Moving Arts to Present MADLab 2024 Featuring Five New Plays

Moving Arts has revealed the lineup for MADLab 2024 (September 28-October 6, 2024): five staged readings of brand new plays by Los Angeles writers who have gone through a comprehensive development process starting in February of this year. The lineup, which represents the 11th cohort of MADLab playwrights, includes Plain Mr. Smith by Chris Banda, The Bachelors Club by Tom Jacobson, Coyote Lullaby by Vincent X. Kirsch, A Christmas Coven by Kate Mickere, and Beach, Please by Nabra Nelson. The development of these plays are part of a long-term commitment Moving Arts has shown to Los Angeles Playwrights - a commitment that will culminate in 50 new plays being developed through MADLab by 2025. In previous seasons, MADLab has supported work by Boni B. Alvarez, Meghan Brown, Matthew Paul Olmos, Marlow Wyatt, and many other locally and nationally produced playwrights.

"The original concept for MADLab was to provide space and support for playwrights to follow any idea that they found fascinating, and to write a play that they really wanted to write," said Darin Anthony, Artistic Director and MADLab founder. "We gave no parameters on content or theme, only that it had some connection, however loose or tight, to the city of Los Angeles. Beyond that, the playwrights had 100% control on where the play, and the MADLab process, would take them."

The 2024 MADLab lineup includes:

Beach, Please by Nabra Nelson - Sep. 28 at 12:00 p.m. and Oct. 6 at 2:30 p.m.
A young woman tries to find meaning in the LA hustle by becoming the Beach.

Plain Mr. Smith by Chris Banda - Sep. 28 at 2:30 p.m. and Oct. 6 at 5:00 p.m.
When a Person of Interest walks into an Inglewood bar after a nearby shooting, the regulars have to find ways to prove they deserve a second chance.

A Christmas Coven by Kate Mickere - Sep. 28 at 5:00 p.m.and Oct. 5 at 12:00 p.m.
Becca has to decide if the wild success she'll enjoy by rejoining her old high school friends' coven will be worth the destructive demon that comes with it.

The Bachelors Club by Tom Jacobson - Sep. 28 at 2:30 p.m. and Oct. 5 at 5:00 p.m.
A queer Los Angeles couple reluctantly plunges into the surprising history of LGBTQ+ people in Oklahoma, including a two-spirit Choctaw (1905) and a gay mayor (1964).

Coyote Lullaby by Vincent X. Kirsch - Sep. 29 at 2:30 p.m. and Oct. 5 at 2:30 p.m.
After she arrives at her new Laurel Canyon home, a young folk singer faces her impending fame with help from the mysterious stranger hiding there.

Plays developed through MADLab have gone on to have acclaimed productions at Steppenwolf Theatre Company (Chicago), Milagro Theatre (Portland), Playwrights Arena (Los Angeles), and many other leading regional theatres throughout the nation. In addition to the many plays that have been produced and developed by the larger theatre community, Moving Arts has created a Pipeline model, producing in-house many of the plays that come through MADLab. Productions include Terence Anthony's Burners (developed in 2014, produced in 2018), Cory Hinkle's Apocalypse Play (developed t in 2016, produced in 2018), Howard Ho's Reset (developed in 2020, produced in 2023), and Leviticus Jelks's My White Husband (developed in 2023, produced Spring 2024).

"Beyond providing actors, directors, and other artistic support for these new plays," said Dana Schwartz, MADLab Program Director, "it's been vital to our program to also gift writers with access to other resources that they may need; incorporating cold readings, workshops, feedback sessions and evenings with theatre experts which support writers on both the micro and macro level of play creation."

MADLab playwrights have also gone on to write for television shows such as Watchmen, Man in the High Castle, Vida, and Lawman Bass Reeves, among others. Since its inception in 2011, more than half of MADLab participants have identified as women or non-binary, and more than half identified as persons of color.

MEET THE PLAYWRIGHTS

CHRIS BANDA, a Los Angeles native, Chris is an accomplished writer, director, editor, graphic designer, and digital graphics artist. While studying theater at Rio Hondo College, Chris became interested in writing for the stage. He wrote and directed several plays, including The Long Walk, Dawgs, and Playing Clean, which received an invitation to the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival's New Works program. His play Dawgs was his first professionally produced play. It has since been performed all over Los Angeles and the Hollywood area, including at venues such as Glaxa and Garder Stages, the Ivar Theater, and the Los Angeles Theater Center. Chris enrolled at the Los Angeles Film School in 2010 and quickly became recognized for his writing and editing skills with his short films Working: A Jazz Musician, Tomia, and Suerté. While at film school, he adapted his play Playing Clean into a short film, which received high acclaim for its writing and editing. After graduating, he worked as a writer and editor on several features and short films, including two episodes for the award-winning web series Encounters, entitled Adobo and Between the Lights. In 2021, his play Lolo was invited to be part of the El Centro del Sur Latinx Theater Festival. Because of Covid restrictions, the play was filmed for the virtual festival. The filmed version went through the film festival circuit, winning several awards, including Best Feature, Best Stage Play, and Best Acting Ensemble. His latest play, Mariposa, a semi-autobiographical piece about a family dealing with the effects of Alzheimer's disease and dementia, opened the 2023 El Centro del Sur Latinx Theater Festival. Chris works as a full-time digital video for Tennis Channel and freelances for NBC Peacock.

TOM JACOBSON has had more than 100 productions of his plays, including Plunge at Son of Semele Ensemble, Tar at Playwrights Arena, Mexican Day at Rogue Machine Theatre Company, Sperm at Circle X Theatre Company, The Orange Grove at Playwrights Arena, and the award-winning Bunbury, Tainted Blood, Ouroboros and The Friendly Hour at The Road Theatre Company. The Twentieth-Century Way premiered at The Theatre @ Boston Court (five Ovation Award nominations, four Los Angeles Drama Critics' Circle nominations, one GLAAD Award nomination, Fringe Festival Award for Outstanding Production of a Play, PEN Center Award for Drama) and moved Off Broadway to Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre. Making Paradise: The West Hollywood Musical was produced by Cornerstone Theater Company (Critic's Choice in Back Stage West). He has been a co-literary manager of Boston Court, a founding member of Playwrights Ink, and a board member of Cornerstone and Boston Court. Recent productions include the world premieres of The Chinese Massacre (Annotated) at Circle X and House of the Rising Son at Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA (Critic's Choice in Back Stage West and Los Angeles Times, nominated for a GLAAD Award and winner of two Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards), Captain of the Bible Quiz Team at Rogue Machine (Top Ten Stage Raw, Drama Critic's Circle Award), The Devil's Wife at Skylight Theatre, and Walking to Buchenwald at Open Fist. Film: Prairie Sonata (based on The Friendly Hour). Opera: Hopscotch, commissioned by The Industry. Upcoming: Bauhaus at Open Fist and Crevasse at Son of Semele.

VINCENT X. KIRSCH is a playwright, screenwriter, composer, and puppeteer. He is also an award-winning author and illustrator of books for children of all ages (From Archie To Zack, The Chandeliers, Natalie & Naughtily). He was artist-in-residence at the Williamstown Theater Festival for seven summers and worked with the Manhattan Theater Club and Classic Stage Company. His comic one-act play WHIM had its world premiere at the 2024 Hollywood Fringe Festival, where he was one of the finalists for the Theatre Theater Playwriting Award. He lives in Pasadena. Instagram: vincentxkirsch

KATE MICKERE is a writer based in Los Angeles. Her play, Nurse Cadden (Next Stage Press), won First Place in the inaugural A is For Playwriting Contest. The script, chosen by a panel led by two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage, received a virtual reading that starred Ann Dowd. Kate's playwriting has also been developed/produced by The Vagrancy, The Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Ugly Rhino and Meet Cute - LA. Her screenplay, Capturing The Stars, won the Alfred P. Sloan Screenwriting Award and received an Honorable Mention for the Sloan/Tribeca Grand Jury Prize. As an essayist, Kate's writing has been published by The Los Angeles Times, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Belladonna Comedy, XO Jane and The Awl. She's also written monologues for the collection "Teen Girls' Comedic Monologues That Are Actually Funny," published by Applause Books. She holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University, where she was the recipient of the Steven Bochco Fellowship. Kate is an alumna of The University of Pittsburgh and The British American Drama Academy.

NABRA NELSON is a playwright from Egypt, Nubia, and California. She is a founding company member of the Seattle based MENA theater company, Dunya Productions, a founding company member of the Milwaukee-based womxn-of-color performance troupe Heard Space Arts Collective, leads the Nubian Foundation for Preserving a Cultural Heritage, and is the co-host of the Kunafa & Shay Theater Podcast (produced by HowlRound Theatre Commons). Playwriting credits include: Nubian Stories (Dunya Productions, The Scratch's In Pencil: Staged Readings, and Renaissance Theaterworks' Br!NK New Play Festival), What to Expect When You're Simulating (Macha Theaterworks' Distillery, Golden Thread Productions' New Threads Reading Series), A Muslim Christmas Carol (Dunya Productions, reading); Confessions (or the Secret Play for Secretly Liberal Muslims) (New Arab American Theatre Works Playwrights Showcase, University of Washington, readings), Paint Me (Strawberry Theatre Workshop), Induced Labor (Golden Thread Productions' ReOrient 2019 honorable mention), In the Village Across the Nile (UCF Pegasus PlayLab Finalist) Creation Gossip and Lillith (Heard Space Arts Collective), Nebula & An Endless Staircase (Mini-Plays Magazine June 2023 Issue), and Minute to Minute and Le Serious Shit (MultiCultural Drama Company). She is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

THE MADLAB TEAM

DANA SCHWARTZ is the Program Director of the MADLab New Play Development program at Moving Arts. She is a Los Angeles writer, director, producer and performer. She was a member of the 2023 cohort at Director's Lab West. Her short play "The Crush" was produced at the Echo Theatre. Her audio play "Hot Mic" was produced by Eclectic Theatre in Chicago. "Presto!" was completed while working with The Workshop Theatre New York and is a Eugene O'Neill Semi-Finalist. "@Playaz" was an O'Neill Finalist and had its World Premiere in 2021. "Early Birds" premiered in 2019, and was also presented at the Curtis Theatre. She has written for several productions of the internationally renowned Car Plays, notably at REDcat LA, Disney Hall, Segerstrom Arts and La Jolla Playhouse. She has directed plays across the country, most recently at Theatre of NOTE, The Road Theatre, Topanga Arts Center, and Moving Arts. She has performed around the world. She is a member of Dramatists Guild, The Dramaturgical Society LA, LAFPI, The Kilroys, and Honor Roll.

DARIN ANTHONY is the Artistic Director of Moving Arts in Los Angeles, a company dedicated to the development, production, and promotion of adventurous new works by Los Angeles artists. For Moving Arts he directed: the world premieres of RESET by Howard Ho, @PLAYAZ by Dana Schwartz, Isolation Inn - A Zoom Series, Apple Season by E.M. Lewis, BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!) by Jami Brandli, Apocalypse Play by Cory Hinkle, the west coast premieres of The Kill-or-Dies by Meghan Brown, Viral by Mac Rogers, The Gun Show by Em Lewis, and numerous Car Plays. Other recent productions: Daniel's Husband at Dezart Performs (DTL Best Director Award) and Dinner with Friends (DTL Best Director Nomination) at CV Rep, the world premiere of the rhythm and blues musical The Devil You Know for Devilish Productions, and Nureyev's Eyes at American Stages (FL) and The Bluebarn Theatre (NE).

The award winning theatre company MOVING ARTS is dedicated to the creation, promotion and production of original works by Los Angeles artists. Founded by Lee Wochner and Julie Briggs in 1992, Moving Arts has produced many world, national, West Coast and Los Angeles premieres. Moving Arts began as a 22-seat venue in the Silver Lake area and quickly grew to become a resident artist company that includes actors, directors, producers, designers, and playwrights. Since 1992, Moving Arts has continuously produced adventurous new plays in a variety of venues across Los Angeles, ranging from traditional theatres such as [Inside] the Ford in Hollywood and the Los Angeles Theatre Center, downtown to nontraditional spaces such as the Natural History Museum and the parking lot across from Disney Hall, showing remarkable versatility and commitment to the craft of theatre. Many of the new play we have created have gone on to be produced across the country. Once called "The tiny Silver Lake theatre with an enviable reputation," Moving Arts has now taken up residence in its new home the larger Moving Arts Theatre. www.MovingArts.org

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