IAMA Theatre Company Kicks Off Season With World Premiere Of THE VERY BEST PEOPLE

IAMA Theatre Company will begin its 17th season with the world premiere of The Very Best People by Drama Desk Award winner and IAMA Theatre Company Ensemble Member John Lavelle, directed by Melissa Coleman-Reed.

On a roll this fall, with two new plays that originated at IAMA on Broadway this season (JOB the Play, recently extended to Oct. 27, and Cult of Love, starting performances Nov. 20), the Los Angeles-based IAMA unveils a new work that is timely, horrific, and hilarious. After the mysterious shooting of a disgraced NYPD detective, his two childhood friends set out on a mission for redemption, weeks before the U.S. January 6 insurrection.

Armed with only brotherhood, alternative truths, and ranch dressing, they hunker down in Angelina's Irish Pub on Staten Island's South Shore and plot to take down the Deep State, one snowflake at a time. What’s a little light kidnapping between friends? The cast for The Very Best People features Adrián González*, Andria Kozica*, Bryan Langlitz*, James Luster, and Margaux Susi*. 

The Very Best People will be performed September 29 – October 27, 2024 (press opening: October 5) at Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave, Los Angeles. Tickets ($29-$45) are available at iamatheatre.com or by calling 323-380-8843. (* denotes IAMA Theatre Company ensemble members) 

“IAMA Theatre Company’s current season is themed ‘In Process’ and John Lavelle’s work is very much in keeping with that focus. The Very Best People is a darkly comedic work that dives into the masculinity of Americans, offering a frightening fly-on-the-wall look at how our country is divided. We think audiences will be on the edge of their seats, watching through their fingers,” said IAMA Theatre Company Artistic Director Stefanie Black. “This play started here at IAMA in our ensemble writers’ group, and we are now thrilled to offer this world premiere production.”  

Committed to the development of new work, IAMA is invested in being an artistic home for emerging and established Los Angeles-based artists and playwrights by supporting a pipeline for new plays from their inception through production, such as The Very Best People. In addition to its ensemble writers’ group, IAMA’s Emerging Playwrights Lab was inaugurated in 2019, which gives playwrights a one-year residency, where writers meet monthly to share and develop a full-length play in a peer-guided format. Members of the Lab are given dramaturgical support from IAMA’s artistic and literary staff as well as a ticket to each of IAMA's productions. The Lab culminates in readings of each member's full-length plays in a potentially public format the following summer. It was in IAMA’s Lab that Max Wolf Friedlich’s wrote JOB the Play, currently on Broadway through October 27. IAMA also offers commissions, including the Rhimes Unsung Voices commission sponsored by IAMA Patron of the Arts Shonda Rhimes and the Rhimes Foundation, which supports a writer from an underrepresented community each year.       

John Lavelle (Playwright) is an American stage, film, television actor, and playwright who spent much of his career appearing on Broadway, perhaps best known for his role as Benjamin Braddock in John Reid's 2002 Broadway adaptation of The Graduate, where he starred opposite Lorraine Bracco, as well as Off-Broadway, regionally, and at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is the author of several plays including Inhalation (Max Lerner Award, O’Neill Finalist), Sinner’s Laundry (a Los Angeles Ovation recommended production), and his work has appeared in ABC’s “Discovers Talent Showcase.” He received a Drama Desk Award for his performance in The Royale at Lincoln Center Theater and is an ensemble member of IAMA Theatre Company and part of the improv team Some Kinda Monster at The Upright Citizens Brigade. Lavelle has appeared on TV and film in numerous roles, most notably portraying Roy Reed in Ava DuVernay’s Academy Award-nominated film “Selma.” As a voice artist, Lavelle has worked for Disney, Netflix, and DreamWorks and is the voice of the beloved children’s book series Nate the Great.  

“I wrote this play hoping to make sense of where I come from, the contradiction of my ‘home’ to where my heart lives now. I wanted to write an antiracist play using the characters from my past, the people who at one point I loved deeply, but now seem so foreign,” said The Very Best People playwright John Lavelle. “I want audiences to laugh very hard and think about the very thin line between hypothetical violence and physical violence. We all have met the very best people in our lives, but I don't think we get a chance to meditate on how dangerous they really are and how willing they are to carry out their plans.” 

Directing The Very Best People is Melissa Coleman-Reed, an international theatremaker, director, actor, producer, and facilitator who is focused on the development of new works that foster activism and grow international collaborations. She has collaborated with arts organizations including Geffen Playhouse, IAMA Theatre Company, New Village Arts Theatre, Ammunition Theatre Company, CalArts, Cal State LA, Playwrights’ Arena, The Blank Theatre, The Road Theatre Company, and The Inkwell Theatre LAB. 

IAMA Theatre Company has assembled a talented cast for The Very Best People, which includes IAMA Ensemble Member Adrián González as Brian Anthony, a ride-share driver navigating life after prison. González was last onstage in IAMA’s world premiere production of Arrowhead and has worked with L.A. theatre companies such as A Noise Within, The Echo Theater Company, Playwrights’ Arena, Boston Court, HorseChart Theatre Company, Skylight Theatre Company, and Casa 0101 Theater. He can be seen in television and films including “With Love,” “The Garcias,” “Vida,” “Superstore” “The Affair,” “Kevin from Work,” “Your Family or Mine,” “The Bridge, “NCIS,” “NCIS LA,” and “The Mentalist.”  

IAMA Ensemble Member Andria Kozica plays Fanny, an overstressed pediatric hospital nurse and fiancée to Brian Anthony. She has been featured in IAMA productions of Smile, Celestial Events, The Last Bohemian, and A Man Named River. Other recent theatre credits include Much Ado About Nothing at Downtown Rep, Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Yorba Linda Spotlight Theater Company, Boeing Boeing at Little Fish Theatre, Cymbeline with Shakespeare by the Sea, The Understudy at Bull & Bearer Theatre Co., and Lebensraum at Harold Clurman Lab Theater, which earned her a Los Angeles Ovation Award nomination. 

IAMA Ensemble Member Bryan Langlitz will take on the role of Jak, Fanny’s stepbrother and owner of Angelina’s Irish Pub. He has been seen on Broadway in Memphis, Off-Broadway in The Comedy of Errors, in the National Tour of Million Dollar Quartet, and at various L.A. theatre companies including IAMA Theatre Company, Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, Indie Chi Productions, and HBO Workspace Hollywood. Langlitz’ television and film work includes “House of Cards,” “Orange Is the New Black,” “The Looming Tower,” and “Secrets of Sulphur Springs.” 

James Luster will be making his IAMA Theatre Company debut as Joey, a former NYPD cop suffering grief for no longer being a part of force, and much more. He is an actor, writer, comedian, and recent transplant from Portland, Oregon where he worked with such notable Portland theatres as Bag&Baggage Productions, Portland Shakespeare Company, Oregon Children’s Theatre, Theatre Vertigo, and Action/Adventure Theatre. Luster was part of IAMA’s 2024 Summer Intensive cohort, a two-week program for emerging, to mid-career actors that focuses on building the artistic muscles, creative community, and tangible skills necessary to work in the theatre, TV, and film industries in Los Angeles. 

Margaux Susi, who is an IAMA ensemble member as well as IAMA’s associate artistic director, will play Lara Amanda, a conservative talk show host. She has performed on the IAMA stage in Species Native to California and Celestial Events. She has also performed with the hit improv show “The Blind Date Project,” that completed sold-out runs in New York, Edinburgh, Williamstown, and Los Angeles. On the small screen she can be seen in “Better Things,” and “Dear White People,” and heard on “Central Park,” and “Olaf's Frozen Adventure.” As a director, Margaux’s films have played Sundance, Tribeca, and Palm Springs. 

The Production Team bringing The Very Best People to life on stage includes Jordan Bass (Casting Director), Erin Bednarz (Sound Designer), Nicole Bernardini (Properties Designer), Benedict Conran (Lighting Designer), Roella Dellosa (Production Stage Manager), Zander Eckhouse (Video Designer), Samantha Jones (Costume Designer), Lauren Lovett (Dialect Coach), Christopher Scott Murillo (Set Designer), Zachary Phaneuf (Technical Director), and Celina Lee Surniak (Intimacy and Fight Director). The understudies for The Very Best People are Sam Bianchini, Matt Hill, and Amitai Porat.  

IAMA Theatre Company has scheduled three special performances of The Very Best People which include a BIPOC affinity night on Friday, October 11, a Student affinity night on Friday, October 18, and a Get Out the Vote night on Friday, October 25. All of these scheduled performances will feature a moderated post-show conversation with members of the cast and creative team of the production and special guests. Previous post-show guests have been actor Nicole Byer, writer/director Marti Noxon, actor, playwright and showrunner Tanya Saracho, and actor Sasheer Zamata. In addition, IAMA offers Pay What You Can tickets (suggested price of $5) for the October 7, 14, and 21 performances of The Very Best People, increasing access to theatre and inviting audiences to see the show at whatever price they can afford. 

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