Theatre of NOTE Presents ROOTS: AN EVENING OF WORLD PREMIERE SHORTS

Theatre of NOTE continues its 2019 season with ROOTS: An Evening of World Premiere Shorts,by Lisa Sanaye Dring, Phinneas Kiyomura, Erik Patterson, and Bill Robens, directed by Lee Hannah Conrads. ROOTS: An Evening of World Premiere Shorts is an evening of four wonderfully strange world premiere short plays, written by four accomplished Theatre of NOTE-grown playwrights, which together usher audiences through the complexity of the human condition. A dark comedy for dark times unfolds at a wedding...in either a sitcom or just a disturbed mind (Deadpan). A one-night stand takes a Kafkaesque turn. Is this stranger the one? Or just something very strange (The Smell of Something to Eat)? A story of people who probably definitely love each other, as they encounter tectonic distress (Big Ones). Escaping Soviet Russia, a young woman goes on to found modern conservative philosophy before becoming the subject of her own musical theater production (Rand!). Everyone has their own journey, but we all start at our ROOTS.

ROOTS: An Evening of World Premiere Shorts will preview Friday, May 10 and Saturday, May 11 at 8pm, and will open on Thursday, May 16 at 8pm and run through Saturday, June 23 as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival at Theatre of NOTE, 1517 N Cahuenga Blvd (just north of Sunset) in Hollywood.

Lisa Sanaye Dring (Playwright) has worked with The New Group, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Humana Festival, One Year Lease, Bread & Puppet Theater, East West Players, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Playpenn, Bootleg Theater, The Blank, Sacred Fools, SCF at Son of Semele and Circle X Theatre Co. She co-wrote Kaidan Project: Walls Grow Thin, produced by Rogue Artists Ensemble and East West Players (nominated for eight Ovation Awards including Best Production of a Play). Directing credits include Cleo, Theo & Wu at Theatre of NOTE, and Ray Yamanouchi's Tha Chink-Mart at Playpenn. She is the co-founder of Rogue Artists Ensemble's Rogue Lab, a nine-month writers residency culminating in a festival of new hyper-theatrical plays. She was recently a finalist for the 2018 Relentless Award. Lisa earned a BA from USC and apprenticed at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Phinneas Kiyomura (Playwright) is a playwright, TV writer, former skate punk, and dad living in Los Angeles, CA. His critically acclaimed plays (Lydia in Bed, Figure 8, Woods,Phrazzled, Supper) have been produced at Theatre of NOTE, Padua Playwrights and Sacred Fools, among others. He is a FIND Screenwriters Lab Fellow, an ABC Disney Writers Lab Fellow, winner of the Klasky Csupo writing competition, and wrote on Twisted (Freeform). He has developed projects for New Regency, Mark Gordon Co., and ABC Studios. He is currently in development on several projects, including: Internment, a passion project inspired by his father's experiences in the internment camps, and Ring of Fire, an exploration of faith and madness. He appears as an actor in the features Kill Me, Deadlyand After We Leave. His graphic novel 442, based on the real exploits of the 442nd RCT (the all-Japanese American fighting force that helped liberate Europe during the Second World War), is available now.

Erik Patterson (Playwright) is a playwright and screenwriter. His previous Theatre of NOTE productions include I Wanna Hold Your Hand (Stage Raw Awards nomination, Best Playwriting), Yellow Flesh/Alabaster Rose (Backstage West Garland Award, Best Play); Red Light, Green Light (Ovation Award nomination, Best Play); He Asked For It (GLAAD Award nomination; Ovation Award nomination, Best Play), and Tonseisha (which was recently developed as an opera with Saltpeter Productions in London). His play One of the Nice Ones won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Playwriting in 2016. He has extensive film and TV credits with his screenwriting partner Jessica Scott, including Radio Rebel (Humanitas Prize), Another Cinderella Story (Writers Guild Award for Best Children's Script), Sophia Grace & Rosie's Royal Adventure, the recently released sequel to Deep Blue Sea, and fourteen episodes of R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour, which garnered them two Emmy Award nominations. The world premiere of his newest play, Handjob, will open at the Echo Theater Company in September of 2019.

Bill Robens (Playwright) is a veteran of Hollywood's vibrant small theatre scene, with several plays such as Rio Hondo, Entropy, The Poseidon Adventure: the Musical, the comedy variety show A Fish Without His Flippers, and the perennial Hollywood favorite, A Mulholland Christmas Carol. He is also the author of the stage play Kill Me, Deadly, which has been produced in theaters all over the world, and recently was adapted into a feature film.

Lee Hannah Conrads (Director) is a Los Angeles-based theater director born, raised, and trained in the Midwest. Previous directing credits include Vinegar Tom, Three Sisters, and Burial at Thebes (Wirtz Center), If We Were Birds and The Naked I: Insides Out (20% Theatre Company, Twin Cities), Trestle at Pope Lick Creek (Carleton College), as well as No Exit, Medea and Winter House (The Amber Bastards). She has assistant directed in Chicago at Steppenwolf and Northlight, in Minneapolis at Ten Thousand Things, Mixed Blood, and the Playwright's Center, and in New York at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. She has a BA from Carleton College and is one thesis away from an MFA from Northwestern University.

The cast of ROOTS: An Evening of World Premiere Shorts is Jaxy Boyd, Alysha Brady, Patricia Canale, Cat Chengery, Tony DeCarlo, Jennifer Flack, David Guerra, Brad C. Light, Sierra Marcks, Kelby Jo McClellan, Channing Sargent, Dan Wingard.

The design team features the talents of Scenic Designer Amanda Knehans, Lighting Designer Bosco Flanagan, Sound Designer Matt Richter, Costume Designer Michael Mullen, Fight Choreographer Jen Albert, and Graphic Designer Mike Arcangeli. The production is Stage Managed by Zachary Burch and Assistant Directed by Olivia Buntaine.

ROOTS: An Evening of World Premiere Shorts will preview on Friday and Saturday, May 10 and 11 at 8pm and will open on Thursday, May 16 at 8pm, and runs through Saturday, June 23 at Theatre of NOTE, 1517 N Cahuenga Blvd (just north of Sunset) in Hollywood.

Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 7pm.

Performances during Hollywood Fringe Festival: Sat, June 08, 2019 6:00 PM; Sun, June 09, 2019 7:00 PM; Sat, June 15, 2019 7:00 PM; Sun, June 16, 2019 7:00 PM; Sat, June 22, 2019 8:30 PM, Sat, June 23, 2019 7 PM.

Ticket prices are $25; students and seniors $20. For tickets and details, please call 323-856-8611, or visit www.theatreofnote.com to purchase tickets online and to view the complete schedule.

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