OPEN TRENCH: May 2022

Hello Friends,

Working with such a talented creative team, I'm a lucky playwright. The Water Tribe has been published by Original Works and is ready for pre-order purchases. Thank you to Jason Goldberg and the whole Original Works team! It's a wonderful company and their catalogue is extensively cool. Everyone loves to read plays, right? And then put them up on their feet! And with the Pre-order, you get a discounted price.

With Tricia Small directing, and all the great design and assistant directing work by Adam Glover, with Tyler Matthew Burk wearing hats galore, Liz Ross and Crystal Jackson producing for EST-LA and VS. Theatre Companies, Shara Abvabi as lighting designer, Maya Braunwarth as our trusty stage manager, Sharon Freedman wearing more fun hats, a perfect cast that included Hannah Prichard, Christopher Reiling, Jayne Taini, Jon Gentry, Alexandra Daniels, and a whole lot of friends and theater folk who kicked in their time, it just had to have a successful first run. And it did. Enjoy reading it! (But first, you have to order it. Please.)

The Water Tribe

Claudia is young, parentless, minimally employed, and almost without family or friends but she remains upbeat about her future and confident in her quest to form a personal tribe for herself and her boyfriend Johnny. But Johnny has problems of his own. He has launched into adulthood but still struggles to cut the cord from his concerned mother while searching for a connection to his long-absent father. As the few people Claudia has in her life begin to fall away and the problems in her relationship are laid bare, she teeters on the brink of catastrophe in this searing, darkly funny tragicomedy about the critical importance of community, identity, and home.

THE WATER TRIBE Pre-Order

The Water Tribe is one of the strangest plays I've ever seen, a study in insanity, but it'll be a long time before I forget it.

--Willard Manus, TotalTheater

You simply can't take your eyes away from its hot mess of a female protagonist or Hannah Prichard's tornado of a lead performance. For those willing to put up with a whole lot of crazy, The Water Tribe makes for one wild ride.

--Steven Stanley, StageSceneLA

It's a wild ride, and much like a roller coaster, you feel both a mix of relief and nostalgia the moment it's over. I highly recommend this play.

--Matthew Robinson, LATheatrebites

Cummings tills the writer’s soil exposing an unearthed field, the barren aridity of lost souls, and the underbelly of civilization is on full display, which at times makes the audience writhe in their seats. Sometimes it is hard to watch as this part of humanity collapses into ruin. The original work of art is certainly theatrical and something to ponder long after you leave the theatre. Run! And take someone you think is living on the edge. You'll both be enlightened.

--Joe Straw #9

There's More to Life

I have to tell you--I'm writing a novel. The first draft is written. The second draft, with many notes, was compiled with great detail. I'm working on the super-clarifying third draft. I know some authors love to tell you, "This story is about Janine, an insomniac-anosmic who lives in Brussels. After discovering a portal in a late-night tasteless waffle, she exhaustively sniffs her way to find the stinky truth about the cunning EU overlords who stole her freedom. It's prepared in quatrains of rhyming tweets." I can assure you, my novel has nothing to do with waffles or any of that other stuff. I will also tell you: the story takes place over the course of seven days and the first paragraph mentions the delivery of some new socks. I think you'll like it. Maybe you won't. Look, I can't please everyone. (Thank you, Tina Fey, for all that you do. And the photographer--who(m) I cannot find.)

If it's possible you missed it, here is My Last Book: Bent But Not Broken

As you may have been told or have experienced through your own ears, I have been known to perform music here and there. Some comedy. (No dancing.) I have something coming up where I sing original tunes of pure love. If you find yourself in Southern CA on May 21, come have a fun time. It's a short show, with others. You may have many other plans, but if you do hand over your third Saturday night in May, you might win a prize. I know you'll win a prize. And maybe you, too, will get up there next month and present your music-comedy-fire/eating. Tix link coming soon: The Verdugo Huut:Shameless Love Songs

A Don Cummings sample:
A Song About My Favorite Insurrectionist President

You ever live in Los Angeles and feel like Zombies have taken over and all you are trying to do is survive? Like a person? Then this graphic novelization of a screenplay is for you. I wrote it with Bradford Brillowski, one of America's dryest humorists. It's illustrated by Peter Landau. I won't try to describe Peter's style since pictures paint a thousand words. But it's all downright cheeky! Check us out.

@OhTheHorrorLA on Instagram

In Chronological Order on Tumblr