays by gender-marginalized playwrights, and will run through July 17th for in-person performances with digital performances to follow. The SheLA shows were selected after a rigorous, blind, months-long selection process out of over 300 submissions from around the globe.

The Festival will feature five new full-length plays: A Kid by Erika Hakmiller, Electra by Luz Lorenzana Twigg, The Firefly Web by Erika Jenko, Hakugame by Skylar Rae, and too much skin by Carolene Joy Cabrera. Tickets are available at www.SheNYCArts.org/She-LA.

About the shows:

a kid
By Erika Hakmiller

Agnes is pitching a play that recounts her trip to Virginia to meet with a former director from her childhood community theatre. The trip becomes more and more complicated as memories of her various experiences as a 17-year-old help her realize that her time as "a kid" surrounded by adults in the theatre wasn't as simple as she had previously thought.

Electra
By Luz Lorenzana Twigg

Electra is devastated when her mother, a successful white feminist Senator & self-appointed leader of the #metoo movement, cancels her father, a human rights lawyer, over allegations of cheating and sexual assault. Passionate and full of rage, Electra wrestles with the inheritance of her biracial identity as she plots to exact justice on her mother. An evisceration of cancel culture, this contemporary adaptation of Sophocles' masterpiece asks the question: what do you have left when the deed is done?

Hakugame
By Skylar Rae

A young prisoner named Raika, slated for death, is spared by her executioner under the condition she must become his apprentice. Throughout her journey, she finds herself stalked by the presence of a beast called Hakugame, who tempts her with the promise of protection in exchange for blood. The result is a violent tale about coming to terms with trauma, choices, and the transformative forces that shape us.

The Firefly Web
By Erika Jenko

Twins Lane & Jasper return home for their yearly summer visit, which coincides with a 10-year family anniversary. While there, their childhood lake house transports the twins to memories 10 years prior. 10 years prior when their sensitivities to death were just developing. When life was simply about forts and buried treasure, or was it? As the memories become tangled in the present, Lane & Jasper must face their darkest fears that took shape all those years ago. The firefly jars have been sitting on the dock for a decade. Waiting to glow.

too much skin
By Carolene Joy Cabrera King

A Filipino American brother, sister, and friend battle assimilation and white supremacist culture, forging their own identity in the United States. In interactions about dating, explorations of the stereotypes of being a "China Doll" or a "Dragon Lady", and the desire to forge their own paths, Darna, Jun, and Christian move from worlds of make-believe in cosplay and video game land into their real world, trying to shed the expectations of the dominant culture to become more of who they really are.

All performances will comply with state and local COVID-19 safety guidelines. For more information on SheLA's sister festivals, SheNYC and SheATL, visit www.SheNYCArts.org.

SheNYC Arts is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization devoted to producing plays, musicals, and adaptations by writers of marginalized genders, to prove that these works are meaningful, necessary, and commercially viable. SheNYC produces Summer Theater Festivals in New York City, Los Angeles, and Atlanta annually, as well as CreateHER, a semester-long program for high school students interested in careers as playwrights and producers. Through additional educational and community engagement programs, including The Broadway Women's Alliance, SheNYC aims to make the theater industry a better place for all people. Learn more at www.SheNYCArts.org.