Road Theatre Company to Premiere JOHN IS A FATHER, Starring Sam Anderson

Two exceptional plays, one extraordinary playwright, THE ROAD THEATRE COMPANY and Taylor Gilbert, Founder/Artistic Director together with Sam Anderson, Artistic Director, announce the fifth show of its 2015-2016 - 25th Anniversary Season, the World Premiere of JOHN IS A FATHER, written by Julie Marie Myatt and directed by Dan Bonnell. JOHN IS A FATHER will run in repertory with BIRDER, also by Julie Marie Myatt. JOHN IS A FATHER will begin previews on Monday, May 9 at 8pm; will open on Thursday, May 12 at 8pm and run through Sunday, July 3 at the Road on Lankershim, 5108 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood.

Recovering alcoholic John Owens was estranged from his family for decades before his son, a Marine, was killed in Afghanistan. Now, six years later, he receives an invitation to meet his widowed daughter-in-law and his grandson for the first time. From the streets of Los Angeles to a cramped apartment in Phoenix, he prepares to face the ghosts of his past. But nothing can prepare him for the people he'll really meet along the way - and their capacity for forgiveness.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM AND CAST

JULIE MARIE MYATT (Playwright) Her play The Happy Ones premiered at South Coast Repertory, and won the LA Drama Critic Circle's Ted Schmitt Award for Outstanding New Play. Her play Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter premiered at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Kennedy Center as part of the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays. Her play Someday, premiered as part of Cornerstone Theater's Justice Cycle. Her play My Wandering Boypremiered at South Coast Repertory in the 2007, was part of Pacific Playwrights Festival, and was also produced in New York as part of the 2007 Summer Play Festival. Boats On A River premiered at the Guthrie Theater, was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and was recorded for the LA Theatre works radio play series, "The Play's The Thing". Her ten-minute play, Mr. and Mrs. premiered at the 2007 Humana Festival. Her play The Sex Habits of American Women was produced by the Guthrie Theater, among others, and premiered at the Magic Theatre. Her work has been developed or seen at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Rep, Cherry Lane, A.S.K. Theatre Projects, LAByrinth Theater Company, Denver Center Theatre Company, ACT Seattle, among others. She received a Walt Disney Studios Screenwriting Fellowship, a Jerome Fellowship at the Playwrights' Center, a McKnight Advancement Grant, Mark Taper Forum Fadiman Award, and a Master Playwright Residency - Michener Center for Writers and Department of Theatre and Dance, UT/Austin. She is currently working on commissions for Yale Repertory, and Cornerstone Theatre Company. She is an Alumni of New Dramatists, was the Mellon Playwright in Residence at South Coast Repertory 2013-2016, and teaches playwriting at Northwestern University.

DAN BONNELL (Director) has a long history of developing and directing new plays and musicals. He's been nominated for the Theatre Communications Group- Alan Schneider Directing Award, and the LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award-- and he is the proud recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Directing Award, the LA Weekly Directing Award, the NAACP Directing Award, and the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Theater in LA. His work has been presented at more than twenty-five theatre companies in LA, including the Met, PRT, the Colony, Arcade and EST-LA, where he also served as Artistic Director. Prior to Los Angeles, Mr. Bonnell was a Resident Director at Circle Repertory Company in NYC- and he worked regularly at the Actors Studio and Ensemble Studio Theater. He has staged productions and workshops for major regional companies including the Taper, Lookingglass, Long Wharf, the Asolo, Alliance Theater and Pioneer Theater Company. Internationally, Mr. Bonnell's work has been seen at the Bronfman Center in Montreal, Theatre Les Dechargeurs in Paris, and The National Youth Theater in Hanoi, Vietnam. As an educator, Dan has taught and/or directed at UCLA, UC Riverside, USC and CalArts.

The cast of JOHN IS A FATHER features: Sam Anderson, Mark Costello, John Gowans, Carl Johnson and Hillary Schwartz.

The Design Team for JOHN IS A FATHER is as follows: Set Design by Tom Buderwitz; Lighting and Projection Design by Tom Ontiveros; Sound Design by David Marling; Costume Design by Michele Young; The Stage Manager is Maurie Gonzalez. JOHN IS A FATHER is produced by Donna Simone Johnson and Ann Hearn.

SCHEDULE AND PRICING

JOHN IS A FATHER will preview on Monday, May 9; Tuesday, May 10 & Wednesday, May 11 at 8pm; will open on Thursday, May 12 at 8pm and run through Sunday, July 3 at the Road on Lankershim, 5108 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood.

Performances are Thursdays at 8pm; Saturdays at 3pm and Sundays at 7pm. Ticket prices are $34; Students and Seniors are $17.50; Previews are $15.00. Special group rates available for parties of 8 or more. For tickets, please call 818-761-8838 or visit www.RoadTheatre.org to purchase tickets online or to view complete schedule.

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