Bed - February/March 2016
The world premiere of a funny, sexy and unconventional romance with music. Raw, racy, spanning 10 years in less than 90 minutes and featuring original songs, BED explores issues of love, abandonment and betrayal through the unique and inimitable lens of playwright Sheila Callaghan.
Written by Sheila Callaghan
Original Music by Sophocles Papavasilopoulous and Maxwell Gualtieri
directed by Jennifer Chambers
featuring:
Kate Morgan Chadwick
TW Leshner
Johnathan McClain
produced by Emyli Gudmundson & Tara Karsian
“RECOMMENDED… FIRST CLASS THEATER …. Callaghan writes with panache, and the sex scenes, artfully staged by director Jennifer Chambers are as steamy and authentic as they come… STAGE RAW TOP TEN” — Deborah Klugman, Stage Raw
“CRAZY, FUNNY, SEXUALLY EXPLICIT… Well-directed, brilliantly staged and superbly performed, Bedis a must-see world premiere from an important local playwright.” — Pauline Adamek, Arts Beat LA
“A HIT… Rough and tumble… [a] well-honed story… tight direction and strong performances by Chadwick, Leshner and McClain” — Michael Sheehan, On Stage Los Angeles
SUPERB… MESMERIZING… a sterling cast performs at the very top of the craft“- Paul Myrvold’s Theatre Notes
CAPTIVATING AND INVOLVING… an ingenious set and staging”- Gil Kaan, Broadway World
“A BEAUTIFULLY MADE BED… A wonderfully funny, and sometimes painfully honest examination of love” — Patrick Hurley, That Awesome Theatre Blog‘
One of the Nice Ones - July/August 2016
As the most recent hire at Tender Form Weight Loss Systems, wheelchair-bound Tracy will stop at nothing to avoid being laid off by high-handed boss Roger. Perhaps it’s her disability that makes her so keenly aware that no one gets ahead by being “one of the nice ones.” Soon, hapless co-worker Neal and weight loss client Colleen find themselves caught in the lethal crossfire of a workplace battle zone.
Written by Erik Patterson
Directed by Chris Fields
Set Designed by Amanda Knehans
Costume Design by Elena Flores
Lighting Design by Chris Wojcieszn
Sound Design by Jeff Gardner
Produced by Chris Fields and Jesse Cannady
starring
Rebecca Gray
Graham Hamilton
Rodney To
Tara Karsian
“ESSENTIAL THEATRE… The acting is superb… walk[s] a tightrope between dark black comedy and biting satire… outrageous” — Anthony Byrnes, KCRW
“Elicits torrents of laughter from [the] gobsmacked audience. Director Chris Fields and his superlative performers do full justice to their deliciously uncouth material, which is not for the prim. They have more fun than the law allows – and so do we.” —F. Kathleen Foley, Los Angeles Times
“FUN… mercilously bold direction… a sparkling cast… mischievous and unsanitized wit.” — Travis Holder, Arts In LA
“SCABROUSLY FUNNY… I’ll leave the details a surprise for when you see it, which you should… RECOMMENDED… STAGE RAW TOP 10” — Deborah Klugman, Stage Raw
“HILARIOUS AND PROFANE… Highly recommended… a shocking and a totally unexpected rush.” — Michael Sheehan, On Stage Los Angeles
“SCREWBALL BLACK COMEDY… repeatedly pull[s] the rug out from the audience’s expectations” — Bill Raden, LA Weekly
“WICKED + GLEE = ONE OF THE NICE ONES” — Ernest Kearney, The Tvolution
“WOW!... exiting, daring, provocative, sexy, challenging, and thoroughly enthralling… get ready to be blown away.” — Steven Stanley, Stage Scene LA
“Fast moving entertainment of substance that will keep you laughing and cringing in spite of yourself… Excellent writing, exquisite direction and magical performances… don’t miss One of the Nice Ones.” — Suzanne Birrell, Discover Hollywood
“BRILLIANTLY WITTY” — Gil Kaan, BroadwayWorld
Dry Land - May 2017
Written by Ruby Rae Spiegel and directed by Alana Dietze, Echo Theater Company’s Dry Land is a haunting play about female friendship and an abortion that takes place in the locker room of a central Florida high school. Written when Spiegel was just 21 years old and still an undergraduate at Yale, the play is a deeply truthful portrait of the fears, hopes and bonds of teenage girls—as gut-wrenching as it is funny. In his New York Times “critic’s pick” review, Ben Brantley called Dry Land “tender, caustic, funny and harrowing, often all at the same time.”
The Cake - June/July/August 2017
Della makes cakes, not judgment calls — those she leaves to her husband, Tim. But when the girl she helped raise comes back home to North Carolina to get married, and the fiancé is actually another fiancée, Della’s life gets turned upside down. She can’t really make a cake for such a wedding, can she? For the first time in her life, Della has to think for herself. A world premiere play from Bekah Brunstetter, NBC’s This Is Us.
creative team
Director- Jennifer Chambers
Producers- Jesse Cannady and Nadia Marina
Scenic Design- Pete Hickok
Costume Design- Elena Flores
Sound Design- Jeff Gardner
Casting Director- Meg Fister
Stage Manager- Natalie Figaredo
cast
LA Times Critics Choice
“RECOMMENDED… STAGE RAW TOP 10… a singularly savory dramedy that crystallizes a contentious issue and, with empathy for both sides, portrays it in an edifying and insightful way… I left the theater feeling moved and enlightened.” — Deborah Klugman, Stage Raw
“BRILLIANT… POWERFUL AND MEANINGFUL… great writing… great direction… a truly top flight team of actors… abundant wit and humor.” —Ron Irwin, LA Post-Examiner
“SUPERB… a ninety-minute wonder spiked with moments of high hilarity as well as scenes of ripe emotion that sear the heart.. Debra Jo Rupp in a performance of purest gold.” — Paul Myrvold, Theatre Notes
“WOW!… puts a deeply personal, delightfully down-home face on the Gay-Wedding-Cake Wars… I cried, I learned, I loved” — Steven Stanley, Stage Scene LA
An Undivided Heart - March/April 2018
How far will powerful men and institutions go to keep their secrets — and who pays the price when they do? Echo Theater Company and Circle X Theatre Co. join forces to present the world premiere of An Undivided Heart by Yusuf Toropov, directed by Chris Fields.
Set in 1992 Massachusetts against the backdrop of the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal and a toxic drinking water scandal (the latter made famous by the book and film “A Civil Action”), An Undivided Heart is part thriller and part spiritual mystery. A series of otherworldly visions and an unlikely encounter with a Zen priest propel Father Mike Cleary into a collision course with his Archdiocese, while Lynne Callahan, a young widow, struggles to make sense of her life in a town whose water has been polluted with deadly chemicals. The two confront a universal problem: How do victims of suffering caused by others find a way to go on?
The ensemble for An Undivided Heart includes Jeff Alan-Lee, Jesse Bush, Bob Clendenin, Alana Dietze, Ann’Jewel Lee, Paul Eiding, Matthew Gallenstein, John Getz, Kaleb King, Tracey A. Leigh, Alison Martin, Sigute Miller, Jennifer A. Skinner, Michael Sturgis and Tim Wright. Some of the parts are double cast, with actors alternating performances. The creative team includes set designer Amanda Knehans, lighting designer Rose Malone, sound designer Cricket S. Myers, costume designer Dianne K. Graebner and graphic designer Christopher Komuro. The production stage manager is Venice Yue Yang.
“[A] RIVETING SPIRITUAL THRILLER … fluidly cinematic… visual humor and witty performances” — Bill Raden, LA Weekly
“UNPREDICTABLE… NEVER DULL… Toropov has a zany, theatrical imagination… offbeat and knotty intelligence” — Margaret Gray, Los Angeles Times
“EXTREMEMLY POWERFUL… demands serious and at times truly profound thought” — Ron Irwin, Los Angeles Post-Examiner
“STUNNING… [a] smart script… powerful acting chops… a fine, gripping piece of important theatre.” — Gil Kaan, Broadway World
“A THRILLING EMOTIONAL RIDE… an extraordinary script that demands much from the performers and keen attention from the audience… sharp and penetrating” — Paul Myrvold, Theatre Notes
“WOW!... a powerful indictment of church-and-corporation-sanctioned abuse…. Unexpected poignancy..,. worthy of note” — Steven Stanley, Stage Scene LA
Gloria - September/October 2018
Bitingly funny and fierce, this play follows an ambitious group of editorial assistants at a notorious Manhattan magazine, each of whom hopes for a starry life of letters and a book deal before they turn thirty. But when an ordinary humdrum workday becomes anything but, the stakes for who will get to tell their own story becomes higher than ever. A trenchant commentary on the way personal tragedy can serve as grist for the ever- ravenous media machine, Gloria makes us laugh at the very things we should be frightened of.
Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
• Directed by Chris Fields
• Starring Alana Dietze, Jessica Goldapple, Nicole DuPort, Devere Rogers, Jenny Soo, Steven Strobel, Michael Sturgis
Produced by Kevin Johnson and Rachael Zambias
Associate Producers: Nick Abrell and Lindsay Graves Fisher
Set Design: Amanda Knehans
Costume Design: Dianne K. Graebner
Lighting Design: Azra King-Abadi
Sound Design: Christopher Moscatiello
Fight Choreography: Ahmed Best
Production Designer: Letitia Chang
Assistant Director: Alexa Vellanoweth
LA Times Critic’s Choice, STUNNING… sharp-eyed dramatic intelligence… bitingly funny… a potent Echo Theater Company production” — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times
“RECOMMENDED… STAGE RAW TOP TEN… smartly-etched characters, caustic dialogue and a single startling surprise.” — Deborah Klugman,Stage Raw
“FUNNY AND CLEVER… BUT THERE’S SOMETHING ELSE… Mr. Jacob-Jenkins is trying to make us examine something deeper than the sensational. He’s asking us, like any great playwright, to consider how we treat one another and what we value as a culture.” — Anthony Byrnes, KCRW 89.9 FM
“RIVETING… As Echo’s work creates more and more echoes in the LA theater, its artistic director Chris Fields stages “Gloria” flawlessly.” — Don Shirley,LA Observed
“DEFIES ALL EXPECTATIONS… — what begins as a biting workplace comedy becomes a frightening examination of morality and mortality executed with stunning precision.” – Sasha Urban, Daily Trojan
“NEVER-ENDING WIT AND BITING CULTURAL COMMENTARY… gifts the cast with such cleverly crafted, multifaceted monologues, arias if you will, effectively orchestrated by Fields” — Aja Houston, USC Annenberg Media
“[A] KNOCKOUT… unsettling, shocking and funny… thought-provoking, gut-churning, blood-pounding theater” — Tony Frankel. Stage and Cinema
“EVERY BIT AS VICIOUS AS IT IS HILARIOUS… a remarkable ensemble… yet another pitch-perfect production from the Echo Theater Company.” — Michael Van Duzer, Showmag
“DEEP, NUANCED, EMOTIONAL… jacobs-Jenkins’s writing is quite subtle and smart” — Erin Conley, On Stage and Screen
“WOW!…Chris Field directs Gloria’s West Coast Premiere with precision, power, and lickety-split pacing, and the performances he elicits are some of the very best in town… Echo Theater Company at its most excitingly cutting-edge.” — Steven Stanley, Stage Scene LA
“UNFORGETTABLE… the energy’s crackling electric… razor-sharp disses and truthful observations” — Gil Kaan,Broadway World
“RAZOR SHARP, DARKLY COMIC… [a] biting, courageous contemplation of the ways we have conditioned ourselves to be fame-seekers… [To miss it] would be a regrettable loss ”” — Eric Gordon, People’s World
The Wolves - March/April/May 2019
Left quad. Right quad. Lunge. A girls indoor soccer team warms up. From the safety of their suburban stretch circle, the team navigates big questions and wages tiny battles with all the vim and vigor of a pack of adolescent warriors. A portrait of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for nine American girls who just want to score some goals.
Written by Sarah DeLappe
Directed by Alana Dietze
Featuring
Jacqueline Besson, Katherine Cronyn, Makeda Declet, Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson, Connor Kelly-Eiding, Alison Martin, Minzi, Ellen Neary, Donna Zadeh, Caitlin Zambito
Produced by Chris Fields and Rachael Zambias
Associate Producers: Erin Henriques and Michael Sturgis
Scenic Design: Amanda Knehans
Costume Design: Elena Flores
Lighting Design: Rose Malone
Sound Design: Jeff Gardner
Production Stage Manager: Anna Klevit
Assistant Director: Hollye Hudson
Publicist: Lucy Pollak
LA Times Critics Choice
“STUNNING… a superb Echo Theater Company production” — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times
“TENDER, POIGNANT AND FIERCE… You go on a ride with these girls and through their lives you see their world – and see it shattered. You’ll laugh with them, you’ll cringe with them, and ultimately you’ll probably weep with them.… don’t miss ‘The Wolves’.” — Anthony Byrnes, KCRW 89.9 FM
“RECOMMENDED…. STAGE RAW TOP 10… RARE MAGIC” — Katie Buenneke, Stage Raw
“TRIUMPHANT… The ensemble is fantastic… fully realized, complex human beings… I would have happily watched these characters for longer than the 90 minutes we are given with them” — Erin Conley, On Stage and Screen
“WOW!… EXTRAORDINARY… will surely be remembered as one of 2019’s best… truly in a league of its own.” — Steven Stanley, Stage Scene LA
“TERRIFIC, THRILLING, MOVING, EXCITING, AMAZING… performed by nine young women at the top of their game… an amazing ensemble and an utter joy to behold.” — Paul Myrvold, Theatre Notes
