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We’re excited to bring our first play in our 2021 series of plays from the PEN America’s PRISON WRITING PROGRAM, What’s Prison Like?

Writer:  Matthew Mendoza

Matthew Mendoza has published fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, all from prison! His play Freedom Feather was performed by Rehabilitation Through The Arts at the Brooklyn Book Festival as part of “Break Out 2018: Voices From the Inside.” He has won awards from American Short Fiction and PEN America. He juries prison writing for Evening Street Review.

Director: Bernadette Armstrong

Bernadette moved to Los Angeles to work in film in the late 1990’s and after her first two films went to festivals she took a short hiatus from writing until she fell in love with small theater. Since 2008 she has had several successful theater projects produced in No Hollywood. Her play The Reading Group was named Pick of the Week by LA Weekly Magazine and in 2017 her play Simple Lives was nominated for Outstanding Writing of an Original Play or Musical by the Valley Theater Awards (the only woman nominated)

Cast:

Amir Abdullah is an award-winning actor and writer. His TV work includes The Odd Couple and Tosh.0, as well as extensive commercial work both on-camera and in voice-over. Amir also voices the antagonist in the video game Abo Khashem. Amir has appeared on stage in dozens of productions, including Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. Amir can be seen in the feature film Radioflash and is a member of SAG and Actor’s Equity.

Jeffrey Johnson as Wade

Jeffrey Johnson was born in Southborough, Massachusetts, as Jeffrey Scott Southworth Johnson. He is an actor and producer, known for Captain Black (2017), Terminator Genisys (2015), and Burn Notice (2007).  An ordained minister with The Universal Life Church, he has married ten couples, including his sister and her husband in the summer of 2005, and his cousin, a decorated war veteran, and his wife in 2009.

Eric Nikolaus Kwasnjuk as Rodriguez

Eric Kwasnjuk- Bio Eric Kwasnjuk, (pronounced-kwaz-knee-yuk) i

Support the show

Founded by playwright and filmmaker Bernadette Armstrong, Open-Door Playhouse is a Theater Podcast- like the radio dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. The Playhouse launched on September 15, 2020. At the time, Open-Door Playhouse provided Playwrights, Actors and Directors a creative outlet during the shutdown. Since its inception. Open-Door Playhouse has presented Short and One-Act plays from Playwrights across the country and internationally. In 2021 Open-Door Playhouse received a Communicator Award for Content for the Play Custody and in 2023 the play What’s Prison Like was nominated for a Webby Award in the Crime & Justice Category.

Plays are produced by Bernadette Armstrong, Sound Engineer is David Peters, sound effects are provided by Audio Jungle, and music from Karaoke Version. All plays are recorded at The Oak House Studio in Altadena, CA.

There’s no paywall at the Open-Door Playhouse site, so you could listen to everything for free. Open-Door Playhouse is a 501c3 non-profit organization, and if you would like to support performances of works by new and emerging playwrights, your donation will be gratefully accepted. Your tax-deductible donations help keep our plays on the Podcast Stage. We strive to bring our listeners thoughtful and surprising one-act plays and ten-minute shorts that showcase insightful and new perspectives of the world we share with others. To listen or to donate (or both), go to https://opend...