Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA is one of Los Angeles’ premiere developmental and producing theaters and an offshoot of the renowned New York company that developed many of the most accomplished voices in the American theatre, including Christopher Durang, Richard Greenberg, David Mamet, Marsha Norman, José Rivera, Shel Silverstein, John Patrick Shanley, and Wendy Wasserstein.
Ensemble Studio Theatre, The L.A. Project (known as Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA or EST-LA) was founded by Curt Dempster and established under Co-Artistic Directors Risa Bramon Garcia and Debra Stricklin in 1992. Under the fiscal umbrella of the New York company, the group’s early programming included monthly “salons” at members’ homes around Los Angeles, and weekend artistic retreats at the Biltmore Hotel, Murietta Hot Springs, and Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum.
During the 1993-1994 season, EST-LA presented its first 'Winterfest,' a three-day festival of member-initiated readings that introduced 24 plays to the Los Angeles audience. Selections from this festival became part of the company’s one-act series Summer Shorts, co-produced with The Fountain Theatre in July 1994 (A Blooming of Ivy by Garry Williams, New York by Keno Rider, Parking by James Morrison, Star Train by Susan Merson, and Why the Beach Boys Are Like Opera by Carole Real).
In 1996, EST-LA produced the company-wide event First Look LA. Over a period of four months, company members and friends read and critiqued more than 500 new plays from across the United States. The best work was presented over two weekends at The Lost Studio. In total, 25 new plays were read, including Theresa Rebeck’s A View of the Dome. The full-length comedyExpecting Bobby, which also emerged from this process, went on to a successful eight-week run at The Odyssey Theatre beginning November 1996, co-produced by EST-LA and The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble.
Following this success, EST-LA was commissioned by Home Box Office to bring a theatre presence to the US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. The group conducted a nation-wide search for the best new comedic writing, acting, and directing talent. A play selection committee evaluated more than 800 plays over a six-month process. EST-LA premiered nine of these in Aspen, winning the festival’s highest honor, the MCI Jury Award for Outstanding Performance. The following year, EST-LA returned to Aspen at the invitation of HBO, bringing five new plays selected from more than 1,200 entries.
In 1998, EST-LA spearheaded the launch of Sunday Best, a weekly workshop that enabled members to present up to 45 minutes of any project of their choosing for moderated constructive criticism, and The Playwright’s Unit, an incubation program for new plays by member playwrights.
In 2002 Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA presented the world premiere of the Ovation and LA Weekly Award-nominated And Still the Dogs by Brian Cousins, directed by Dan Bonnell at Hollywood’s Lillian Theatre. Also in March, EST-LA collaborated with the American Film Institute to present staged readings of excerpts from six new scholarship-winning screenplays in the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Sloan Film Summit at The Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills.
Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA presented in 2003 the critically acclaimed world premiere of The Shore by Alison Tatlock, directed by Adam Prince at the Stage 52 Playhouse thanks to major support from The Annenberg Foundation (production extended). EST-LA was then selected from among 45 of LA’s top theatre companies to be part of “Hot Properties” at [Inside] the Ford where they presented the world premiere of Stage Directions by L. Trey Wilson, directed by Dan Bonnell. A collaboration of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and A.S.K. Theater Projects, “Hot Properties” was supported in part by a generous grant from the James Irvine Foundation.
After breaking box office records at [Inside] the Ford during its original run (January 24-February 208, 2004),Stage Directions relocated to The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble where it ran for an additional four weeks. The production went on to receive the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Los Angeles Theater; Garland Award (Playwriting); two LA Weekly Awards (Comedy Ensemble, Comedy Playwriting); Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award (Writing); two Ovation Award nominations (World Premiere Play, Ensemble Performance); and five NAACP Award nominations (Best Producers, Writing, Direction, Ensemble, Lighting Design), winning both Writing and Directing honors.
In 2007, EST-LA produced
Headless by Lea Floden and directed by Dan Bonnell. Set in the American Dust Bowl of the 1930s, this critically acclaimed Los Angeles premiere ran for six weeks beginning May 17, 2007 at the beautiful solar-powered 99-seat Electric Lodge in Venice. The play was chosen “Pick of the Week” by
ReviewPlays.com, “Critic’s Pick” by American Radio Network, “Critic’s Pick” by Curtain Up, and was “Recommended” by the Los Angeles Times. The production received two Back Stage Garland Award Honorable Mentions from reviewer Jennie Webb for Lighting Designer Chris Wojcieszyn and Sound Designer Martin Carrillo.
In addition to the on-going "Sunday Best" series and Playwright’s Unit, two new developmental programs were added to the slate in 2007: Studio 6, a series of workshop productions of new plays initiated by the membership, and 'Play Day,' a day-long retreat featuring readings of work developed within EST-LA’s Playwright’s Unit.
The West Coast Premiere of The Last Seder by Jennifer Maisel premiered in 2008 (directed by Joseph Megel) as a co-production with the Greenway Arts Alliance. The production extended and garnered a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle nomination for Joseph Ruskin (Featured Performance).
Recent productions include Jacqueline Wright's LOVE WATER, a 2009 co-production with the Open Fist Theatre Company, and TREE by Julie Hebert (directed by Jessica Kubzansky), the latter garnering 4 LA WEEKLY Award and 3 Drama Critic's Circle nominations.