OCT 4 – NOV 5, 2023

WEST COAST PREMIERE
GIL CATES THEATER

Written by Samuel Baum
Directed by Darko Tresnjak
Featuring Richard Bekins, Bella Heathcote, Brian Lee Huynh, Mark Jacobson, Wendie Malick, Brian Patrick Murphy, Jonah Platt & Lauren Worsham

The champagne is on ice, the hors d'oeuvres are perfectly arranged, and the table is exquisitely set. At a swank Park Avenue apartment, a young couple is celebrating their engagement with an intimate gathering of family and friends. When a glass of wine is spilled, the night takes an unexpected turn, unleashing a spiraling sequence of events and revelations that will irrevocably change their lives.

Directed by Tony Award winner Darko Tresnjak, The Engagement Party’s original production at Hartford Stage in 2019 was heralded as a "masterful piece of playwriting” and a “theatrical experience worth its 85 minutes in gold.”

Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive

JAN 17 – FEB 18, 2024

LOS ANGELES PREMIERE
GIL CATES THEATER

Written by Selina Fillinger
Directed by Jennifer Chambers
Featuring Ito Aghayere, Maria Bello, Alexandra Billings, Lauren Blumenfeld, Shannon Cochran, Jane Levy & Elizabeth Rodriguez

A derogatory comment, a summit gone awry, an anal abscess—it’s a bad day at the White House. When the President unwittingly spins a PR nightmare into a global crisis, it inevitably falls on the seven women he relies on most to clean up the mess. Take a raucous romp through the halls of the West Wing in a riotous and irreverent farce about the men who hold the power vs. the women who get the job done.

PRODUCTION SPONSOR

FEB 7 – MAR 17, 2024

WORLD PREMIERE
AUDREY SKIRBALL KENIS THEATER

Written by Kristen Adele Calhoun
Directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene

On a hot summer night in Texas, Vernita Manifold summons her two daughters down to the bayou with a secret too big to keep. The richest, meanest man in town is dead, and the Manifold women know more than they’re saying. As secrets begin to surface, the bonds between the women, their town, and the legacy of their ancestors all come to a head. Black Cypress Bayou is a hilarious, suspenseful world premiere about loyalty, healing, and comeuppance.

Recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Major support for this world premiere production provided by the Edgerton Foundation New Play Production Fund.

MAR 27 – APR 28, 2024

BROADWAY PRODUCTION
WEST COAST PREMIERE
GIL CATES THEATER

Written by James Ijames
Directed by Saheem Ali
Associate Direction by Sideeq Heard
Produced in Association with No Guarantees, Public Theater Productions & Rashad V. Chambers

Meet Juicy, a young, queer Black man with a Shakespearean-sized dilemma. When the ghost of his dead father shows up at his family’s BBQ wedding reception demanding his murder be avenged, does the poetic and sensitive Juicy have it in him to do the deed, or will he “to thine own self be true?” See what the New York Times calls “a hilarious yet profound tragedy smothered in comedy,” in this Pulitzer Prize–winning take on Hamlet, direct from Broadway to L.A.

Fat Ham first premiered in 2022 at The Public Theater as a co-production between National Black Theatre and The Public Theater. Fat Ham made its Broadway premiere on April 12, 2023.

APR 25 – JUN 9, 2024

WORLD PREMIERE
AUDREY SKIRBALL KENIS THEATER

Written & Performed by Helder Guimarães
Directed by Frank Marshall

From the creators of Invisible Tango, The Present, and The Future comes an entirely new theatrical event. As a Portuguese immigrant, storyteller, and sleight-of-hand magician, Helder Guimarães arrived in America at age 29. Wide-eyed and full of ideas, he discovers a fascinating puzzle of cultural and professional challenges to solve while he tries to build a home. The Hope Theory offers a unique perspective on America through the eyes of an optimistic outsider.

Five performances of The Hope Theory (La Teoría de la Esperanza) will be performed in Spanish. Major support for this world premiere production provided by the Edgerton Foundation New Play Production Fund.