No Place Like Gandersheim (2023)
Written by Elizabeth Dement
Directed by Randee Trabitz
World Premiere
Roz is everybody's most passionate theater friend, constantly promoting her next play. What makes her special? She's in medieval Germany and might just be the first-ever woman playwright. After her brazen new sex comedy gets panned by the Holy Emperor, Roz is catapulted into a time-warping journey through contemporary (though still medieval) Hollywood. From "me too" to "time's up" to the metaverse and beyond, Roz begins to understand that home is where the art is.
SCHEDULE
Skylight Theatre:
May 20 - June 25
Previews: May 13, 14 & 19
Run time: 90 mins; No intermission.
Pay It Forward Tickets Share the magic of theater with a stranger.
Promo Code discounts are Advance Sale only.
A limited number of PWYC tickets are available May 21 - June 18. Use Promo Code: ACCESS to activate.
ASL Interpreted Performance:
June 4
Age Advisory: 14+ years old.
Skylight Theatre Company productions are intended for an adult audience; children under 6 years of age will not be admitted.
Theater Is For Everyone.
If you need assistance contact us at Connect@SkylightTheatre.org
Local Box Office: (213) 761-7061
Due to COVID, staff may not be present at all times. Please leave a message.
World Premiere
2022/2023 Season
MASKS REQUIRED FOR SELECT PERFORMANCES
Masks are no longer required – but are encouraged – for audiences in our theater and lobby areas.
Sunday matinee performances have been designated as "Mask Required" to accommodate our immunocompromised patrons who are still at high risk and patrons who feel more comfortable attending with an audience that is fully masked.
BEYOND
CONVERSATION
Enhance your experience with a special guest chat. Join us for a free moderated conversation that explores topics suggested by the play.
Follows immediately after selected performances. Guests without day-of performance tickets enter during a break after the play has ended. If you can't be there for the live event, a recording will be made available on our YouTube channel.
Women Television Writers Roundtable | June 11, 2023
Join us for a chat with women TV writers as they talk about their careers, the state of television, and the change needed to make writing television more inclusive.
Strike the Patriarchy | June 18, 2023
Come support the WGA in a ceremonious post-show “striking” of the patriarchy led by Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Kristina Wong. We stand with the countless writers that create the dynamic work that sustains many industries today. (BTW, there's a piñata involved)
2023
THE ARTISTS OF LA EGOISTA
Elizabeth Dement
Playwright
is a writer, producer, director and actor. Her plays have been produced and read at Skylight Theater, Inkwell, Road Theater Company, The Actors’ Gang, the Eclectic Company Theatre, Soho Playhouse, Missoula Colony, the Lillian and 24th Street. In 2015 she received the Agnes Ranjo Capps Playwriting Award at the Missoula Colony. Other commendations include Theatre Unleashed’s Tracey Collins Funny Girl Award, The O'Neill Playwrights Conference semifinalist and Women In Film's Mentoring Program. Currently, Elizabeth has a feature film in development at Landline Pictures, and is also working on a screenplay about the disco era. She currently splits her time between New York and Los Angeles.
Randee Trabitz
Director
is a director based in Los Angeles. Most recently, she directed The Solid Life of Sugar Water for Deaf West, Friends with Guns Stephanie Walker and her long-time collaborator John Fleck’s Blacktop Highway at the Odyssey Theatres, as well as all recent versions at RedCat and Dixon Place in NYC. This fall, she will stage a new commissioned play, Loop Group, or Shia La Beouf’s Version at the Luckman, at CalStateLA. Randee directed a run of new works at Berlin’s English Theater in Germany, took her own version of Sophocles’ Electra to an international festival Delphi, Greece and staged a pirate musical on a Disney Cruise Ship. She’s directed many solos works with Obie-winning satiric-puppeteer Paul Zaloom, of Beekman’s World fame. Her work has been seen at regional theaters, (The Mystery of Irma Vep and Hedwig and the Angry Inch) at Actor’s Express, Atlanta and in Santa Fe, and many intimate theaters specializing on new plays with writers like: Doug Cooney, Julie Hebért, Bridget Carpenter, Jessica Goldberg, Jamie Brandli, Elizabeth Dement and Susan Merson. She worked in some big places too, like MOCA’S Geffen Contemporary (Brecht/Weill’s Happy End), California Adventure Themepark (Chance to Shine), Cal Plaza, The Getty (Fleck’s Dirt), the L.A. Opera (Jack and the Magic Songbird) and the Performing Arts Center in Santa Clarita (Lysistrata, Hair) and Redcat in Disney Hall (Blacktop Highway and Zaloom’s Mother of All Enemies & ABCdarium). Her productions have garnered some prizes, (LA Weekly Award, Valley Theater Award, Garland and Ovation Awards, Finalist Short and Sweet Festival, etc.) and been awarded grants (CAD, Durfee and Flintridge). Randee teaches and directs in the Theatre Department at CSULA. She has worked as a critic for the L.A. Weekly and analyzes writing and screenplays for Disney Animation. https://www.randeetrabitz.com/
Lauren Gaw
Actor
Lauren’s love affair with performing started in musical theater, but since graduating from USC, she’s been focusing mainly on TV and film. When not acting, she loves baking and playing with her dog, Brazos. She’s incredibly excited to return to the stage in No Place Like Gandersheim. Many thanks to the cast and crew for making this a wonderful and unforgettable experience!
Shannon Holt
Actor
is happy to be back on stage at the Skylight Theatre after appearing here in Sandra Tsing Loh’s Sugar Plum Fairy opposite Ms. Loh and Tony Abatemarco. Regional theatre work includes South Coast Rep, Berkeley Rep, Trinity Rep, Indiana Rep, Pasadena Playhouse, Laguna Playhouse, CTG/Mark Taper Forum, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Dixon Place and the Public Theatre in NYC. She has recorded and performed for LA Theatre Works in national tours of Judgment At Nuremberg, Steel Magnolias, and Seven. Other stages in LA include Odyssey Theatre, Theatre@Boston Court, LATC, East-West Players, Rogue Machine, Evidence Room, Actors Gang, Matrix, Malibu Playhouse, and Antaeus Theatre Company where she is a member. She has received nominations and awards from Stage Raw, LA Weekly, Ovation, and Broadway World. TV and film credits include Seinfeld, ER and The Marc Pease Experience.
Jamey Hood
Actor
was last seen before the pandemic playing Mrs Lovett in South Coast Rep’s Sweeney Todd. Other credits include Queenie in La Chiusa’s The Wild Party in NYC with B-Side Productions, Mama Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas at Madison Square Garden, the National Tour of Hello Dolly! understudying Sally Struthers in the title role and playing Ernestina Money. Local credits include They’re Playing Our Song at Reprise, It’s the Housewives at Whitefire, and playing Dorothy Wiggin (Dot) in the premiere of The Shaggs-Philosophy of the World at Inside the Ford, again in Chicago at Lookingglass Theater, and in its off-Broadway debut at Playwrights Horizons (cast album available on Spotify).
Charrell Mack
Actor
is a USC MFA Alumni and is very excited to be back on stage with The Skylight Theater Company! She starred in the LA premiere of Apartment Living by Boni B. Alvarez (dir. Jon Rivera) at Skylight. Her other theater credits include Ascension (Echo Theater), Blues for an Alabama Sky (Mark Taper Forum), Othello , MotherF**ker with the Hat, and Pipeline. She’s also starred in several short films including Clones, Winner of the Cannes World Flim Festival Award and Magna, which will debut this year! Charrell is grateful for all the opportunities that have come her way and she sends love to her family back home in Pennsylvania!
No Place Like Gandersheim is supported in part by the generous contributions of the the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Michael Kearns Enhancement Fund at Skylight.
DESIGNERS
SCENIC DESIGN: DeAnne Millais
LIGHTING & VIDEO DESIGN: Shannon Barondeau
COSTUME DESIGN: Mylette Nora
SOUND DESIGN: Alma Reyes-Thomas
PROP DESIGN: Joyce Hutter
PRODUCTION STAFF
STAGE MANAGER: Jennifer Palumbo
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Marisa Caddick
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Kylee Robinson
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Tyree Marshall
CASTING DIRECTOR: Victoria Hoffman
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Cedes Sifuentes
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: Benjamin David Rawls
VIDEOGRAPHER: Seth Dorcey
VIDEO PROGRAMMER: Nicole Jaja
SCENIC PAINTING: Orlando De Lapa
HEAD ELECTRICIAN: Justin Kelley-Cahill
PUBLICIST: Judith Borne
MARKETING: Kyle Hall
REVIEWS
"TOP-NOTCH on EVERY LEVEL, Gandersheim wows with clever writing, strong direction (by Randee Trabitz) and heartfelt acting"
- Larchmont Buzz (Laura Foti Cohen).
"Strong cast...Hard to think of a play that COVERS more CENTURIES AND PLACES — in only 90 minutes"
- Angeles Stage (Don Shirley).
"An ABSOLUTE MUST SEE. Charming, gutsy, laugh out loud funny, REVOLUTIONARY…Trailblazing breath of fresh air”
- Discover Hollywood (Amanda Callas).
"RECOMMENDED...One of the FUNNIEST performances I’ve seen this year. Very entertaining and benefits from an excellent cast" - Stage Raw (Terry Morgan).
"HILARIOUS and TOUCHING production”
- Glamgical (Glamour).
"A very creative and engrossing comic tale of A WOMAN WHO JUST WANT TO WRITE. Entertaining…FASCINATING and often amusing" - Splash Magazines (Elaine Mura).
"A TERRIFIC cast score plenty of laughs in No Place Like Gandersheim"
- StageSceneLA (Steven Stanley).