Angelo Parra

Contrary to popular “knowledge,” Moses Fleetwood Walker, not Jackie Robinson, was the first African-American to play in baseball’s major leagues. "Fleet: A Man without a Country" dramatizes Walker’s life, a Greek Tragedy in which he rises from law student, baseball star, inventor, Negro rights advocate, businessman, newspaper editor, and musician ... and falls as the knife-wielding killer of a white man. With a cast of three African-American and three white actors, the play offers a portrait of the troubled, mixed-race Fleet Walker, who, brilliant and sensitive, was a man without a country, living on the margin between white society, which saw in him the “disgrace” of miscegenation, and the African-American community, which viewed him with suspicion as a pretender above his station.

This critically acclaimed, award-winning (and nominated for Lucille Lortel and Helen Hayes Awards) play with music brings to life the irreverent, irrepressible, and accomplished Blues legend Bessie Smith performing on the night before her fatal car accident on a Mississippi road. With a cast of two (Bessie and her piano player, Pickle), the show features the influential events in her rollercoaster life, along with many of the songs Bessie made famous, including “I Ain’t Got Nobody,” “St. Louis Blues,” “Baby Doll,” “Gimme a Pigfoot,” and “Tain’t Nobody’s Bizness If I Do.” Some of the raves: "Terrific! Fills every molecule of airspace with the joy of the Blues!" - The New York Times; "Aching, boozy, tempestuous, raw and moving … undeniably powerful … divine!" - The Miami Herald; "Bessie at her most raw and at her most transcendent! How could you not go?" - New York Post. Musical scores are provided.]

In this critically acclaimed, award-winning* play, a brash newspaperman, Tom Beaumont, and a young, African-American mother, Liz Powell, find themselves drawn to each other as a hospital committee, composed of people from all walks of life, including Tom, is engaged in a see-saw struggle to decide who gets a heart for transplant – Liz’s 12-year-old daughter or an aging, debauched, international entertainment celebrity. At the same time, the hospital is surrounded by aggressive and vocal pickets protesting discrimination against blacks in the allotting of organs for transplantation. And, in an ironic twist of events, Tom, the newcomer to the hospital committee, is called upon to cast the final and deciding lifesaving vote. [*Review quotes follow below.]

"A beat-the-clock drama ... Parra brings a formidable degree of subtlety and skill to the committee table." - LA Times // “In the style of ‘12 Angry Men’ ... emotions bounce across the rosewood veneer.” - LA Weekly // "A fascinating play dealing with important issues that are painful but illuminating." - Back Stage West // “This taut medical drama packs a considerable wallop ... a compelling story well crafted.” - Pasadena Star-News

A drama with humor, music, and dance, "Song of the Coquí" tells story of a dreamer, EDNA, and a pragmatist, RAYMOND, and the price they pay to pursue the "American Dream." Set in New York City, the play alternates between the present (circa 1990), where we see the Guerreros succumbing to alcoholism in their middle-class Bronx home, and the past – the period just after World War II, when handsome YOUNG RAYMOND returns from Japan to marry beautiful YOUNG EDNA in Spanish Harlem. YOUNG EDNA sees marriage to YOUNG RAYMOND as the beginning of her journey to a home of her own with an Americanized family, while YOUNG RAYMOND is content with his circle of street buddies, his love of dancing, and their uncomplicated life in a shabby furnished room. Their young son, RAY, becomes the focus of EDNA's hopes and aspirations. In the present, RAY, an assimilated and successful attorney, decides to abandon his successful career in favor of his own dream, shattering his parents' sense of achievement. The Americanism of the Guerreros is challenged by their new next-door neighbor, TERESA, a sexy, street-wise, divorced mother. EDNA's drinking precipitates a heart attack, which forces the family to reevaluate its choices.

"The Mnemonist" dramatizes the plight of a man, Stan, who’s driven to desperate measures because of his inability to forget anything he experiences. He remembers all of his life’s events as vividly as if they occurred today, and feels freshly and intensely the pain that accompanies many of his memories. So much so that he has become a recluse, and wears a blindfold to limit sensory input and memory triggers. To put an end to the torment, he’s scheduled dangerous and illegal brain-altering surgery, and the only thing that stands between him and the potentially disastrous results of the operation is the tenacity of the quirky and irreverent woman, Maddie, whom he’s interviewing for the very purpose of caring for him after the risky procedure is completed.