Lightning Rod Theatre Presents World Premiere of THIS SIDE OF SWEETWATER

Lightning Rod Theater is proud to present the World Premiere of This Side of Sweetwater opening June 10th at the Asylum at McCadden Place Theatre (1157 N. McCadden Place, Los Angeles, CA 90038) on Saturday, June 3, 7 p.m. (preview), Saturday, June 10, 9 p.m. (opening), Sunday, June 11, 4 p.m., Friday, June 16, 11:30 p.m., Friday, June 23, 10:30 p.m., Saturday, June 24, 7 p.m. Tickets are $12 and available at: http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/4370?tab=tickets

Award-winning playwright Tom Stanczyk explores the absurd, the romantic and the enigmatic through the lives of seven couples in This Side of Sweetwater. From wide-open dreamscapes through life changing celebrations to the uncertain vastness of a cool desert night, his characters fall for each other, argue, swear they can't go on, and then ... they go on.

Tom Stanczyk's bold re-imagining of the gangster drama, Block Nine, racked up numerous theater award nominations, winning three from the L.A. Weekly, including Production of the Year. Tom's warm humor and his encouraging and helpful nature was admired and loved by many. Tragically, he passed away last fall after being hit by a car as he crossed a street near his home in Hollywood. Lightning Rod Theater is producing This Side of Sweetwater in his memory.

Lightning Rod Theater was founded in the belief that a new play needs to do at least one of the following: Tell a story no one has ever heard. Show the audience a scene they have never experienced. Dramatize characters or relationships they aren't overly familiar with. Or explore conflicts and themes the audience has never or rarely considered. The company casts a wary eye on the conventional and always seeks to find "the new."

This Side of Sweetwater is the sixth production mounted by Lightning Rod. Their previous plays include: Time's Scream And Hurry--which had two Los Angeles productions before a successful run at the 2009 New York International Fringe Festival--Acts Of Possession (2011 Hollywood Fringe), Glennie & Maple Break Up (2012 Hollywood Fringe) and WOOF-WOOF (2014 Hollywood Fringe) and Craftsman (2016 Hollywood Fringe).

Biographies

Tony Foster (Playwright) was a founding member of the Elephant Theatre in Los Angeles and has written several works for the company during its 20 year run including: Underwear For Christmas, Adventures With Sparky And Poo, Greystone, and the critically acclaimed Asleep On A Bicycle (now available through Original Works Online). Other works have been produced at the Ringwald Theatre; Universal Theatre; Howling Moon Cab Theatre; Makor/Steinhardt Center; New Jersey Rep; the Ashland New Plays Festival; and The Actors Theatre of Louisville. He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, Lightning Rod Theater, the Ensemble Studio Theatre's Playwright Unit, and the Skylight Theatre Company's PlayLab. Find out more about Tony at: www.tonyplaywright.com.

Paul Hoan Zeidler (Producer, Director, Sound Design) Paul attended graduate school at the University of Southern California where he studied with Hubert Selby, Jr. (Last Exit To Brooklyn), John Rechy (City Of Night), Paul Zindel (The Effect Of Gamma Rays On Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds), and Jerome Lawrence (Inherit The Wind) who taught him Eleventh Commandment: "Thou shalt not commit television on a theater stage." It's something he's taken to heart ever since. Paul directed his play, Time's Scream And Hurry, in two Los Angeles productions before taking it to the 2009 New York International Fringe Festival for a successful run at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Time's Scream is published by IndieTheaterNow.com. Another full-length, Nudenaked, was honored in March 2011 at the Stanley Drama Awards and was a 2009 Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist. L.A. stagings of his work include: Acts Of Possession, Glennie & Maple Break Up and WOOF-WOOF (nominated for "Spirit of the Fringe Award" at Hollywood Fringe 2014) with Lightning Rod Theater; The Enchanter Disappears with the Jerome Lawrence Quintet, and Your Mind Breathes Water with the Elephant Theater Company. For Lightning Rod, he produced and sound designed Craftsman (Hollywood Fringe 2016). He contributed to the group-writtenThe Box at SacRed Fools Theatre, July 2015 and March 2017. The Moon Is A Stone That Went Insane has had staged readings with the Skylight and Elephant Theatre companies. He's currently working on two independent film scripts and an epic play about The Group Theatre. Paul is the founder and Artistic Director of Lightning Rod Theater.

Charles Pacello (Executive Producer) Born in Denver, CO, a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, Charlie studied at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles and attended the Midsummer in Oxford program, a summer-long Shakespeare intensive workshop at Oxford, England. Los Angeles theatre credits:Glennie & Maple Break Up; Acts Of Possessio; Waiting For Godot (Pozzo); Time's Scream And Hurry (L.A. and New York Fringe); One Fell Swoop; In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings; Hamlet; What The Butler Saw; Betrayal; The Bear. Film credits: Blind Man's Curse; Prom Queen: The Homecoming; Separated; Child Invisible; Project America; Sam Has Seven Friends (Emmy nominated); Prom Queen (Emmy nominated). Charlie is the vice-president and CFO of Lightning Rod Theater.

THIS SIDE OF SWEETWATER:

8min - Directed by Amy French

A stage manager and a lighting designer fall for each other in the wide-open dreamscape of an empty stage. At first, it's the lighting designer's dream, but is it the stage manager's by the end?

I've Always Wanted to Write a Play - Directed by Marisa O'Brien

A recently married couple get ready to host friends the night before a wedding.

Gay Wedding - Directed by Katherine Barcsay

One partner in a just married gay couple is drunk off his ass. Their married hetero friends are having relationship issues. And the caterer just wants to get paid.

Close - Directed by Paul Hoan Zeidler

A gay man escaping his desperately ill lover is stranded out in the desert when his car breaks down. He rescues/ is rescued by a disheveled woman with one shoe who's been thrown out of the car by her husband.

Part - by Tony Foster, Directed by Shaina Rosenthal

A couple prepare to go to dinner at a restaurant where the man will meet the woman's parents for the first time.