Lisa Dillman's HALF OF PLENTY Plays At Rogue Machine

Award winning Steppenwolf playwright Lisa Dillman has chosen ROGUE MACHINE to present the West Coast premiere of her play HALF OF PLENTY, for their season opener of 2009. This hilarious and chilling take on lean times and family values in America expresses some all too familiar anxieties on modern living.

Playwright Lisa Dillman is well recognized by America's best regional theatre companies for her prolific contemporary themes and her solid body of work. Her plays have been produced in Chicago at Steppenwolf, American Theatre Company, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, and Collaboraction. In New York Lisa's work has been produced at the Hypothetical Theatre Company; in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at Theaterwork, and elsewhere around the country. Her play Six Postcards was featured in the Goodman Theatre's 2005 New Stages Festival. Dillman has received the Sprenger-Lang New History Play Prize, the Sarett National Playwriting Award, and the Julie Harris-Beverly Hills Theatre Guild Award, as well as commissions from Steppenwolf, Northlight Theatre, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, and Imagination Theatre; two Illinois Arts Council playwriting fellowships; and residencies at the Millay Colony, the Ragdale Foundation, Blue Mountain Center, the William Inge Center for the Arts, and the O'Neill Theater Center, where her play ROCK SHORE (published by Dramatic Publishing) was presented at the 2003 National Playwrights Conference. Her work has been anthologized in collections from Dramatic Publishing, Smith and Kraus, Heinemann, and New Issues Press.

Barbara Kallir (Director) is known by local audiences for her work at Pacific Resident Theatre and Son of Semele. Her production of Sarah Ruhl's MELANCHOLY PLAY at Son of Semele Ensemble was "Recommended" by the LA Times, and was a "Critic's Pick" in Back Stage West and City Beat. THE TOWER by Matthew Maguire (Son of Semele Ensemble) was nominated for 5 NAACP awards, including Best Director, and was "Recommended" by both the LA Weekly and the LA Times. Other theatre credits include Alan Bennett's play, KAFKA'S DICK and Murray Mednick's CHARLES' STORY at the Pacific Resident Theatre Co-Op, A THURBER CARNIVAL for Pasadena Shakespeare Company, NO EXIT for Space Theatre, and OUR FRIEND SAM at Theatre of NOTE. Barbara co-directed Son of Semele's 365 (Week 21), as well as pieces in SOSE's collaborative effort with the Rogue Artists' Ensemble, HYPERBOLE. FILM: Barbara was Second Unit Director on Charles Burnett's TO SLEEP WITH ANGER and Roger Corman's WIZARDS OF THE LOST KINGDOM. She is a graduate of The American Film Institute and is an alumnus of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab, West.

HALF OF PLENTY opens Friday, May 1st and runs through June 7, 2009 at ROGUE MACHINE in Theatre Theater, 5041 Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90019. Performances are Thursdays - Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 7 pm. Tickets are $25 and may be purchased by calling (323) 960-7774 or at www.roguemachinetheatre.com

John Perrin Flynn (Producer/Artistic Director) directed the critically acclaimed Los Angeles premiere of Rogue Machine's inaugural production COMPLEAT FEMALE STAGE BEAUTY. He helmed the Craig Lucas' hit SMALL TRAGEDIES at The Odyssey Theatre and the world premiere of John Pollono's LOST AND FOUND at The Lounge Theatre. Executive producer and director of Lifetime's long running award winning series STRONG MEDICINE, John has produced two other series and 14 television movies or miniseries including the Emmy nominated BURDEN OF PROOF. He attended The London School of Music and Dramatic Art and has an MA degree in Theatre from Illinois State University.

ROGUE MACHINE is a collective of award winning entertainment veterans bringing a new and distinctive voice to Los Angeles Theatre. This presentation of HALF OF PLENTY launches the company's 2nd season which takes place in their newly remodeled intimate home at Theatre Theater. ROGUE MACHINE draws upon the diverse and extensive experience of its collective while creating high-quality productions by contemporary playwrights who specifically address our culture and time. The ROGUE MACHINE mission includes building a theatre of ideas and nurturing the development of plays from contemporary writers while manifesting current culture, and consciousness. ROGUE MACHINE projects will exhibit a strong emphasis on presenting new plays or plays new to Los Angeles.

To post a comment, you must register and login.