> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Theatricum Botanicum to stage Seedlings play readings on Nov. 6 and Nov. 13
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/community-briefs-20051101-2/
- Published: 2005-11-01T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T08:06:25.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Community, Santa Monica, #archive-import

The plays presented are Hoyt Hilsman’s Back-Channel on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. and The Big Red Naugahyde Booth (Or, Would-be Elks) by Jennie Webb on Sunday, Nov. 13 at 2 p.m. Admission to both readings is free.

“Seedlings is one of the ways we stay alive, artistically, even after our season is over,” said Theatricum Botanicum artistic director Ellen Geer. “Playwrights find their way to us, and we try to give them the support they need to get their works through one stage of growth, then onto stages here in L.A. and across the country.”

The Seedlings program is run by playwright-in-residence Jennie Webb and is structured to focus on the needs of writers with scripts at various stages of development.

Directed by Geer, “Back-Channel” by Hoyt Hilsman is a political drama about a high-ranking American intelligence officer whose life and family is thrown into turmoil when he receives back-channel overtures from the Iraqi government prior to the U.S. invasion.

The play, whose characters include Vice President Dick Cheney, was inspired by reports of secret negotiations just before the Iraq war. Hilsman is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter whose plays have been produced around the country. His play “Accounting,” a love story set in the midst of the Enron scandal, will premiere next year in Sydney, Australia. His teleplay Foggy Bottom, about his childhood in Washington, was honored at the 2005 Slamdance Film Festival.

The Big Red Naugahyde Booth (Or, Would-be Elks) is a play about acceptance and the cost of belonging.

Webb’s plays, including “Remodeling Plans and her political comedy Tilting” — commissioned by the Theatricum — have been staged at theaters in Los Angeles and internationally and supported by organizations such as The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis.

Initiated in the fall of 2002, the Botanicum Seedlings series acts as an adjunct to the Theatricum Botanicum’s Summer Repertory Season, commencing yearly before the summer activities are underway with its winter readings, continuing with spring readings as the season opens, and culminating after the season winds down with a fall workshop production or readings.

The outdoor Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum is located at 1419 North Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Topanga, midway between Malibu and the San Fernando Valley. For further information, the public can call (310) 455-2322.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 1, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/110105.pdf?ref=smdp.com)