“Hello America: A Man Laws Inauguration” is returning to the stage for a second leg, this time in North Hollywood, bringing its searing honesty fueled by candid vulnerability to Theatre 68 Arts Complex at The Rosalie.
The production runs Friday, April 25 at 8 p.m., Saturday, April 26, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, April 27, at 2:30 p.m.
Written and directed by educator and Morehouse alum Brandon Rainey, the production features eight Black and Afro-Latino men—Deion Smith, Justin Walls, Trey Cameron, Ryan Mitchell, Antoine Tate, Jet Finley, Ramon Perio, and Nigel Cox—delivering a powerful theatrical experience through riveting monologues, poetry, and unfiltered storytelling.
It’s not just a play— “it’s a reckoning,” said the LA native. A reckoning wrapped in stage lights. A confrontation dressed as theatre, daring you to look away.
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Each of the eight actors inhabits a distinct voice, reflecting on themes of fatherhood, faith, sexuality, survival, and manhood. Together, they dismantle toxic masculinity and challenge the societal “man laws” that often leave Black men over-policed, misunderstood, and emotionally isolated. “Hello America” lays it all bare.
The second leg follows a successful first run in Inglewood earlier this month, which included two preview nights and four full performances.
“A lot of people who are coming to North Hollywood already are people who came and saw it the first time,” Rainey said with self-assurance, knowing his material carries a strong impact.
The play was inspired by the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin, an event Rainey says marked a turning point in his awareness as a Black man and artist.
“That was the first big outcry I was old enough to fully process,” he said. “It moved me to write. Everyone was protesting and grieving in their own way—this was mine.”
The production runs for a little under two hours and concludes with a mandatory talk-back session. These post-show conversations, led by the cast, invite the audience to reflect, react, and wrestle with the content together. Rainey describes them as a vital extension of the play itself.
“I want people to take the conversation with them,” he said. “Let it spark something in their own homes, their own relationships.”
“Hello America” also marks a personal journey for Rainey. He poured his own experiences into the script—including growing up without a father, wrestling with shame from past choices, and the complications of his faith.
“This was the hardest piece to write,” he confessed. “I had to divide every part of me,” he said, as if describing a kind of emotional dismemberment. “It felt like returning home to myself.”
Born from pandemic-era Zoom conversations between Black men, “Hello America” eventually evolved into a book, “Man Laws 101,” and a nonprofit organization. Man Laws 101 now operates in several Los Angeles County schools, offering programs to dismantle harmful male behaviors and uplift positive manhood principles.
The organization also works with adults, hosting events and game nights that facilitate honest, sometimes difficult conversations about masculinity. One of the core exercises is rooted in a scene from the play, where participants engage with the same “man laws” portrayed on stage.
With a growing impact beyond the stage, Rainey hopes to keep expanding the reach of Man Laws 101 throughout California, and eventually, nationwide.
Tickets for “Hello America” are available now at manlaws101.com.
