Lacktate

Starring Rochelle Aytes
Directed by Francesca Ling
*Winner Best Female Director, LA CineFest
​Written by Ilana Turner
Produced by Ling, Turner, Adam Scott Epstein 

When a woman goes back to the office after the birth of her first child, her only companions are an AI assistant and her breast pump — which does way more than suck milk as it voices her darkest thoughts & feelings of being altogether lacking. Official Selection of the 2024 Los Angles Shorts International Festival and LA CineFest, and LA Short Film Awards Finalist.

​​Daily Dead Interview, also with Francesca Ling
Dread Central Essay
​Bold Journey Interview

O Réjane

Rising star Réjane takes Belle Époque Paris and the theatre world by storm only to find that for her, life really does equal art as she takes lovers, gives birth, marries – and even gets divorced – on stage & off in an age when women were taught to live anything but out loud.

​O Réjane is based on a true story almost lost to history, as told to playwright Ilana Turner by Réjane’s descendants – and features lyrics & music by Adrien Reju, Réjane’s great-great granddaughter. Created in collaboration with Christopher Sivertsen, Artistic Director of Sweden's Awake Projects.

The Réjane Project-Bootleg Theater World Premiere Production (2014)
Winner, L.A. Stage Raw Award, Leading Female Performance: Cara Pifko
Nominee, L.A. Stage Raw Award for Playwriting: Ilana Turner
Nominee, L.A.  Stage Raw Award for Costume Design: Alex Berry

Read Selected Press
Request Theatrical Presentation

10th Anniversary Staged Reading of O Réjane
Was Hosted by The Aster
November 20, 2024
with original cast members and esteemed guests

Photos by Alex Berry

Right Hand Red

Right Hand Red is a Finalist for the inaugural Stowe Story Labs Short Film Production Grant. ​December 2024 Annoucement.

Slur

In pre-World War One England, Maud Allan rises to world fame as one of the first ‘modern’ dancers, only to sue for criminal libel an ultra-conservative member of Parliament who accuses her of promoting sexual deviancy via her performances. Slur delves into the hypocrisy of moral mandates for women, how the legal system can be wielded as a weapon to suppress artists, and the effects of guilt by association.

Commissioned by The Vagrancy Theatre for 2019 Blossoming Festival.

Poster by Andie Botttrell, Designing Indie

Ollie & D

Driving an endless loop of New England country road, two long-time friends-with-benefits discover they are stuck in a Maserati prison — and that only dealing with their relationshit will break them out. Ollie & D takes a darkly comedic look at the intersection of love and the long-term relationship.

Recipient Max K. Lerner Fellowship for development at Inkwell Theater, 2019.

Pic courtesy of Inkwell Theater

Sugar Coat It

​Three-time Tony nominee Kevin Chamberlin reads monologue Sugar Coat It from the launch event for LGBTQ Comedic Monologues That Are Actually Funny (Applause Books), covered by The Advocate. The event, co-produced by and hosted at Zak Barnett Studios, also featured readings by Wilson Cruz, Danielle MacDonald, and Darryl Stephens. Read an interview with Ilana Turner, Book Editor and Contributor Alisha Gaddis, and more at Freak Sugar.

Selected Essays

Remembering Réjane
How Belle Époque actress Réjane, a dead woman, breathed new life into me, a living one. Published on the centennial of her passing.

Even Cow Shit is Inspirational When David Lynch Directs It 
With eyes looking toward both the 2017 Twin Peaks season premiere and Lynch’s past works, playwright, writer, and actor Ilana Turner shares what the creator means to her, as well as a chance encounter with the director during a critical point in her career.

The Horror Just Out of Frame 
With another Halloween upon us, playwright and actress Ilana Turner shares how one of her own personal stories from her past intersects with The Blair Witch Project and made her reconsider how she looks at Halloween and horror.
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About Ilana Turner

 Ilana Turner is an L.A. Stage Raw Playwriting award nominee for her award-winning debut play O Réjane. Ilana wrote and produced the short film Lacktate, an official selection of the 2024 LA International Shorts Film Festival and LA CineFest, and a 2024 LA Short Film Awards Finalist. Two features and a series co-written with Adam Scott Epstein are currently in development with A to Z Entertainment and Zodiac Features. Short film Right Hand Red is a current Finalist for the innaugrual Stowe Story Labs Short Film Production Grant. A feature film adaptation of play Ollie & D is currently in development with Laura Wagner (2024 Independent Spirit Cassavetes Award, Fremont). Ollie & D was developed at Inkwell Theater via the Max K. Lerner Fellowship (2018). Play Slur was commissioned by The Vagrancy for their Blossoming Festival (2019). Ilana was the Coordinating Producer for “Designing Hedwig” on the Criterion Collection Special Edition of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Her monologue “Sugar Coat It” was published in LGBTQ Comedic Monologues That Are Actually Funny (Applause Books). She dramaturged punkplay for Circle X Theatre, and previously served on their lit committee. Her voice can be heard many places, including the English dubs of lead characters in Netflix shows Alpha Males and The Barrier and as all the roles on Pocket FM’s podcast Overdressed & Undercover. Ilana holds a B.A. in theater and dance from Hampshire College. She’s a graduate of i.O. West, and anchored weekly Friday night improv shows with improv team Bobby Hot Stuff. Ilana loves punk rock, Shostakovich, and still drives stick. (she/her)

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