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Performances
Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre
Premiered October 2024
October 23, 26, 27, Nov 1, 2, 8, 9
Los Angeles, CA
Directed by Mitch Levine
Produced by Elina de Santos
Talkback Hosts for Rogue Machine Production
Colin Campbell
Colin Campbell is a writer and director for theater and film. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Seraglio, a short film he wrote and directed with his lovely and talented wife, Gail Lerner. He has taught Theater and/or Filmmaking at Chapman University, Loyola Marymount University, Cal Poly Pomona University, and to incarcerated youth. His book, Finding the Words: Working Through Profound Loss with Hope and Purpose was published by Penguin Random House in 2023. He wrote and performs, Grief: A One Man ShitShow which premiered at the Hollywood Fringe Festival and ran for a month at New York’s Theatre Row. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, and ModernLoss.com. Most recently, he was a keynote speaker at The Compassionate Friends’ National Conference.
Arlene Sarner
Award winning screenwriter/playwright/producer Arlene Sarner has written for every major movie studio as well as most TV networks. Her film work includes Academy Award nominated Peggy Sue Got Married and Blue Sky, starring Jessica Lange in her Academy Award winning role. Arlene collaborated with Academy Award winning director Agnieszka Holland on, July Walking Home. Arlene and her husband and co-writer Jerry Leichtling, turned Peggy Sue Got Marriedinto a stage musical and mounted a successful production in London’s West End. A US production is currently in the works. Arlene co-wrote and mounted a successful production of the stage musical, I Only Have Eyes For You, based on the life of Hollywood lyricist Al Dubin. She is currently working on a new stage musical. Arlene is a frequent contributor to The Braid, (formerly Jewish Women's theatre).
Rabbi Naomi Levy
Rabbi Naomi Levy is the founder and spiritual leader of Nashuva, a groundbreaking Jewish community, based in Los Angeles.
A unique and passionate voice in the contemporary Jewish world, Rabbi Levy was raised in a traditional home in Brooklyn and educated at Cornell University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude.
Following her lifelong passion, Rabbi Levy became a member of the first class of women to attend The Jewish Theological Seminary’s Rabbinical School in New York City. At the Seminary, Rabbi Levy was honored as an outstanding student and later became the first female Conservative Rabbi to head a pulpit on the West Coast.
In the course of her work, Rabbi Levy identified a pressing need in the Jewish community… a desire for joy, spirituality, belonging and a relationship with God. Through the creation of Nashuva, Rabbi Levy has drawn thousands of unaffiliated Jews back to Judaism with a soulful, relevant and fun spiritual experience. High Holiday services, which are broadcast on-line each year, gives hundreds of thousands of viewers across the globe a chance to connect, rejoice and find deep meaning in their Jewish tradition.
In recognition of the impact she has made, the Jewish Forward identified Rabbi Levy as one of the nation’s 50 most influential Jewish leaders and Newsweek included Rabbi Levy in its list of “Top 50 Rabbis in America.”
Rabbi Levy and her husband Rob Eshman, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Jewish Journal, have two children, Adi and Noa, as well as four chickens, two dogs, two pigmy goats and a great organic garden!
Rabbi Levy is also a best-selling author and nationally noted speaker on revitalizing faith, spirituality, healing and prayer. Lectures have included “healing the violence in our society,” “revitalizing synagogue life” and “breathing new life into High Holy Days.” Rabbi Levy has appeared on NBC’s Today Show and Oprah and been featured in Parade, Redbook, Self, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and Los Angeles magazine.
Books authored by Rabbi Naomi Levy:
To Begin Again: The Journey Toward Comfort, Strength and Faith in Difficult Times (1999): This national bestseller provides an inspirational account of finding resiliency in life’s darkest moments.
Talking to God: Personal Prayers for Times of Joy, Sadness, Struggle, and Celebration (2002): Rabbi Levy teaches us how personal prayer can transform our lives.
Hope Will Find You: My Search for the Wisdom to Stop Waiting and Start Living (2010): This book is an intimate account of Rabbi Levy ’s personal journey and the wisdom gained. With humor and honesty, she describes how she came through a time of uncertainty and fear and learned to stop waiting for life to begin.
Einstein and the Rabbi: Searching for the Soul (2017): Rabbi Levi’s exploration of the meaning and purpose of the soul, inspired by the famous correspondence between Albert Einstein and a grieving rabbi.
Lynda A Levy
Lynda A Levy is a psychotherapist in West Los Angeles. A woman for “all” seasons, her interest in psychology, people and the arts were seeded at a young age. She has experienced a variety of successful careers, from artistic endeavors as a celebrated photographer, a women in business, creating fundraising events for federal, state and local political figures as well for non profits, managing campaign offices for state and local political candidates and went on to join The New Israel Fund (NIF) as their West Coast Executive Director. NIF is a progressive foundation funding agencies in Israel in women’s rights, civil/human rights, pluralism and Arab/ Jewish dialogue initiatives. After completing an exciting five year stint Lynda returned to school receiving her Masters in Psychology and presently enjoys a meaningful and productive private practice for over two decades in West Los Angeles working with couples, individuals, families, as well a grief counselor and providing support to cancer patients and families navigating the emotional terrain of this diagnosis. She has also enjoyed a career as a cabaret singer appearing at several local venues. Alongside her psychotherapy practice she is a mixed media artist showing her work in many galleries and appreciated by several collectors. She enjoys writing prose and poetry and looking to publish a collected body of her work. Lynda and her husband Stan have three sons with wives and families of their own whom they enjoy with immense pleasure, especially the seven “grands”.
Joshua Ravetch
Joshua Ravetch is an American playwright, screenwriter and stage director born in Los Angeles, California, who co-created and directed Carrie Fisher's one-woman show Wishful Drinking, which had a successful run on Broadway. He also co-wrote and directed Dick Van Dyke in his first-ever one man show, Step in Time! A Musical Memoir, which premiered at The Geffen Playhouse. Ravetch's award-winning play, Chasing Mem'ries: A Different Kind of Musical received the Edgerton New Play Award and was nominated for the Ovation. The play starred Tyne Daly and Robert Forster and world premiered at The Geffen Playhouse in 2017. Ravetch collaborated with lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman with music by Marvin Hamlisch, Michel Legrand and Johnny Mandel.
Also at The Geffen Playhouse, Ravetch wrote and directed a workshop production of Writer's Cramp with Oscar nominee Robert Forster, Emmy winner and Tony nominee Holland Taylor, and Tony nominee Douglas Sills. Other writing credits include Periscope Up, a play in one act which was performed at the NoHo Arts Theatre and was directed by Star Trek veteran Jonathan Frakes.
In 2023 Ravetch's play, Our American Sons was workshopped at the Delaware Theatre Company. A project conceived over Covid tracking the true-life stories of gay and trans kids who have been put through the utterly damaging and traumatic atrocity known as Conversion Therapy, a practice slowly being outlawed throughout the USA.
Ravetch co-wrote and directed Beverly Johnson; IN VOGUE which workshopped in Palm Springs in 2023 and opened Off-Broadway in January, 2024. That date coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the famous ground-breaking Vogue cover where Johnson became the first ever black woman to grace the cover of American Vogue.
Justin Tanner
Prolific Los Angeles based playwright who has had several successful productions of his plays, beginning with "Zombie Attack" in the late 1980s.
Nick Ullett
Nicholas Metson Ullett is a British-born American actor. For a number of years, he was part of a comedy duo with Tony Hendra.
Actors Studio
March 19, 2023
West Hollywood, CA
Directed by Mitch Levine
Workshop Production
Talkback Host: Katherine Cortez, Co-Artistic Director of The Actors Studio West
Soapbox Gallery
November 13, 2022
Brooklyn, NY
Talkback Host: Dr. Richard Brockman
Richard Brockman is an American psychiatrist and playwright known for his writing in both fields. He is a clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, attending clinical psychiatrist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and visiting professor in department of psychiatry at the University of Namibia School of Medicine.[1] His plays have been produced off-Broadway and off-off Broadway nationally and internationally.
His memoir, Life After Death: Surviving Suicide was published with Arcade Publishing in August 2023.
San Diego Rep
Chosen by the Whole Megillah New Jewish Play Festival (part of the Lapinsky Festival at San Diego Rep)
June 14, 2022
San Diego, CA
Talkback Host: Rebecca Myers
Becca is a multi-hyphenate theatre artist: producer, actor, singer, director, and educator who gets joy from everything theatre! Becca is currently working as the Interim Associate Producer of The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, CA, having previously worked as the NNPN Producer-in-Residence of San Diego Repertory Theatre. As a Jewish, Mexican, American (and too many other identities to name!) theatre artist, Becca spends much of the year visioning, helping produce and serving as a director, emcee, actor, and writer for the Lipinsky Family Jewish Festival, as well as the Latinx New Play Festival. Becca also created and artistically leads the new play festival "The Whole Megillah" (currently in its third year!), which offers four new Jewish plays a workshop and development opportunities. Becca serves as a founding member and Managing Director & Associate Artistic Director of Living Light Theatre.
In 2018, Becca received the Sandy Fisher Award for Excellence in the Creative Arts which is awarded for exceptional work in theatre, including behind the scenes support, activism, and onstage work. Becca is committed to accessibility, education, and opportunities for BIPOC and neurodivergent youth. Becca has worked as a Theatre and Enrichment Facilitator for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) Academy at University of San Diego, and as the instructor of an engagement course through J*Company Youth Theatre's Random Acts of Culture program. Becca is currently the drama teacher at Mt. Everest Academy, where she works with students over the course of a year to vision, develop, write, and finally produce a fully staged new play, performed by students of all ages.