SPF 11: Visiting Hours

JAMI BRANDLI’s plays include Technicolor Life, S.O.E., M-Theory, Sisters Three, Through the Eye of a Needle, O: A Rhapsody in Divorce, and BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!) which was named in the 2014 Kilroys List. As a 2019 Humanitas Prize PLAY LA, she wrote her play, Visiting Hours. Her work has been produced/developed at New Dramatists, New York Theatre Workshop, Launch Pad, The Women’s Voices Theater Festival, Chalk REP, The Road Theatre Company, Great Plains Theatre Conference, The Lark, among other venues.

BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!) nominated for Best Playwriting for an Original Play; Los Angeles Ovation Awards. 2019 Humanitas Prize PLAY LA playwright. Winner of John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award, Holland New Voices Award, Ashland New Plays Festival and Aurora Theatre Company’s GAP Prize. Finalist for the 2016 PEN Literary Award for Drama, Playwrights’ Center Core Writer Fellowship, Princess Grace Award and the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference; nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award. Her short works are published with TCG, Smith & Kraus and Dramatic Publishing Company.

Technicolor Life premiered as part of the 2015 Women’s Voices Theater Festival and received its Australian premiere in 2017. In 2018, BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!) received a joint-world premiere with Moxie Theatre (San Diego) and Promethean Theatre (Chicago), ending with Moving Arts’ production at Atwater Village Theatre in Los Angeles (LA Times Critic’s Choice and Ovation Recommended). BLISS will receive it’s next production at Defunkt Theatre (Portland, OR) in early 2020.  Through the Eye of a Needle (Stage Raw ‘TOP TEN’ Pick and Ovation Recommended) received its world premiere at The Road Theatre (Los Angeles), March-May 2018. Sisters Three received its world premiere with The Inkwell Theater (Los Angeles) in December through January 2019. She is currently a member of the 2020 Under Construction playwright cohort at The Road Theatre where she is working on her next play, The Caregiver’s Guide.

A proud member of The Playwrights Union and The Dramatist Guild, Jami teaches dramatic writing at Lesley University’s low-residency MFA program. She is represented by the Robert A Freedman Agency and MSW Media Management.

ANN HEARN TOBOLOWSKY (Director): Recent directing credits include the classic Bus Stop at Theatre 40 and three world premieres, The Favorite at Avery Schreiber Playhouse, Forever Bound by Steve Apostolina at Atwater Theatre and at The Road Theatre, Jami Brandli’s Through the Eye of a Needle. Also at the Road Theatre, an Off Road production of Anatomy of a Hug, multiple readings for The Road’s Word series and the Summer Playwrights Festival productions of A Shonda, Unbound, The Specials, The Gift and The Night We Bombed Lincoln Towing. Previously at Theatre 40: Holy Days, Driving Miss Daisy, Another Part of the Forest.

Ann was directing Scintilla for the Road Theatre and Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help for Theatre 40, both scheduled to open Spring of 2020 when the pandemic descended.  Rehearsals continued via Zoom and are temporarily suspended, with hopes to continue for openings as soon as possible.

Ann is a member of the Artistic Board at The Road Theatre, as well as a member of Beverly Hills Theatre 40 (for 40 years!) She is married to actor/writer/director Stephen Tobolowsky.

“VISITING HOURS”

Stephie Greene – Meeghan Holaway*
Hank/Silent Nurse – Dor Gvirtsman
Donna/Pearl – Carole Goldman*
Ben/Abe – Chet Grissom*
Tommy/Adam – Kris Frost*
Amanda/Zoe/Young Stephanie – Mallory Erwin*
Nurse Brown/Dr. White – Amy Tolsky*
Stage Directions – Ruman Kazi*
Editor – Andy Putschoegl

Song by James Lewis/Laguna Family Music

*Road Company Member