Theatre

Off-Off-Broadway West: On Guy Zimmerman’s “Outlaw Theatre”

Off-Off-Broadway West: On Guy Zimmerman’s “Outlaw Theatre” By Paul Vangelisti NOSTALGIA AND ITS PERILS aside— the latter including, more often than not, becoming repetitious and shamelessly preaching to the choir—one might argue that, in the 1970s and ’80s, Los Angeles became one of the country’s most vital centers for equity-waiver theater. Eastside, Westside, Valley, Downtown—theater […]

The Hive Project

In the fall of 2012, three Los Angeles-based writers—Guy Zimmerman, Gray Palmer and Rachel Jendrzejewski—joined forces to develop The Hive Project, a triptych of new plays exploring the link between theatrical drama and the sociality of bees. Adapting some of the techniques seminal playwright and director Bertolt Brecht developed in his Lehrstuck or “learning plays” of the late 1920s, the collaborators created three short plays that engage with philosophical and political issues linked to the long and rich history of human-bee interactions.

Guy Z. Directing Reel

Longer video excerpts and full plays available on request.

The Royal, by Guy Zimmerman

The Royal engages with the psychology and the narrative strategies of the international thriller. Pulling back the hood on this popular genre, so to speak, the play examines what this kind of dramatic structure says about the US in 2015, and the militaristic, aggressive and partially paranoid American mindset to see what makes it tick — as in an “exploded” diagram one might find in a list of instructions for a home-assembly kit.

The Hillary Game, by Guy Zimmerman

“If one day… the event and the machine, were to be thought together, you can bet…this new figure would resemble a monster.”
Jacques Derrida
Developed with actors Tim Habeger and Shelby Hofer of PushPush in Atlanta, and with Darrell Larson and Alana Dietze in Los Angeles, The Hillary Game looks at one of the defining moral issues of our time—drone warfare. Technology-driven anxiety collides with a longing for human connection, as a former drone operator and his new trainee play out scenarios in which an imagined version of Hillary Clinton confronts the Jehovah-like power of being in the “drivers seat” of a fleet of armed drones.

The Black Glass

Press “Bentham’s nightmare, well-enacted by the performers in Zimmerman’s choreographic staging and with the support of John Zalewski’s haunting sound design, is that of a doomed man trying to reckon with his multidimensional bankruptcy.” – LA WEEKLY “Such an enigmatic, elliptical narrative risks leaving audiences bewildered but not edified. The Black Glass’ mystique instead casts […]

The Wasps, by Guy Zimmernan

Marie Antoinette twins from Texas trapped, their own killer in the next room, in a world without oil.

Clown Show for Bruno

Written by Murray Mednick, directed by Guy Zimmerman, Art Share LA: March 26 – April 19, 2009

Clown Show is Mednick’s homage to the great Polish writer and artist Bruno Schultz. In 1939, when the Nazis occupied Poland, Schulz was driven into the ghetto and enslaved by a Nazi officer who forced him to paint fairy tale figures on the walls of his son’s bedroom. Caught in an escalating feud between his “protector,” Felix Landau, and another Nazi official, Schulz was shot dead on the streets of his home town on November 19th, 1942 by Landau’s rival – an act of revenge against the man who “owned” him. Written in the fast-paced rhythms of the Yiddish theater, Clown Show utilizes clowning, masks, and mime to tell Schulz’s story. Padua artistic director Guy Zimmerman directs Bill Celentano, Kali Quinn, Daniel A. Stein and Dana Wieluns, all masters of physical theater: Celentano, Quinn, and Wieluns are graduates of The Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in Blue Lake, CA, while Stein was a principle instructor there for ten years. This fall, Mr. Stein takes on the position of Director of Movement and Physical Theatre for the Brown University/Trinity Repertory Theatre Consortium.

A Thousand Words

Padua Playwrights’ “A Thousand Words” pairs nine dramatists with nine visual artists, most of whom come from the Los Angeles avant-garde scene. Each playwright was commissioned to produce a 10-minute drama using a work from the artist’s studio or an aspect of the artist’s life. (A gallery show featuring the artists’ works will accompany the play.) ARTIST~PLAYWRIGHT Robert Reynolds~Guy Zimmerman, Alberto Miyares~Coleman Hough, Matt Aston~Chris Kelley, Emmeric James Konrad~Sharon Yablon, Taz~Rachel Jendrzejewski, Lilli Mueller~Phinneas Kiyomura, Jett Jackson~Heidi Darchuk, Alexandra Koiv~Alex Forman, Rick Robinson~Alisha Adams DIRECTORS Shirley Anderson, Mickey Swenson, Lauren Campedelli, Gray Palmer, Nick Faust, Adrian Alex Cruz, Gill Gayle, Chris Kelley, Mark Adair-Rios ACTING ENSEMBLE Michael Shamus Wiles, Mickey Swenson, Phinneas Kiyomura, Coleman Hough, Heidi Darchuk, John Horn, Gregory Littman, Jack Littman, Lisa Denke, Tina Preston, Caroline Duncan, Phoenix Gonzalez, Adrian Alex Cruz, Niamh McCormally, David Bickford, Nicole Disson, Lake Sharp

Vagrant

Feb 3 – March 4 2006, The Electric Lodge, Venice

Written and Directed by Guy Zimmerman

Christopher Allport Meyer
Niamh McCormally Patty
Patrick Burleigh Larkin

A noir mystery set in a rundown appliance repair shop in South Central Los Angeles. Charged with conflict and dark humor, Vagrant is a play about memory, emotional violence, and redemption.

The Inside Job

 This darkly comedic play is about a disgraced corporate executive and his socialite wife. The couple opens their home to a mysterious young woman, who, it turns out, has old scores to settle. Zimmerman casts a stark light on contemporary American mores, using an intense, language-based approach in which the music of everyday speech plays […]

The Gary Plays

The Gary Plays are an octet of plays portraying economic and spiritual distress in the contemporary urban wilderness of Los Angeles. InTirade for Three, Gary, a destitute actor, comes to terms with the senseless and random murder of his son. In Gary’s Walk, he conveys via shopping cart his son’s ashes to the sea. In […]

Joe & Betty

“Murray Mednick, the veteran dramatist and founder of the Padua Hills Playwrights Workshop, explores
his own autobiographical roots in Joe & Betty, a series of angular perspectives on a monstrously ill-
equipped mother and father…The spare, efficient production, directed by Guy Zimmerman, is memorable for the gritty performances of the leads.” Charles McNulty, Village Voice

Fever Dreams: Recent Work From Padua

Fever Dreams: Recent Work From Padua Introduction by Guy Zimmerman Resurrected in 2001 by artistic director Guy Zimmerman, Padua offers ten superb plays including work from the last nine seasons, 2001 through 2010. Included in the anthology: Sissy Boyd – Liddy Hank Bunker – The Interview Heidi Darchuk – Hotel Bardo(t) Murray Mednick – Clown […]

Plays for a New Millennium: New Work From Padua

“An ideal of theatre I’d never really experienced before or since.” – playwright Jon Robin Baitz on the Padua Festival. This collection includes: Baby, Jesus! by Murray Mednick, 4-Way Mars by Murray Mednick, Dog Mouth by John Steppling, Wilfredo by Wesley Walker, Times Like These by John O’Keefe, G-Nome by Murray Mednick, Vagrant by Guy […]

Beneath The Dusty Trees

By Murray Mednick Introduction by Guy Zimmerman The Gary Plays are an octet of plays portraying economic and spiritual distress in the contemporary urban wilderness of Los Angeles. The series was inspired by a friend of the playwright whose son died in a drug deal gone wrong under the “dusty trees” of the San Fernando […]