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MADAMADAM
Event Summary
Lucas Artists Program presents Open Access
MADAMADAM
A Staged Reading with Leif Larson
Item details
Date
Tuesday, Apr 28, 2026 7:00PM
Name
Lucas Artists Program presents Open Access
MADAMADAM
A Staged Reading with Leif Larson
Description
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Leif Larson
Join us in Montalvo's Carriage House Theatre for a live staged reading of LAP CA 2023 Fellow Leif Larson's latest work-in-progress play, MADAMADAM. MADAMADAM is a full length play that explores what happens when a queer man returns to his “dead home”— the one he no longer identifies or chooses as his own— in search of a reckoning. After years of going “no contact” with his mother, the protagonist decides to pay her a surprise visit on Thanksgiving Day. Armed with a new radical understanding of himself and his family, his visit disrupts the holiday and sets in motion a chain of events that will have shocking and unexpected consequences.
Following the performance, there will be a discussion with Leif and the actors, moderated by Terrance Austin Smith.
Written and directed by Leif Larson
Stage direction by David Isaac
Cast
- GARRETT: Connor Biondi
- ANSEL: Louel Señores
- MARY-MARGARET: AJ Davenport
- JIIMMY: Ilo Orleans
- BETHY: Cary Ann Rosko
- CHAZ: Colin Epstein
Please note this performance contains adult content and themes that may not be suitable for younger audiences.
Leif Larson
Leif Larson is a queer playwright. He was born in Los Angeles during the Summer of Love. Cults were everywhere and he was born into one – raised by New Age vampires who fed off his youth, and ritually dosed him with psycho-hallucinogenic drugs.
He came out at a time when being gay felt like a death sentence. Bereft of elders who were taken by AIDS, his work highlights the importance of Queer Theater as a ritualistic exchange of stories and experiences that are critical to the survival of our community.
In 2023, at the Valdez Theater Conference, his play, Shake the Disease, received a staged reading, and in 2024 it was produced for the Downtown Urban Arts Festival on Theatre Row and for The Queerly Festival at FRIGID New York. His newest play, cum rag, was part of The Spark Festival at the Emerging Artist Theatre in NYC.
Stage director
David Isaac
David Isaac is a San Francisco-based actor. He has trained with the American Conservatory Theater through Studio ACT and will attend the Atlantic Acting School Summer Intensive, followed by a one-year conservatory at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in New York later this year. Originally from North Texas, he brings a grounded, introspective approach shaped by his studies in philosophy and a previous career in marketing. His work is driven by a deep curiosity about people and the complexity of human behavior.
Discussion moderator
Terrance Austin Smith
Terrance Austin Smith is an actor and has performed in theatres all across the Bay Area and Northern California, including: SF Playhouse, Marin Shakes, Hillbarn Theatre, The San Jose Stage, Town Hall Theatre, The Western Stage, African-American Shakes, 6th Street Playhouse, SPARC Theatre, The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre Company, Contra Costa Civic Theatre, and many others. He has toured nationally as a member of the End of Isolation theatre group, and has performed overseas at the Eugene O’Neill International Festival of Theatre in New Ross, Ireland. He also voices DJ Train Trax on the Daytime Emmy Award winning Netflix Cartoon series Go! Go! Cory Carson.
Cast
Connor Biondi
Connor Biondi is an aspiring young actor, voice actor, and writer hailing from the Bay Area. His most recent work has included starring as Kris in The Holiday Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon with Plethos Productions and Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express with OneStage Productions. Currently he is working to self-produce a passion project in the form of an audio drama entitled Vindictam and will be working on a play in the fall with Chanticleers Productions in Castro Valley. When not on the stage or writing at his desk, he works full time as a Park Services Worker for East Bay Regional Park District.
Louel Señores
Louel Senores is an actor, stage manager, and playwright, and is delighted to be performing at the Montalvo Arts Center for the very first time! You may have last seen him in The Future is Queer (Left Coast Theatre) or in To My Girls (New Conservatory Theatre). If you work at a San Francisco elementary school, you may have seen him recently stage managing one of NCTC YouthAware's touring children's shows Puppy Mind and/or Bee Amazing! He is a proud company member of Berkeley Interactive Theater, which is an organization that does interactive DEI workshops for UC Campuses and other higher education academic institutions. He is also a member of Shotgun Players' EDIB Committee, and a company member of PlayGround SF, where he began development on his first full-length piece, Better Unkept. Outside of theatre, he also teaches Zumba! On May 30th & 31st, he will be performing in Best of PlayGround SF 2026. More Info
AJ Davenport
AJ Davenport [she/her/diva] has been acting in the Bay Area for 30+ years and is delighted to be making her Montalvo Arts Center debut. She has garnered Critic's Circle, and Theater Bay Area nominations and awards for her performances with Custom Made Theater Company, Edge/Airspace, New Conservatory Theater, The SF Playwright's Center, and Left Coast Theater Company. As an avid San Francisco historian, she has led walking tours with FOOT Fun Walking tours for 25 years. She reads voraciously, sings when encouraged, enjoys fine food and a good martini. AJ always welcomes the opportunity to work with playwrights on new scripts and being the first original actor in a role.
Ilo Orleans
Ilo Orleans is an accomplished actor and award-winning filmmaker whose directing work spans features, shorts, and documentaries seen on hundreds of screens worldwide. He trained in New York, London and Los Angeles after graduating from Syracuse University's acting and directing program. Orleans has decades of experience across major theatre, television, and film projects, appearing in hundreds of national and international commercials and TV shows. As a filmmaker, he has directed narrative and documentary projects, including work for the National Science Foundation, and independent films such as Click and Dearly Departed. Beyond the stage and screen, Orleans has produced and directed marketing films, serving as creative director for Google at Fridays Films, shaping global storytelling and brand campaigns. He has directed for Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Stanford University, and The New York Times. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Ilo now freelances as a director, writer, interviewer and actor across all media. More info
Cary Ann Rosko
Cary Ann Rosko enjoys a theatre career that spans multiple genres performed on stages throughout the Bay Area. Plays are the most recent addition to her work, including the role of Logan in The Thanksgiving Play with Altarena Playhouse, MJ in The Law of Attraction with New Conservatory Theatre, and various characters in many developmental and staged readings with Playwrights' Center of San Francisco. Cary has spent the past two decades singing most of the mezzo and contralto roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan light opera canon with The Lamplighters. Favorite G&S roles include Katisha (The Mikado), Fairy Queen (Iolanthe), and The Duchess (The Gondoliers). Her musical theatre credits include Charlotte (A Little Night Music), Donna/Oolie (City of Angels), and Old Woman (Candide). Cary's standard and modern opera roles include Marcellina and Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro), Fricka (Die Walküre), Aunt Hannah (Emmeline), and Dargelos/Agathe (Les Enfants Terribles). More Info
Colin Epstein
Colin Epstein (they/he) is a performer, writer, and professional GM/DM based in Berkeley, CA. Frequently seen performing with 13th Floor, Lizz Roman & Dancers, and Tara Pilbrow Dance, he has performed in parks, theaters, houses, bank vaults, on floating docks, and more in the 15 years they have called the Bay Area their home. Colin recently started a podcast to share his love of Dungeons & Dragons and storytelling—find The Roll Report on a podcast platform near you! More Info