ROGUE MACHINE PRODUCES IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RMT Contact: Judith Borne / Borneidentities.com / [email protected]

ROGUE MACHINE THEATRE PRODUCES
IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW
By Katherine Cortez
Directed by Elina de Santos
At the 2017 Hollywood Fringe Festival

Los Angeles, CA – An apocalyptic event in an LGBT Nightclub changes everything; love becomes hate, hate becomes love.

World premiere. Playwright Katherine Cortez grew up in Orlando with no openly gay nightclubs, witnessing family and friends hiding in shadows and losing lives to AIDS before it had a name. She completed the AIDS LifeCycle ride, and then…The Pulse nightclub shooting on the eve of LA PRIDE.

The play reflects on how fundamentalist belief systems can give a perverse inspiration to the execution of hate in the name of ‘love.’ Exploring our duality as human beings – a paradoxical species capable of both violence and its opposite – the play challenges audiences to examine our darker parts in order to integrate the shadow and move towards the light, transforming hate into love.

Special performance and reception on the one-year marker of the tragedy during Fringe, on June 11th, the day of PRIDE celebration and #ResistMarch.*

As part of L.A.’s largest celebration of performing arts, Rogue Machine Theatre presents plays that are new to Los Angeles. While focusing on social issues from female playwrights, offerings include the world premiere of In the Valley of the Shadow by Katherine Cortex and The Pleasure Project by Ava Bogle, the American premiere of The Interference by Lynda Radley, and the Los Angeles premiere of We Are Not These Hands by Sheila Callaghan.

“I am always tremendously impressed by the energy and excitement for theatre that the Hollywood Fringe engenders – when Rogue Machine moved into the Fringe zone we were keen to participate. Anyone who is wondering if there’s a young audience for theatre need only to wander down the sidewalk on Santa Monica Blvd. in June. This is fasten-your- seatbelt theatre.” – John Perrin Flynn; Founding Artistic Director/Rogue Machine

Katherine Cortez, Playwright
Katherine received her BFA in Theatre Arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. From there she journeyed to New York where she became a member of the prestigious Actors Studio. As a playwright, Katherine’s first full-length play, Mama Sang the Blues, was produced in New York by Ensemble Studio Theatre, first in a workshop, then later that season as a full production. EST also produced her play, The Hunting, in Winterfest, their annual series of new plays. Her one-act play, The Aging of Aquarius, directed by Marshall Mason was produced by Circle Repertory Company in Los Angeles. Another full-length play, A Quadrimonial, received a workshop production under the auspices of The Actors Studio in LA. Most recently, her newest full-length play, A Muse of Fire, received third place in the distinguished Ebell Playwrighting Competition. Currently, Between Friends, a new one act, is up and running in EST/LA’s One Act Festival. Katherine is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Actors Studio and Rogue Theatre Machine, both as an actor and as a playwright.

Elina de Santos, Director
A frequent guest director at many intimate and larger theatres, Elina is the Co-Artistic Director of the Rogue Machine Theatre since its founding in 2008. For Rogue, she’s directed 4 World premieres; multi-award winning DIRTY FILTHY LOVE STORY, by Rob Mersola featured in Theatre Arts Magazine’s August 2013 edition, RAZORBACK by the multi-award winning resident playwright, John Pollono, NICE THINGS by the twice published playwright, Vince Melocchi and YARD SALE SIGNS by Jennie Webb. Also, for RMT Elina directed the West Coast Premieres of BHUTAN by Daisy Foote, VIVIEN by Rick Foster, STOP KISS by Diana Son co-directed with Producing Director Matthew Elkins, and FALLING by Deanna Jent and this year (10th season) is directing the American premiere of DAYTONA by Oliver Cotton. She also is the Founder and Co-Director of Celebrating Voices, a youth outreach playwriting program. As a resident director at Pacific Resident Theatre – Tennessee Williams’, ORPHEUS DESCENDING garnering LADCC Awards for performance, direction and production and the LA premiere of Edward Albee’s A DELICATE BALANCE, Odets’ ROCKET TO THE MOON, a LADCC direction nominee, the highly acclaimed production of Arthur Miller’s DEATH OF A SALESMAN. Currently, she is directing the World Premiere workshop of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO? by Megan Wright at PRT’s Co-op. Elina is the recipient of the LADCC Career Achievement in directing, 2012. She is a member of the Actor’s Studio Playwrights and Directors unit and of the SDC.

John Perrin Flynn (Producer/RMT Founding Artistic Director)
John has produced all of Rogue Machine’s main stage productions, including last season’s The Super Variety Match Bonus Round!, Dutch Masters, Honky, Pocatello (CRITIC’S CHOICE – LA Times, Ovation Recommended, “TOP TEN” – Stage Raw) and the previous season productions of A Permanent Image, Dying City, One Night In Miami…, and Lost Girls. He directed Pocatello (LA Times – CRITICS’ CHOICE, by Samuel D. Hunter, The New Electric Ballroom by Enda Walsh, Three Views of the Same Object by Henry Murray, and A Bright New Boise by Samuel D. Hunter (all named – LA Times CRITIC’S CHOICE). John was the Executive Producer and Director of Lifetime’s long-running award winning series Strong Medicine and he has produced two other series and 14 television movies or miniseries including the Emmy nominated Burden of Proof. John received the LA Weekly “Career Achievement Award” in 2012.

Heather L. Tyler, Producer
After studying theatre at Rhodes (B.A., cum laude), a dedication to new and bold work led Heather to Chicago’s vibrant theatre scene where credits include The Threepenny Opera w/the hypocrites @ Steppenwolf and critically acclaimed Dirty Diamonds @ The Factory Theater. In L.A., she developed the title character in Meditations: Eva Hesse, a world premiere at Highways Performance Space, and Heather has played with Rogue Machine in A Bright New Boise and Wish I had a Sylvia Plath (u.s.) & with Sacred Fools in A Gulag Mouse. Film/TV credits include Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word premiering at SXSW and The Bridge (FX). For the 2016 Hollywood Fringe, she produced and directed the Los Angeles premiere of Porno Dido.

Ensemble cast: Dylan Arnold, Larry Poindexter, Ethan Rains, Rachel Sorsa, Tania Verafield, Karen Malina White.

IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW
by Katherine Cortez
Directed by Elina de Santos

Rogue Machine Theatre
@ The Met, 1089 N. Oxford Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90029
855-585-5185
http://www.roguemachinetheatre.net/
http://hff17.com/4749

Tickets: $20 on sale May 1st, 2017

Performance Dates:
Fri 6/2 8pm
Sat 6/3 5pm
Thurs 6/8 8pm
Sat 6/10 2pm
Sun 6/11 7:30*
Wed 6/14 8pm
Fri 6/16 6pm
Sat 6/17 5pm
Thurs 6/22 8pm
Fri 6/23 8pm
Sat 6/24 1pm

*Special reception at 7PM commemorating one-year marker of Pulse nightclub tragedy and day of PRIDE #ResistMarch