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IAMA’s world premiere of Nina Braddock’s
‘Untitled Baby Play’ is ode to female friendship
LOS ANGELES (REVISED May 7, 2022) — Six women find themselves trapped on an email chain as they plan their friend’s baby shower when IAMA Theatre Company presents Untitled Baby Play by Nina Braddock. Katie Lindsay directs the IAMA-developed world premiere for a five-week run, May 26 through June 27 at Atwater Village Theatre.
Libby is having a baby, and a group of friends is planning her shower over email. What starts out as a comedy of manners for the digital age deepens as her longtime friends from childhood and college deal with cyber miscommunications and email chain snubs, even as they face their own existential angst surrounding the “baby question.”
Vying for control of the shower are childhood best friend Penny (Sonal Shah, recently seen in IAMA’s Celestial Events) and college best friend Meredith (Laila Ayad: IAMA’s Cult of Love, Bachelorette and Reverb), who disagree on all the basic details of the party. Eden (Sarah Utterback: IAMA’s A Kid Like Jake, Cult of Love, The Accidental Blonde, Surfer Girl) and Gillian (Courtney Sauls: IAMA’s Sinner’s Laundry and Mama Metal) have also known Libby since elementary school, but their own ambivalence over motherhood and desire to keep the peace leaves Penny fighting her battles solo. Rounding out the group are Libby’s other college friends Natalia (Anna Rose Hopkins: IAMA’s The Accidental Blonde, Cult of Love), an actress who becomes creatively inspired by “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” and Clara (Jenny Soo, making her IAMA debut following Echo Theater’s Dry Land, Gloria), a new mom who is doing her best to keep up with her friends.
“I decided to work ‘untitled’ into the title of the play because each of these women is very much in process, both in terms of where they are choosing to find meaning in their lives and in regards to the motherhood question,” explains Braddock. “When I hit my thirties, I noticed that, as my friends and I started to make different career and life choices, the nature of our friendships began to change. How do you remain close when your friends’ lives start to look very different from your own because you each have different priorities? Friendship is always a work in progress—a little messy and a little chaotic. And even though we are all so busy—or tell ourselves we are—it’s so important to carve out time and space to appreciate what your friends value, and what gratifies them. I hope this play reminds people of the need for that.”
Untitled Baby Play, like friendship, is not always tidily or traditionally structured.
“The development of this play with IAMA has been extensive,” Braddock says. “We spent a year working on it with this amazing cast, and they have enriched it enormously.”
The Untitled Baby Play creative team includes set designer Cindy Lin, lighting designer Dan Weingarten, sound designer Andrea Allmond, costume designer Alexis Chaney and properties designer Michael O’Hara. Casting is by Jordan Bass. Melissa Coleman-Reed is the associate director, and Savanha Moore is the stage manager. Lexi Sloan produces for IAMA Theatre Company. Stefanie Black is artistic director.
Nina Braddock is a New York-based playwright, television and feature writer. She is currently a co-executive producer on Saint X for Hulu, and previously served as executive producer on The Sinner. She worked on The Bell Jar (Showtime), Servant (Apple), Brave New World (Peacock), and Berlin Station (Epix). Her play Wishbone was a finalist for the 2016 Alliance/Kendeda Graduate National Playwriting Award, the Bay Area Play Festival, the Playwrights Realm fellowship and Interstate 73. She has developed plays with Clubbed Thumb, where she was a member of the 2016/17 Early Career Writers’ Group. She was awarded a 2016/17 Sloan Commission by Manhattan Theatre Club to write Unlucky Number, a play following three patients as they undergo a clinical study testing the relative efficacy of medication and exposure therapy for treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. She received an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she was awarded the John Golden Playwriting Prize.
Katie Lindsay is a writer, director and producer of new plays, musicals and theatrical experiences. Recent work includes A Walk in My Neighborhood (“Genius”—LAist), Orlando by Sarah Ruhl (Williamstown), Buyer & Cellar by Jonathan Tolins (Celebration), The Door You Never Saw Before by Matt Schatz (Geffen Stayhouse), Red Emma & the Mad Monk by Alexis Roblan (The Tank, New York Times “Critic’s Pick”), and Keeping up with the Prozorovs by Lucy Gillespie (Hollywood Fringe; Encore Producers Award, Best Female Director nomination). Katie is currently working on a musical about drag king performers and a mafia-run cabaret in the 1940s. Katie is artistic producer of Big Little Theater Company and the co-founder of MeetCute, an evening of short plays that builds community in Los Angeles. This fall, look out for Menstruation: A Period Piece by Miranda Rose Hall. Katie was the 2019 Bill Foeller Directing Fellow at Williamstown Theatre Festival. She is an alumnae of Directors Lab West, The Habitat’s Directors Playground, a 2016 SDC Observership recipient, and a 2020 BOLD Ventures grant recipient. Proud graduate of Dartmouth College and member of SDC.
Untitled Baby Play opens on Thursday, May 26 at 8 p.m., with performances thereafter on Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays at 8 p.m., and on Sundays at 3 p.m. through June 27 (dark Monday, May 30). Two preview performances take place on Tuesday, May 24 and Wednesday, May 25, each at 8 p.m. All tickets are $35, except May 26 (opening night) for which tickets are $40 and include a post performance reception, and previews, which are $20. Atwater Village Theatre is located at 3269 Casitas Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039. Free parking is available in the ATX (Atwater Crossing) lot one block south of the theater. For reservations and information, call 323-380-8843 or go to www.iamatheatre.com.
Details for Calendar Listings
‘Untitled Baby Play’
WHAT:
A meditation on private identity, the crafting of persona and the agony of life choices, the world premiere of Untitled Baby Play by Nina Braddock is an ode to female friendship. Six women find themselves trapped on an email chain as they plan a friend’s baby shower. What starts out as a comedy of manners for the digital age deepens as these women—a doctor, freelance journalist, consultant, teacher, actress and software engineer—contend with cyber miscommunications and email thread snubs, forcing them to question their own convictions, fears and existential angst surrounding the baby issue. When the shower finally comes to pass, neuroses reach full throttle.
WHO:
• Written by Nina Braddock
• Directed by Katie Lindsay
• Starring Laila Ayad, Anna Rose Hopkins, Courtney Sauls, Sonal Shah, Jenny Soo, Sarah Utterback
• Presented by IAMA Theatre Company, Stefanie Black, artistic director
WHEN:
Previews: May 22 – May 25
Performances: May 26 – June 27
• Tuesday at 8 p.m.: May 24 ONLY (Preview)
• Wednesday at 8 p.m.: May 25 ONLY (Preview)
• Thursday at 8 p.m.: May 26 ONLY (Opening Night)
• Fridays at 8 p.m.: May 27, June 3, June 10, June 17, June 24
• Saturdays at 8 p.m.: May 28, June 4, June 11, June 18, June 25
• Sundays at 3 p.m.: May 29, June 5, June 12, June 19, June 26
• Mondays at 8 p.m.: June 6, June 13, June 20, June 27 (dark May 30)
WHERE:
Atwater Village Theatre
3269 Casitas Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90039
• FREE parking in the ATX (Atwater Crossing) lot one block south of the theater.
HOW:
• Call 323-380-8843 or go to iamatheatre.com
• Visit us on facebook: facebook.com/iamatheatre/
• Follow us on twitter and instagram: @iamatheatre
TICKET PRICES:
• General Admission (except previews and opening night): $35
• Opening Night (May 26): $40 (includes post-performance reception)
• Previews: $20
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