“A LOVE STORY THAT SOARS…”

— Carol Germain, Colorado Boulevard

Promotional image for 'One Jewish Boy' by Stephen Laughton, directed by Chris Fields, featuring two people standing and their reflection in a puddle. The Echo Theater Company logo is included.

March 22 - April 28

  • Jesse, a nice Jewish boy from North London, falls hopelessly in love with Alex, a mixed-race woman from South London. How they struggle to stay in love as they are confronted with the world’s unpredictable cruelty is the biting, funny, bittersweet story of One Jewish Boy.

  • Stephen Laughton is an award-winning, critically acclaimed writer with a rising international profile. He has work in various stages of development across film and theatre in NYC, LA, London, Cape Town, and Sydney. He has worked with major theatres and broadcasters including the Royal Court, MTC, Headlong, BBC, TF1 and Film4. He is an Associate Artist in the Astrophysics team at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
    Stephen has two major plays coming up in 2025: Giants, which explores the controversy that unfolded on the set of James Dean’s last film, is set to open at the Sydney Opera House; and Velocity – which examines mental health in the LGBTQ+ community through the lens of the birth of the universe, human reaction times, and dark matter – is set to open at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City.
    For screen, his sci-fi short Hiraeth won 8 of the 20 awards it was nominated for on the international festival circuit. (Including Best Screenplay). Horror feature – We Live Here is currently being packaged in the US; Sci-fi feature – The Array, in South Africa. His comedy-drama, The Call, begins principal photography in spring of 2025.

  • Sharae Foxie as Alex

    Ezekiel Goodman as Jesse

    Set design | Justin Huen

    Costume design | Dianne Graebner

    Light & sound design | Matt Richter

    Production stage manager | Bianca Rickheim

  • “A FASCINATING THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE… Never one to shy away from riveting subjects, Echo Theater Company is ripping the band-aid off slowly in their latest production… heartbreakingly authentic, powerful and disturbing.” — Carol Becker, Larchmont Buzz


    “COMPLEX… TIMELY AND PROVOCATIVE… what happens when you scratch the fabric of society and discover the beauty and ugliness of human relationships?” — Joe Mosqueda, Glamgical

    “TRUTHFUL… The writing is magnificent… two wonderful actors.” — Amalisha Hueck, Discover Hollywood

     
    “A LOVE STORY THAT SOARS among deep wounds… kept the audience intrigued, immobilized, and hopeful.” — Carol Germain, Colorado Boulevard

    “WOW!... GUT-PUNCHINGLY POWERFUL… exemplifies Los Angeles intimate theater at its edgy, hot-button best.” — Steven Stanley, Stage Scene LA


    "DEEPLY FELT... [the] intimacy has a way of drawing out latent political tensions and making them intensely personal..." - Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times


    “EXCELLENT...See this show for its excellent work on the stage in the tradition of The Echo Theatre Company's continuing contribution to important theatre in Los Angeles.  The art of it keeps our spirits alive in this time of crisis." — Michael Sheehan, On Stage Los Angeles

    “A DYNANMIC WORK OF ART… Sharae Foxie and Zeke Goodman are incredible actors who find the love and charm in between the storms as their chemistry is the strongest asset to the play along with the stunning set design work by Justin Huen, and nuanced direction by Chris Fields.” — Edward Hong, The Nerds of Color

Illustrated poster for a band called "The Enablers" featuring a cartoon character with a burning head, holding money, and the text "April 16th 8:00 PM."

An evening of monologues by the folks that enabled Trump and his crew to take over the country, written by extraordinary fancy playwrights, performed by extraordinary fancy actors, and emceed by the extraordinary fancy Leigh McGowan, AKA politicsgirl.

Writers

Luis Alfaro, Boni Alvarez, Stephen Belber, Neal Bell, June Carryl, Rick Cleveland, Bernard Cubria, Lisa Dring, Jessica Goldberg, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Josh Halloway, Stephen Laughton, David Lindsay Abaire, Hamish Linklater, Kenneth Lonergan, Jay Martel, Marlane Meyer, Janine Nabers, Kira Obolensky, Matthew Paul Olmos, Erik Patterson, Kate Robin, Alexis Roblan, Robert Schenkkan, Keith Szarabajka, Daniel Talbott, Wes Walker, Robert Walsh, Guy Zimmerman

Actors

Kristen Ariza, Hugo Armstrong, Joshua Bitton, Julia Cho, Steven Culp, Julie Dretzin, Drew Droege, Lisa Edelstein, Steve Hofvendahl, Tom Irwin, Amy Landecker, Sharon Lawrence, Joshua Malina, Leo Marks, Jan Munroe, Rob Nagle, Melinda McGraw, Jeff Perry, Xochitl Romero, Alan Ruck, Jenny Soo, Stephen Strobel, Michael Sturgis, James Tupper, Peter Van Norden, Sal Viscuso, Tim Wright

May 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18

An evening of commissioned World Premiere short plays by Mando Alvarado, Lindsay Carpenter, Hilly Hicks Jr., Alexis Roblan, and Keith Szarabajka, featuring our Associate Company

  • by Lindsay Carpenter

    directed by Sami Cavestani

    with Bradley Bazile and Jessi Tinley

  • by Alexis Roblan

    directed by Edward Hong

    with Nadia Borelli, Ruby Farley, and Marie Zolezzi

  • by Hilly Hicks Jr.

    directed by Natalya Nielsen

    with Zoe Lam and Eli Gardner Wells

  • by Mando Alvarado

    directed by David Fishman

    with Marti Skoler and Stan Zhu

  • by Keith Szarabajka

    directed by Zoe Walpole

    with Elliot Davis, Cecily Elliot, Zach Ring, Sean Luc Rogers, and Seth Weaver

Prisoners wearing uniforms work in a field under the supervision of guards on horseback, with a clear sky in the background.

‘BERTA, ‘BERTA

by Angelica Cheri | directed by Andi Chapman

July 20 - August 25

  • After committing an unforgivable crime, Leroy is granted one final wish: a chance to make amends with his long-lost lover Berta. Their reunion swells from a quarrelsome conjuring of the past to an impassioned plot to escape their impending fate.

  • Angelica Cheri is a playwright, bookwriter & lyricist, screenwriter and poet. Her plays include The Seeds of Abraham (Billie Holiday Theatre), The Sting of White Roses (National Black Theatre Festival), Crowndation (National Black Theatre), Berta, Berta (Contemporary American Theatre Festival; Everyman Theatre), and The Wiring & the Switches (Geffen Writers Group). Angelica and collaborator Ross Baum received the Richard Rodgers Award for their musical Gun & Powder (Signature Theatre). Angelica is co-writer of the Highway to Heaven series reboot on the Lifetime Network and story producer for Season 2 of Dear… on Apple TV+. Angelica received her BA in Theatre from UCLA, MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University, and MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU.

Close-up of a horse's nose and muzzle with brown and white fur.

FOR WANT OF A HORSE

by Olivia DuFault | directed by Elana Luo

September 20 - October 27

  • Calvin loves Bonnie, but in order to proceed forward, he has to open up their relationship to include his new romantic partner, Q-Tip. One complication: Q-Tip is a horse. An intimate, comedic, complicated look into the world of zoophilia.

  • Olivia Dufault (she/her) is a trans playwright, screenwriter, and comic book writer. Her plays include Year of the Rooster, The Tomb of King Tot, and For Want of a Horse. She is the recipient of the 2017 Venturous Playwrights Fellowship and the 2015 Playwrights of New York Fellowship. In television, she worked as story editor on AMC’S Preacher and co-executive producer on FX’s Legion. In film, she wrote the feature The True Adventures of Wolfboy. In comics, she wrote the upcoming graphic novel Laserworld.