Don't miss Angels Gate's 2009 New Play Reading Series on Saturday, February 7th.
New plays by first-rate Los Angeles playwrights will be read by professional actors in an informal gallery setting.

This year, all three plays will be presented in one day.

At 2pm the series kicks off with Oliver Mayer's Dark Matters, followed by The Ghost Building by Damon Chua at 5pm. The series concludes with Year Zero by Michael Golamco at 8pm. Each play is set in contemporary Los Angeles. Colliding worlds of science and music, of old Hollywood glamour and new Hollywood grit, of yuppies and Long Beach gangs create a portrait of the city for the first decade of the 21st Century.

Come for one reading or stay for the whole day. You'll see some of the best new plays coming out of L.A. this year, have a chance to meet the actors, writers and directors, and enjoy the Angels Gate campus with its sweeping views. All readings are in Angels Gate Cultural Center Gallery A in Angels Gate Park in San Pedro.

Admission is $10 to each reading or $20 for the entire series.

Food will be available for purchase during breaks - or bring a picnic.

No reservations needed. Free parking.

About the Plays

Dark Matters, 2pm, was commissioned by the Sloan Foundation, and is an exploration of the relationship between love, science and art. The play reveals the duende in universal dark matter, and the intense, paranoid, passionate and human lives which scientists (and professional back-up singers) may lead. Directed by Bart DeLorenzo.

Playwright Oliver Mayer, is Assistant Professor of Dramatic Writing at the USC School of Theatre. He has two world premier plays currently in production in Los Angeles, Dias y Flores at Company of Angels and Laws of Sympathy at Playwrights Arena. Other plays include Blade to the Heat, Conjunto, Rocio! In Spite of it All, Young Valiant, Joe Louis Blues, Joy of the Desolate and The Road to Los Angeles.

The Ghost Building, 5pm, is inspired by the historic Alexandria Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. A murder mystery that cuts back and forth between the 1920s and today, the play unveils the hopes and dreams of a silent movie starlet and a modern-day writer on her own journey of truth and deceit. Directed by Tony Gatto.

Damon Chua, playwright, received the 2007 Ovation Award for Best World Premiere Play. Damon was the winner of the First Asian American Playwriting Competition organized by ACTS of Harvard University and holds a Fulbright nomination in the Dramatic Arts. Damon currently heads up the Playwrights Group for Company of Angels, Los Angeles' oldest non-profit theatre company, where he is also the Literary Director.

Year Zero by Michael Golamco, 8pm, is the story of a weird kid in a place where weirdness can be fatal: Long Beach, California. This comedy-drama about reincarnation, reinvention, and redemption in a community of young Cambodian Americans, was a Chicago Dramatists' Many Voices project grand prize winner, and was selected for the Victory Gardens' Ignition festival of new plays. Directed by Nathan Birnbaum.

Michael Golamco is currently working on a new play commissioned by South Coast Repertory with support from the Elizabeth George Foundation.


For more information, please contact: Deborah Lewis: deborah@angelsgateart.org
Executive Director, Angels Gate Cultural Center