A classic courtroom drama, Inherit The Wind at Pasadena Playhouse puts the audience alongside the actors onstage and in the Apron as court attendees in the gallery and the jury in a jury box (respectively). The production sets all theatrical ‘tricks’ aside and presents the forever controversy regarding evolution vs theological understanding of the origin of life in a stripped down and genuine setup, where the spectator is literally in the midst of it.

When Cates, a high-school teacher in a small American town, teaches Darwin in class, he finds himself put on trial by the townfolk. The play was written in the 50’s, inspired by the real events of the Scopes Monkey Trial in the 20’s; and the production - when it comes to design fully embraces the relevance of the topic by setting it in 2023.

VENUE - Pasadena Playhouse (Los Angeles)

Three generations of the De Dios family get together for a weekend celebration of the matriarch’s birthday. Hoping to clear some waters & reunite, the immigrant family (now living in California) somehow manage to spend the weekend opening boxes that go decades back. 

Between the first generation who immigrated from the Philippines, the second generation who were raised in the US with strong ties to their parents’ culture, and the third generation who are quite Americanized and have to get out of their way to connect to their ancestors culture, GOD WILL DO THE REST raises the question of identity within one family in a discourse rather familiar to anyone aware of the term ‘family drama.’

VENUE - LATC, Los Angeles Theatre Center (Los Angeles)

Two adult brothers rediscover a lot about themselves and their family while they care for their elderly mother who is diagnosed with dementia. The two brothers attempt to write two separate scripts inspired by the years long exploitation of the white studio systems to black artists - one of whom being their grandfather. Boney Manilli uses dementia as an inspiration to the world of the show by swiftly shifting between the real world of the play, to fragmented memories, to fears & nightmares of the different characters. The fabric of the world of the play is communicative to the fragility of memory and the human brain. It is a story of a family with all the complex layers that come with that.

VENUE - REDCAT (Los Angeles)

In a remarkable collaboration between Pasadena Playhouse and Pasadena Unified School District, Into The Woods takes place with a cast of students and a production team of industry professionals. The award winning musical of the Grimm Brothers fables is told through the imagination of the renowned Stephen Sondheim.

VENUE - Pasadena Civic Auditorium (Los Angeles)

Over the centuries, Medea has been a controversial charter. Is she the antagonist or the protagonist? Is she a villain or a victim of a patriarchal world?

Medea Refracted eliminates all the men from the story, jumps forward in time, and offers Medea (and the audience) a journey that searches for healing in a more just world. Medea, the nurse, and a chorus of women take matters in hand, even if the past is still a factor.

VENUE - The Getty Villa Auditorium (Los Angeles)

Miss Julie: Freedom Summer is a production that draws subtle parallels between the United States’ racial violence in 1964 vis a vis the racial hostility that continues to take place today. The production is a loaded dramatic endeavor to make noise and awaken the senses and thoughts of the audience - to engage them with what is happening outside the theatre, everyday.

VENUE - Bing Theatre, USC (Los Angeles)

A dance adaptation of the novel by Brazilian author Clarice Lispector, Heidi Duckler’s The Chandelier follows a tragic coming-of-age story told from the perspective of a young girl who constantly lived under male dominance. Duckler animates the book’s interior monologues and devises characters from odd fragments of dialogue to create a moving portrait of a family living amid the ruins of a colonial society. Through layers of imagery & acts of repetition, Duckler explores the contrasting ideas of impermanence and the irrevocable.

VENUE - Wallis Annenberg Center for The Performing Arts (Los Angeles)

Unsettling Ramona is an intimate site specific experience based on the 1884 novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson. The production was a multimedia experience which included film projections, dance, a live operatic performance as well as a call and response between the artists and the audience honoring the Native land of Los Angeles.
VENUE - Los Encinos State Historic Park (Los Angeles)

When Naeema embarks on a journey to collect the scattered remains of her deceased lover, she encounters people, stories, tragedies, and even mythical creatures. At the end of the journey she grows out of her shelter and sees a bigger picture of a dystopia we are a part of. The folktale of Naeema & Hassan is heavily influenced by the Ancient Egyptian gods Isis & Osiris.

VENUE - Gerhart Theatre, AUC (Cairo)

An interrogator is assigned a suspect. In the routine of the power game, the tables turn and the interrogator admits his crimes to the suspect. He tries to save face, but what was revealed cannot be unsaid.

VENUE - Gerhart Theatre, AUC (Cairo)

Press: Al Ahram Weekly