Written by Julie Shavers / Directed by Daniel O’Brien 

Opening at 8pm on Saturday, March 28 – reception to follow

Performances at 8pm on March 28, April 3, 4, 11, 17, 18, 25

Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd. Sherman Oaks, CA 91423

Los Angeles, CA (March 19, 2026) – An evocative new Southern Gothic comedy comes to life on stage as award-winners Gigi Bermingham and Mamie Gummer team up for the world premiere of The Baptist Witches of Shelbyville, a sharply rendered new full-length play by Julie Shavers. Directed by Daniel O’Brien, and debuting in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 28th at the Whitefire Theatre, this limited run promises a compelling blend of wit and theatrical virtuosity. 

When eldest daughter Lucinda Moon returns home to her small Tennessee town for the July 4th holiday, she is greeted not only by fireworks but by the same women who shaped her -and the memories she can’t shake. What’s on the family’s porch picnic menu? Dark comedy, tragic poetry, and moments of pure sonic bliss when the Moon family finds their old harmonies. They’re keeping a burger on the grill, and a tumbler of frosé cold, just for you. 

“These characters are women of deep grace and strength,” observes director Daniel O’Brien, “with inherited spiritual wisdom. The flip side is their inherited trauma. This play wrestles with the debate between spiritual bypass and taking action, examining the traumas a woman’s heart can sustain, and how in this story a Matriarchy that includes five generations of women under one roof can turn suffering into healing.” 

Julie Shavers (Playwright) is a Los Angeles-based playwright, actor, and choreographer. She participated in the Sewanee Writer’s Conference as a Tennessee Williams Scholar with Paula Vogel and was subsequently invited back to study with Naomi Iizuka. Previously staged productions include Silver Bullet Trailer at the Ohio Theatre, NYC; Go Robot Go at The New York International Fringe Festival; Sunshine on a Monkey’s Balls for The Vineyard Theatre, NYC; The Secret Life of Plants at The American Globe Theatre, NYC; The Kitchen is Small for The Planet Ant Theatre of Detroit, MI; and Lips and Assholes at the Red Room, NYC. Her dark satire, Mary Go Nowhere, premiered to critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017. Shavers was part of the Royal Court Theatre’s New York residency with Simon Stephens. Her television pilot, Beaumont and Beaumont, is currently in post-production. 

Daniel O’Brien (Director) has directed plays and musicals in New York including Nick Colt’s puppet musical Birdy and Golden Putter at the Gene Frankel Theater, Julie Shavers’ Go Robot Go at the NY Fringe, and her Silver Bullet Trailer at The Ohio Theater and has directed a series of award-winning short films with puppeteer Matty Austin, Healing Old Wounds, and Trick or Treatment. Daniel was involved in the development of several major motion pictures in early readings by Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago Seven and Beau Willimon’s Farragut North, later Ides of March.

CAST: Gigi Bermingham* as Mama Moon (leading roles at Pasadena Playhouse, The Old Globe, La Mirada, Kirk Douglas, and others. For her solo comedy Non-Vital Organs Gigi received the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Natalie Schafer Award and an Ovation award for “Solo Performance,” and another L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Award for “Leading Actress” as Maria Callas in Master Class); Mamie Gummer* as Lucinda (off-Broadway premiere of Mr. Marmalade, for which she won a Theatre World Award. The Classic Stage Company’s Uncle Vanya – Lucille Lortel Nomination, The Water’s Edge (Lucille Lortel Nomination) for The Second Stage, and the Tony®-Award nominated revival of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Gummer received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Best Actress in the Roundabout Theatre’s Ugly Lies the Bone. Julie Shavers as Birdie Moon (indie-theater all-star – Margo Veil at The Flea Theater/NYC, her own work in Silver Bullet Trailer, If We Never Win, Healing Old Wounds, and Pig); Angelie Simone as Lottie Walker (currently plays Amália in the mockumentary series In House; and on stage in Tweet Tweetat the Hudson Theatre, Los Angeles); Ashley Ward as Kitty (Three Months Later the new musical starring Kristen Bell and Leah Thompson, written by David Wain, Zach Reino, and Jessica McKenna. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, Sydney Opera House, Edinburgh Fringe Festival; Off-Broadway in 50 Shades! The Musical Parody. A regular with musical improv group Baby Wants Candy and Hamilton at UCB, Jane Austen Unscriptedand Sondheim Unscripted with Impro She is a Jeopardy! champion.  

The Baptist Witches of Shelbyville opens at 8pm on Saturday, March 28th and runs at 8pm on March 28, April 3, 4, 11, 17, 18, 25 at the Whitefire Theater, 13500 Ventura Blvd. Sherman Oaks, Ca 91423. Tickets are $40. Reservations: https://whitefire.stagey.net/projects/13984?tab=tickets 

*Members of AEA

EVENT DETAILS FOR CALENDAR: Run time is approximately 90 minutes (no intermission)

WHAT: The Baptist Witches of Shelbyville

Written by Julie Shavers

Directed by Daniel O’Brien

Produced by Black Rocking Chair 

DESCRIPTION: An evocative world premiere Southern Gothic comedy starring award-winners Gigi Bermingham and Mamie Gummer. When eldest daughter Lucinda Moon returns home to her small Tennessee town for the July 4th holiday, she is greeted not only by fireworks but by the same women who shaped her – and the memories she can’t shake. What’s on the family’s side porch picnic menu? Dark comedy, tragic poetry, and moments of pure sonic bliss when the Moon family finds their old harmonies. They’re keeping a burger on the grill, and a tumbler of frosé cold, just for you.

WHERE: Whitefire Theatre

13500 Ventura Blvd. Sherman Oaks, CA 

PARKING INFO: Metered Street Parking on Ventura and surrounding neighborhoods. 

WHEN: Opening: Saturday, March 28, 2026

Schedule: 8pm on March 28, April 3, 4, 11, 17, 18, 25

Closing: April 25, 2026 

HOW: Reservations at https://whitefire.stagey.net/projects/13984?tab=tickets

HOW MUCH: $40 (general seating)