Siena Soltis's 'Sugar Tub' Stages Late-Capitalist Beauty Industry Critique in Downtown L.A.

Playwright Siena Soltis's latest production, 'Sugar Tub,' was performed in mid-July 2026 at Art/Space 114, a nonprofit gallery in Downtown Los Angeles's Old Bank District. The site-specific performance took place in a subterranean concrete pit, with the audience peering down from an overhang, casting them as surveillants. Directed by Roxanne Rogers and choreographed by Mamie Green, artistic director of the L.A.-based Volta Collective, the play follows five aspiring models—Venti, Trenta, Grande, Dulce, and Karine—who wait in a concrete tub for a call from 'Franklin,' an unseen industry representative for the nu-metal band Korn. The women, named after beverage sizes, perform tap routines and melodramatic poses, embodying the anxiety of hustle culture and the punishing standards of feminine desirability. The narrative unfolds as Dulce arrives claiming to search for her estranged friend Karine, but a revelation exposes her past betrayal. The play critiques late-capitalist ambition and the internalization of industry surveillance, with the audience's elevated position implicating them in the dynamics of power. The production's choreography, especially the disintegration of the women's performances, was praised for its conceptual power. The play ends ambiguously, with Dulce caught between the party above and the tub below. The project was supported by the Getty Marrow Undergraduate Arts Internship.