Love Is Another Country

Coin & Ghost in Association with Vs. Theatre Company Present 

The World Premiere of Lisa Marie Rollins’
Love Is Another Country

Sophocles’ Classic Antigone, Black Women's Bodies & Incarceration
At Vs. Theatre in Los Angeles
February 1 – March 2, 2019

Coin & Ghost in association with Vs. Theatre Company present the World premiere of Love Is Another Country, a radical reimagining of Sophocles’s Antigone at Vs. Theatre in Los Angeles from Friday, February 1 through Saturday, March 2, 2019. The third production of Coin & Ghost’s inaugural season, Love Is Another Country is a new play written by the prolific Bay Area theatre artist Lisa Marie Rollinsand her first full-length work to be produced in Los Angeles. Directed by Kendall Johnson, the production brings together the ancient tale of Antigone Vswith the deaths of innumerable black men and women at the hands of police. Part ritual, part rage, part collective ask to the audience, the play follows three women of the Chapman family as they navigate living as black women in a country that claims to love them. For more information, please visit https://coinandghost.org/liac.

Dee Dee Stephens
Photo:
Zachary Reeve Davidson 

Love Is Another Country opens on Friday, February 1^st and runs throughout Black History Month for five weekends with the last performance on Saturday, March 2, 2019. There will usually* be three or four performances depending on the weekend. For the first three weekends (2/1 – 2/17), shows will run most Fridays* and all three Saturdays at 8:00pm and Sundays at 2:30pm. For the last two weekends (2/21 – 3/2), performances will also happen on Thursday nights at 8:00pm. For the final weekend (2/28 – 3/2) there is no Sunday matinee. Vs. Theatre is located at 5453 Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019 (323-739-4411). There are three tiers of ticket prices: VIP tickets at $30 (first three rows; includes a drink), $25 for general admission and Pay-What-You-Can (PWYC) for the back row. As with all Coin & Ghost (C&G) productions, opening weekend will be entirely PWYC.

* The theater will be dark on Friday 2/15 due to two of the producers getting married! Everyone involved will be attending :-).

The play, written in collaboration with Coin & Ghost, emerged as a radical re-imagining of Sophocles’ Antigone, in response to two cultural stimuli: the systemic deaths of black people as a result of police terror, and the generational impact of incarceration on black women. In Love Is Another Country, a cast of four explores these themes unflinchingly and without apology. Crafted through devised theatre techniques drawn from the lived experiences of the cast, as well as those of Rollins herself, it features an ensemble cast of diasporic black women who bring to life this vital storytelling and hold the space for collective healing for the community. The cast includes Amaka Izuchi (Jordan), Celia Mandela (Nene), Tyree Marshall (Ethel May), and Dee Dee Stephens (Gonee)

Love Is Another Country https://coinandghost.org/liac

Love Is A Dirty Word

Let's Give Them Something To Think About

Tilted Field, in association with VS. Theatre Company, is proud to present the World Premiere of Giovanni Adams’ new play Love is a Dirty Word, opening in Los Angeles on Saturday, June 17th at 8:00pm. The solo work, performed by Adams, with musical accompaniment by Arturo Lopez, is about a young man finding redemption when he is deemed too dirty to love. This autobiographical piece is rooted in Mr. Adams’ experience as a black, queer, Christian man crossing lines of identity, affinity and ideology. Love is a Dirty Word was developed and directed by Becca Wolff (No Static at All, Outstanding Solo Show, 2015 NY Fringe Festival). The play will run through Saturday, July 15, 2017 at VS. Theatre on Pico. For more information please visit http://vstheatre.org and https://www.facebook.com/events/835544223260279.

The story begins and ends in Adams’ hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. The songs are originals by Mr. Adams and arranged by Mr. Lopez. Designers include Melissa Trn (costumes) and Rachel Myers (set). The 80-minute show will run Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00pm at VS. Theatre, which is located at 5453 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90019. The first show on Friday, June 16th is a preview performance. Opening Night is set for Saturday, June 17th. Tickets are $30 each and available by calling the box office at 323-739-4411 or online by visiting Brown Paper Tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2951780. 

Adams and Wolff began developing the show in the summer of 2015 when “...the perceived abject otherness of blackness was being made visible in the most horrific fashion. The spectacle of black death gone viral was a wake up call and a reminder that to be born black in America is to live with a heightened awareness of your out-of-placeness,” says Adams. “Safety can be real hard to find. This got me thinking about my own complex relationship to love and home. Is there such a thing as being too different – too dirty to love? That’s the seed of the story that we’re trying to tell. This story is a meditation of my childhood memories in Mississippi, accompanied with music and images. It traces my journey back home to reconnect with the little boy buried on the inside of me…a liberating act of love."