RECENT ALIEN ABDUCTIONS
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026
A pivotal episode in the sci-fi series The X-Files that may or may not have actually aired in the mid-1990s becomes a metaphor for childhood trauma in Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas’s Recent Alien Abductions, a West Coast Premiere that sets a high bar for Sacred Fools Theatre’s 30th season.
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at the very bottom of a body of water
Saturday, October 31st, 2026
The quiet magic realism that has made playwriting stars of Sarah Ruhl and Julia Cho has found a fresh new voice in Benjamin Benne, whose World Premiere drama at the very bottom of a body of water has arrived at Boston Court to captivate and move audiences in equal measure.
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SAINT MEGAN
Monday, October 19th, 2026
Playwright Joy Gregory manages to find both humor and heart amidst the hatred spewed by Topeka, Kansas’s infamous Westboro Baptist Church in her captivating and compelling new play Saint Megan, another stunning Rogue Machine Theatre World Premiere.
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FOREVER IN THERE OR F*CK AROUND AND FIND OUT
Saturday, October 10th, 2026
Forever in There or F*ck Around and Find Out. The title may be easily forgotten, but not the gripping Theatre of NOTE World Premiere that Kill Shelter’s Ashley Rose Wellman has written about two Americans at long last freed from captivity in an unspecified foreign danger zone.
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A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026
A pair of single fathers from mirror-opposite backgrounds bond against all odds over parenthood, financial challenges, and a shared “specific kind of sadness” in Samuel D. Hunter’s deeply moving two-hander, A Case For The Existence Of God, the fifth of Hunter’s 15 “Idaho Plays” to get a pitch-perfect Los Angeles Premiere at Rogue Machine Theatre.
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MARISOL
Saturday, September 19th, 2026
I can’t fault the talent that’s gone into bringing Open Fist Theatre’s revival of José Rivera’s Obie-winning Marisol to nightmarish life, but I found the Puerto Rican playwright’s vision of a dystopian New York City under siege almost as torturous to sit through as the unrelenting, apocalyptic horrors its titular heroine has to endure in scene after excruciating scene.
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THE VISIT
Tuesday, September 15th, 2026
How far would you go if someone offered you an outrageous sum of money on one condition? And if you were willing to go that far, how would you rationalize your decision to do the unthinkable? These are the questions at the heart of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Visit, now being revived at the Pasadena Playhouse in a production so spectacular, you’d think you were seeing it on Broadway.
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AUGUST WILSON’S MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Tuesday, September 1st, 2026
My mind may have wandered during the second half of Act One of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, but when all is said and done, it’s a pretty darn spectacular season opener for A Noise Within.
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Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.
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