Thinking Cap Theatre’s (TCT) new residency is a win not only for the professional nonprofit theater company, but the city of Hollywood, says the company’s founding artistic director.

The Art and Culture Center/Hollywood (ACCH) is TCT’s new home.

“For so many reasons, we are thrilled to make this move to Hollywood,” TCT Founding Artistic Director Nicole Stodard says. “There is so much development and growth in Hollywood’s downtown area, the City of Hollywood turns 100 in 2025, and the Art and Culture Center/Hollywood turns 50, so it’s an exciting time to make this move, not to mention the fact that this new venue presents wonderful new staging possibilities for the TCT team,” Stodard says.

TCT’s presence will also mark the return of professional theater to Hollywood for the first time since Hollywood Playhouse closed in 2003.

TCT will kick off its 15^th season on Oct. 19 with the regional premiere production of Lovesong by playwright/screenwriter Abi Morgan (The Iron Lady, 2011; The Suffragette, 2015).

Lovesong will run through Nov. 2 at TCT. The play is “a formally innovative and emotionally riveting” play that “imaginatively and grippingly explores universal themes, including long-term love, aging, memory, and loss.”

The play revolves around a couple, William and Margaret/Billy and Maggie, who are depicted at two key stages in their lives. After 40 years of marriage, Maggie is ill and riddled with pain. As they enter the final week of her life, the house becomes full of memories of their marriage and their desperation to conceive a child. Past and present literally intertwine as the older and younger couples move around each other across the stage.

While Margaret/Maggie struggles with loneliness, William/Billy hits the bottle hard when times are hard. However, as Margaret/Maggie prepares to take her own life and end her suffering, Billy is at her side.

Morgan’s inspiration for the play is the T.S. Eliot poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Lovesong will run at Art and Culture Center/Hollywood, 1770 Monroe Street, Hollywood, during the following times and dates:

***

In March 2025, TCT will present the regional premiere of All The Natalie Portmans, a bold, queer, black coming-of-age play by C.A. Johnson. In keeping with TCT’s mission, this play experiments with form and sheds light on an underrepresented community: queer black women.

“Johnson’s important new work examines an African American family in crisis, struggling to survive in the face of alcoholism and structural racism while also grappling with conflicting views on homosexuality,” reads a press release. “Told from the perspective of the center character, 16-year-old Keyonna, who escapes into a world of Natalie Portman films when challenges arise, this eye-opening play delivers a gripping and timely message about (self) acceptance and empathy.”

All The Natalie Portmans will run from March 15-29 during the following times and dates:

7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 15 (opening)

5 p.m. Sunday, March 16

7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 19

7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 22

5 p.m. Sunday, March 23 (talkback)

7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 26

7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 29

5 p.m. Sunday, March 30 (talkback and closing)

***

In addition to the two mainstage productions, TCT will present Animal Encounters, a playwriting workshop series and public performance. Utilizing the playwrighting methods of Maria Irene Fornes, an Off-Off Broadway pioneer and author of more than 40 plays, TCT will offer workshops, rehearsals, and a professional public performance to a select cohort of participants. Participants will write 10-minute scenes or short plays.

Fornes began as a visual artist and took up playwrighting on a whim, grabbing a cookbook and using the first sentence on a random page as a launchpad. Her whimsical and holistic approach to playwrighting helps remove barriers to creativity. Fornes also had a fascination with animals, hence the name of this series. It is TCT’s third Fornes-inspired workshop series.) Animals appear across Fornes’ canon in strange and interesting ways, reminding us of our interconnectedness with all living begins. As a theme, Animal Encounters is meant to ignite, but not limit, the imaginations of participating writers.

The following are the times and dates for Animal Encounters:

Workshop 1: 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 22 on Zoom

Workshop 2: 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29 on Zoom

Workshop 3: 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5 on Zoom

Workshop 4: 7 to 9 p.m. Monday, Nov. 11 on Zoom

Rehearsal 1: 6 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20 on Zoom

Rehearsal 2: 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21 in person

Rehearsal 3: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in person

The performance time and date is 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23 in person at the Hollywood Central Performing Arts Center. Tickets to the performance will be available separately at http://thinkingcaptheatre.org.

Ticket prices for TCT’s Main Stage productions are $45 general admission and $20 for student rush tickets at the door for 21 and younger with valid student ID.

TCT is a professional, non-profit company that champions equality and theatrical experimentation and strives for excellence on and offstage.  TCT is devoted to staging thought-provoking, socially-conscious, formally innovative theatre and to gender and sexual parity in programming. TCT also presents community-based programs such as documentary theatre projects, play readings, and playwriting workshops. Across all programming, TCT strives to reflect and serve our diverse society.

The TCT box office phone number is 310-500-6448. You can also call 954-610-7263.