Canyon at Los Angeles Theatre Center

LOS ANGELES - Feb. 6, 2019 - PRLog -- "This land was made for you and me" — Woody Guthrie. IAMA Theatre Company partners with the Latino Theater Company to bring the world premiere of Canyon by Jonathan Caren (The Recommendation, Need To Know) to The Los Angeles Theatre Center. Previews begin Feb. 22, with the press opening scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 28 and performances continuing through March 24.

In Canyon, purpose collides with ideals when two families are rocked by an unpredictable accident on Labor Day weekend in 2016 — before everything in America changed. A newlywed couple and a Mexican father and son are striving to find a better view in life, and the price ultimately may be each other. Rising New York-based director Whitney White helms an immersive staging of this daring new play that looks at gender, citizenship and the costs of trying to live a conventional American life.

"What's happening in this play is happening in small ways all over our country" says Caren. "I'm looking at the chasm between how we self-identify and how we behave as a culture. I'm interested in how a person acts when they're tested beyond their ideals."

"What happens to your morality when you feel threatened? asks White. "Canyon is a reminder of just how vulnerable we all are."

According to Caren, the play was written specifically for a Los Angeles audience as a way to further conversation and connect communities. "Both IAMA and Latino Theater Company are reaching outside their comfort zones to put this on," he says. "I hope the play brings us together because there's been enough division in our culture from outside forces."

Caren spent four years meticulously developing the play to make sure that a variety of voices are included. A huge fan of White's work — the playwright describes her as a wildly exciting director who pushes the limits of what theater can be, and who is truly "the star of this production" — Caren is thrilled that, as an African American woman, she will bring yet another, radically different perspective to the work, which is "all about prisms."

Canyon opens on Thursday, Feb. 28 at 8 p.m., with performances thereafter taking place on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. through March 24. Three preview performances take place Feb. 22 through Feb 24 on the same schedule. All tickets are $38, except Feb. 28 (opening night) for which tickets are $60 and include a post performance reception, and previews, which are $20. The Los Angeles Theatre Center is located at 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013. Parking is available for $5 with box office validation at Joe's Parking structure, 530 S. Spring St. (immediately south of the theater). For more information and to purchase tickets, call (866) 811-4111 or go to thelatc.org/.