IAMA Theatre Company Sets Three Premieres for 2018-19 Season

IAMA Theatre Company in Los Angeles has announced three premieres set for its 2018-19 season.

Opening the season will be the L.A. premiere of Bess Wohl's American Hero, a guest production at the Pasadena Playhouse's Carrie Hamilton Theatre. Performances begin September 15 ahead of a September 21 opening and will run through October 21. James Eckhouse directs a cast featuring fellow IAMA company members Anna LaMadrid, Laura Mann, Graham Outerbridge, and Rodney To.

The play is described as follows: "A franchise-owned sandwich shop becomes a microcosm of recession-era America in Wohl's sharply comedic commentary on the struggles and perseverance of the American working class. When a trio of disparate and desperate 'sandwich artists' at the local mall — an awkward young misfit (Mann), a single mom (LaMadrid), and a downsized refugee from corporate banking (Outerbridge) — find themselves left to their own devices by overwhelmed franchisee Bob (To), they are forced into an unlikely alliance in order to keep the store, and themselves, afloat."

IAMA will then partner with the Latino Theater Company to present the world premiere of Jonathan Caren's Canyon. Performances are tentatively scheduled to run at the Los Angeles Theatre Center from March 1-April 7, 2019 with an opening on March 8. Directed by Weyni Mengesh, the story is described as a "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."

The final production of the season will be the world premiere of Mamatallica, a black comedy written by Sigrid Gilmer and directed by Deena Selenow. Performances are tentatively scheduled to run from May 17-June 23, 2019 with a May 23 opening at Atwater Village Theatre.

Mamatallica is described as follows: "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."

In addition to the three season productions, IAMA will present a New Works Festival of staged readings from November 8-11, a Holiday Cabaret on December 9, and its fifth annual One Day Plays event on February 10, 2019.

"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," commented IAMA co-artistic directors Stefanie Black, Christian Durso, and Katie Lowes. "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."