New York Times Bestselling Author LaDarrion Williams Brings Coco Queens to Los Angeles

Directed by Jessica E. Williams, the 1975 Alabama-set play begins previews October 19 at Outside In Theatre in Highland Park.

 Coco Queens, written by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author LaDarrion Williams and directed by Jessica E. Williams, will make its Los Angeles premiere at Outside In Theatre. Previews begin October 19, with opening night set for October 25. The limited engagement runs through November 17 at Outside In Theatre Artspace in Highland Park.

Set in 1975 Alabama, Coco Queens follows four Black women who gather each year inside Gloria’s neighborhood beauty shop for Coco Queens Weekend, a sacred tradition shaped by food, music, laughter and truth-telling. When long-buried secrets surface, the women must face the wounds that have divided them and decide whether honesty can guide them back to one another.

“ Coco Queens is about the spaces we create for one another when the world becomes too heavy”

LaDarrion Williams | Playwright and producer

The Cast

Julanne Chidi Hill stars as Gloria Carmichael, with Mildred Marie Langford as Chanel Hudson, Chanell Copeland as Tammie Faye Allen and

Sierra Nicolette Smith as Dawn Lyons. Langford also serves as a co-producer.

A Timely Page to Stage Moment

The production arrives just over a month after the September 15 publication of Ashes at the Altar, the final book in Williams’ New York Times bestselling Blood at the Root trilogy. Across both forms, Williams centers Black characters, Southern memory, ancestry and the communities people build to survive.

Coco Queens was featured in the 2019 Sundance Institute Playwriting Intensive, won the NewWorks@TheWorks Playwriting Award and received its world premiere at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis in July 2024.

The Los Angeles production is co-produced by Blackgical

Productions and Outside In Theatre, with Jessie Patterson serving as creative consultant.

Performance Information

PREVIEWS OPENING October 25

MAIN RUN SCHEDULE VENUE October 19, 20 and 24 at 8:00 p.m. | $15–$25

October 25–November 17 | $25–$40

Mondays, Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays | 8:00 p.m. and select 3:00 p.m. matinees

Outside In Theatre Artspace | 5317 York Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90042

Tickets go on sale September 14 at outsideintheatre.org/coco-queens.

About LaDarrion Williams

LaDarrion Williams is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, playwright, filmmaker and screenwriter from Helena, Alabama. His plays include Coco Queens, Boulevard of Bold Dreams, Hurt People and Black Creek Risin’. An alumnus of the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, his work has been developed through the Sundance Institute and the Echo Theater Company Playwrights Lab.

His Blood at the Root trilogy is published by Labyrinth Road, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

About Outside In Theatre

Outside In Theatre creates brave spaces for artists and audiences in Los Angeles. Its Highland Park Artspace supports performance, community gathering and conversations that extend beyond the stage.