West Coast Premiere

A little known chapter in American history comes to life with suspense, humor, rage and hope in Jon Tuttle's WWII-era drama HOLY GHOST. The piece closely examines the sometimes horrifying and occasionally hilarious tensions that erupt when African American soldiers are assigned to guard enemy prisoners at a stateside POW camp where prisoners are, in many ways, treated better than the guards.

The Fountain Theatre opens its 20th Anniversary Season with the West Coast premiere of Ifa Bayeza's daring, folk and gospel-infused "The Ballad of Emmett Till" in celebration of Black History Month. Part history, part mystery and part ghost story, Bayeza's jazz/gospel/folk integration of past, present, fact and legend turns the story of the 1955 murder of 14-year old Emmett Till, whose shocking death helped spark the nascent civil rights movement, into a soaring work of music, poetic language and riveting theatricality. February 11-March 20; Thurs, Fri, Sat at 8 pm and Sun at 2 pm; $15-$28; The Fountain Theatre , 5060 Fountain Avenue (at Normandie), Los Angeles, CA 90029. (323) 663-1525 www.FountainTheatre.com.

The latest incarnation of Wyoming's untamed daughter, Barbara Bragg's show. Join Bragg as she spins theatrical magic from the stories that won't leave her alone…from her father's ghost stories of the old West to a sister who swallows stars—even Dick Cheney makes a guest appearance! Barbara takes her audience on an exhilarating journey ricocheting from gut-wrenching to darkly funny... to piercingly truthful...careening from tragedy to comedy with whip-snapping bravado as she wrestles with the angels and demons howling in her soul like the prairie wind.

The West Coast premiere of Athol Fugard's achingly beautiful new play that exposes life in contemporary South Africa through the unforgettable love of a mother and her child and the promise of a new world.

A hypomanic, alcoholic, one-man show with ADHD.
"Pay Attention" tells Frank South's story of how as a New York waiter and performance artist he was catapulted into fast track Hollywood TV writing, unwittingly unleashing his Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Hypomania, Alcoholism, and Issues with Authority. In nearly two non-stop hours of intense hilarity and horror, South careens from a high school talent show, to mentorship with Robert Altman, to the deadly world of network television.

“Pay Attention, Frank South's descent into the Hollywood vortex, is both hilarious and heartbreaking, a raw and riotous ride,”-Andre and Maria Jacquemetton, Producers Mad Men

Written & Performed by Frank South (writer/producer Melrose Place, Cagney & Lacey, Fame, Hill Street Blues and General Hospital.)
Directed by Mark Travis. Travis is perhaps best known for the solo shows that he has developed and directed over the past 15 years. Notably: Time Flies When You're Alive, A Bronx Tale, Undressing New Jersey, Insomnia, Something In His Genes, The Dangerous Lure of High Heels, Cabin Fever, What Does The Sun Sound Like?, They Call Me Mr. Fry, Hip Bones and Cool Whip, Almost Made, Walking Back to Brooklyn, and Fornicationally Challenged. He has been credited in the LA Times with having created a 'new theater genre'. His first book on film directing, The Director's Journey became an instant best-seller (L.A. Times) and was followed by Directing Feature Films which is currently required reading by hundreds of film schools worldwide.
Lighting Design by Kathi O'Donohue
Produced by Margaret South( South has developed television and feature film projects for Disney, Fox and Tri-Star Studios, HBO, ABC, and NBC. She produced several feature films, including the beloved Beaches, starring Bette Midler.)

In this new play from Lydia R. Diamond, one of America's freshest and most dynamic voices, an upper class African American family wrestles with parental expectations, sibling rivalry, and issues of class and race. Set in the elite, upper crust community of Martha's Vineyard, where African Americans have had a cultural history dating back to the early 1600s, "Stick Fly" explores complex and intertwining issues of family, trust and class in an incisive and brutally funny look at one complicated family in disarray.

Sensitive Kent LeVay and his slick brother Flip see their weekend at the family home as the perfect opportunity to introduce their girlfriends to their parents. Instead, they stumble onto a domestic powder keg of prejudice, hypocrisy and family secrets.

Who really discovered the secret of life? Rosalind Franklin was a brilliant and passionate young scientist whose groundbreaking study led to the historic discovery of DNA. But did her male colleagues steal her data and claim credit for themselves? "Photograph 51" is a moving and compelling drama about scientific intrigue and competition - and a woman's life in a man's world.

Based on a true story, "Photograph 51" recounts how X-ray diffraction images created by English biophysicist Rosalind Franklin provided the critical breakthrough that James Watson and Francis Crick needed to develop their Nobel-prize-winning model of the DNA molecule in 1953. How much credit Franklin deserves for this discovery, and how the work of women scientists was treated, has roiled scientific circles ever since. Playwright Anna Ziegler introduces us to a combustible mix of characters: Franklin, Watson, Crick, and their colleagues Maurice Wilkins, Raymond Gosling and Don Caspar, to recreate the events leading up to one of the greatest discoveries of the 20th century. In the process, she raises provocative questions about sexism, scientific collaboration and ethical behavior - and wraps it all in a tale of romance and intrigue.