Stains, Junk and Other Necessities of Life

How far will you go to be heard? Will you whisper or shout about love, rejection, choices, tattoos, and the perks and pressures of life as a junkyard dog? Eight members of the Young Professionals’ Company at Santa Monica Playhouse push their world to the limits in this multi-media theatrical celebration of junk in all its glorious incarnations. Developed and created through across-country cultural theatre collaboration between Santa Monica Playhouse and the Northridge Play Project in Dayton, Ohio by author-directors Chris DeCarlo and Evelyn.

In a town with no movie theatre, no library, no bowling alley, no video arcade, no parks, a town where the main street was lined with used car lots and strip clubs, a town with nowhere at all for kids to "hang out," these young actors wanted to make a difference. The results were not only an amazing collaboration and an exciting piece of theatre, called "powerful" by Dramatics Magazine and "unique" by Impact Weekly after its world premiere at the state Thespian Conference, but also a dream-come-true for the students of Northridge High School – for the city fathers (and the state fathers as well) took notice, and although it took another five years, the longed-for recreation facility was finally a reality. Ten years after its initial run, Stains speaks louder than ever. It whispers of lost love; it burbles of family failings; it snorts of jealousy and rage; it shouts of fear, ambition and rejection; and ultimately, it speaks of the right to be heard, and the right to be wrong. Stains will play for four performances only, and features Leah Artenian, Mary Cruz, Mellie Ghaffari, Nima Ghassemian, Jasmine Gutierrez, Jackie Murray and Angela Tuckerman, with surprise video appearances from local radio and television news anchors and celebrities and man-and-woman-in-the-street interviewees.