THE GIRL MOST LIKELY TO Opens 4/20 at LATC

Playwrights' Arena, described as "the only theater dedicated to discovering, nurturing and producing original works written exclusively by Los Angeles playwrights," and the Latino Theater Company at the Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC) in association with PAE Live! is presenting the World Premiere of MICHAEL PREMSRIRAT’S  The Girl Most Likely To, opening Friday, April 20 through Sunday, May 13, 2012.         

THE GIRL MOST LIKELY TO – A Filipino-American boy wants nothing more than to be accepted for who he is. Forget that he likes wearing girl’s clothes to school and breaks out to do impromptu Christina Aguilera songs. That’s nothing compared to the trouble he is headed for.  A funny, heart-wrenching, sweet play about owning yourself. Witten by Michael Premsrirat and directed by Playwrights’ Arena Founder and Artistic Director Jon Lawrence Rivera. The ensemble includes MANDELA BELLAMY, FRAN de LEON, Ramon De Ocampo, NICHOLAS DOWNS, TE JAY McGRATH, TOBIT RAPHAEL, ERIC SCHULMAN and MATTEW THOMPSON.

MICHAEL PREMSRIRAT's (Playwright)  first play, The Clouds, The Ocean and Everything in Between,won the 2000 East West Players New Voices Playwriting Competition, received a reading at The Public Theater’s New Work Now! Festival in May 2001, and was produced at Asian American Theater Company (San Francisco) in May 2001 and at Asian American Repertory Theatre (San Diego) in February 2005.  In May 2010, he graduated from the M.F.A. Dramatic Writing Program at University of Southern California’s School of Theatre.  His thesis play, The Girl Most Likely To , was a finalist for the 2011 Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center National Playwrights Conference. 

  JON LAWRENCE RIVERA (director)  most recently directed Cages by Leonard Manzella, Unmerciful Good Fortune by Edwin Sanchez, Bonded by Donald Jolly (LA Times Best Play of 2011), Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca, Calligraphy by Velina Hasu Houston, Road to Saigon at East West Players, Jacques Brel at The Colony Theatre and Oedipus El Rey by Luis Alfaro at the Theatre@Boston Court. Other recent works include: The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown, Miss Saigon by Schönberg/Boublil, Ruby, Tragically Rotund by Boni B. Alvarez, Laws of  Sympathy by Oliver Mayer, The Joy Luck Club by Susan Kim,Sea Change by Nick Salamone (2009 LA Weekly Award for Directing), The Third From the Left by Jean Colonomos (2008 NY Fringe Festival), Hillary Agonistes by Nick Salamone (2007 NY Fringe Festival Award for Directing), Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn.  A five-time Ovation Award nominee, he is the founding artistic director of Playwrights’ Arena and his productions have garnered over 100 local and international awards.

JOHN H. BINKLEY designs the set for The Girl Most Likely To with lights by Adam Blumenthal, costumes by MYLETTE NORA, projection design by Adam Fleming, sound by BOB BLACKBURN, casting by RAUL STAGGS and JACLYN KALKHURST as stage manager. Producers are Playwrights’ Arena and Latino Theater Company in association with PAE LIVE! with DIANE LEVINE as line producer.