2026 First Look Festival
Our First Look Festival is BACK with 5 incredible new play readings. Check out these incredible shows August 7 – August 17. Get Tickets HERE.
The L in Louisville
Written by Teresa Willis
Directed by Barabara Schofield
Featuring Lane Allison, Sam Bennett, Barbara Bragg, Amiée Conn, Matthew Goodrich, Kathleen Ingle, Carmella Jenkins, Bethany Koulias, Avery Shannon-Lynch, & Beth Robbins.
Friday, August 7 – 8:00 PM
Saturday, August 8 – 4:00 PM
The L in Louisville is a sharp new comedy that follows a close-knit circle of women navigating exes, new love, old wounds, family drama, and the dogs who complicate everything. Over one long Louisville summer and an unexpectedly warm New Year’s Eve, unexpected reunions and family reckonings pull long-buried feelings back to the surface—and one very awkward dinner threatens to blow everything apart.
Trigger Warning
Written by Lawrence Keller
Directed by James Fowler
Featuring Tambrie Allsup, Barbara Lee Bragg, Timothy Brown, & Christian Lebano
Sunday, August 16 – 7:00 PM
Monday, August 17 – 8:00 PM
Teachers at a prestigious school are training for the worst – a school shooting. When the football coach gets carried away pretending to be a shooter, blood is shed in a way nobody could have predicted.
Kindness of Strangers
Written by Laura Richardson
Directed by Martha Demson
Featuring Sam Bennett, Amélie Falco, Caroline Klidonas, Derek Manson, and Amanda Weier
Saturday, August 15 – 1:00 PM & 8:00 PM
The Kindness of Strangers begins at home when a street performer inserts herself into a broken family and attempts to heal their wounds
The Ladies of Newport
Written by Hutchins Foster
Directed by Michael A. Shepperd
Featuring Clifton J. Adams, Andrew Brian Carter, Elle Engelman, James Fowler, Justin Huen, Derek Manson, & Jack Sharpe.
Saturday, August 8 – 8:00 PM
Sunday, August 9 – 2:00 PM
In 1919, the U.S. Navy ordered sailors to seduce suspected homosexuals in one of America’s earliest government-sponsored anti-gay investigations. Inspired by the true Newport Naval Scandal, The Ladies of Newport is a darkly comic historical drama in which an undercover sailor falls in love with the very man he’s been sent to betray.
The Black Glass: An Exploded Noir
Book by Guy Zimmerman
Music by Juli Crockett
Lyrics by Guy Zimmerman & Juli Crockett
Directed by Juli Crockett
Featuring Shaughn Buchholz, Bob Cucuzza, Brendan Griffin, Kim Griffin, Derek Manson, Tristan Samson, & Diana Wyenn
Friday, August 14 – 8:00 PM
Saturday, August 15 – 4:00 PM
A billionaire and his menagerie of inner demons bang out the art of the raw deal in a new musical by Guy Zimmerman and Juli Crockett. Colliding American Psycho with The Rocky Horror Picture show, THE BLACK GLASS gleefully interrogates the abominable sorcery of the exchange economy.
MARISOL
Open Fist presents rare revival of José Rivera’s Obie–winning Marisol
LOS ANGELES (July 30, 2026) — Open Fist Theatre Company presents a rare revival of Marisol, the Obie-winning work by Puerto Rican playwright José Rivera. Directed by Open Fist associate artistic director Amanda Weier, the production runs September 12 through October 24 at Atwater Village Theatre, with low-priced preview performances September 10 and 11.
A dreamlike blend of magical realism, Theatre of the Absurd and Rivera’s powerfully poetic language, Marisol is a darkly funny, apocalyptic fable about survival, faith and hope. After her guardian angel abandons her to join the celestial battle against a senile God, Bronx resident Marisol Pérez must navigate a terrifying, unraveling world on her own while struggling to preserve her humanity.
“Marisol feels astonishingly relevant,” says Weier. “Though Rivera wrote the play in the pre-millennium ’90s, during that period of profound uncertainty, it asks questions that resonate just as powerfully today: As temperatures rise both literally and figuratively, are we as a species doomed? Can a broken society find its way back after everything falls apart? Rivera never loses his sense of humor, even in the darkest moments, and that balance of absurdity and compassion is what makes the play so compelling. Ultimately, Marisol is about discovering hope on the other side of rock-bottom devastation. The imagery in Rivera’s writing is breathtaking; it reminds me of a Chagall painting, or a Banksy.”
Born in Puerto Rico in 1955, Rivera moved with his family to New York City at the age of four. Among his best-known plays are Cloud Tectonics and References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot, which earned him a second Obie Award. He became the first Puerto Rican writer to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Motorcycle Diaries. Rivera has cited Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez, whom he met while both were at the Sundance Institute, as one of his most significant artistic influences and mentors.
Jade Santana, recently seen at Open Fist in Amerika and Brownstone, stars as Marisol opposite Taylor Scott as the Guardian Angel. The cast also features Barbara Lee Bragg, Hutchins Foster, Matthew Goodrich, Carmella Jenkins, Mara Michelle, Chima Rok, Jack Sharpe and Grace Soens.
The creative team includes scenic designer Brad Bentz, lighting designer Matt Richter, sound designer Christopher Moscatiello, costume designer Mylette Nora, props designers Bruce Dickinson and Anna Kraus and choreographer Yusuf Nasir. Saskia Young serves as associate producer, and John Dimitri is the production stage manager.
Open Fist Theatre Company is a collective, self-producing artistic enterprise in which every aspect of the organization is operated by its artist members under the leadership of artistic director Martha Demson.
Performances run September 12 through October 24, with performances Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. (no performance Saturday, October 3). An additional performance will be held Monday, Oct. 5 at 8 p.m. Preview performances are Thursday, Sept. 10 and Friday, Sept. 11 at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $26 to $40.
Atwater Village Theatre is located at 3269 Casitas Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039. Free parking is available in the ATX (Atwater Crossing) parking lot one block south of the theater.
The Open Fist Theatre Company stands with the BIPOC community, including the AAPI people within it. We believe it is every human being’s right to participate equally in our institutions and communities – to be treated equally, to have their voices heard, and to have access to equal justice.
We are committed to being a part of the radical change that is needed to dismantle oppressive systems for good, specifically the system of white supremacy. We take a firm anti-racist stance and will not tolerate anything less than that in our role as storytellers and theatre-makers.
We are also committed to celebrating, uplifting, and centering the voices and stories of people of color, with the understanding that the theatre arts serve an important role in the movement towards inclusivity and liberation.
OFTC Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Statement
Open Fist Theatre Company believes it is every human being’s right to participate equally in our institutions and communities, to be treated equally under the Law, and to have access to equal justice. This is reflected by the company’s name, which combines the notion that an open spirit — embracing all people and ideas — is essential, with the idea that determination — signified by a fist — is necessary, if the theater is to remain a vital voice for social change and awareness. We are committed to being a part of the radical change that is needed to dismantle oppressive systems for good. Our policy is to take a firm anti-racist stance and will not tolerate anything less in our role as storytellers and theatre-makers.
Open Fist recognizes that past productions did not fully embrace or foster the diverse community we strive to create. We are addressing and correcting these inequities by becoming more deliberate in our inclusion of diverse artists and sharing these perspectives through the work we create. We continue to seek diverse voices for our Board and staff and challenge ourselves to speak to broader audiences. We have adopted a continuous learning mindset and understand that our racial equity work will evolve as we grow.
Open Fist Theatre Company remains committed to the creative empowerment of all its writers, directors, actors and designers; to sustaining a community that practices authentic inclusivity with the greatest possible diversity of age, race, ethnicity, ability, gender, sexual orientation, and socio-economic backgrounds; and to engaging an audience of similar diversity in order to unlock the potential of imagination and storytelling to build a better world. Together, the Company and its patrons strive to nurture empathy by embracing and celebrating differences, and by affirming the value and agency of all human beings.