The Roots and Wings Project presents the World Premiere of Jesse Bliss’ “Realm of the River”

The Roots and Wings Project presents the world premiere of “Realm of the River,” a new play written and directed by founder and artistic director Jesse Bliss, running Friday, September 18 through Sunday, September 27, 2026, at The Rosenthal Theater at Inner-City Arts. 

Close friends enjoy a magic night out. Fun and freedom suddenly take a dark turn when an unforeseen and insurmountable circumstance invokes a mystic force, bringing everyone face to face with the true work of healing.

Water runs through the story as a source of danger and restoration, carrying memory and transformation with it. Bliss’s writing creates an emotional and mystical landscape that is further brought to life through projections, music, lighting, and atmospheric stage design, transforming the venue into an immersive theatrical world.

Moving between the charged environments of a nightclub and a sacred river, “Realm of the River” explores female friendship, collective healing, women’s freedom, joy, self-determination, romantic love, and our relationship to the divine. The premiere follows The Roots and Wings Project’s recent sold-out site-specific Highland Park theatrical tour, “Luminous Streets,” and continues the company’s exploration of ways theater can move beyond a single stage or audience.

Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm, with Sunday matinees at 2:00pm. Opening night begins at 7:00pm with doors and a special pre-show vinyl DJ set by Sherry Younge and Patchouli Nomad of The Artform Studio DJ Collective, followed at 8:00pm by the World premiere performance of “Realm of the River” and an opening night reception. Located at 720 Kohler Street, Los Angeles, CA 90021. Free parking is available at the Inner-City Arts visitors’ lot on Kohler Street. Tickets are $25 and are available at www.eventbrite.com/e/realm-of-the-river-a-world-premiere-play-by-jesse-bliss-tickets-1996257931210. Run time is approximately 90 minutes, including one intermission. Recommended for audiences ages 18+.

Jesse Bliss is an L.A. playwright, director, and founder of The Roots and Wings Project, whose latest work, Realm of the River, has its world premiere September 18 at The Rosenthal Theater at Inner-City Arts in DTLA. For more than two decades, Bliss has created intersectional work around women’s lives, incarceration, social justice, trauma, survival, and healing—including extensive theater and writing work inside California prisons. Her work has also reached the United Nations and Edinburgh Festival, and she spent roughly a decade co-producing and co-hosting KPFK’s Think Outside the Cage.

Southern California audiences may know Bliss from “Tree of Fire” (2009–), “A Record of Light” (2011), “Matriarch” (2014–), “Luminous Streets” (2019 and 2025), and “The Joy Ride” (2024), all part of a sustained body of work presented at performing arts venues including Theatre of NOTE, CASA 0101, UCLA, and Inner-City Arts, as well as unexpected spaces throughout Los Angeles—from The Last Bookstore and King Eddy Saloon to a vintage convertible used as a mobile performance space.

CAST:
Morgan Danielle Day – Auggie
Krystle Tugadi – Dessa
Sawyer Shine – Otto
Sarah Ann Sulewski – Oshun
Corina Vela – Esme
Brandon Ramon Williams – Emir

PRODUCTION TEAM:
Jesse Bliss – Executive Producer
Nastassia Cordeiro – Producer / Media Director
Gabriela López de Dennis – Producer / Development Director
Angelica Robinson – Producer
Chiana Niedbalec – Stage Manager (and Lighting Designer)
Kenzo Martinez – Box Office Manager

CREATIVE / DESIGN TEAM:
Abel Alvarado – Costume Designer
Boogie Frantick – Choreographer
Hessed Porras – Projection Art Designer
Chiana Niedbalec – Lighting Designer (and Stage Manager)
Siobhán Dougall – Projectionist
Raisa Donato – Fight Coordinator
Joy DeMichelle – Intimacy Coordinator
Romanowski – Music

WHEN:
Friday, September 18 through Sunday, September 27, 2026
Friday, September 18 – 8:00pm
Saturday, September 19 – 8:00pm
Sunday, September 20 – 2:00pm
Friday, September 25 – 8:00pm
Saturday, September 26 – 8:00pm
Sunday, September 27 – 2:00pm

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