LOS ANGELES MISSION COLLEGE THEATRE ARTS
Bringing professional theatre training and productions to Los Angeles's Northeast Valley since 2015
2026-27 LA Mission Theatre
Fall 2026 Classes
ENROLL IN FALL 2026 CLASSES TODAY!
After the rousing success of Spring 2026, including the sold-out production of Luis Valdez's classic musical, Zoot Suit, we are gearing up for another semester of exciting classes and opportunities.
Classes include Introduction to Theatre, Introduction to Acting, and Script Analysis, all taught by full-time professor Robert Cucuzza. We are also offering Introduction to Stage Craft, with longtime faculty member Bri Pattillo. Our dedication to dual enrollment courses at local high schools continues with two courses taught onsite at Verdugo Hills High School, including Beginning Stage Makeup, taught by costume instructor and designer, Lena Sands, and Introduction to Theatre with new faculty member, Xochitl Romero.
For students who are ready to leap into the action, we are seeking actors and design and production students for our fall show, Waiting for Lefty: A Sylmar Sonata.
Fall 2026 Theatre Production
WAITING FOR LEFTY: A SYLMAR SONATA
Our Fall 2026 production will be an expanded version of Clifford Odets’ classic, Waiting for Lefty: A Sylmar Sonata, directed by Brian Tichnell.
When Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty debuted in 1935 it pierced the heart of the capitalist greed that fueled the Great Depression, inspiring audiences into action. Seven scenes unfold, revealing the intersecting lives of working class characters and their experiences with exploitation, corruption, and social injustice. The LA Mission Theatre production takes this one step further, interlacing Waiting for Lefty with the script of Salt of the Earth, a 1954 film about a New Mexico mining strike, and stories from our student community about working conditions in the Northeast San Fernando Valley.
We are looking to cast around nine actors to play roles from both Waiting for Lefty and Salt of the Earth, as well as design and production support, to bring this play to life in the AMP Theater. No previous experience is necessary.
Auditions and interviews will be in the week of September 14, 2026.
Faculty Accomplishments
NATIONAL NEWS FOR CUCUZZA, SANDS, TICHNELL
LA Mission College Theatre Arts faculty members Robert Cucuzza, Lena Sands, and Brian Tichnell are enjoying national recognition in books, opera, and Emmy Award-winning TV.
Professor Robert Cucuzza is featured in the recently published I've Got the Shakes: Performing Richard Foreman, an oral history of artists' recollections of working with the revolutionary avant-garde theatre impresario.
In May, costume instructor Lena Sands will be scenographer for Detroit Opera's Apartment House 1776, an immersive operatic experience staged inside the galleries of the Cranbrook Art Museum.
Acting instructor and Three Sisters director Brian Tichnell (pictured above) returns in a featured role as "Medic Amboy" in the Emmy Award-winning HBOMax show, The Pitt. After appearing in two episodes of Season One, Tichnell returns for four more episodes in Season Two.
Watch LA Mission Theatre Arts productions
STREAM OUR ORIGINAL PRODUCTIONS FOR $10
Through our streaming partner, AnywhereSeat, you can now watch several original LA Mission College Theatre productions online for only $10.
Macbeth — Our 90-minute original adaptation of Shakespeare's classic tale of murderous ambition, presented at the 2024 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in Glendale, CA.
Mr. Grieves and The Vampires — An original production, collaging together the 1915 silent film serial, Les Vampires, and the classic Pixies album, "Doolittle," into a lightening-fast punk-inspired sordid tale.
She Who Was No More — An original stage adaptation of the 1954 French thriller novel of the same name, where six actors play dozens of roles on a minimalist set, evoking a lurid world of murder, deception, and madness.
El Carne King of Vallarta—An original comic adaptation of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's classic play, Life is a Dream, transported to the stockroom of a Vallarta Supermarket.
