Origins | Theatre of Note

A Benefit for Theatre of NOTE

Origins: New One-Acts

Opened: July 23, 2026
Closed: August 2, 2026

In celebration of 44 years of original theatre, Theatre of NOTE’s Board of Directors has brought together seven playwrights with deep ties to NOTE and distinguished careers in theatre, television, and film.
Honoring our company’s original name, the New One-Act Theatre Ensemble, Origins features seven original one-act plays by acclaimed playwrights June Carryl, Phinneas Kiyomura, Erik Patterson, Adam Szymkowicz, Kirsten Vangsness, Jacqueline Wright, and Steve Yockey.
Directed by an outstanding team of Los Angeles theatre artists and performed by NOTE company members, Origins brings together an extraordinary collection of voices whose work has shaped stages across Los Angeles and beyond.

Click for tix to Origins!

Pierre Paris Mai Ouis

In a hospital early in the pandemic, a dying playwright and a volatile pangolin figure spiral through erotic stories and nested fables until narrative fractures, forcing a reckoning with whether love is cruelty, kindness, or invention.

Written by Phinneas Kiyomura
Directed by Tom DeTrinis

Love

A first-to-third-date relationship spirals into surreal sexual miscommunication, internet-influenced fantasy, and duplicated selves, exposing how modern intimacy is shaped and distorted by media and expectation.

Written by Steve Yockey
Directed by Tom Lenk

Temporary

At a Los Angeles ad agency, an aging former actor-turned-office manager mentors a young assistant, but guidance becomes projection as both women confront ambition, disillusionment, and the instability of success.

Written by June Carryl
Directed by Dana Schwartz

Faggots in Love

A West Hollywood hookup between a middle-aged gaffer and a younger man unfolds into role-play and memory work, ultimately revealing how AIDS-era trauma still shapes queer intimacy and vulnerability.

Written by Erik Patterson
Directed by Neil H. Weiss

Cheerleaders

At the edge of a lifeless high school sports field, a socially awkward boy and two provocative cheerleaders escalate games of cruelty, ideology, and sexualized power.

Written by Adam Szymkowicz
Directed by Dana Schwartz

Bubble and Wall

In a surreal space where lives are blown like bubbles and replayed in fragments, characters test whether existence is finite or endlessly renewable as even the audience becomes part of the experiment.

Written by Kirsten Vangsness
Directed by Alina Phelan

Ornithic Ones

A volatile mother-daughter relationship fractures and reforms through escalating mythmaking about ravens, parentage, and memory, until reality itself transforms into avian ritual and shared imagination.

Written by Jacqueline Wright
Directed by Shayne Eastin

Keith Allan * ~

Clifton J. Adams *

Caitlin Apparcel

JJ Barrera

Lisa Clifton ~

Scout Gutzmerson

Greenberry Lucas

J.T. Melaragno

Christopher Neiman ~

Roni Paige

Julianna Robinson ~

Joel Scher ~

Nicole Gabriela Scipione * ~

Dominique Turner

Silvie Zamora ~

* Member of AEA ~ Member of SAG/AFTRA

Creative & Production Team

Producer – Lisa Clifton
Producer – Ron Morehouse
Producer – Greenberry Lucas
Stage Manager – Jordan Rivera
Marketing Liaison – Moira Rogers
Newsletter – Sam Miyamoto
Graphic Designer –JJ Barrera
Lighting & Sound Designer – Matt Richter
Propmaster –Julianna Robinson
Pangolin Designer – Hannah Schnabel