Athol Fugard at the Fountain Theatre. Photo by Ed Krieger
ON THE HORIZON…Multi award-winning South African-based playwright Athol Fugard feels so at home at The Fountain Theatre in Hollywood, he was in residence last week, observing rehearsals for the US premiere of The Train Driver, staged by Stephen Sachs, featuring Adolphus Ward and Morlan Higgins. “This may be the most important one I’ve ever written as far as I’m concerned, for personal reasons,” says Fugard. The production is scheduled to premiere Oct. 16…Producer/director John Stark is keeping the creative spirit of his late wife, playwright/physician Jovanka Bach (1936-2006), alive and thriving. He produced the big screen adaptation of Bach’s Chekov & Maria (2007), which originally preemed at LA-based New Playwrights Group in 1988, before moving on to West LA’s Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (OTE) and off Broadway’s The Barrow Group. Stark is now preparing the premiere of Bach’s previously unproduced, Nightsong For the Boatman, starring John DiFusco, produced and helmed by Stark as a guest production of OTE, opening Nov. 19. DiFusco reveals, “I’m playing the lead, an aging poet/academician who drinks too much and is going on a mysterious boat ride on The River Styx.” Stark, who has produced many of Jovanka Bach’s plays at the Odyssey, is traveling a well-worn path to success. “Nightsong will play the Odyssey for a month. Then I’m moving it New York’s Barrow Group the first week of January 2011.”…
Luke Macfarlane. Photo by Kong Chang
FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE…Susan Dietz, the former honcho of the much-missed Canon Theatre, is back in Beverly Hills, producing (along with Dan Bucatinsky and Tom Kirdahy) a one-night only (Oct. 4) reading of Terrence McNally‘s new play, Some Men, an episodic journey though eight decades of gay American life, helmed by Michael Morris at the Saban Theatre (formerly the Wilshire Theatre), as a benefit for the Courage Campaign Institute’s Testimony Project. The impressive cast so far includes Alan Cumming, Jason Ritter, Luke McFarlane, and John Glover but the big news is the list of star-laden ladies who are working behind the scenes, including Bonnie Bruckheimer, Edie Falco, Sally Field, Cedering Fox, Allison Janney, Cherry Jones, Rashida Jones, Lisa Kudrow, Angela Lansbury, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jane Lynch, Mary McCormack, Rosie Perez, Christina Ricci, Doris Roberts, Kyra Sedgewick, Alicia Silverstone, Corky Hale Stoller, MarisaTomei, Linda Wallem, Lily Tomlin and Vanessa Williams, billing the evening as Some Women Present Some Men…At a more low key level, the Bootleg Theater and Circle X Theatre Company Reading Series continues its four Monday new play perusals at the Bootleg (Monster Yellow Couch by Sam Marks was read on 9/13). Upcoming: Telethon by Kristin Newborn, directed by Jen Kays (9/20); Bruise Easy by Dan LeFranc (9/20); and Maria/Stuart by Jason Grote (10/4, cast & director TBA)…And Native Voices at the Autry, based in Griffith Park, is launching its 2010-2011 First Look Reading Series with The Bird House by Diane Glancy (10/7), who scored a success at the Autry with her 2008 premiere staging of Salvage…
Luca Ellis & the Paul Literal Orchestra
TUNER PREMIERES…Not only is Cornerstone Theater launching its 25th season, it is also celebrating the 25th anniversary of West Hollywood’s cityhood. WeHo! The Musical, wrought by Tom Jacobson (book), Deborah Wicks LaPuma (music) and Shishir Kurup (lyrics) preems Oct.14, co-helmed by Michael John Garces and Mark Valdez, produced in association with the City of West Hollywood…Over at Santa Monica’s Edgemar Ctr. for the Arts, Hoboken to Hollywood: A Journey Through the Great American Songbook, scripted by Luca Ellis, Paul Literal and Jeremy Aldridge, helmed by Aldridge (LADCC winner for his original staging of Louis & Keely, Live at the Sahara), featuring crooner Ellis, backed by trumpeter Literal’s 12-piece swing band, preems Oct.15…A bit further down the road, Tony and Pulitzer winning tuner, Next To Normal, has its LA premiere at the CTG’s Ahmanson (Nov. 28). Created by Tom Kitt (music), Brian Yorkey (book and lyrics), staged by Michael Greif, the production stars Alice Ripley, reprising her 2009 Tony winning turn…
EXTENSIONS…What should be billed as the play that will not go away, Jewtopia, written by Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson and helmed for the first time by Fogel, is extending its run at West Hollywood’s Greenway Court Theatre through Nov. 14. Don’t expect this legiter to actually close any time soon. When it preemed at Coast Playhouse in May, 2003, Jewtopia ran for 16 months, followed by a three-year, 1200 performance stint at Off-Broadway’s Westside Theatre…And Hollywood-based Open Fist Theatre Co’s Premiere of A Wolf Inside the Fence, written by Joseph Fisher and directed by Benjamin Burdick, as part if its second First Look Festival of New Plays, will be holding forth through Oct. 9…Over at the Santa Monica Airport, the Ruskin Group Theatre’s revival of Arthur Miller‘s All My Sons has found its audience, staying put through Nov. 6…
Andrea McArdle
CASTINGS...CTG Mark Taper Forum has its cast in place for the premiere of Randy Newman‘s Harps and Angels (begins previews on Nov. 10). The tuner will sport the talents of Michael McKean (recently the Stage Manager in the Off-Broadway revival of Our Town), Katey Sagal (taking time away from her Sons of Anarchy TV gig), Tony-winner Adriane Lenox (Doubt: A Parable), Ryder Bach, Storm Large, and Matthew Saldivar…Going full circle, Andrea McArdle, Broadway’s original Annie from the tuner of the same name, is once more traipsing through the multi Tony-winner, this time for the Long Beach-based Musical Theatre West revival, opening Oct. 30. There won’t be any “It’s a Hard-Knock Life” for McCardle this time out. She is sashaying into the comically villainous persona of orphan wrangler, Miss Hannigan…
INSIDE LA STAGE HISTORY…As an extension of President Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s New Deal policies, the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) was launched on August 27, 1935 with a mandate to “initiate a plan to provide employment for actors.” Gilmore Brown, Founder/Director of the Pasadena Playhouse, was selected to be Regional Director for the West. Brown gave Angelenos steady helpings of Shakepeare (i.e. Max Pollak‘s acclaimed 1937 staging of Macbeth at Downtown’s Mayan Theatre) and children’s plays, including an adaptation of the Humperdinck opera, Hansel and Gretel, at the long gone Beux Arts Theatre. Brown’s family-friendly production policy was in contrast to the more politically and socially controversial East Coast projects being staged by the Group Theatre, Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre and others. On June 30, 1939, the FTP ended when its funding was canceled, largely attributed to strong Congressional objections to the overtly left-wing political tones of many FTP productions. However, in March 1975, another attempt at Federally funded actors subsidies was initiated by the Comprehensive Employment Training Act (CETA) which endowed the City of Los Angeles with enough funds to create Theatre Arts Program/Los Angeles (TAPLA). Administered by the City’s Recreation and Parks Department, five performing arts ensembles (three acting companies, a dance ensemble and a puppet theatre) roamed the town, performing at schools, senior citizens centers, recreation centers, festivals, etc. Though never enjoying the comfort of a home performing space, TAPLA gave over 5000 free public peformances before being dissolved in 1979. Along the way, steady employment was enjoyed by hundreds of performers, including such local thesps as David Ankrum, David Arkin Al Alu, Hali Burton, Tony Caruso, Marilyn Child, Don Hamner, Paul Hansen, Will Hutchins, Roger Kern, Michael Macready, Melora Marshall, Mona Marshall, Kathleen Mazzola, George McDaniel, Gigi Perreau, Hugh Reilly, Richard Williams and many others…including yours truly…
The Julio Martinez-hosted ARTS IN REVIEW, broadcast Wednesdays (2 to 2:30pm) on KPFK (90.7FM), spotlights the best in live theater and cabaret in the Greater Los Area. Upcoming on Sept. 22 is a profile of Downtown LA’s 24th Street Theatre.
