Moth Theatre Company presents Light Sensitive written by Emmy Award nominee Jim Geoghan, directed by John Markland opening tonight, April 30 and running through May 31 in Hollywood. The cast will feature Preston Acuff, Sasha Kapustina, and Ned Liebl.
Light Sensitive tells the story of Tom Hanratty, once known as "the most dangerous cabdriver in New York City", who has become reclusive and embittered after an accident left him blinded. He lives alone in a mess of an apartment, accepting help only from his longtime buddy, Lou D'Marco. Edna Miles is also isolated from the rest of the world -- by her privileged upbringing, her overbearing father, and a slight disability of her own. The two are brought together when Lou, in preparation for a romantic vacation in Vermont, enlists a volunteer reader -- Edna -- to take care of Tom during his absence. An epic battle of wills and wits ensues that proves, once and for all, that beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder.
Light Sensitive has been nominated for a
Joseph Jefferson Award, seven Drama-Logue Awards, an Ovation Award, and five Bay Area Critics Awards.
The regular performance schedule for Light Sensitive is as follows: Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00pm, and matinees on Sundays at 3:00pm. Tickets are $10.00 - $25.00 and are available online at
www.moththeatre.com, by phone at
323-609-3676 or in person 1-hour prior to performances, at the Moth Theatre Company Box Office, 4359 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90029.
Jim Geoghan (Playwright) began his career in 1973 as half of Geoghan and Fine, a New York comedy duo. The team worked out of the Improvisation, The Bitter End, and The Bottom Line but most of their time was spent on the road touring with name acts like Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons,
The Beach Boys, The Commodores, Jimmy Buffet, The Righteous Brothers,
Bill Withers, War, Billy Cobham, Shanana, and The Temptations to name a few.
His play Only Kidding ran off-Broadway for 500 performances. The play was nominated for two Drama Desk Awards (including Outstanding New Play), was bought by Home Box Office, published by Samuel French and has been produced at regional theaters across the country. Light Sensitive premiered at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, was published by Samuel French and has seen over forty productions around the United States. The play was nominated for the coveted Jefferson Theater Award in Chicago, seven Drama-Logue Awards in Los Angeles, an Ovation Nomination and five Bay Area Critics Awards. Two Gentlemen of Corona had it's world premiere at the West Coast Ensemble in Los Angeles where it won an LA Ovation Award. It has been published by Samuel French. He has written the book and lyrics to UG, the Caveman Musical. UG had its world premiere at the San Jose Stage Company and has been published by Dramatists Play Service.
Jim used to read to the blind in New York, which was the genesis of Light Sensitive.
John Markland (Director) was born in Liverpool, England and immigrated to the US in 1986. He has lived/studied in Boston, Chicago and New York before arriving in Los Angeles 10 years ago. John started a workshop to explore new approaches to acting and theatre in what is now Moth Theater. John directs plays that resonate personal life experiences or connect to relationships and behaviors that ultimately express a human in the midst of evolution. He was written, directed and produced over 15 productions in the past six years and has developed a rolling production class. This class ensemble workshops and develops produced and original works for production. "If an actor can commit a year of life to exploring a character they will be living it...it's unavoidable." In 2015, John will also be teaching a series of workshops centered on the permission of the actor's life. The first one of which will be Self Sabotage in February. Outside of Moth, John has a successful coaching and story development practice who clients are quickly becoming celebrated within the industry.
Markland adds, "Moth Theatre Company's production of Light Sensitive evolved through Moth's character development workshop class that I teach. This play was chosen after a year of these actors going through a very deep analysis that reveals a landscape of moments for honest personalization and now a production."
Preston Acuff (Tom) Moth company member. Preston Acuff, born and raised in Searcy, Arkansas has been in over 50 commercials, directed 2 short films, and cinematography for several music videos. Film work on WB's "Jonah Hex," just wrapped a short, "Quotidian," and has worked on The Riches, Stand Off, and CSI. Preston has been workshopping Light Sensitive for the past 7 months, during which John made him rehearse blind folded for 5 months.
Ned Liebl (Lou) began his professional stage career almost 20 years ago in the award winning play Without Pity. Soon after, he went on to perform with Chris Farley and his brothers Kevin and John in the improvisational troupe Mixed Nuts. He later starred in Kevin Farley's film, The Sheboygan Improv Festival, along with
David Spade. Proving adept at both comedy and drama, Ned starred as Grady Gibson, the dual-natured narcotics officer in the television drama Guilty or Innocent? After numerous theater and independent film productions, Ned made his studio feature film debut as Saint, the vigilante priest, in Sony Pictures' film Cross, with
Michael Clark Duncan and
Danny Trejo. Ned will be reprising the role in the upcoming Cross 2. In his latest feature film, The Evil Gene (2015), Ned plays the imprisoned psychopath, Yaxley. Recent stage roles include: Le Bret in Ruskin Group Theatre's Cyrano de Bergerac, Phillip in The Raven Playhouse's The Square Root of Wonderful, multiple characters at Ruskin Group Theatre's LA Café Plays, and Greg in The Complex Theatre's Killer Clown.
Sasha Kapustina (Edna) was born in Moscow, Russia. She came to Los Angeles 4 years ago on a Fulbright Scholarship. She has studied acting with
Howard Fine and has been part of Markland Studio at Moth for two years. She regularly performs stand-up comedy in Los Angeles and will be directing and producing her first documentary feature later this year. This is her first production at Moth.
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