All the Men Who've Frightened Me
La Jolla Playhouse Presents
By: Sharon Eubanks - Oct 03, 2025
The presentation of All the Men Who’ve Frightened Me comes to the La Jolla Playhouse via it’s DNA New Work Series.
The play follows young married couple Ty (Hennesey Winkler) and Nora (Kineta Kunutu) as they move into Ty’s childhood home.
Ty’s mother, Dale (played by Dale Soules), has moved out so Ty and Nora can live in the house. Ty and Nora hope to settle down and start a family. As they approach the house, Ty is eager to go inside. Nora stalls, clearly not wanting to enter the house. Nora goes into a neurotic discourse about changes she can make although she hasn’t seen the inside of the house.
From her point of view, this is Ty’s home, and she doesn’t know if she can make it her home. It doesn’t help that Nora has learned she is physically unable to carry a child to term. Sensing her desperation for a child, Ty, who is trans, decides that he will carry the child.
The young couple are frightened at the thought of becoming parents.
Will they be bad parents? This question weighs heavily on Ty. His father left him, along with his mother and sister Carrie when he was young. His mother has harbored bitterness since that event and generally believes that all men are bad fathers.
When Carrie and Dale learn that Ty will carry the child, Dale is not happy. Carrie, who is carrying her own child and worried about her husband’s maturity wisely decides to wait it out. Meanwhile Nora, afraid of what kind of mother she will be, is unable to settle into the house. Dale may have moved out physically, but not emotionally. Her influence is everywhere and anytime Nora changes anything in the house, Ty sees a part of his childhood disappearing into the pass. Into this fraught environment, 3 men from Ty’s past mysteriously show up. They make it known they have come to provide guidance to Ty. Ty eventually learns he must face the fear and not let it ruin his life.
What is not clear in the play is how Nora came to be. What was her childhood like, what was the event that drove her fear of settling down. Does she believe having a baby would allow her to conquer her fears. Did her inability to carry a child influence her perception of life in Ty’s childhood home?
Written by Noel Dia, and directed by Kat Yen, All The Men… explores what it means to have a home, be part of a family, reconcile the past and look to the future.