SEASON 18: PERCEPTION
Next season, we’re proud to be presenting plays from three powerhouse female playwrights - Lauren Gunderson, Jackie Sibblies Drury and one we cannot yet tell you about + a World Premiere from our resident L.A. icon, Justin Tanner.
Because theatre isn’t just what’s on the stage. It’s who we choose to amplify, who we gather around, and what kind of future we build together.
anthropology by Lauren Gunderson
Directed by John Perrin Flynn
October 4 – November 9, 2025
The North American Premiere of Lauren Gunderson’s anthropology launches season 18 from our MainStage. This high-stakes AI thriller is wrapped in emotional urgency while questioning just how far we’ll go to uncover truth and what technology can and can’t help us to resolve in our relationships.
Playwright Lauren Gunderson has received the Dramatists Guild Lanford Wilson Award and two Steinberg/ATCA New Play Awards. She was recognized by American Theatre magazine as America's most produced living playwright at Theatre.
My Son The Playwright
Written and performed by Justin Tanner
Directed by Lisa James
January 24 - March 1, 2026
The World Premiere of Justin Tanner’s My Son The Playwright, directed by Lisa James, will be staged on our hyper intimate Henry Murray Stage. This is an immersive journey into the beating heart of a father/son relationship. The autobiographical story of this fractious father and son who dig through endless layers of ego, jealousy (and mutual annoyance) in order to find the
kernel of love at the core of their relationship.
Alone in his meticulous apartment in Salinas, CA, Douglas awaits the arrival of his son, throwing back shots of gin and spewing comically bitter stories of a father’s thwarted hopes, while somehow maintaining the faintest possibility of redemption. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, James delays his departure, refusing to get on the road until he’s located a missing bag of weed. As he unleashes forty years’ worth of acrimony about his dad’s egregious shortcomings, he cautiously begins to set aside his resentments and recognize his part in the slow-motion car crash of his career.
Peppered with live songs of love and anger, Tanner performs both the roles of his father and his younger self with equal amounts of lacerating humor and pathos.
Fairview by Jackie Sibblies Drury
Spring 2026
Winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Fairview will make its Los Angeles Premiere on Rogue Machine’s MainStage.
At the Frasier household, preparations for Grandma’s birthday party are underway. Beverly is holding on to her sanity by a thread to make sure this party is perfect, but her sister can’t be bothered to help, her husband doesn’t seem to listen, her brother is MIA, her daughter is a teenager, and maybe nothing is what it seems in the first place.
“A vehement, searching, fourth-wall-demolishing [play] under a playful surface.” - New York Magazine
“Outstanding, frustrating, hilarious, and sui generis play.” —The New Yorker