14/09/2025
When I lived in Los Angeles, CA, I had the opportunity to perform with a theatre group headed by playwright, Layon Gray. We had been performing Layon's play, Girls of Summer, in LA when an opportunity came for us to take the show to New York City to perform it off-Broadway. It was an amazing experience and I returned to Los Angeles super excited and inspired. I thought to myself, "I can do that! I can do what Layon did." There was a play that I had written as my grad school thesis project that was collecting dust while I focused on pursuing acting. It was entitled, Sweet Evalina. I decided that I would produce and direct it. I saved up money that I earned at my day job, rented the Inglewood Playhouse, cast a few of my actor friends, and voila! I produced and directed my very first show. Although extremely fulfilling artistically, it was definitely not financially successful. I had invested more money in producing the show than ticket sales covered. In fact, most of the few audience members who attended the show were my family. And, because I was sooooo grateful that they had traveled from Florida to the West coast, I insisted on putting them on the comp ticket list. My family raved about the show, of course. Other audience members smiled and said they enjoyed it. There was one lady, though, that I don't think I'll ever forget. She came up to me after the show and said, "I loved this show...and I don't even like plays." I'm sure I giggled and thanked her profusely. This was well over ten years ago. It wasn't until years later that I realized that her comment did more than boost my lil' confidence.
Subconsciously, that lady and people like her, have become the target audience for the work that we do. We figured, if we invest in the details that would make the total experience of attending our shows interesting, engaging, and even thought-provoking to someone who doesn't even like plays, then surely (most) people who love them would enjoy the work, too. For this reason, we think you'll enjoy our musical production of Next to Normal. Tickets are available at: www.drphillipscenter.org
*Also, be sure to check for a Layon Gray play when you're in New York City. His shows are there often!
