Categories: Theatre

Helped Bring Lisa Loomer’s New Play to Life

I was honored to be cast as Sydney in a new play written by Lisa Loomer and directed By Armando Molina.

Breaks was read at The Road Theatre Company’s Summer Playwrights’ Festival. Lisa Loomer is a two-time winner of the American Theatre Critics Award and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. It was a huge privilege for me to work with her.

Breaks, which was performed as a staged reading on August 3rd, follows a group of small-town friends from their high school graduation in the summer of 2016, through the summer of 2018. Each time the friends reunite during their breaks from college, we get a snapshot of how their lives and outlooks evolve in the early years of the Trump administration.

My character, Sydney, was a college athlete, a pole-vaulter from Portland, (which is interesting because I’m from Portland and I competed as a pole-vaulter in high school track.) From program notes about the play: Breaks illustrates the moment when the “woke” Millennial generation wakes up from their sheltered small town slumber, as they come of age and come to understand the complex realities of the real world and racial and sexual politics.

We were also part of a “talkback” after the performance.

Armando Molina was the director. Armando serves as Artistic Director of Company of Angels. He has also co-founded Latins Anonymous, the critically acclaimed Latino Comedy Group.

The cast included:

Dylan Forehand as Cole
Isabel Klein as Sydney
Nick Marni as Gabe
Maya Malan Gonzalez as Luz
Everett Dailey as Quentin
Mallory Erwin as Serena and Stage Directions

The Road Theatre’s annual Summer Playwrights Festival has been held every summer since its inception in 2010. This year marks the 10th anniversary. It was so great to be a part of it. I want to express my special thanks to the Associate Artistic Director of The Road Theatre, Scott Alan Smith, for encouraging me to audition for the role of Sydney. Scott was one of my professors at Pepperdine and directed me in Taming of the Shrew.

From The Road Theatre Company:

The Road Theatre Company is dedicated to producing new plays. Founding Festival Director Scott Alan Smith, “The Road Theatre has produced 23 plays from the Summer Playwrights Festival on our main stages including our current season selections, The Rescued by Julie Marie Myatt (SPF8), Death House by Jason Karasev (SPF8) and last season’s Stupid Kid by Sharr White (SPF7) and Through the Eye of a Needle by Jami Brandli (SPF7). We are very proud to be bringing these new plays straight from the festival to our audiences.”

Past playwrights have included D.L. Coburn, Lisa Loomer, Sharr White, Marisa Wegrzyn, Craig Wright, Wendy Macleod, Lucy Thurber, Mo Gaffney, Keith Huff, Brett Neveu, Scooter Pietsch, Craig Pospisil, Julie Marie Myatt. Guest artists have included Bryan Cranston, Laurie Metcalf, Kathy Baker, Jennifer Tilly, Perry King, Rondi Reed, Tom Irwin, Nancy Travis, Gregory Harrison, Gale Harold, Robert Pine, Michael O’Neill, Harold Gould, and many, many others.

Isabel Klein

Isabel Klein is an actress and writer from Portland—keepin’ it weird. She's in the Sunday Company at The Groundlings. Isabel trained at RADA in London. Her solo show, SHOWSTOPPER, sold out at the Gilded Balloon during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has performed at The Comedy Store and The Hollywood Improv. She holds a BFA from Pepperdine. She has more than a dozen film and video credits, including clinging to life as OD Girl #2 in On Call (Amazon Prime), and she’s also part of an upcoming project with Trey Parker and Matt Stone. An experienced stage actor, she's had lead roles in notable productions. Her commercial credits include Airheads, Dave & Buster’s, Sonic (the drive-thru, not the hedgehog), Ring, and Visa—so odds are you’ve skipped her on YouTube.