I’ve invented something.

Not really. But kind of. It’s called NEW FORMS and it is a community art event that features a gallery show of local artists and a performance by a local theatre company. A new form of entertainment.

The theatre company is one I started with my friends about a year ago [remember this post?] We all met in that acting class and wanted to put on full plays outside of the class structure, so we built BLUE PEN. [how great is that website? Shoutout Solomon, Hyewon, and Carth.]

For over a year we have been meeting once a week to read plays and scripts, direct each other, perform for each other, and build… something. We didn’t know if we’d ever be able to fulfill our dream of putting on actor-forward plays here in LA — it’s expensive, it’s hard to get people to commit, and somehow, in the city where everyone is a bored gorgeous actor, there is almost no theatre scene. But we started anyway.

Then an angel investor fell into our laps. I won’t get into that because it’s dumb luck and I want to respect their privacy. But Here We Are.

I was booked on a job in New York through June when I found the investor. I called the company and told them the news, offering myself as a remote producer and told them to decide what play to put up as our first step. Cut to a harrowing bout of strep throat and FOMO— I resigned from the job just in time for the first table read and got my ass back to the black box.

We are doing STUPID FUCKING BIRD by Aaron Posner. It is a modern adaptation of Chekhov’s masterpiece THE SEAGULL. This adaptation was written in 2012 but is prescient as ever, like all great works of art. The characters are doomed in hyper specific ways, fraught with crises about art, love, purpose, and the unknowable future of this crumbling world. It’s a comedy.

We founded our company with specific values— commitment, democracy, and excellence at the forefront. It’s hard to build something, but let me tell you, I am blown away by my peers. Their talent is boundless on and off the stage. I have been producing for a decade, but three of the company members and the director joined me as a producing committee to make this happen. One of our actors’ girlfriends designed the logo. Another actor in the company, who isn’t even in this play, has been at every furniture pick up and lent us his garage. He came up with one of the key interactive design elements of the show in a production meeting. We have an actress and producer who is on strict bedrest that has built our entire social media campaign with me and is running it herself. [thank god because I’d definitely collapse. she wrote a beautiful piece about her pregnancy I highly recommend.] Our fearless director falls asleep with his script open every night. I’ve never seen him more alive. To watch the values we brainstormed over a year ago in my living room come to life is one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever been a part of.

We brought in the brilliant Ester Song Kim, co-director of Four Chairs, to production design the play. She has been the most patient and generous version of her already patient and generous self. I cannot overstate how lucky we are to have her on the team.

The lead character is a playwright named CON. He is obsessed with creating a NEW FORM of theater. We felt the piece itself was calling to be in a non-traditional space. One of our producers found MiViDa, a converted airplane hanger in Frogtown that is often rented for dance parties, but has hosted one play before. It felt exactly right.

The investor and I discuss at length how to bring theater to a non-theater town. People in Los Angeles like to have a good time and they don’t like to be lectured. We hope that Angelino’s who think they don’t like theater come for the art gallery and let Blue Pen change their minds. Theater’s reputation has floated into the realm of the elite, but that’s not how it should be. In ancient Greece, attending the theater was considered a civic duty. It was a mass cultural experience, not a luxury. It can be chill and fun and profound and stimulating if done properly. That’s where New Forms comes in.

New Forms features the work of 5 local artists, of varied disciplines, who’s work will be showcased in the performance space like a gallery. After an hour, the gallery audience takes a seat to watch the show. The artists are all people I know and admire both personally and professionally. No dickwads was the curating mandate.

My favorite part about getting older is watching my friends reach new heights in their potential. I didn’t choose them just because they are my friends, I promise. These artists have fresh perspectives on the world and are expressing it through their mediums of choice. The website’s artist page will link you to more of their work.

For the first two weekends, I play a lovelorn, angsty, ukulele singer. To keep the form as new as ever — the actors rotate and there is a fresh batch of gallery artists for the second two weekends. I hope people come a second time with new friends. I will then play the supporting male part, a famous author who is dating Con’s mom and sweeps Con’s girlfriend Nina off her feet. Oops.

Gay Chekhov sounds overdue, right?

The actors are working for free and the tickets are sold at $45, which does not make our spending budget back even if we sell out, but we want to reach as many people as possible. We are trying something new. I’d like to think that people in Los Angeles are willing to try something new with us.

I’d love for you to come to the show, or support the event if you cannot. Every dollar made goes into the next show. We will sell merch at the event and anything we don’t sell I’ll put up on here for the Hand Fetish crowd to swoop. This is the first of many New Forms.