The Living Room Series

The LIVING ROOM SERIES is The Blank’s New Play Development Program. Since its inception in 1991, LRS has been giving artists of all levels an opportunity to grow and stretch their talents in a safe and nurturing environment.

Presented nearly every Monday night from Labor Day to Memorial Day, the Living Room Series presents new plays free to the public. These are “workshop” presentations and have a small rehearsal process.

They are not “readings” with actors getting one 2 hour rehearsal. These are “Workshops” which allow a rehearsal process and an opportunity for the playwright, director and actors to explore the material while putting it on its feet. They are simply staged, presented with “book in hand” (meaning actors carry scripts), and are a wonderful opportunity for audiences and the playwright to get a sense of the plays full presence and how it might be staged in a full production.

We have developed plays by well-established playwrights like Steven Sater (Tony Award winner for SPRING AWAKENING), Jonathan Tolins, Mark Saltzman, Michael John LaChiusa as well as hundreds of emerging playwrights.

The plays we have developed have gone onto Laguna Playhouse, Colony Theatre, Transport Group (NYC), Black Dahlia Theatre, Brideswell Theatre (London) among others.

The LIVING ROOM SERIES is also a Mainstage development tool for The Blank. Our Mainstage Productions of DICKIE & BABE, HEADS, A HOLE IN THE DARK, LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES, AS IS, FIRST LADY SUITE, PRECIOUS SONS, STARR STRUCK, BREAKING THE CODE, CHESS, THE CRADLE WILL ROCK, GERTRUDE STEIN & A COMPANION, and ISN’T IT ROMANTIC have all come out of LRS.

The Living Room Series takes place Monday nights 8pm at:

For reservations: email info@theblank.com

Suggested Donations Start at $10

How to submit plays for consideration for the LIVING ROOM SERIES

Upcoming in The Living Room Series:

Monday February 13th

TIGER BY THE TAIL
Written by Frawley Becker
Directed by Rick Sparks

When an intelligent Los Angeles gay therapist, concerned with loneliness and aging, answers a personal ad from a state prison inmate on the opposite side of the country, you know that anything can happen.  Especially when the inmate turns out to be intelligent himself, venting his frustration in prison by writing beautiful poetry.  The two men connect in their letters, then in dream-like moments imagine they meet, converse, and touch.  This illusory quality of their developing relationship is offset by harsh realities in each man’s life – the gay therapist receiving practical advice from his own earthbound therapist, and the young prisoner ricocheting off other prisoners and guards, each with his own shattered dream.  While the therapist awaits the young man’s release, a mess hall incident erupts, sending a prisoner into solitary confinement.  Suddenly the tenure of the correspondence changes.  Will the two men eventually meet?  And equally important, outside of their fantasies, what are they really like?

Starring
Ceasar F. Barajas, Gregory Butler, Jasper Cole, Michael Dempsey, Chip Joslin, Michael Kearns, Josh Luteran, Brian Normoyle, Eileen T'Kaye

Writer Bio
Frawley Becker is a published book author and short story writer as well as a prize-winning playwright. He lived in Paris for 17 years, most of which were spent as a bilingual film dialogue coach for actors Audrey Hepburn, Peter O’Toole, Rex Harrison, Gene Wilder, and others. He worked with directors William Wyler, John Huston, and Vittorio de Sica. As a producer Frawley mounted the first Edward Albee plays in France and founded the first African- American theatre company within the U.S. military. (He is a U.S. Army veteran, having served two years in the Medical Corps.) In Hollywood he worked as a Location Manager for such features as Steel Magnolias, Jerry Maguire, and Footloose, as well as for television’s Movie-of-the-Week programs for Oprah Winfrey Presents. He also was a Production Executive for The Disney Studios. He has been listed in Who’s Who in America since 2004 and has his name inscribed on the Wall of Tolerance at the Civil Rights Memorial Center in Montgomery, Alabama.


Monday February 20th

THE COVER UP
Written by Jon Marans
Directed by Beth Schachter

In the summer of 1973, most Americans sat glued to their couch, watching the Watergate trials. However, a different cover-up is going on in the Taggert household. Portland is determined to cover up her older daughter's failing mental health and help her pass her final college course: Botany. The only problem, Portland doesn't remotely understand Botany and can't adequately teach it. So she needs to find someone extremely trustworthy to enter the family's secret world and save the day. And it appears that she's found the right man: an Asian scientist named Robert E. Lee.     

Starring
TBA

Writer Bio
Jon Marans' plays include: The Cost of the Erection (The Blank Theater); A Strange and Separate People (Studio Theater/Theater Row, NYC and Penguin Rep); The Temperamentals (nominated for Lucille Lortel Outstanding New Play, Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway play and nominated for John Gassner Award); Old Wicked Songs (Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama, included in Otis Guernsey's Best Plays of 1996-97); Jumping For Joy (Laguna Playhouse and International Adelaide Theater Festival in Australia); Legacy of the Dragonslayers (book by Jon Marans, lyrics by Ronnie Gilbert, at San Jose Rep); Irrationals (book & lyrics Jon Marans, music by Edward Thomas, at Village Theater in Seattle and ATA, NYC). In television, Mr. Marans was a writer/lyricist for the 1991 New Carol Burnett show. In film, Jon Marans and Yuri Sivo were hired by Universal/Tribeca productions to write a political/war screenplay based on Roy Rowan’s acclaimed book Chasing the Dragon. Mr. Marans is a graduate of Duke University in mathematics with a minor in music.


Monday February 27th

DOESN’T ANYONE KNOW WHAT A PANCREAS IS?
Written by Carole Real
Directed by Jenny O’Hara

When Jason, a fairly neurotic thirty-something, has a pancreatic health scare, he decides it’s time to find a true partner in life, as opposed to yet another variation of the woman who is “just not that into him.” With the moral support of his buddy Anthony, who is also navigating the rocky road of romance, he throws himself into internet dating until he finds the woman who may be the one for him -- whether he likes it or not.

Starring
William Duffy, Annika Marks, Jeff Kerr McGivney, Liz Ross

Writer Bio
A California native and a graduate of Yale University, Carole has written several one acts, including Why the Beach Boys are Like Opera, and The Battle of Bull Run Always Makes Me Cry, which has been anthologized, included in two textbooks and performed throughout the United States, Canada and Asia. Her one act, Don’t Say Another Word, was included in 2009’s Summer Shorts 3 Festival of One Act Plays at 59E59th Street in Manhattan.  Doesn’t Anyone Know What A Pancreas Is?, has had readings at Ensemble Studio Theatre in LA and New York, where Carole is a member, as has her most recent full-length, We Used To Be Fun.


Monday March 5th

DON’T GO GENTLE
Written by Stephen Belber
Directed by Daniel Henning

Starring
TBA

Writer Bio

Monday March 12th

COMES A FAERY
Written by James McLindon
Directed by Sean Daniels


Starring
TBA

Writer Bio

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