Henry Jaglom and Tanna Frederick
EDGEMAR NEWS UPDATE…The INSIDER (dated 3/9/11) reported that the immensely popular tuner, Hoboken to Hollywood, is terminating its run at Santa Monica-based Edgemar Center for the Arts on Apr. 23 because it had run “smack dab up against the brick wall of booking priorities known as producer Henry Jaglom” who will be bringing the A.R. Gurney comedy Sylvia (recently staged at Sierra Madre Playhouse) to the Edgemar, opening May 20. Jaglom counters, “The reality was, we gave them a two-month extension. We had already made a deal with the theater. The two sisters who operate the Edgemar (artistic director Michelle Danner and managing director Alexandra Guarnieri) had come to Sierra Madre Playhouse to see Sylvia and immediately asked us to bring the play to the Edgemar. The producers of Hoboken, which was doing well, asked us if they could have a two-month extension and we gave it to them. Some of my actors were actually upset because they didn’t want to lose the momentum generated by the Sierra Madre run (which closed on Feb. 19).” The Edgemar staging of Sylvia, helmed by Gary Imhoff, with a new production design by Joel Daavid, features three of the thesps from the Sierra Madre staging, Tanna Frederick (title role), Cathy Arden and Stephen Howard…
EVENTS…The Hollywood Arts Council’s 25th Annual Charlie Awards Luncheon is being held Mar. 25 in the Blossom Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Honorees include: Celebration Theatre, founded in 1981, cited for “providing a creative environment in which to collaborate on and develop maverick theater;” and Nine O’clock Players/Assistance League of Southern California, founded in 1929, honored for its ongoing service to the community…The WCIL Associates of the Westside Center for Independent Living is presenting a fundraiser event, “A Magical Night to Remember,” including a performance by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center on Apr. 15…”Gaga for Bollywood”, a music and dance fundraiser for the blue13 dance company and the Dancers Care Foundation, presented by company artistic director Achinta S. McDaniel, is being held Apr. 7 at the VLounge in Santa Monica…For one night only, Mar. 30, Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival, now in its 18th year, is offering a special performance, hosted by thesp Akuyoe Graham (Spring Awakening) and actor/producer/director Fay Hauser-Price, at Ivy Substation in Culver City, home of the Actors’ Gang. Performers include writer thesps Stacie Chaiken, Barbara Cole, Ingrid Graham and Lydia Nicole…Costa Mesa-based South Coast Repertory’s 14 Annual Pacific Playwrights Festival (PPF) takes place April 29-May 1, featuring fully-produced world premieres by Itamar Moses (Completeness) and Lauren Gunderson (Silent Sky) and staged readings of brand-new works by Sharr White, Catherine Trieschmann, Meg Miroshnik, Steven Drukman and the collaborating team of Octavio Solis and Adam Gwon. Since its creation in 1998, PPF has helped launch such notable works as Donald Margulies’ Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel, Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics, Rolin Jones’ The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow and David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Rabbit Hole, among many others…
RETURN ENGAGEMENTS…As the opening salvo of its 30th anniversary season, the Actors’ Gang is re-visiting Tartuffe, Moliere’s once-banned 17th century satire of religious hypocrisy which the Gang originally produced in 2005, helmed by Jon Kellam. Adapted by David Ball, Kellam returns to once more stage this masterpiece, beginning Mar. 31 at Ivy Substation…The recurring comedy/drama, Sex, Relationships and Sometimes…Love, scripted and helmed by Joelle Arqueros, produced by Nicolas Read, is back, opening Apr. 7 at The Complex in Hollywood. Now published by Samuel French, the successful monologue show is simultaneously being produced in New York, Toronto and Ireland…Also returning, Blink & You Might Miss Me, a biographical one-hander, scripted and performed by Larry Blum, helmed by Stan Zimmerman, reopens Mar. 25 Asylum Lab in Hollywood, produced by Combined Artform …Finally, after two years, Rain – A Tribute to the Beatles returns to Hollywood’s Pantages Theatre, where it sold out during a one week run in 2009. Rain will play for eight performances, April 12-17…
FYI…Ebony Repertory Theatre is reviving Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, featuring the local directorial debut of acclaimed thesp Phylicia Rashad, opening Mar. 25 at Nate Holden Performing Arts Center. Cast includes Kenya Alexander, Brandon Brown, L. Scott Caldwell, Kevin Carroll, Jason Dirden, Deidrie Henry, Amad Jackson, Scott Mosenson and Ellis Williams…Phoenix Rising Productions is bringing the West Coast premiere of Tennessee & Anna, scripted by Franco D’Alessandro, helmed by Anthony Caldarella as a guest production at the Odyssey Theatre in West LA, opening Apr. 9. Production chronicles the 25-year friendship between Tennessee Williams (Morlan Higgins) and Academy Award-winning Italian actress Anna Magnani (Karen Kondazian) … Closing out its 36th season, Burbank-based Colony Theatre Çompany is taking a fond glance backward at yesteryear, offering the zesty American song bag tuner, The All Night Strut, conceived by Fran Charnas, helmed and choreographed by Murphy Cross and Paul Kreppel, with musical direction by Dean Mora, opening Apr. 1…La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts is hosting the sixth production of National Theatre Live’s second season. Broadcast live from the National Theatre in London, Danny Boyle’s acclaimed production of Frankenstein will be broadcast Apr. 3 with Benedict Cumberbatch as the Creature and Jonny Lee Miller as Victor and on Apr. 10, with Cumberbatch as Victor and Miller as the Creature…Finally, after an extended series of community conversations in 2010, LA Stage Alliance is helping facilitate the creation of a LA Producers’ Council Task Force – a group of 5-10 LA theater producers of all types who will come together in the next six months to formally create a Producer’s Council and set its structure, scope and agenda. Interested parties should fill out this survey: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22BVRQ8HTK6
THE THING IS…“Right now, I’m involved in four or five projects. I just finished working with the Davis Gaines benefit concert at the Alex. I’m now working with Joan Stein on Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays (reopening Apr. 4 at Largo at the Coronet). I’m also working with About Productions on this long-term Evangeline project (dealing with the 1968 East LA student walkouts, inspired by a Los Lobos song) that (writer/producer) Theresa Chavez is doing with musicians Louis Perez and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, who have their own band called Latin Playboys. I am helping with several activities leading up to the world premiere which is not going to happen until early next spring, probably at LATC. I’m also working with the Independent Shakespeare Company. They were awarded $30,000 from the James Irvine Foundation. Last year, they moved from Barnsdall Park to Griffith Park. They brought in 13,000 people to that park for the season. This year, with the grant, we have just branded a private program, Players of the Park, which is providing pre-show curricular family activities. Three of those pre-shows will be in Spanish, targeting this specific aspect of the LA community. I am helping increase public awareness of these programs, just like I did for Center Theatre Group’s productions and programs. Last year, I worked for the Nederlanders to market the LA premiere of In the Heights, specifically launching a program to generate local Latino pride and make this an event that was supported by Mayor Villaraigosa. That is what my niche has become. I help productions create specific marketing plans to reach the public, totally outside the realm of doing publicity. I’m starting to contemplate turning all this independent marketing and audience development activity into a formal marketing firm. We’ll see.”
– C. Raul Espinoza was manager of marketing and audience development for Center Theatre Group from March 2002 to June 2009 when he was laid off. He now works as a freelance marketing consultant…
INSIDE LA STAGE HISTORY…In 1982, actor/director/playwright Paul Verdier, who had been a member of the Paris-based repertory companies of Jean-Louis Barrault/Madeleine Renaud and Nicolas Bataille, converted a small residence located at 1540 N. MaCadden Place in Hollywood into a performance outlet called Stages. In partnership with his wife Sonia Lloveras-Verdier, Verdier desired to bring “the richness, flavor and variety of World Theatre to Los Angeles audiences”. He launched the space with premiere of Ionesco’s Tales, a compilation of the short works of the legendary French playwright and artist Eugene Ionesco (1909-1994), the opening salvo of a year-long Ionesco festival, with the playwright in residence. I was hired to promote the event and was rewarded with a poster designed by this living legend, personally signed by the artist. The critical success of the Ionesco venture led Verdier to continue organizing festivals devoted to a single playwright, including Eduardo Pavlovsky from Argentina, René-Daniel Dubois from Quebec and France’s Marguerite Duras, among others. In 1986, Mme. Verdier opened a delightfully inviting French restaurant, Cafe des Artistes, which is still in operation next door to the theater. In 2000, Verdier took a sabbatical from Stages, returning briefly in 2003 to stage the English world première of his adaptation of Hyenas by award-winning French playwright Christian Siméon. The space is not currently active as a producing venue…
The Julio Martinez-hosted ARTS IN REVIEW, broadcast Fridays (2 to 2:30 pm) on KPFK (90.7FM), spotlights the best in live theater and cabaret in the Greater LA area. Upcoming on Mar. 18, a spotlight on the Native Voices at the Autry premiere, The Frybread Queen…
