Maggie Grant
Working with the one and only Barbara Bain and DB Sweeney, it is a dream?
The first day we met with Ms. Bain about this festival, I was so excited I left one hour early to make sure I arrived on time and I got lost on the way. I was driving to a location I have driven to at least 50 times. To say I was excited is an understatement of gargantuan proportion.
She was gorgeous, warm, cordial, sweet, funny, sassy, a real one in a million kind of lady. When she agreed to star in our festival I almost whooped and hollered out loud but figured that would be in poor taste. However, my car was a safe zone and believe you me, I made some noise when I was safely ensconced and out of range.
Then it came time to meet Mr. DB Sweeney, himself. What a dream that was. I am huge fan of DB’s. He starred as Shoeless Joe Jackson in one of my all time favorite films, Eight Men Out. We met at Marie Callender’s for coffee and pecan pie. A sweet, quiet, dedicated, serious professional, he wanted to make sure I was not crazy. I tried my hardest to convince him of that. I guess it worked because soon we were all in rehearsal together and I had to pinch myself to make sure it was real.
Barbara Bain in Plenty Papya
I am the artistic director of Three Roses Players in NoHo. We feature The Writer Speaks and The Writer Speaks Winner’s Circle which are ongoing one-act festivals that feature new works especially by LA playwrights. The audience scores the plays and the two top scoring plays move into the Winner’s Circle where they enjoy another run along with another one-act.
I have just started a film production company, One in the Cannes Productions, and we are now taking the most popular plays, turning them into screenplays and filming them for the festival circuit. We are going global!
Since March 2010, I have produced 95 one-act plays; 86 of them were written by California playwrights. We support the local arts community, budding new and established playwrights and fresh new works. In addition, we have had over 380 LA actors grace our stage since we began and it has been quite a fantastic journey.
Then Dale Griffiths Stamos appeared one day. Dale is an amazing multi-award winning playwright who has written some of the best plays I have ever read. I instantly fell in love with her work. She writes clear, concise, well-rounded characters caught in very believable, recognizable, real life sets of circumstances. She has become a three-time winner at The Writer Speaks. We met last October and by November I said to Dale “we should do a Dale Griffiths Stamos evening.” She said, “All right.” And here we are! Dan Berkowitz and I have directed a full evening of her plays.
It has been an amazing journey. The actors are terrific; Dale’s plays are all admirable, different and unforgettable. I feel like the luckiest gal in the world!
Julianna Robinson, Chris Heltai, and Molly Leland in The Dinner Guest
We have only four more shows left and we would love to see your smiling faces in the audience at the lovely Promenade Playhouse in Santa Monica. Stop by, say hi and please remind me that I am most definitely not dreaming!
Thicker Than Water, presented by Three Roses Players and Venice Sky Productions, continues Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 2 pm; through May 22. Tickets: $`15-$25. Promenade Playhouse, 1404 3rd St. Promenade, Santa Monica; 310.656.8070 or plays411.net/thickerthanwater.
MAGGIE GRANT was bitten by the acting bug at the ripe old age of 4 while watching a production of Godspell. She fell in love with the stage and has never looked back. Theater has taken Maggie to many terrific locations in the US and England. A direct descendant of William Butler Yeats, she has her eyes set on the Abbey Theatre’s stage one day. She teaches, directs and has acted in over 130 productions. Some favorite roles include Ophelia in Hamlet, Katharina in The Taming of the Shrew and Stevie in The Goat or Who Is Sylvia. She is the artistic director at Three Roses Players in NoHo and she will forever be a fan of all that is theater.
