This Show Is Surrounded by True Events

written by Pamela Eberhardt
concept by J. Bailey Burcham & Pamela Eberhardt
directed by Scott Leggett

BEST OF BROADWATER EXTENSION!
Thu, 7/25 & 8/8 @ 9pm

JUNE 2024 in the Hollywood Fringe
Sun, 6/9 @ 6:30pm (Preview)
Thu, 6/13 @ 8pm (Masks required)
Fri, 6/21 @ 9pm
Sun, 6/23 @ 3:30pm (Live AND Streaming!)
Wed, 6/26 @ 6:30pm
Sat, 6/29 @ 10:30pm
Sun, 6/30 @ 8pm

Tickets: $15 | Buy Tickets (This link takes you to the Hollywood Fringe site.)

Masking policy below.

WORLD PREMIERE! "We laugh so we don't cry." A play that highlights the frustrations in our justice and prison systems with comedy while leading an unsuspecting audience to a gut punch of truth.

17 years ago, Penny was the foreman on the jury of a murder trial that shook the nation. She's lived with the guilt of having put an innocent man on death row by leading the jury to vote guilty based on circumstantial evidence and her infatuation with the manipulative prosecuting attorney. Now she must face her past and fight to right the wrongs that led to the conviction and sentencing of Mr. Shiloh Beck.

Our justice system is all over the place. As is the tone of this play.

Performing in the Broadwater Black Box (Entrance at 6322 Santa Monica Blvd.)

"Eberhardt and Stilwill are both charming, and the laughter comes effortlessly and plentiful... Eberhardt slips the estoc right into our hearts, in her subtle, smart and savage indictment of the system." -The TVolution

"...thoughtful and engaging... a play that stays with you long after you've left the theater!" -LA FPI

Read more

DIGITAL PROGRAM

THIS SHOW IS SURROUNDED BY TRUE EVENTS is one of three shows Sacred Fools is proud to present in the 2024 Hollywood Fringe. Please also check out THE PLANET EARTH FAREWELL CONCERT and TYT5.

Awards

Hollywood Fringe Fest 2024

Best of Broadwater
Fringe Award for World Premiere (Nominated)
Fringe Award for Two-Person Show (Nominated)

MASKING POLICY

THE USE OF MASKS IS STRONGLY ENCOURAGED. THE BOX OFFICE WILL BE ABLE TO OFFER SOME MASKS FOR FREE BUT PLEASE COME PREPARED.

FULLY-MASKED SHOW - THURSDAY, 6/13 @ 8pm: For those that feel more comfortable attending with an entirely masked audience, masks will be required at the Thursday, 6/13 performance of THIS SHOW IS SURROUNDED BY TRUE EVENTS. Anyone attending that performance will be required to wear a mask over their mouth and nose at all times while in the theater.

STAY HOME IF YOU ARE ILL: If you or someone in your group doesn't feel well, has exhibited symptoms of COVID-19 or has been in contact with someone with COVID-19 in the previous 10 days, we ask that you make alternate arrangements to attend at a later date. Contact us via the Fringe site to change your reservation.

Cast & crew are tested before all rehearsals and performances. The Broadwater's performance spaces have been upgraded to MERV filtration to comply with clean air standards.

Fools Fringe 2024 Promo

Photos

Photos by Scott Leggett

Cast

Pam Quinn as Penny / Judge / Others
Tyler Hayes Stilwill as Shiloh / Mark / Others

Crew

Produced for Sacred Fools by Scott Leggett
Associate Producer - Bruno Oliver
Stage Manager - Rebecca Schoenberg
Music by - Pamela Eberhardt
Projection Designer - Ben Rock
Promotional Video Director - Jaime Robledo
Publicity - Scott Golden
Key Art - Michelle Hanzelova

Audience Raves

"I laughed and audibly gasped over and over again."

"A wacky show with a wicked punch... one of the three Fringe shows that got me up on my feet at the finish."

"Loved every aspect of this show. The raw emotion and how you can laugh and be moved to tears in a snap."

"Effortlessly earnesflorpy t while weaving between absurdity and hard truths."

"A surprisingly funny and clever show that will also break your heart."

"Run, do not walk to see this show. It'll have you laughing and crying. It's cleverly written with pathos, comedic gems, and an important message. It absolutely belongs in top of fringe, no questions."

"It was hilariously funny... It broke my heart. Everyone needs to see this show!"

READ MORE!

Review

The TVolution

A Comedy With a Crippling Punch Line...

Playwright Pamela Eberhardt has written a funny comedy that conceals, beneath the laughter, a very vicious "Bouncing Betty."

The play is set up with rear stage projections, some perhaps a tad too dim and shifting a tad too fast, but they're amusing little asides about the difficulties the production faced with the casting.

From there we find ourselves in a prison visitation room where a young woman meets her prison pen-pal. The meeting is awkward, as they speak on handheld phones while sitting on opposite sides of a thick glassed panel.

Eberhardt, who plays the young woman, is evasive, Tyler Hayes Stilwill who plays the convict, a former actor, is emotive to the extreme.

Eberhardt and Stilwill are both charming, and the laughter comes effortlessly and plentiful.

The audience is having a lovely time, just as the bull romping about the bullring enjoys himself lunging at that red cape completely oblivious to the fact that concealed beneath it is a very sharp estoc.

Under Scott Leggett's deft direction, the reality of Eberhardt's flashes into view by which time it's too late. Eberhardt's character is responsible for Stilwill's prisoner being convicted of a series of murders he was not guilty of.

The play continues to confuse us, is it a comedy we're watching? We will get a happy ending, won't we? Then the photos and names are projected against the back wall: Carlos DeLuna, Ruben Cantu, Troy Davis - men who were wrongly convicted and executed for crimes they were innocent of.

And Eberhardt slips the estoc right into our hearts, in her subtle, smart and savage indictment of the system.

The system that has convicted innocent men of capital crimes somewhere between four percent and twenty percent of the time; it's hard to determine because state authorities are reluctant to open their files.

The system wherein the Supreme Court of the United States has declared that the U.S. Constitution does not give convicts the right to DNA testing.

Here we thought it was a comedy we were all laughing at, and in reality we were laughing at the joke that is the American justice system.

Ha. Ha.

LA FPI (Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative)

"This Show is Surrounded By True Events" is a two person play, written by Pamela Eberhardt. Penny, played by Eberhardt, is a guilt ridden jury foreman whose actions put Shiloh, played by Tyler Stilwill, on death row. Seventeen years after the trial, Penny questions the circumstantial evidence that put him behind bars and attempts to atone for her past mistakes by visiting Shiloh in jail. A majority of the play revolves around tense and emotional interactions between these two characters. But the overarching question is how many innocent lives have been ruined by a flawed justice system? And what are we going to do about it? Eberhardt is clearly passionate and knowledgeable about the subject. She has been a life-long advocate of criminal justice reform and this play has a thoughtful and engaging way of creating dialogue around this hot button issue. And there's also the pop culture references that provide much needed levity for such a dark subject matter. The mix of humor and drama with a call to action makes this a play that stay with you long after you've left the theater!