In a small New England suburb in 2007, Maggie, a gay New England pastor, is dismissed from her position in favor of a conservative male and a desire to return to “traditional” values. In collision with her spiritual home and disconnected from her younger partner, her grasp on reality begins to slip and she becomes increasingly isolated in an absurdist dream that brings her to the brink of madness.

The Los Angeles Theatre Center presents a developmental reading of San Francisco Bay Area playwright Nina Solomita”s striking new play, “After the Sermon,” about a woman whose voice and power threatens her relationship with the community she loves. Will we be silenced, fired, disgraced if we are rebellious thinkers, and speak our minds? A deeply important play for our times. Directed by Amy Sass, the Award-Winning Artistic Director of Ragged Wing Ensemble, produced by Blue Panther Productions (SF Bay Area) and Ian M White (Los Angeles).

MARCH 6, 2017 7PM
THE LOS ANGELES THEATRE CENTER
514 S SPRING STREET, LOS ANGELES 90013
RECEPTION TO FOLLOW READING

ADMISSION IS FREE
INFO@BLUEPANTHERPRODUCTIONS.COM

THE PLAYWRIGHT, NINA SOLOMITA
Nina Solomita is a San Francisco Bay Area playwright, author, and creative consultant. In 2013 Solomita’s play “Every Spreading Moonbeam” was produced by the Listening Place in Monterey, California. In 2002, “Fania” was produced by the Monterey Peninsula Players in Carmel, California. “Brought Me No Comfort” was produced by The Theatre in Process Company in Boston, Massachusetts, and “The Subway Play” was performed at Ramapo College in Patterson, NJ.

Solomita’s writing has been published in the Pitkin Review, Plath Journal, the Mother/Daughter Monologue Series of the International Centre for Women Playwrights and in the arts sections of The Harvard Gazette, The Monterey County Weekly, and The StageSource Newsletter, Boston. She won the Cherry Center One-on-One Monologue Contest in 2008 for “The Unwanted Guest.” Solomita’s newest work, “After the Sermon” is about a progressive minister in New England facing a spiritual and personal crisis as she is dismissed from her position and increasingly disconnected from her partner and reality. “After the Sermon” is being developed by Blue Panther Productions, in the San Francisco Bay Area. https://www.facebook.com/NinaSolomitaPlaywright/

THE DIRECTOR, AMY SASS
Amy Sass is a leading playwright, master director, teacher, visual artist, and performer. She is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Ragged Wing Ensemble and has been involved in every company production and program since its inception in 2004. Amy is the fire that drives the artistic process, the rigorous trainings and the creative output of Ragged Wing’s company of professional artists. She is known for bringing a fierce voracity to the creative practice, challenging artists and innovators to leap together into the unknown. She has created and defined RWE’s holistic, interdisciplinary approach to collaboration and story building. As Co-Founder of The Flight Deck, RWE’s new performance venue, she is a culture builder, establishing the creative alliance of artistic leaders and growing authentic relationship among diverse organizations.

As an artist, Amy is known to push the edge through form and content. A giant fur wall, large blocks of ice, a minature burning city, a storm of horses… she writes and directs RWE’s annual main-stage production, bringing her visual artist’s eye to the stage. She creates mythic worlds and contemporary folktales, combining bold visual design with adventurous choreography and dramatic storytelling.Beyond Ragged Wing, her plays were selected for The Best of PlayGround Spring Festival, the Bay Area One Acts, Fury Factory, and The Eugene O’Neil Foundation’s Selected Shorts. She is a Resident Playwright for Playwright’s PlayGround and has won the People’s Choice Award twice for her short plays and the June Anne Baker Award commission. Her artwork has appeared at Arizona State University, Cafe da Vinci, Place Pigalle, The Flight Deck, and Mercury 20. In all her endeavors, Amy works from the gut, using theater and art as vehicles for healing, empowerment and social change. http://www.amysass.com

BLUE PANTHER PRODUCTIONS
Blue Panther Productions creates artistic relationships and production opportunities in major cities internationally, working with both playwrights and theater companies to increase visibility and reach significant national and international production goals faster and at greater levels of success. Blue Panther also directly produces or co-produces a few select productions each year in cosmopolitan cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York. and Barcelona. Laura Lundy is the Founder and Executive Producer of Blue Panther.

Lundy’s Blue Panther Production credits include the upcoming 2017 international tour of “Dylan Brody’s Driving Hollywood” starring humorist Dylan Brody and directed by Nancy Carlin in Chicago, Barcelona and New York, the 2016 New York City run of Award-Winning comedian Alicia Dattner’s “The Oy of Sex,” celebrated Toronto dancer/performance artist Sara Porter’s “Sara does a Solo” at the 2016 San Francisco International Arts Festival, Scott Charles’ 2015 drama “Dinners with Augie” at Antiquite Maison, Sacramento, and a co-production of Conor McPherson’s “The Birds” with Symmetry Theatre, Oakland (2016). http://www.bluepantherproductions.com/

IAN M. WHITE, PRODUCER
Ian is an actor and freelance producer. Ian worked with Laura Lundy and Blue Panther Productions regularly over the past few years. He began collaborating with Lundy in 2013 when he co-produced George Pfirrmann’s “AROUSAL” and Harold Pinter’s “The Lover” in New York at The Flea Theater after successful runs in San Francisco and L.A. (Virago Theatre Company). It was a magical collaboration. Ian recently transitioned from living in New York City to Los Angeles and now regularly collaborates with Blue Panther as a producer on Los Angeles projects. Ian is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts where he produced full-length plays and sketch comedy. In 2015, he produced a newly imagined production of HAIR, the tribal rock musical, in collaboration with Desert Stages Theatre in Arizona. Later that year, he began producing a feature film. The film is will be released in 2017.

LOS ANGELES THEATRE CENTER
Where the stages reflect the diversity of Los Angeles. Our mission is to produce diverse theater, dance, and music programming, along with creating summits and artistic discussions for peoples of all cultures. Accordingly, we are committed to commissioning new plays, training young actors, writers, and theater artists, providing arts education, and creating international cultural exchange with artists and audiences from around the globe. Our vision is to create a world-class cultural arts center for those pursing artistic excellence; a laboratory where both tradition and innovation are honored and honed; a space where the convergence of people, cultures and ideas of the great city of Los Angeles contribute to its artistic future.

Programming strives to not only reflect the diverse cultures of the community but more specifically, works to highlight the creative vitality of people telling their own stories, digging deep into their own traditions to address the important issues of our day. “We are bringing people together from different cultures to meet each other, to celebrate our differences, to learn from one another and to understand our common humanity. What better way to build community in the diverse Los Angeles we all share. Come join us!” -Jose Luis Valenzuela, Artistic Director