Press Release

IAMA Theatre Company will present three premieres and forge new partnerships in 2018-19, the company’s 11th season.

IAMA joins forces with the Pasadena Playhouse for the already-announced Los Angeles premiere of American Hero by Bess Wohl, a guest production at the Playhouse’s Carrie Hamilton Theatre (Sept. 21–Oct. 21, with previews beginning Sept. 15). James Eckhouse directs fellow IAMA company members Anna LaMadrid, Laura Mann, Graham Outerbridge and Rodney To in Wohl’s darkly comic celebration of the power of teamwork and unity to overcome adversity.

“As part of the Playhouse’s commitment to being a center for all types of theater and theater artists, we’re pleased to welcome the acclaimed IAMA Theatre Company,” said producing artistic director Danny Feldman.

In March, 2019, IAMA will partner with the Latino Theater Company to bring the world premiere of Canyon by Jonathan Caren to the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Weyni Mengesh directs this daring new play about a man in search of a better view from his deck deep within a canyon and the people who either help him get it, or stand in his way. It all takes place on a fateful Labor Day weekend in 2016 — right before everything in America changed. (Tentative dates: March 8–April 7, with previews beginning March 1).

“We are thrilled to collaborate with IAMA,” says Latino Theater Company artistic director José Luis Valenzuela. “Canyon is an important new work that looks at the relationships — social, political and economic — between Latinos and other communities in our country.”

Finally, spring brings IAMA back to their home at Atwater Village Theatre with the world premiere of Mamatallica — a joyfully irreverent black comedy by 2017 Humanitas Play LA award-winner Sigrid Gilmer that entwines issues of identity with pop culture icons for a truly unique (and head-banging) experience. Sterling Milburn’s mother is dying and Sterling is falling apart. She attempts to keep it together by rewriting the past with the help of two titans of the American theater and the world’s greatest heavy metal band — but Sterling’s mother refuses to follow the script. A love letter to those who shape our lives, hold us together and break our hearts. Deena Selenow directs. (Tentative dates: May 23–June 23, with previews beginning May 17).

According to IAMA co-artistic directors Stefanie Black, Christian Durso and Katie Lowes, “Dedicating our 11th season to partnerships in our L.A. theater community is a great step in our continued mission of developing new works in a collaborative environment. As we look towards the next ten years of IAMA and beyond, we are excited to work with the Pasadena Playhouse and the Latino Theater Company to bring these new plays to Los Angeles. Now is the time when the arts need all the help they can get; we believe it is our duty as theater artists to reach out and join hands with those around us. We are all L.A. theater!”

In addition to the three aforementioned productions, IAMA will present a New Works Festival of staged readings Nov. 8 through Nov. 11; a star-studded Holiday Cabaret on Dec. 9; and its fifth annual One Day Plays event on Feb. 10.