Victory Theatre Center Sets World Premiere of 'A Play About a Baby Carrot' in Burbank for January 2027

A new original play with a title you will not soon forget is heading to Burbank, and casting is open now. Victory Theatre Center has announced plans to stage the world premiere of "A Play About a Baby Carrot," a darkly funny, absurdist drama about grief, Jewish mourning ritual, and one mother's conviction that her deceased infant daughter has been reincarnated as a vegetable growing in the backyard. The run is set for January 6 through February 4, 2027, with a total of 16 performances scheduled Thursday through Sunday, plus one additional Monday performance on February 22, 2027. With production still more than a year out and casting actively underway, this is an early window for talent and theater artists to get in front of the team.

The play is written by Juliet Roll, whose work in contemporary American theater has drawn attention for its willingness to sit inside difficult emotional terrain without flinching. "A Play About a Baby Carrot" is precisely that kind of work. The script centers on a grieving mother navigating a traditional Jewish shiva who becomes convinced her recently deceased infant daughter has come back as a carrot in the family garden, pulling her father and husband into a collision between their rigid, conventional grief and her surreal, desperate refusal to let go. The piece has been described by those close to the project as fiercely original and genuinely funny without ever mocking its subject. The humor, in Roll's framing, is structural rather than satirical. Grieving people are clumsy, and the play leans into that clumsiness with honesty and care.

Jeremy Aluma is directing and also serving as casting director on the project. For actors and agents tracking this one, Aluma being the point of contact for both roles is worth noting. His involvement on both sides of the casting table means the process is likely to be intimate and creatively driven rather than strictly procedural. Directors who cast their own work tend to prioritize chemistry, instinct, and a shared understanding of tone, all of which matters enormously for a play this precisely calibrated between grief and absurdist comedy. Any actor who can hold both registers at once should be paying close attention.

The production is being mounted by Victory Theatre Center in partnership with Au Jus Entertainment LLC. Victory Theatre Center is a long-established Burbank institution with a strong reputation in the Los Angeles intimate theater community. Operating out of its home venue on Victory Boulevard, the company has built its identity around developing and producing new American plays with an emphasis on bold, writer-driven work. Productions at Victory tend to be lean and purposeful, with small casts and minimal overhead, which makes the artistic collaborators and the material itself the engine of everything. Au Jus Entertainment LLC appears to be a creative producing partner on this specific project, signaling a collaborative producing structure rather than a single institutional backer.

The show will run at The Victory Theatre in Burbank, California. For Los Angeles-based theater artists, this is home turf. The Victory sits in a well-developed pocket of the local theater ecosystem, surrounded by a community of working stage directors, designers, actors, and technicians who know the venue and its scale. Productions at this size typically rely heavily on the local Los Angeles talent pool, both on stage and behind the scenes. Scenic designers, lighting designers, sound designers, stage managers, and costume designers working in the LA intimate theater world should be tracking this one. With a January 2027 opening, the production team will likely begin filling key design and production roles well into 2026, but building a relationship with the team now is how those conversations start.

The play's genre blend is specific and demanding. Absurdist drama rooted in Jewish cultural ritual requires a production design sensibility that can hold naturalism and strangeness simultaneously. The shiva setting is highly specific in its visual and behavioral grammar, which means a scenic designer and props team with strong research instincts and a genuine feel for intimate domestic space will be essential. The tonal demands of the script, sharp humor inside genuine devastation, also point toward a sound design and lighting approach that rewards subtlety over spectacle. This is not a large-scale technical production, but it is one where the craft of each design department will be felt acutely by an audience seated close to the action.

For full casting details, production contacts, and the complete crew listing as it develops, check the production's profile on ProductionList.com. The listing will be updated as the team grows and roles are confirmed. If you are an actor, designer, or stage manager in the Los Angeles area with an eye on this one, now is the right time to make contact and get on the radar. Productions like this one fill their creative teams through relationships built early, and the window is wide open.

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