Trust Me, I Love You, I Love You Not

This performance is supported in part by the California Arts Council, the LA County Department of Arts and Culture, and the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company Presents A Page Play Reading Of Youth Theatre Conservatory’s Devised Play

TRUST ME, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU NOT WRITTEN BY: DR. MAYA ANGELOU COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL Melissa Argueta, Kevin Avila, Karina Ayala, Christopher Damian, Joseph Estrada, Charlie Galvan, Alondra Garcia, Yerandy García, Leslie Gonzalez, Martha Jimenez, Michelle Lesher, Yarelin Martiñon, Valeria Mendoza, Alejandra Morales, Carlos Morena, Keni Ramirez, Evelyn Rojo, Gariniece Roberson, Angela Suarez, Yara Valasquez, Jissel Váquez, Angel Villamizar SYNERGY QUANTUM ACADEMY Richard Alvarez, Kleber Balderrabano, Kimberly Cosió, Brandon Cruz, Vania Garcia, Alexandra Gomez, Mariana Gutierrez, Erick Hernandez, Angel Joaquin, Jasmine Mahado, Jared Medina, Sofia Mercel, Stephanie Ortiz, Allison Quintanila, Mario Rivera, Joanna Villarreal

THE UNUSUAL SUSPECTS TEAM Teaching Artists who guided the process | Chris de la Cruz & Natasha Mercado Teaching Artist Subs | Gloria de Leon & Dani Schlenker STAFF | Abiram Brizuela, Executive Director | Michael Halpin, Sr. Director of Operations | Anisa Hamdan, Director of Community Partnerships | Joe Samaniego, Director of Programs | Jennifer Castillo, Program Manager | Arcadia Eckmayer, Program Coordinator | Marcus Baldwin, Program Coordinator | Ninette Ayala, Director of Advancement | Nick Williams, Director of Institutional Giving | Grafton Reyes-Doyle, Manager Institutional Giving, Sierra Marcks-O’Neil, Advancement Coordinator | Carina Gavino,Communications Manager TEACHING ARTISTS | Christopher Baker, Mike Bauer, Chris de la Cruz, Erik Escobar, Jeanette Godoy, Jessie Goodman, Bonnie Kaplan, Gloria De Leon, Lea Marie Madda, Alaji Marie, Natasha Mercado, Nabra Nelson, Marie Osterman, Danielle Schlenker, Adam Smith, Julian Smith, Monique Sypkens, Cris Quick BOARD OF DIRECTORS | Katja Amirkhanian, Julissa Arce, Amanda Brown, Gregory Caruso, John H. Freeland Jr., Ryan Jones, Carlos López Estrada, Julio Quijada, Lynnette Ramirez, Jesus Rodriguez TECHNICAL DIRECTOR | Justin Huen PHOTOGRAPHER | Burt Harris VIDEOGRAPHER | Devon Armstrong DR. MAYA ANGELOU COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL | Jose Meza

ASSIST. PRINCIPAL | Veronica Torres

SYNERGY QUANTUM ACADEMY PRINCIPAL | Johanna Knight-Briseno

ASSIST. PRINCIPAL | Johnny Chen

The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company 323-739-0768 | www.theunusualsuspects.org @USTheatreCo #TheUnusualSuspects #BeUnusual

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WHAT IS THIS PLAY ABOUT? GENRE..........................................................................................Horror SYNOPSIS

Two families that are friends with each other are on a vacation at Tio’s rancho.

Unbeknownst to the family, there is a summer romance happening between two of the teenagers, a boy and a girl. One night after they sneak off to the river to investigate a woman crying, the boy is killed by La Llorona. The family now has to work together to get rid of La Llorona.

CHARACTERS ARIEL/MOM - 40’s, loves her family,

LADY MELODY - 40’s, gentle but suspiciously quiet. She checks on others to make sure they’re feeling well MEYLA - 12, quiet around new people and will pace around nervously. Would but inquisitive, smart and loud when you often predict something bad, leaving get to know her. A little cowardly and she others not to believing her or confused. likes to write to herself about what she sees. Ends up keeping a lot of the family STORY TELLER - 50’s, mysterious, secrets and doesn’t like being treated like intimidating, suspicious, wise, and a kid. She feels like she’s left in the dark a sarcastic. He guards the lake where La lot for being the youngest.

Llorona is like the troll under the bridge. caring, positive, loud.

KOHANA - 16, caring, happy, likes

He wants to warn people about her and takes a fee from people to tell the story.

TÍA LUPE - 40’s, Tío’s wife.

LA LLORONA/YOUNG WOMAN/ MARIA - Ageless, when she was

being with friends and her boyfriend.

ADRIAN - 16, romantic, caring,

loving, bad boy, honest, rude, and overprotective. He is not fully good with Spanish, but he knows a little bit.

He wants to make it official with his “girlfriend”.

ERICK - 16, former best friends with

Adrian, caring, toxic, charismatic, funny, romantic, secretive. He takes care of the ranch and has an intense obsession with roses.

TÍO PANCHO - 50’s, very serious and

mean, but nice at times. He works a lot to keep the ranch in good condition. He doesn’t believe in ghosts. He’s protective of his family.

alive, she was very sweet and loved her children. Now, she is very sad and seeks revenge by killing, so no one can be happy anymore and feel her pain of losing her kids.

RANDOM PERSON - Concerned person in the town that Tío lives.

MARIACHIS - Mariachi band that plays at the funeral.

PAGE PLAY READERS BIO Newt Arlandiz Newt Arlandiz is a Mexican actress and dancer. She holds an MFA in Acting from UCLA and a BFA in Acting from the Escuela Nacional de Arte Teatral in Mexico City. Newt has worked with different theater companies including the Latino Theater Company and has been part of different short films and music videos like Pureza by Explicit.

Gloria De Leon Gloria De Leon is an actress from Santa Paula, CA. She is a founding member of fat-positive sketch comedy group FATCH, and the host of Noveleando Podcast, a podcast about telenovelas. She is also the voice of Dani on MGA’s Mermaze Mermaidz.

Mara Shuster-Lefkowitz Mara Shuster-Lefkowitz began her career at the age of seven, performing at New Conservatory Theater Center of San Francisco. She’s a graduate of Emerson College’s acting program, as well as a writer, and songwriter. In 2019, Mara won a Valley Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 26 Pebbles from Above the Curve Theatre. She’s hella grateful to have the opportunity to perform with The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company! You can find her making a fool of herself on all socials @meowmixedkid.

Alikhan Lochin Alikhan Lochin is an actor from the bay area. He loves to read new scripts and go hiking in his spare time.

Alex Hogy Alex Hogy (he/him) is an actor and composer from Sacramento, CA. He studied Chekhov at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York and received his BFA in Acting from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Los Angeles. He just completed an observership at Center Theatre Group for A Transparent Musical directed by Drama Desk award winner Tina Landau. He also assistant directed The Pilot Who Crashed the Party written and directed

by Tony Award winner Paul Sand. Previous: Kill Shelter (Theatre of Note - show extended by popular demand) Blood at the Root, (OpenFist - show extended by popular demand), Starmites (OpenFist - show extended by popular demand), Anatomy of Grey (OpenFist), Hear THEM Loud (Celebration Theatre) Tales of the Transcestors (Celebration Theatre), CHARM (Celebration Theatre), Body + Blood (The Road Theatre Company) Alex has composed a rock opera adaptation of Antigone. Alex is a proud company member of OpenFist, Celebration, and Theatre of NOTE! He is represented by Entertainment Lab.

Travis York Travis York is from Texas. He was in NYC for a long time, and has now been in LA for a spell, too. In NYC, he did a whole lot of theatre and a little bit of TV. In LA, he’s not done as much as he had hoped. He works with rescue pit bulls and has a candle business.