The Ghost Road Company was founded and incorporated in 1993 by Katharine Noon, Don Gordon, and Ferdinand Lewis, recent graduates of The California Institute of the Art’s Theatre program. In 1995 the company premiered an original work, Eloise: A Ghost Play, written and performed by the three founders at Los Angeles book stores and Two Roads Theatre. Eloise was then presented at Dell’Arte in Blue Lake, CA. That year, Ghost Road was invited to present Sigismund (loosely based on Life is a Dream) by Ferdinand Lewis and directed by Rodger Henderson as the inaugural show for the “Cal Arts Presents” series, after which it then toured to The Quantum Theatre in Pittsburgh. Finally in 1995, Ghost Road’s critically acclaimed adaptation of Elektra, Elektra-La-La, premiered in downtown L.A. at The Spanish Kitchen. In 1996, Elektra-La-La traveled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
In 1999, collaboration between Ghost Road and Burglars of Hamm produced Resa Fantastiskt Mystisk which toured in 2001 and 2002 to the Seattle Fringe Festival, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and New York Fringe Festival. Ghost Road’s production of Carrots for Hare by Cody Henderson closed out the 2000 season. In 2001, Clyt at Home: The Clytemnestra Project, a collaboration with Theatre of NOTE was presented at the A.S.K. Commons Ground Festival and N.O.T.E., garnering L.A. Weekly Award nominations for Lead Performance and for Adaptation. In 2003, Clyt at Home toured to the NET Conference and Festival at the KO Festival of Performance in Amherst, MA. In 2004, the company presented Four Dervishes at 24th Street Theatre and LATC as part of the Edge of the World Theatre Festival. In 2007, the ensemble presented The Fury Project at The Powerhouse Theatre and at the Fury Factory Festival in San Francisco. In 2008, Ghost Road re-workshopped all three parts of The Oresteia and presented Home Siege Home, our new adaptation of the entire trilogy at [Inside] The Ford in 2009. The revised version of Orestes, part 3 of Home Siege Home, was presented at the Getty Villa in 2009. In late 2009, the ensemble began work on Stranger Things, in collaboration with composer David O. A workshop of the piece was presented in 2010 at the NET Micro-Fest and Stranger Things was subsequently invited to be part of the Ko Fest 2011 in Amherst and the piece premiered in September 2011 at the Atwater Village Theatre.
As a result of visits in 2009 and 2010 to Poland by Artistic Director Katharine Noon and Producing Director Mark Seldis, the ensemble was invited to participate in a residency with Studium Teatralne in Warsaw in July 2011. The two-week residency was supported by a DCA Cultural Exchange Initiative Grant and by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Poland. Following Warsaw, Ghost Road members presented a week-long workshop in ensemble – devising at the Ko Fest in conjunction with performances of Stranger Things. In 2012, the ensemble completed work on a new piece, The Bargain and the Butterfly, which premiered in 2013. In 2012, the ensemble presented a workshop of a new adaptation of Diamonds are the Coal that Got Down to Business, at the request of the Polish Consulate and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and hosted Studium Teatralne in their first visit to Los Angeles. Using the workshop process developed at the Ko Festival, Ghost Road also began offering workshops in ensemble devising techniques and through 2012 and 2013 formalized the workshops and began plans for a deeper curriculum and pedagogy.
In 2013 GRC presented The Bargain and the Butterfly and a production of Pantofelnik’s Suitcase in Warsaw, and followed that with presenting Bargain as part of South Coast Rep’s Studio Series in 2014. In 2016 GRC partnered with the Polish Consulate and the Mickiewicz Institute on Polish Theatre Month in L.A. and for that presented A Couple of Poor Polish-Speaking Romanians. Also in 2016 GRC presented a showing of Asterion, loosely based on the myth of the Minotaur, followed by a two week residency in Wroclaw Poland at the Grotowski Institute with members of Teatr ZAR to incorporate elements of their choral music work to that piece which was subsequently presented at the Getty Villa in 2016 and at the Grotowski Laboratorium in Wroclaw, Poland in 2017. In 2019 Ghost Road presented Jocasta: A Motherf**king Tragedy at the Broadwater Mainstage in Hollywood.
1995: Eloise, A Ghost Story (Delle ‘Arte, Blue Lake, CA)
1995: Elektra-La-La (Spanish Kitchen, LA)
1996: Sigismund (Quantum Theatre, Pittsburgh & Cal Arts)
1996: Elektra-La-La (Edinburgh Fringe Festival)
1997: The Last Vegas Lounge Act & LRG LOT GRT VU (Edinburgh Fringe Festival)
1999: Resa Fantastiskt Mystisk (Theatre of NOTE, LA)
2000: Carrots for Hare (Powerhouse Theatre, LA)
2001: Resa Fantastiskt Mystisk (Seattle and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals)
2002: Clyt at Home(Theatre of NOTE, LA)
2002: Resa Fantastiskt Mystisk (New York Fringe Festival)
2003: Clyt at Home (KO Festival of Performance, Amherst MA)
2003: Four Dervishes (24th Street Theatre, LA)
2005: Ghost Road workshop NET Festival in Blue Lake, CA
2005: Four Dervishes (LATC/EdgeFest, LA)
2006:365 Days/365 Plays (Ford Amphitheatre, Loyola Marymount University)
2007: Orestes Remembered (Powerhouse Theatre, LA & Fury Factory Festival, SF)
2008: Elektra (Arcata Playhouse, CA & NACL Festival, NY)
2009: Orestes (Getty Villa, LA)
2009: Home Siege Home (Ford Amphitheatre, LA)
2010: Stranger Things (Bootleg Theatre, NET Festival, LA)
2011: Stranger Things (KO Festival of Performance, Amherst MA & Atwater Village Theatre, LA)
2011: Ghost Road Residency with Studium Teatralne, Warsaw Poland)
2011: Pantofelnik’s Suitcase (Atwater Village Theatre, LA)
2012: Diamonds Are the Coal That Got Down to Business (Reading at Odyssey Theatre, LA)
2012: Bargain and the Butterfly (Artworks Theatre, LA)
2013: Pantofelnik’s Suitcase (Teatr Powszechny, Warsaw Poland)
2013: Bargain and the Butterfly (Komuna Warsawa, Warsaw Poland)
2014: Bargain and the Butterfly (South Coast Repertory, CA)
2015: A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians (Lillian Theatre, LA)
2016: Ghost Road Residency with Teatr Zar, Wroclaw Poland
2016: Asterion (Getty Villa, LA)
2017: Asterion (Grotowski Laboratorium/Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw Poland)
2018: Paderewski in America (Geffen Playhouse, LA)
2019: Jocasta: A Motherf**king Tragedy (Broadwater Mainstage, LA)
2020-21: Super Duper (Zoom Performances)
2023: The Dry Years (Broadwater Mainstage, LA)
2023: Super Duper (IRL – LATC, LA)