The Car Plays Ride Again at the Without Walls Festival in San Diego

My short play "Drop Off Day" -- about a mom dropping her daughter off at college -- is part of Moving Arts' THE CAR PLAYS, which is now running in San Diego as part of the Without Walls Festival of site-specific work at La Jolla Playhouse.

The festival was featured in the New York Times today -- a nice (and surprising) bit of good press!

Drop-Off Day

Written by EM Lewis
Directed by Dana Harrel
Featuring Wendy Waddell as Barbara and Dana Lau as Soo Min

Reveille Revisited!

Here are some pictures from Moving Arts production of The Car Plays, now running (extended!) in San Diego, at La Jolla Playhouse.  I'm proud to have my short play "Reveille" included.  "Reveille" is about a young man who has signed up for the military on the morning he is supposed to leave for Basic Training, and his father, who despite being a vet himself, doesn't want his son to go.

Reveille by EM Lewis
Directed by Sam Woodhouse
Featuring Will Tulin and Michael Zlotnik

Will Tulin as Leonard, and Michael Zlotnik as Linny.

Will Tulin and Michael Zlotnik.

Mike Zlotnik as Linny.

The Car Plays race into Costa Mesa and San Diego!

I love starting the new year with a couple of new productions!

In January and February, Moving Arts -- my home theater company in Los Angeles -- is reprising what has become its signature event, The Car Plays.  After successful participation in last year's Radar Festival, we've been invited to participate in two more Southern California festivals -- the Off-Center Festival at the Segerstrom Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, and the Without Walls Festival at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego.  I'm proud to have a play in each production.

The Car Plays roll into Segerstrom Center for the 2012 Off-Center Festival.

The Car Plays are a unique event.  When you buy a ticket, you have just purchased one row of five cars -- and there is a ten-minute story in each car.  There are usually three rows all together -- fifteen short plays.  Ushers escort you from one car to the next when each play is done.  Paul Stein brought the concept to Moving Arts, and continues to be the artistic director and producer of the event, along with producers Steve Lozier, Kim Glann and Cece Tio.  You need great producers -- a really great team of everybody, really -- to make this event work.  It requires precision, clock-work timing, and a lot of heart and hard work from all the writers, directors, actors and ushers to bring you the most intimate theater experience you'll ever find.

"Car Plays is a brilliant and inventive concept, a kaleidoscope of situations that draw snapshot portraits from life, with soulful acting and cinematic details that's so close to home and physically intimate that it blurs the distinctions between theater and life."

-L.A. Weekly

Now playing in the Off-Center Festival at the Segerstrom Center

Bohemian.  Like You.
Written by EM Lewis
Directed by Darin Anthony
Featuring Peter James Smith, Daria Balling and Warren Davis

Richie has known Melody and Don forever.  But he didn't know they did this...

The cast of "Bohemian. Like You."  Warren Davis, Daria Balling and Peter James Smith heat up the front seat!

This car is our stage.  "Bohemian. Like You."  Written by EM Lewis and directed by Darin Anthony.

More Information:  Segerstrom Center "The Car Plays" site

Press:  LA Stage Times (article by Don Shirley)

Coming soon to the Without Walls (WoW!) Festival at the La Jolla Playhouse

Reveille

Written by EM Lewis

Directed by Sam Woodhouse

Featuring (TBA)

Leonard's only son has signed up for the military.  He leaves for boot camp this morning.

More Information:  La Jolla Playhouse "The Car Plays" site

Press:  U~T San Diego