Appearing in works penned by Jeffrey Hatcher, Eric Simonson, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Roger Guenveur Smith, Charles Busch, Rinne Groff, Arthur Miller, Keith Bunin, Melinda Lopez and more, they take part in LATW's "The Play's The Thing" radio theater series which is performed live at the Skirball Cultural Center and recorded for future broadcast.
"As the premier broadcaster and publisher of audio plays in the U.S., it's important that LATW look forward as well as back," stated producing artistic director Susan Loewenberg in the season announcement. "Our mission is to preserve great plays and performances, but also to champion new work and new voices."
The 2006-07 "Voices from the Edge" season lineup (subject to change) is as follows:
Gregory Itzin, Amy Brenneman and Anna Gunn star in the west coast premiere of the Jeffrey Hatcher and Eric Simonson work about the title architect. Simonson directs.
Stephen Adly Guirgis' dramatic take on life behind bars will make its Los Angeles premiere.
Rosalind Ayres directs the American premiere of Peter Oswald's new translation of the Frederick von Schiller classic about the titular popular cousin of Elizabeth I.
A double bill of Roger Guenveur Smith's The Watts Towers Project — about an Italian immigrant who spent 33 years building towers then walked away from them, never to return — and Adriana Sevan's Taking Flight about a friendship tested by the tragedy of 9/11.
Marsha Mason, Tony Roberts and Jobeth Williams star in Charles Busch's comedy about a middle-aged doctor's wife embroiled a mid-life crisis of Medea-like proportions, she's shaken out of her lethargy by the reappearance of a fascinating childhood friend.
Jobeth Williams directs Lili Taylor, Adam Arkin and Harriet Sansom Harris in the west coast premiere of Rinne Groff's tale of a young woman who — in 1927 — struggles to realize her dream of inventing and perfecting the first all-electrical television system.
Kurtwood Smith stars in Arthur Miller's Great Depression-set drama which LATW will add to its previously-recorded archive of eight Miller plays.
Jill Clayburgh and members from the original Off-Broadway cast reprise their roles for the west coast premiere of Keith Bunin's new play which centers on a widowed Episcopal minister, her scholarly assistant and her wayward son.
A mother of two living in Minneapolis struggles with the memory of escaping the Cuban revolution when her only son enlists in the military after 9/11. Hector Elizondo and Phillip Casnoff appear in the drama by Melinda Lopez. One last presentation, scheduled for a July 11-15 run, is yet to be announced.
LATW's nationally syndicated radio show "The Play's The Thing" series is can be heard in cities across the country including Boston, Seattle, Albuquerque as well as on XM Satellite radio. The two-hour radio broadcasts include special backstage features and interviews with actors, playwrights and directors. The L.A. Theatre Works Audio Theatre Collection is available in bookstores, libraries, through their catalog or digitally on audible.com, the L.A. Theatre Works website and iTunes.
For tickets to any of "The Play's The Thing" series productions at the Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Boulevard, in L.A., CA, call the L.A. Theatre Works' Box Office at (310) 827-0889. For more information, visit www.latw.org.
