Playwrights' Arena Announces Cast of RED INK

Jon Lawrence Rivera, Artistic Director of Playwrights' Arena - the first and oldest theater dedicated to discovering, nurturing, and producing original works written exclusively by Los Angeles playwrights - is thrilled to announce the cast for RED INK by Steven Leigh Morris, which includes Michelle Bonebright-Carter, Tracey A. Leigh, Leo Marks, Christopher Salazar, Jocelyn Towne, and Peter Van Norden.

RED INK, directed by Nike Doukas, looks at the corrosive pressures of click-bait journalism and cut-throat competition on an imploding newspaper recently purchased by a private equity firm. The paper is further bludgeoned, or perhaps redeemed, by the intrusion of a deranged incel gunman, seeking revenge for a news article he found offensive. In this absurdist satire, think The Front Page meets Marat Sade, the journalist, newly admitted to a mental ward, re-enacts scenes from the life of his newspaper with fellow inmates, capturing the moment when social media swerved into fast lane of public information and perception.

Steven Leigh Morris is the founding editor of Stage Raw, a digital journal dedicated to covering the Los Angeles stage. He is the inaugural (2017) recipient of the Gordon Davidson Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Los Angeles Theatrical Community, presented by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle. He has served as both jurist and jury chair for the Drama award of the Pulitzer Prizes. For over 25 years, he served as either a theater reviewer, theater editor, news writer, and critic-at-large for LA Weekly, and his arts features have also been published in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, American Theatre Magazine, and DRAMA Magazine in London. His play Beachwood Drive, first presented by Playwrights' Arena in Los Angeles, was also performed off-Broadway. Morris's first novel, Fowl Play (Padaro Press) was a Gold Winner in the Human Relations Indie Book Awards. Morris teaches theater, playwriting and criticism at California State University, San Bernardino and Dominguez Hills.

Nike Doukas has directed King Lear, the Harold Clurman Laboratory Theatre; The Hot House, the Antaeus Company (10 Ovation nominations, including Best Director, Best Production, Best Ensemble, and 4 Drama Critic Circle nominations, including Best Director and Best Production); The Proposal, Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre; All's Well That Ends Well at USC (co-directed with Mark Rucker); Winter's Tale, Measure for Measure, The Tempest, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, and Search and Destroy at the AOA Acting Studio, where she is also Head of Acting. As an actor: South Coast Repertory, (twenty-one productions, including seven world premieres), The Geva Theatre, The Pasadena Playhouse, The Mark Taper Forum, The Old Globe, The American Conservatory Theatre, (MFA in Acting), The Berkeley Repertory Theatre, ACT (Seattle), The LA Shakespeare Festival, The Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, PICT Theatre, Kinetic Theatre, and five summers with the Ojai Playwright's Festival. Numerous guest starring roles on television, including a recurring role on Desperate Housewives. Member, The Antaeus Company. She is a 2011 Lunt Fontanne Fellow, awarded to regional theatre actors for excellence.

Production Team includes: Lily Bartenstein (scenic and projection design), Matt Richter (lighting design), Jesse Mandapat (sound design), Mylette Nora (costume design). It will be staged managed by Letitia Chang and produced for Playwrights' Arena by Henry 'Heno' Fernandez.

Opening set for Saturday, January 18, 20202, 4 PM at Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Los Angeles. Regular performances on Saturdays 8 PM, Sundays 4 PM and Mondays 8 PM, plus one Saturday 4 PM matinees on February 1. It closes on Monday, February 10, 2020.

Tickets are $30 advance on line or $40 at the door. For reservations go to www.playwrightsarena.org or call 800-838-3006.

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