East West Players‚ Writers Gallery presents a free staged reading of Driving In L.A. by Henrietta Chico Nofre

East West Players, the nation‚s premier Asian American theatre organization, will present a staged reading of Driving In L.A. by Henrietta Chico Nofre on Thursday, June 15 at 7:30 pm at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. The event is free and open to the public.

In the play, Gracie is 23 years-old and is a good daughter to her mother by living at home, praying the rosary and stuffing her dreams inside drawers. The inheritance of an uncle‚s car changes everything. Forced to learn how to drive, Gracie spends the next six weeks inside a Toyota Tercel with Carlo, a five foot three driving instructor who favors wearing tight leather pants and high heeled flamenco boots.

Driving In L.A. was the second place winner in East West Players‚ Got Laughs? Comedy Playwriting Competition. Henrietta is an alumna of the David Henry Hwang Writer's Institute and is a past recipient of the Garret Omatta Scholarship. Her short fiction has been published in Going Home to a Landscape: Writings by Filipinas (Calyx Press, 2003). Raised in downtown Los Angeles, Henrietta is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology at Stanford University. Driving In L.A. is Henrietta's first full-length play. She lives in Palo Alto, California where she enjoys ample parking and left-hand turn lanes.

The East West Players Got Laughs? Comedy Playwriting Competition was made possible by the generous support of the James Irvine Foundation with additional support from ABC Entertainment Television Group.

The Japanese American National Museum is at 369 E. First St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. For more information about East West Players literary programs contact Literary Manager Jeff Liu at (213) 625-7000 x27 or jliu@eastwestplayers.org