Rogue Machine Season 18 Offerings Include 4 Plays New to Los Angeles, a Festival of New Plays in Development, and Hollywood Fringe
Rogue Machine invites you to witness an extraordinary new lineup for SEASON 18, and a continued commitment to daring storytelling, innovative voices and unforgettable performances. This bold new season of never-before-seen in Los Angeles productions, debuts on Saturday, October 4, 2025 at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046.
“What runs through all of the plays in this season is the theme of perception,” says Artistic Director Guillermo Cienfuegos. “How the characters that populate these plays are perceived by the world, as well as those close to them. And how that external perception affects and colors the way they perceive themselves.”
The North American Premiere of Lauren Gunderson’s ANTHROPOLOGY, directed by John Perrin Flynn, launches Rogue Machine’s new season from their mainstage. This high-stakes AI thriller is wrapped in emotional urgency while questioning just how far we’ll go to uncover truth and what technology can and can’t help us resolve in our relationships. Merril is one of Silicon Valley’s leading software engineers, but her life disintegrates when her younger sister Angie vanishes on her way home from college. A year later, when the police have long abandoned their search, Merril assembles all the digital material Angie has left behind and sets about building herself a digital simulation of her sister. The resultant ‘virtual Angie’ offers her some solace – until, that is, it starts to reveal new details about the real Angie’s disappearance. The title of this play is deliberately styled and published as anthropology, in all lower case. Playwright Lauren Gunderson has received the Dramatists Guild Lanford Wilson Award and two Steinberg/ATCA New Play Awards. She was recognized by American Theatre magazine as America’s most produced living playwright at Theatre Communications Group (TCG, the magazine’s publisher) member theaters in 2017, and again in 2019–20.
Tickets for ANTHROPOLOGY start at $45, with seniors and student discounts. October 4 – November 9, 2025.
The World Premiere of Justin Tanner’s MY SON THE PLAYWRIGHT, directed by Lisa James, will be staged on the hyper intimate Henry Murray Stage at the Matrix Theatre. Performed by the author, this is an immersive and autobiographical journey into the beating heart of a fractious father/son relationship, as they dig through endless layers of ego, jealousy (and mutual annoyance), in order to find the kernel of love at the core. Alone in his meticulous apartment in Salinas, CA, Douglas awaits the arrival of his son, throwing back shots of gin and spewing comically bitter stories of a father’s thwarted hopes, while somehow maintaining the faintest possibility of redemption. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, James delays his departure, refusing to get on the road until he’s located a missing bag of weed. As he unleashes forty years’ worth of acrimony about his dad’s egregious shortcomings, he cautiously begins to set aside his resentments and recognize his part in the slow-motion car crash of his career. Peppered with live songs of love and anger, Tanner performs both the roles of his father and his younger self with equal amounts of lacerating humor and pathos.
Tickets for MY SON THE PLAYWRIGHT start at $45, with seniors and student discounts. January 24 – March 1, 2026.
Winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Jackie Sibblies Drury’s FAIRVIEW will make its Los Angeles Premiere on Rogue Machine’s mainstage. At the Frasier household, preparations for Grandma’s birthday party are underway. Beverly is holding on to her sanity by a thread to make sure this party is perfect, but her sister can’t be bothered to help, her husband doesn’t seem to listen, her brother is MIA, her daughter is a teenager, and maybe nothing is what it seems in the first place. “A vehement, searching, fourth-wall-demolishing [play] under a playful surface” – New York Magazine. “Outstanding, frustrating, hilarious, and sui generis play” – The New Yorker.
Tickets for FAIRVIEW start at $45, discounts available for seniors and students. March 14 – April 19, 2026.
Rogue Machine will be a participating in the 2026 Hollywood Fringe Festival (or HFF26),
L.A.’s largest celebration of performing arts, at the Matrix Theatre. HFF has been successful in their goal of “providing a platform for emerging and experimental artists to build community with one another. Through that platform, it makes live performances more accessible to artists and audiences alike.” This synergy coincides with Rogue Machine’s mission. HFF “presents an annual, open-access festival which celebrates freedom of expression and collaboration in the performing arts, hosting thousands of artists from Los Angeles and around the world.” Rogue Machine is proud to be a part of this event. June 5 – June 28, 2026.
Rogue Machine Season 18 Continues with…
Rogue Machine’s 3rd Annual PLAYWRIGHT’S ROUNDTABLE FESTIVAL, founded by Rogue Machine’s Executive Director Justin Okin, presents world premiere readings in July. This is a week-long festival of never before produced plays. Featured playwrights will be selected and announced in October of 2025. For six months each year, Playwright’s Roundtable brings together early to mid-career playwrights, some of whom are returning to theater after finding success in film and television. Writers meet twice a month in a welcoming and creative environment, culminating in public or private presentations of bold new works for the stage. Tickets are available for a suggested donation of $20 per ticket, but patrons will not be turned away for lack of funds. All proceeds support the Playwright’s Roundtable. The event is a peek behind the curtain to witness a work-in-progress and to become a vital part of the process, giving these writers what they need at this stage: a living, breathing audience to show them what may be adjusted as they head towards a finished script. July 15 – 19, 2026.
Rogue Machine Season 18 will conclude with a 4th play by a female playwright, to be announced later, opening on the Henry Murray Stage and running August – September 2026.
Rogue Machine produces new plays and important contemporary plays not yet seen in Los Angeles.
Nine of their productions have been published by Samuel French, Dramatists Play Service or Broadway Play Publishing, and six of the productions have had subsequent stagings at significant theatres, including Off Broadway, major regional houses and the Donmar Warehouse in London. Four world premieres, Razorback, Small Engine Repair, Lone-Anon, and One Night in Miami… were made into feature films, and playwright Kemp Powers was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of “Best Adapted Screenplay.” In recognition of its artistic achievement, administrative strength, development of new work and other significant contributions to the field of professional theatre in the United States, Rogue Machine is supported by the Perenchio Foundation, Shubert Foundation, Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, David Lee Foundation, the City and County of Los Angeles, The Ahmanson Foundation, and the Richenthal Foundation. Rogue Machine is a recipient of the American Theatre Wing’s National Theatre Company Grant.
Since its founding in 2008, Rogue Machine Theatre has become a cornerstone of Los Angeles’ vibrant theater scene through its commitment to producing new and significant contemporary plays. With its bold programming, the company has earned critical acclaim and has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards. Notably, Rogue Machine has earned more than 30 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards including the unique distinction of being the only theater company to receive the Polly Warfield Award for Best Season by a Small to Midsized Theater three times—2023, 2016, 2011. Additionally, the company has received three Ovation Awards for Outstanding Production of the Year. In 2017, Rogue Machine took home the Ovation Award for Best Season, standing out among major institutions like the Geffen Playhouse, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts and Center Theatre Group.
In residency at the historic Matrix Theatre, Rogue Machine remains at the forefront of American contemporary theater by continuing its mission of supporting playwrights and artists and focusing on thought-provoking work that grapples with the issues of today such as Sophie Swithinbank’s Bacon, Will Arbery’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning, and Evanston Salt Costs Climbing.
The first show of the new season, anthropology, opens at 8pm on Saturday, October 4th at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046.
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