About the Play:

California Schemin' is a full-length comedy by Ron House. This zany farce brings together a self proclaimed genius fighting to save his home/office from demolition, his estranged wife, her new boyfriend (who doesn't exactly operate on the up-and-up) and a ditzy middle-aged oil heiress searching for her long-lost fiancee. As one might assume, anything can happen – and does – before everything works out just fine.

California Schemin' takes place in an old house in West Hollywood, which is also the office of a smarmy but harmless huckster Roger Gallais, a self proclaimed genius. Gallais is in danger of be evicted from his office, and must employ a myriad of disguises and cons to get the money he needs to stay put. He needs $1,500 in 24 hours or his soon-to-be wife Lola Montezuma, who lives in America illegally, and her new boyfriend Nobby Carlyle, a fugitive from British justice, will take procession of the property, turn it into a mini mall and make a million bucks. Roger and his long-suffering sole employee, Jules, are at the end of their rope, when Wanda Harrington, a naive middle-aged woman from Texas enters. She has just inherited the family oil fortune and is in Los Angeles to find her long-lost love, Henry, who she hasn't seen or heard from in 25 years. Roger reinvents himself and becomes a private detective specializing in missing persons cases and guarantees he will find Henry in one hour. Hilarious results ensue, involving Harvey Martin, the "Gay Activist" who is running for mayor of West Hollywood, and wants to turn the city into a living "Camelot" and Shelly Levine, a failed New York stand-up comic who hates Los Angeles.

California Schemin'was first presented in 1991 at the Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, Florida under the original title of Dynamic Products. This version of California Schemin' premiered in 1998 at Grove Theater Center in Garden Grove, California. Since then the play has been successfully staged at several professional theatres across the US, and has been mounted by colleges and community theatres.

Cast: 3 female, 3 male

What people say:

"If you're up for an evening of mindless entertainment and guilty pleasure then Ron House's zany farce is for you." — The Los Angeles Weekly

"If you see only one play this year make sure it's California Schemin'!" — The Sacramento Bee

"California Schemin' is a side-splitting entertainment!" — The Los Angeles Times

About the Playwright:

Ron House (1939-2016) was an actor, producer, writer and teacher. A graduate of Second City in his native Chicago, he later founded a group called Low Moan Spectacular whose members wrote, staged and starred in plays. A sensation in the London underground Theatre Company, they eventually relocated to New York. He is a co-author of El Grande de Coca-Cola, Footlight Frenzy, Bullshot Crummond, and The Scandalous Adventures of Sir Toby Trollope. All four shows continue to be performed across the US and around the world.