IAMA Theatre Company Announces 2017-18 10th Anniversary Season

IAMA Theatre Company celebrates its tenth anniversary of developing and presenting new work with a season of world premieres in 2017-18.

The season kicks off in October with two new plays right out of the gate: John Lavelle's sci-fi comedy Sinner's Laundry and Christian Durso's tragic Redline will travel two roads to redemption, alternating performances throughout a five-week run. In February, IAMA's "The One Day Plays" presents six new plays written, cast and performed in less than a day's time. In March, the company asks us to remember the decade past with readings of the first six plays of Leslye Headland's IAMA-developed "Seven Deadly Plays" cycle that led to the playwright/screenwriter's breakout success. The season concludes in May with the world premiere production of Cult of Love, Headland's final "deadly play."

"With our 10th anniversary season, we return to our roots with three world premiere plays written by company members and developed specifically for the IAMA ensemble," state co-artistic directors Stefanie Black, Christian Durso and Katie Lowes. "Ten years ago we began in a living room driven by a need to create cutting-edge and hyper-modern stories for a new generation of theater audiences. At the time, Leslye was working on her 'Seven Deadly Plays' cycle and we made a commitment to her that we would produce it in its entirety. This year, we honor that commitment with the premiere of her seventh and final play. As we head into our second decade, we will continue to be a home for playwrights and theater artists and cherish the ensemble that drives our work."

The details of IAMA Theatre Company's 10th Anniversary Season are as follows:

Oct. 20 - Nov 19
IAMA Theatre Company opens its 10th Anniversary 2017-18 season with two world premieres running in repertory:
• World premiere of Sinner's Laundry - Waiting for Godot meets Orange is the New Black meets The Book of Revelations in John Lavelle's sci-fi comedy that explores the divinity in all of us, and the power of redemption in the darkest of times. The residents of Newport Women's Correctional Facility have all mysteriously vanished. Only two inmates remain, locked in Rec Room No. 4. With nothing but some crappy board games and their imaginations, Sam and Jess must navigate their way towards salvation.
• World premiere of Redline - RPMs redline on a journey towards redemption in Christian Durso's storytelling play. A father's moment of road rage along a frigid eastern Sierra highway results in a nine car pile-up, splintering the relationship with his family forever. The impact of this event ripples through years, into DNA, into the blood, as his estranged son tests the limits of forgiveness when he commits his own unspeakable tragedy.

Sunday, Feb. 11
The One Day Plays - Six plays are conceived, written, rehearsed and performed for a live audience within a 24-hour period. Here's how it works: members and friends of IAMA Theatre Company meet the night before to pair up directors, writers and actors by drawing names from a hat. Once the six "teams" are chosen, the writers have nine hours to write the scripts. Actors receive them the morning of the show to rehearse and memorize. That night an audience arrives and watches six fully realized plays that did not exist one day earlier.

March 10 - March 25
The Seven Deadly Plays - IAMA continues its 10th anniversary celebration with readings of six plays, all produced and premiered by IAMA over the past decade, from Leslye Headland's viciously funny seven-play cycle exploring ancient sins in the context of contemporary culture: Cinephilia ("lust"), in which two cinephiles cling to their obsessions with film and sex as a way to validate their relationship; Bachelorette ("gluttony"), a wicked black comedy about female friendship and growing up in an age of excess that was adapted into the 2012 film starring Kirsten Dunst and Rebel Wilson; Assistance ("greed"), a biting, high-octane satire about our attraction to power and what we're willing to sacrifice to stay in its orbit; Surfer Girl ("sloth"), one woman's haunting recount of her transient voyager lifestyle from one idolized couch to the next; Reverb ("wrath"), in which history threatens to repeat itself as troubled lovers purge mutual pain by inflicting it on each other; and The Accidental Blonde ("envy"), a disturbingly humorous look at jealousy, work and success in the cyber-stalking generation. Watch for the world premiere of the seventh and final play in the cycle, Cult of Love ("pride"), in May.

May 24 - June 24
World premiere of Cult of Love - IAMA concludes its 10th anniversary with a full production of the final installment in Leslye Headland's "Seven Deadly Plays" cycle - a black comedy that explores the final sin of "pride" through one family's feverish clash over who is right and who is crazy. The Dahl family gathers to celebrate Christmas in their rural Connecticut home. Raised as strict Christians and overachievers, the four adult children (along with their partners) have grown into varying degrees of belief and success. Their initially joyful reunion quickly reveals an American family riddled with competition, xenophobia and mental illness.

IAMA Theatre Company is a Los Angeles-based ensemble of artists committed to invigorating live performance for a streaming generation. Through cutting-edge, cool and hyper-modern stories, IAMA is invested in the immediacy of production and strives to bring audiences out of their personal space and into a shared experience. Founded in 2007, this dynamic theater company is making its mark. Plays generated at IAMA have traveled to off-Broadway, Second Stage and the Roundabout Underground, and have been performed regionally and internationally. IAMA members have been featured in numerous critically acclaimed TV shows and films as well as in a vast array of theater and live performances all over the country. In 2014, IAMA earned the Ovation Award for Outstanding Play in an Intimate Theatre for its Los Angeles premiere of The Recommendation. In 2017, TV producer and creator Shonda Rhimes announced that she would become IAMA's first-ever "Patron of the Arts" with a generous endowment from the Rhimes Family Foundation. IAMA is breaking the mold by getting the "cord-cutter generation" to come back out to the theater again - you can't DVR theater!

For more information about IAMA Theatre Company's 10th Anniversary Season, call 323-380-8843 or go to www.iamatheatre.com.