Geffen Playhouse Sets New Sibling MMA Drama 'The Monsters' for 2027, Directed by Awoye Timpo

Geffen Playhouse has announced The Monsters, a new play by playwright Ngozi Anyanwu, set to run at the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater in Los Angeles from February 2 through April 18, 2027. The production is currently in pre-production and actively casting, making this an early and worthwhile moment for theater professionals across Southern California to take note. With a full two-plus-month run ahead and a creative team of genuine distinction attached, this one has the hallmarks of a marquee Geffen season entry.

The play centers on Big, a seasoned MMA fighter at the twilight of his career who grudgingly agrees to coach his younger sister Lil, a ferocious newcomer with everything to prove. Beneath the training sessions, years of distance, resentment, and unresolved pain surface with the kind of raw emotional force the sport itself demands. The Monsters has been described as told with lyrical intensity and sharp dialogue, with moments of unexpected tenderness woven through the sibling conflict. It is the kind of intimate two-hander premise that plays well in a black box or thrust configuration, and the Skirball Kenis Theater, which seats around 150 in a flexible format, is a natural fit for that kind of close-quarters emotional storytelling.

The playwright, Ngozi Anyanwu, is one of the more exciting voices working in American theater right now. She is perhaps best known for Good Grief, her semi-autobiographical play that earned strong critical attention and helped establish her as a writer of fierce, physically alive, emotionally complex work. The Monsters feels like a natural extension of those instincts, bringing her interest in grief, family, and the body into the world of competitive fighting. Helming the production is director Awoye Timpo, whose work spans new plays and classical texts and who has built a reputation at major regional theaters including Roundabout Theatre Company, Atlantic Theater Company, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Timpo has a particular gift for grounding emotionally heightened material in physical specificity, which makes her pairing with this sports-adjacent script feel deliberate and well-considered.

Overseeing the Geffen at the institutional level is Artistic Director Tarell Alvin McCraney, the Academy Award-winning writer of Moonlight and In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, the source play that became the film. Since taking the helm at Geffen Playhouse, McCraney has been steering the institution toward bolder, more culturally expansive programming, and The Monsters fits squarely within that vision. Managing Director Erick Lopez rounds out the executive leadership. The Geffen Playhouse itself is a well-resourced, respected Los Angeles institution with two performance spaces on the UCLA campus in Westwood. It operates with full union agreements and is known as a professional, well-organized house with strong production support infrastructure. For theater artists based in or around Los Angeles, it is one of the better regional credits to hold.

Casting is underway with Phyllis Schuringa serving as casting director. Schuringa is a respected theater casting professional, and her attachment at this stage signals that the search for the right actors to fill Big and Lil is actively in motion. Actors and their representatives should be making contact now. Given the physical demands of the material, which lives in the world of MMA training and competitive fighting, expect the casting process to prioritize performers who can credibly inhabit athletic bodies and carry the weight of that physical storytelling alongside the emotional work. Movement directors and intimacy coordinators may also find early conversations worthwhile, given the play's described physicality and sibling dynamic.

On the production side, department heads in scenic design, lighting, sound, and costume will likely begin conversations in the coming months as the creative team solidifies its design approach. A play of this scale at the Skirball Kenis typically runs a lean but experienced production team, and Los Angeles has a strong pool of theater production professionals to draw from. The February 2027 start date provides meaningful runway for pre-production, but the institutional calendar at a house like Geffen moves on a deliberate timeline, and early relationships with the production team matter.

For the full production listing including production office contacts, the complete crew roster as it develops, and scheduling updates as they are confirmed, visit ProductionList.com and search The Monsters. If you are an actor, a designer, a stage manager, or any theater professional looking to connect with this production early, the listing is where to start. Bookmark it now and check back regularly as the team continues to take shape ahead of that February 2027 opening.

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