Wednesday, June 10, 2015

If you're in L.A. and you're not going to Black List Live, what's wrong with you?

This is a post aimed specifically at my local L.A. readers. If you're in town this weekend, I highly urge you to attend the latest Black List Live Read. Every few months, The Black List picks an unproduced screenplay that landed somewhere on a previous year-end list, gets a cast of talented and recognizable stars, and brings them together for an incredibly entertaining evening at The Montalban Theater in Hollywood.

I have attended three of the four previous L.A. readings and can attest that whether the screenplay is dramatic or comedic, it's a lot of fun to see actors like Nathan Filion, Seth Green, and Gina Rodriguez bring their characters to life. The star of the GIFTED reading was 8 year-old Mckenna Grace, who stole the show from actors like Armie Hammer and Francis Fisher. Mckenna was a real find, and after the show, everyone in attendance seemed to agree we'd seen a star in the making.

This weekend's live read continues the tradition of strong casting, with as great an assemblage of talented women as you could hope to find anywhere:

Felicia Day from The Guild and Supernatural!
Gillian Jacobs from Community!
Chelsea Peretti from Brooklyn Nine-Nine!
Kristen Schaal from The Daily Show and Last Man on Earth!
Rachael Harris from The Hangover!
Ginger Gonzaga from Mixology!

and also Adam Pally from The Mindy Project!

With a cast like that, they could be doing a gender-swapped reading of the ENTOURAGE movie and I'd be on board. As it turns out, they'll be reading Jac Schaeffer's THE SHOWER!


A meteor (and baby) shower gone very, very wrong... Meteorites are crashing down on suburban Oak Valley, turning backyards and golf courses into craters and crushing people in cars and strip clubs as they try to escape. There's nowhere to hide. Nobody is safe. All is chaos. So what happens when the fumes from the explosions start turning the men into woman-eating alien monsters...!?

How do you say no to a synopsis like that? When it was first announced, my wife and I had tentative plans that would have taken us out of town that weekend. Once I read that hook, not only did I know that I had to see this one, but my wife agreed we'd make every effort to change our plans. She's not even a screenwriter and she's become as big a fan of this event as I am.

Tickets can be purchased here for $25.

Date: Saturday, June 13
Time: 7:30pm Doors, 8:00pm Show
Place: The Montalban Theater
1615 Vine Street in Hollywood, CA

1 comment:

  1. Aw man--I have tickets to see ORANGE IS THE NEW MUSICAL (the director is a friend who ADed a show of mine) but I will totally catch the next one.

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