Rogue Machine Theatre Opens Season 17 January 25

Multi-award-winning Rogue Machine Theatre (BEST SEASON AWARD 2023, 2016, 2011; BEST PRODUCTION AWARD 2013, 2011, 2010 – Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle) announces its seventeenth season.

The first show of the new season opens at 8pm on Saturday, January 25 at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046.

SEASON 17 Rogue Machine offerings begin with the Southern California premiere of Will Arbery’s EVANSTON SALT COSTS CLIMBING, directed by Rogue Machine’s Artistic Director Guillermo Cienfuegos. Pulitzer Prize finalist Arbery (Heroes of the Fourth Turning; Succession) confronts humanity’s darkest fears with humor, warmth, and the fortitude of municipal public servants in this play about climate and change. Winters keep getting worse in Evanston, IL where salt truck drivers Peter and Basil battle the ice and snow and pass the time with jokes and stories. But what’s with this creeping sense of dread? Is it because their boss Maiworm has noble visions of new green technology that would make their jobs obsolete? Or is there a more terrifying warning calling out from under these roads? At least they have each other, right? Starring Hugo Armstrong (as Vanya in Uncle Vanya – Pasadena Playhouse, Twilight: Los Angeles, Alan Raleigh/Michael Novak in God of Carnage – Mark Taper Forum, The Passion of Marie Curie – Geffen Playhouse); Lesley Fera (Fountain Theatre – Between Riverside and Crazy, Pacific Resident Theatre – Ruth in The Homecoming, Sister Margaret in The Hasty Heart, the title role in Anna Christie, and in Lady Chatterley’s Lover); Kaia Gerber (Apple TV+ series Palm Royale with Laura Dern, Carol Burnett, Allison Janney, and the psychological thriller Shell, starring alongside Elisabeth Moss and Kate Hudson); Michael Redfield (starred in John Pollono’s Small Engine Repair, which swept every major L.A. theatre award, and in Rogue Machine’s Oppenheimer. “Featured Performer” nom for his role in Daisy Foote’s When They Speak of Rita at Pacific Resident Theatre, and in My Antonia at the Rubicon Theatre – LA Weekly nom “Best Production”). Tickets for EVANSTON SALT COSTS CLIMBING general admission is $60 on Fridays and Saturdays; $45 Sundays and Mondays. Seniors: $35 Students with ID: $25. Shows4Less: Monday, February 24 ($25+). Reservations: https://www.roguemachinetheatre.org/or for more information 855-585-5185. January 25 – March 9. Contains adult language that may not be suitable for children. Viewer discretion is advised. 

The West Coast premiere of BACON, written by Sophie Swithinbank and directed by Michael Matthews, stars Jack Lancaster and Wesley Guimarães. This story takes an unflinching and unexpectedly humorous look at power and sexuality, through the dizzying lens of youth. One of the boys is new at school and too scared to make friends. The other is out of control and too scary to make friends. But, the two of them need each other. Worlds apart, but more similar than they realize, the pair form a complex and manipulative relationship and before they know it, they’re embarking on a dangerous experiment that will alter the course of their lives. Contains adult language, violence and sexual situations. Viewer discretion is advised. February 8 – April 20 on the Henry Murray Stage.  

CORKTOWN ’39, written by John Fazakerley, marks its World Premiere at Rogue Machine. Steve Robman helms this political thriller about a little known Irish Republican Army (IRA) plot to assassinate the king of England. Based on true events, which includes a tragic romance between the assassin and the woman in whose home he is being sheltered. Starring Ron Bottitta, JD Cullum, Tom Kelly, Ann Noble, and Peter van Norden. April 12 – May 25. Contains adult language that may not be suitable for children. Viewer discretion is advised. 

The World Premiere of ADOLESCENT SALVATION brings playwright Tim Venable back to Rogue Machine for his third production (The Beautiful People, Baby Foot). Guillermo Cienfuegos will direct this searingly funny and fearlessly inquisitive play that examines the moral complexity of the kinds of characters we judge most harshly — and the fatal consequences of ignoring our own complicity in the deeds we condemn. Over the course of one night, through a haze of tequila, texting, and Taylor Swift, three teenagers banter, bicker and push each other to the edge of danger – with consequences that could prove lethal by morning. September 6 – November 2 on the Henry Murray Stage. Contains adult language that may not be suitable for children. Viewer discretion is advised. 

NICE GIRL, by Melissa Ross, makes its West Coast premiere in May. The play takes place in 1984 suburban Massachusetts where thirty-seven-year-old Josephine Rosen has a dead-end job, still lives with her mother, and has settled into the uncomfortable comfort of an unintended spinsterhood. When a chance flirtation with an old classmate and a new friendship at work give her hope for the possibility of change, she dusts off the Jane Fonda tapes and begins to take tentative steps towards a new life. A play about the tragedy and joy of figuring out who you are and letting go of who you were supposed to be. May 10 – July 29 on the Henry Murray Stage. Contains adult language that may not be suitable for children. Viewer discretion is advised.

Rogue Machine’s 2^nd annual PLAYWRIGHT’S ROUNDTABLE FESTIVAL, founded by Rogue Machine’s Executive Director Justin Okin, presents world premiere readings in August. This is a weeklong festival of never before produced plays. Featured playwrights include Agnes Borinsky, David Myers, Diana Burbano, Joy Gregory, Hannah Kenah, Makeda Declet, Megan Tabaque, and Rich Wong. For six months each year, Rogue Machine’s Playwrights Roundtable brings together early to mid-career playwrights, some of whom are returning to theater after finding success in film and television. Writers meet twice a month in a welcoming and creative environment, culminating in public or private presentations of bold new works for the stage. The Playwright’s Roundtable is run by Roundtable alum, Lina Patel. Tickets are FREE for the Festival, allowing audiences to be an integral part of the process and experience these never-before-heard scripts. This peek behind the curtain gives the writers an invaluable opportunity to see how an audience responds to their work as they continue to develop their script. August 18-24. Contains adult language that may not be suitable for children. 

Rogue Machine is the only company to receive the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Polly Warfield Award for “Best Season” three times (2023, 2016, 2011). Additionally, they won the Ovation Award for “Best Season” (2017). Rogue Machine produces new plays, primarily by Los Angeles based playwrights, and important contemporary plays not yet seen in Los Angeles. Nine of their productions have been published by Samuel French, Dramatists Play Service or Broadway Play Publishing, and six of the productions have had subsequent staging’s at significant theatres, including Off Broadway, major regional houses and the Donmar Warehouse in London. Four world premieres, Razorback, Small Engine Repair,Lone-Anon, and One Night in Miami… were made into feature films, and playwright Kemp Powers was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of “Best Adapted Screenplay.” In recognition of its artistic achievement, administrative strength, development of new work and other significant contributions to the field of professional theatre in the United States, Rogue Machine is supported by the Perenchio Foundation, Shubert Foundation, Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, David Lee Foundation, the City and County of Los Angeles, The Ahmanson Foundation, and the Richenthal Foundation. Rogue Machine is a recipient of the American Theatre Wing’s National Theatre Company Grant.   

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