Theater 68: Part 1 - Rainbow Girls Detective Agency
Summary
Christmas time is approaching, and half-siblings Poppy and Faith, are the two young women called the Rainbow Girls. Despite their own romantic troubles, their main concern is for their vibrant, smart, pretty mom.
Twice divorced, she still dreams wistfully about her first love, the man she calls The Poet. The Girls are determined not to let another Christmas pass without their mother having romance in her life. So, the Rainbow Girls Detective Agency sets about looking for The Poet….and they find him! The thing is, he’s now a troubled ex-convict who’s not all that eager to get back with the Suzy he lost all those years ago.
Can the Rainbow Girls Detective Agency possibly bring these two soulmates back together again?
This play is being presented in two parts by Open-Door Playhouse
Writer
Matthew Mendoza
Matthew Mendoza is the playwright. An incarcerated artist, he juries prison writing for Evening Street Review. His previous plays include Freedom Feather and What’s Prison Like. He has won awards from American Short Fiction and PEN America.
Matthew Mendoza
Director
Bernadette Armstrong
Bernadette moved to Los Angeles to work in film in the late 1990s and after her first two films went to festivals she took a short hiatus from writing until she fell in love with small theater. Since 2008 she has had several successful theater projects produced in No Hollywood. Her play The Reading Group was named Pick of the Week by LA Weekly Magazine and in 2017 her play Simple Lives was nominated for Outstanding Writing of an Original Play or Musical by the Valley Theater Awards (the only woman nominated.) Bernadette is also the producer and founder of Open Door Playhouse Podcast!
Bernadette Armstrong
Cast:
Robert Pollock as Billy Lobo
Robert Pollock is the manager of the Prison Writing Program at PEN America For over a decade, he has worked with the justice system and its intersection with the arts. He has collaborated with several justice arts and NYC grassroots organizations as an advocate and peer educator. As a singer-songwriter, his compositions have been heard at the Obama White House, the RFK Human Rights Foundation, Create Justice forums, the Vera Institute of Justice Gala, the New York Ethical Society, and Carnegie Hall. Robert is a Fall 2019 New York Community Trust Leadership Fellow.
Robert Pollock
Barika Phillips Bell as Poppy
Barika Phillips Bell originally hales from Dallas, TX. After graduating Suma Cum Laude from Fisk University in Nashville, TN, she received her bachelor's degree in Psychology & Theater. She is an accomplished actress, singer, director, published poet & spoken word artist, a playwright & producer. "James & Joseph" produced by Barika, was nominated for an NAACP award. Past credits include: "And Then There Was You" with Brian White and Lynn Whitfield, the films "No Sunlight", "Maternal Instincts", and "A Mother's Ordeal" and "The Last Appeal". She recently won Best Support Actress for the film "The Tale of the Corporate Slave" airing now on Amazon and Best Comedy Ensemble for the short "It Happens" at the Austin Film Festival.
Barika Phillips Bell
Gena Kay as (Suze)
Gena Kay grew up on a farm in Indiana, where she wrote and performed various porch shows for uninterested siblings and barnyard animals. Her sister’s farm was the inspiration for Gena’s children’s book currently being illustrated, based on a Thanksgiving turkey that escapes the dinner table. While attending Ball State University, David Letterman was kind enough to give her some $$ when she won his scholarship. Chosen from over 1200 ladies in a Talent Search for Aaron Spelling’s daytime soap Sunset Beach, Gena got Californicated and was hooked. Currently, Gena is an actor, writer, producer, and fun alert: proofreader living in Los Angeles and leaving Los Angeles every chance she gets to see as many countries as she can. So far she’s visited all 50 states and about 66 countries, but who is counting? She spent half of Covid Zombie Apocalypse 2020 out of the country, volunteering in Africa, and “stuck” on a paradise Greek island. Somehow, she survived and is honored to be a part of such an impactful production as Supernova.
Gena Kay
Ayla Rose Barreau as Faith
Ayla Rose Barreau, a New England native, has been performing on stage since before she could walk. Now as a SAG-AFTRA actor, Ayla has co-starred on Fox’s Glee and NBC’s Heroes and graced the big screen as Ruby in the award-winning film, The Busker. Ayla has kept herself busy with several digital theatre and TV projects over the pandemic and is currently a member of the SkyPilot Theatre Company. http://www.aylarose.com | @aylarosesays
Ayla Rose Barreau
Sound Production:
Recorded at ES Audio Services in Glendale, CA.
Recorded and Mixed by Hall Cantrell
Sound Editor: Hall Cantrell
