Zachary Bones

🎭✨ EXCITING NEWS! We’re thrilled to announce the launch of The Director-Driven Production Grant! Our inaugural $10,000 grant goes to Carly DW Bones @thespomancer for The Aaron Play by @theoldman_bones , co-produced by @coinandghost and @indieshakes . This production exemplifies what we mean by “director-driven” - Carly is foundational to the piece’s conception, development, and realization. Our goal? To elevate directors as generators of new work and amplify the crucial role they play in creating transformative theater. Congratulations to the entire Aaron Play team! We can’t wait to see this vision come to life. 🙌 and stay tuned for more director-centered programming!

Its HAPPENING!!! I’m still utterly flabbergasted that this is really happening. 7+ years of work in the making, my FIRST play, and Carly and I’s first playby (play baby) will be coming to the @indieshakes stage Oct. 24th! I feel so incredibly blessed to have so much support from friends, family and our theatre community for this project. PLUS our cast is🔥🔥🔥 Come see my playwriting debut, its the most fun you can have at a public execution!

Artist Zachary Bones talks about his process for creating the original artwork at the center of Alice Childress’ Wine in the Wilderness, on stage now at Theatricum! Get tickets at the link in Theatricum’s bio. #lathtr #latheatre #laart #laartist

BIG SHARE + BIG ASK 💀🩸⚔️🏛️🕳️ For the last 7 years you’ve probably heard us talk about “The Aaron Play” — co-developed by Zach and Carly, written by Zach, and soon to be directed by Carly in the ✨WORLD PREMIERE THIS FALL✨ co-produced by @coinandghost and @indieshakes . We have a tremendous opportunity on our hands, but now we need your help to make this dream a reality! IndieShakes has generously given us their space, resources and a starting budget to build on - now we need your help to raise $16k to meet the labor and design demands of bringing this show fully to life. The Aaron Play is a sequel to Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus* and picks up right where Titus left off: with its self-proclaimed villain, Aaron the Moor, buried up to his chest in earth, sentenced to death by starvation. Watched by two Roman guards and visited by spirits of the wrongéd dead, Aaron plots to escape and reunite with his infant son. Tragic, darkly funny, and terrifyingly relevant, this fresh riff on Shakespeare’s bloodiest play explores justice vs. vengeance, cycles of violence, and the cost of building an empire. *You don’t need to know or love Shakespeare to follow this story - but if you do, there are lots of Easter eggs for you to find! This play has become the container for our curiosity and fear about how everyday people (like us, like you) are complicit in systemic violence -- by our simple action or inaction, by who we cast as our villains, by what we think of as “justice”, and even by something as ordinary as showing up to do our jobs and follow orders without question. We’ve processed the last wild decade in this country together through the lens of this play. The theatre has always been where we go to start unpacking the things that feel too heavy, complicated, and terrifying to hold alone. So maybe here, together, we can begin to tell a different story. If you’re able to help us out, all donations, big or small, can add up to a huge impact! Thank you for supporting the arts. 🖤 Link in bio for easy direct donation to this production 👀 /aaron-play-donate/ With Love & Gratitude, The Bones 💀🎭 Photos @teolindostudio 📸

WOWOWOW…IS THIS REAL LIFE ??? 🩸💀🕳️🩸 Coming this Fall: the World Premiere of THE AARON PLAY, co-produced by Coin & Ghost and Indie Shakes! 🩸🕳️💀🩸 THE AARON PLAY picks up right where Shakespeare’s TITUS ANDRONICUS left off: with self-proclaimed villain, Aaron the Moor, buried up to his chest in earth and sentenced to death by starvation. Watched by two Roman guards and visited by spirits of the wrongéd dead, Aaron plots to escape and reunite with his infant son. Tragic, darkly funny, and terrifyingly relevant, this fresh riff on Shakespeare’s bloodiest play explores justice vs. vengeance, cycles of violence, and the cost of building an empire. Written by Zachary Bones @art_on_my_sleeve Directed by Carly DW Bones @thespomancer Conceived and Developed by the Bones Co-Produced by @coinandghost and @indieshakes We are honored beyond words that two incredible LA theatre companies have uplifted and championed this play and are giving us the space and resources to tell this story that’s been burning in our hearts for over 6 years. Special shout out to @reevecreates and @carenerose who heard this play read in our living room and brought it to their companies for more life. Thank you to every person who helped us in workshops, readings, and listened to us talk about this play for years. Dreams do come true. Make your art, follow your heart, tell your stories! More anon! 👻 #newplay #worldpremiere #lathtr #shakespeare #letmeout #thisisourdoom

Meet the creators of THE AARON PLAY: two faves of the LA theatre scene, stellar humans, and a power-couple with a direct line to the universe. ☠️ Zachary Bones (he/him) — PLAYWRIGHT Carly DW Bones (they/she) - DIRECTOR — @art_on_my_sleeve is an actor, puppeteer, visual artist, teacher, and Shakespeare nerd. The Aaron Play is his first play and he would like to thank C&G and ISC for their encouragement/support. Zachary has worked with LA theater companies like East West Players, The Road, Inkwell, Theatricum, Coeurage, Backroom Shakes., Sacred Fools, and the Illyrian Players. He worked for many years as a puppeteer & educator for the LA Natural History Museum’s performing arts dept. Recent acting credits include Lateen in the world premiere of Reset by Howard Ho at Moving Arts; as Winnie The Pooh in the award-winning HUNNYWSWEET with Coin & Ghost; and The Rival in Ghost Road’s immersive production of SuperDuper. Zachary works as a Teaching Artist for Center Theatre Group and the Pasadena Playhouse. He is an accomplished visual artist whose work has been featured at the Geffen Playhouse. ZachBArt.com ☠️ @thespomancer is a theatre director, intimacy coordinator, sex educator, community facilitator and theatre witch. They work at the intersections of performance, ritual, sexuality, gender, community and trauma-sensitivity. Carly created and directed at the feminist theatre ensemble, The Illyrian Players, from 2011-2019. She has also directed at Coin & Ghost, The Echo, EST LA, Inkwell Theater, Kayenta Center for the Arts, The Road, Rogue Artists Ensemble, and more. Carly is a freelance intimacy coordinator for professional theatres (A Noise Within, Antaeus, Boston Court, Coeurage, Coin & Ghost, East West Players, Ghost Road, IAMA, Moving Arts, Son of Semele, StarKid, This Is A Front), university programs (UCLA, USC, CSULA, CSULB, Occidental, Pomona), and film (Omi, Hypochondriac, Serpentine Pink, My Life Stopped at 15). Endless gratitude to her family, friends and beloved communities for their love and support. Connect: [email protected] and . Photo by @arandaphotos

🕳️🕳️🕳️ The Aaron Play Written by Zachary Bones Directed by Carly DW Bones Co-Conceived & Developed by The Bones Produced by @coinandghost and co-presented by @indyshakes Starring: Bruce Lemon Jr., Brian Monahan, William Gray, Camila Rozo and Carene Rose Mekertichyan Two Nights Only Staged Reading Wed Feb 12th & Thurs Feb 13th at the ISC Studio TICKETS: /aaron25/ Tragic, darkly funny, and terrifyingly relevant, The Aaron Play picks up right where Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus left off: with its self-proclaimed villain, Aaron the Moor, sentenced to death for his many crimes and buried up to his chest in earth. Desperate to free himself and reunite with his infant son, Aaron must employ his deadliest weapon and the only thing he has left – his words. Watched by two Roman guards, Aaron plots his escape amidst memories of the past, portents of the future, and spirits of the wrongéd dead. This fresh new riff on Shakespeare’s bloodiest play asks us to consider how our own society sees justice vs. vengeance, cycles of violence, complicity in larger systems, and the cost of building an empire. 🗡️🩸💀🩸🗡️ We are beyond thrilled to invite you to a staged reading of a new play that is very near and dear to our hearts. Co-conceived of over 6 years ago by Zach and Carly, developed together, written by Zach and directed/midwifed by Carly, this story has never let us go — and now, thanks to two amazing theatre companies championing this play, we are elated to finally share it with the world! Plus, this cast is truly extraordinary. We’re hoping to build toward a full production of The Aaron Play, and generating interest, feedback and energy around this reading is a huge step in that direction. Hope to see you there! In Community, The Bones 💀🖤💀

This Bowie Painting needs a forever home! DM if you want it! 24x36 acrylic on canvas

Im in a Play! The world premier of Howard Ho’s Reset at @movingartstheatre Come see me play a british scientist conducting a … shall we say “morally dubious” science experiment deep in the bowels of Chernobyl. (Honestly a dream role for me!) Also special shout out and thanks to @csteg for helping me with my accent. We run 10/28-11/1 Fri-Mo @8pm (Sun @7 ) Movingarts.org

Just a small quick Yoda for a friend… 4x6 Gouache on Mixed Media Board

If you Direct, Produce, or teach theatre you NEED to take this workshop! This is the LONG over due future of what our rehearsal spaces can and should look like. If you are one who is of the mind that things like trauma sensitivity in the rehearsal room and classroom are making people MORE sensitive let me just disillusion you that your actors have ALWAYS been this sensitive there just hasn’t been space for us to safely express it. Further more this kind of training is actually the exact thing that is needed to achieve even greater depths of vulnerability and connection that make most powerful performances. Theatre is evolving, how we do theatre and run our rehearsal spaces is changing for the better. Get on board now and don’t be left behind! DO IT!