FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: DREAMS FROM A DEAD CITY

Dreams from a Dead City

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Joe Luis Cedillo, CONTACT: Joe Luis Cedillo,

(818) 288-2123,
[email protected] or
[email protected]
PREMIERE OF

DREAMS FROM A DEAD CITY

“For Heaven’s sake—don’t turn off your cell phones”

LOS ANGELES, CA—May 18, 2011—Company of Strangers presents Dreams From
a Dead City, a new play by Joe Luis Cedillo and Greg Machlin. Dreams From a Dead
City has its premiere as part of the Second Annual Hollywood Fringe Festival at Open Fist Theater, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90038 (www.openfist.org) with five performances starting Saturday, June 11 at 10:30 PM (preview), Saturday, June 18 at 6:00 PM, Sunday, June 19 at 11:00 PM, Monday, June 20 at 10:30 PM, and Tuesday, June 23 at 11:30 PM. All previews and performances are for a $10.00 (suggested donation)—no one will be turned away—purchased via the Hollywood
Fringe website at www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/505 or call 818-288-2123.

Dreams From a Dead City is a new play about technology and the weight of memory.
Three women (Maureen Chesus, Melissa Eslava, and Caitlin Gallogly) find themselves
in a room with no windows and one door, but without knowing as to how they got there,
with only The Radio (Sarah Vannest) to guide them. Three men (Adam Briggs, Jason
Evans, and Hollie Peek III) are designing a new smart phone app to amplify the user’s
ability to remember for a tech CEO Mr. I. As the women struggle to figure out their
surroundings and their relationships to one another, the men determine their app might
have graver consequences for humanity. All the while, Mr. I (Masha Sapron) phones
and harangues via audience member’s own smart phones, before revealing the greater
challenge to man and man’s technology. In homage to Sci-Fi, Philip K. Dick and the
Twilight Zone, comes a play that asks audiences to enter the theater with their ringer on
and to play videos off their smart phone—one can also follow Dreams From a Dead City
via Twitter now @companystrange—culminating in an interactive examination of the
ways we live in the web of our tech.

Co-written by Mr. Machlin and Mr. Cedillo, this is Company of Strangers’s inaugural
production, having recently presented a Workshop Production of Mr. Machlin’s 7 DAYS:
A Fantasia on the Life of Miles Davis at Studio/Stage in April and a pair of readings in
February. The creative team is rounded out by video designer/filmmaker Alexander
Thomas Scott (currently represented at Cannes in the Short Film Corner) who will be
creating the various videos screened during the performance. The cast is a mixture of
new Strangers and old.

Company of Strangers is an ensemble of artists seeking to create and stage original,
compelling and challenging works that enlighten, uplift, and entertain.

(Continued 2 of 2)

Greg Machlin (Co-Writer) is a Heidmann Finalist and a graduate of the Iowa
Playwrights’ Workshop. His work has premiered Off-Broadway and been published by
Smith & Krauss. He’s been a finalist for both the Samuel French Festival and “Best New
Script” from the Midtown International Theatre Festival and his work has been produced
across the nation. Last year he directed Adam Hahn’s Feedback Loop for the Hollywood
Fringe Festival and most recently directed I Wouldn’t Mind Seeing That Again for
Skypilot’s Rewind.

Joe Luis Cedillo (Co-Writer & Director) is a Chicano Playwright-Director. A graduate
of Iowa’s Playwright’s Workshop, he’s a two-time Runner-Up for the Kennedy Center’s
National Latino Playwrighting Award, a 2009 Oregon Shakespeare FAIR Fellow, and
recent Alliance Theater Kendeda Finalist. In Los Angeles his work has appeared at Edge
Fest, the LA History Project, the MET Theater and Highways Performance Space. His
play, Cruising Con La Virgen, is being produced by Moving Arts for Radar-LA and he
sound designed Theatre Unleashed’s current production of Julius Caesar.

LISTINGS INFORMATION:

What: Dreams From a Dead City

Who: Company of Strangers

When: Saturday, June 11 at 10:30 PM (preview), Saturday, June 18 at 6:00 PM, Sunday,

June 19 at 11:00 PM, Monday, June 20 at 10:30 PM, and Tuesday, June 23 at 11:30 PM.

The show runs approximately 50 minutes and is appropriate for ages 14+

Where: Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd. Hollywood Fringe map: G-5

Tickets: $10 (Suggested donation)
Available at www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/505 and at the door

FURTHER INFO
Dreams From A Dead City: www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/505
Company of Strangers: [email protected] and Twitter @companystrange

Hollywood Fringe Festival: www.hollywoodfringe.org