EAST WEST PLAYERS ANNOUNCES CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM FOR THE NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK ROLLING WORLD PREMIERE OF PARANORMAL INSIDE
October 9, 2025 - November 2, 2025
Previews: October 9, 2025 - October 11, 2025
Opening Night: October 12, 2025
The principal cast PARANORMAL INSIDE (L-R) Tamika Simpkins* as Delia, David Huynh* as Max, Nicole Javier* as Bincy, veteran EWP artist Alberto Isaac* as Somboon, Aja Hinds* as Tasha, and Davide Costa as Ethan.
East West Players (EWP), the nation’s longest-running Asian American theater and the largest producer of Asian American artistic work, is proud to announce the cast and company for the first production of the highly anticipated National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of PARANORMAL INSIDE by Prince Gomolvilas, directed by Jeff Liu. Just in time for Halloween, this supernatural thriller reunites audiences with Max and Delia, the unforgettable characters at the heart of EWP’s 2022 Los Angeles premiere of THE BROTHERS PARANORMAL, also written by Gomolvilas and helmed by Liu. The sequel marks the third production in East West Players 60th Anniversary Season.
PARANORMAL INSIDE finds Max and Delia once again navigating the perilous intersection of grief, ancestry, and identity, as a sinister spirit threatens to upend the fragile peace they built five years after the events of THE BROTHERS PARANORMAL. As the boundaries between the living and the dead once again dissipate, the play explores the generational trauma and cultural legacies that linger long after the lights go out. Will they survive or be claimed by the forces that haunt their past?
East West Players Artistic Director Lily Tung Crystal says,“We are absolutely thrilled to collaborate with longtime EWP playwright Prince Gomolvilas as part of our 60th Anniversary season and to partner with our fellow co-commissioning theaters, Theater Mu and Perseverance Theatre. PARANORMAL INSIDE continues a story that captivated audiences and digs even deeper into the ways culture, grief, and spirituality shape our lives. It also allows our community to claim space in the horror genre–a genre that has historically excluded Asian American artists and narratives. Prince’s work has always pushed the boundaries of what American theater can be, and this play continues breaking barriers with an intercultural and intergenerational, pulse-pounding ghost story. We cannot wait for audiences to experience the next chapter within this dynamic universe.”
“I fully intended THE BROTHERS PARANORMAL to be my last show—a fitting bookend to a career that began at EWP so long ago,” shares playwright Prince Gomolvilas. “But East West Players, Perseverance Theatre, and Theater Mu had the audacity to offer me a new-play commission. I couldn’t refuse. I found I had more to say about supernatural phenomena, Thai America, cross-cultural connectivity, and the mysterious world in which we all inhabit.”
Director Jeff Liu adds, “How rarely do we get to do a sequel in the theater? What a joy that three wonderful companies came together so we can go on another adventure with these bruised but funny souls, the Thai American Max and African American Delia. They’re older, possibly wiser, but life’s challenges and those voices from the other side aren’t done with them yet, so we too get to deepen our relationship with these indelible characters that Prince has so lovingly imagined into further life.”
The production marks another milestone in Gomolvilas’s prolific collaboration with East West Players, which includes BIG HUNK O’ BURNIN’ LOVE (1998), THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (2000), MYSTERIOUS SKIN (2010), and the EWP Theatre for Youth show SCRIMMAGE (2019). Director Jeff Liu helmed both the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre and East West Players stagings of THE BROTHERS PARANORMAL, as well as EWP’s IXNAY (2009), CHINGLISH (2015), and UNBROKEN BLOSSOMS (2024).
The cast features the lead actors returning from the 2022 East West Players production of THE BROTHERS PARANORMAL, Tamika Simpkins* as Delia and David Huynh* as Max. Joining them on stage will be Nicole Javier* as Bincy, veteran EWP artist Alberto Isaac* as Somboon, Aja Hinds* as Tasha, and Davide Costa as Ethan. Understudies include Dekontee Tucrkile, Ace Christensen, Ratana, and Ryan Beaghler.
The creative team includes Prince Gomolvilas (Playwright), Jeff Liu (Director), Shinshin Yuder Tsai (Intimacy Director), Cesar Cipriano (Fight Choreographer), Siwaraya Rochanahusdin (Cultural/Language Consultant), Alayna Jacqueline (Dramaturg), Josh Bennett (Assistant Director), Allen “Lucky” Weaver (Casting Director), Randy Wong-Westbrooke (Scenic Designer), Brian Gale (Lighting Designer), JJ Javier (Costume Designer), John Zalewski (Sound Designer), David Murakami (Projections Designer), Ariya Selvakumar (Assistant Projections Designer) Dominik Krzanowski (Visual Effects Designer), Rye Mandel (Properties Designer), Brandon Hong Cheng* (Stage Manager), and Irene DH Lee (Assistant Stage Manager).
PARANORMAL INSIDE runs October 9, 2025 through November 2, 2025 at The David Henry Hwang Theater at the Union Center for the Arts at 120 Judge John Aiso Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 in the historic Little Tokyo neighborhood. Performance times are Thursdays (select weeks), Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays (select weeks) at 8 PM, with additional 2 PM matinees on Saturday and 5 PM performances on Sunday. Opening Night is Sunday, October 12, 2025 at 5 PM. All Saturday 2 PM performances are “Masked Matinees,” making theater more accessible to audiences who prefer a masked experience. Monday, October 20, 2025 at 8 PM is the Pay-What-You-Will performance. Special events during the run of PARANORMAL INSIDE include Student Night on October 16th, a Playwright’s Conversation after the October 19th performance, an Artist Talkback after the October 26th performance, and a Halloween costume contest to accompany the October 31st performance. All performance dates and details are subject to change.
East West Players 60th Anniversary Season Value Bundle Memberships and single tickets to PARANORMAL INSIDE are available online at eastwestplayers.org or by calling (213) 625-7000. 60th Anniversary Season Value Bundle Membership sales end Sunday, October 12, 2025.
PARANORMAL INSIDE is supported in part by the County of Los Angeles Chief Executive Office (CEO) Anti-Racism, Diversity, and Inclusion (ARDI) Initiative’s Equity and Diversity Fund; the Venturous Theater Fund, a fund of Tides Foundation; the National New Play Network Venturous Production Pipeline Award; Asian Pacific Community Fund; The Roy Cockrum Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; Alex Giza & Cathy Noonan; Tom Stempel; and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture. East West Players is a recipient of the 2025 THRIVE! Grant, funded by the Theater League of Kansas City and administered by Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for theatre leading for a just and thriving theatre ecology.
*Member of Actors' Equity Association
