With a catalogue of cinematic work that has garnered three Oscars (21 nominations), a BAFTA and a Cesar Award, it’s safe to say film producer Jonathan Sanger has a discerning eye for a quality project. READ MORE
Why I Wrote bonded
by Donald Jolly | March 18, 2011
I am on a quest to exhume/resurrect my lineage. I am black and gay and I have something to say. But where, oh where is there a place for those like me in this sometimes-crazy and chaotic world? My play bonded, which is directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera for Playwrights’ Arena, is a re-imagined slave narrative set in 1820. READ MORE
Johnny Clark and Michelle Clunie Explore Choices
by Darlene Donloe | March 18, 2011
Just inside the [Inside] the Ford theater, director Ron Klier and production stage manager and assistant director Tommy Dunn are sitting back in their chairs watching actors Johnny Clark and Michelle Clunie ever so convincingly play a couple knee-deep in a clandestine affair. This is a rehearsal for The Mercy Seat, Neil LaBute’s caustically funny examination of opportunism in the wake of tragedy, set to have its Los Angeles premiere March 19, presented by Vs. Theatre Company. READ MORE
LA STAGE INSIDER
by Julio Martinez | March 17, 2011
Check out this week’s theater news in March 17th’s LA Stage Insider! READ MORE
Southern Comforts Explores the Comedy in Truth
by Samantha Mehlinger | March 17, 2011
Stage and screen veteran Michael Learned pairs with her equally seasoned pal Granville Van Dusen as an unlikely couple in a new production of Kathleen Clark’s play Southern Comforts, directed by Jules Aaron at the International City Theatre (ICT) in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. READ MORE
The Raising of A Raisin in the Sun
by Darlene Donloe | March 17, 2011
The Nate Holden Performing Arts Center (NHPAC) is buzzing these days. Rehearsals are happening in one room, wardrobe fittings in another while lighting and sound design is being worked out and a set replicating a 1950s flat on the Southside of Chicago is being installed and erected. Everyone involved is moving at a deliberate pace in anticipation of the opening of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun on March 25, directed by Tony winner Phylicia Rashad. READ MORE
Los Angeles Theaters Lend Voice
to Growing International Effort
by LA Stage Alliance | March 16, 2011
The Global Theatre Project brought Los Angeles into the Belarus Free Theatre movement with a live event at LATC and then the filming of several theater organizations and artists lending statements of support to their Bellarussian colleagues. The filming was done by students of Cal State Long Beach. READ MORE
Tragedy Wrapped Inside of Comedy
by Matthew McCray | March 16, 2011
Suicide isn’t funny. But when I was hired to direct the West Coast premiere of Edward Anthony’s Wish I Had a Sylvia Plath for Rogue Machine Theatre, I was indeed asked to generate a production where the tone of one woman’s journey toward suicide could be, at times, lured away from its tragic core and exist in a place of comedy. READ MORE
Roger Kumble and His Girls Talk About a New Play
by Pauline Adamek | March 16, 2011
Brooke Shields is dropping f-bombs. It’s hard to tell if they’re in the script or if she just flubbed a line; it’s probably both. Alongside some other feisty femmes, she’s rehearsing Girls Talk, a new comedy by Roger Kumble about Brentwood’s status-conscious power moms. READ MORE
An Italian American Indian
by Angelo Masino | March 16, 2011
Before Geronimo died he was permitted to write his memoirs. As I studied them I started to feel related to him. I felt his stories as if they were mine, his feelings as if they were mine. I started writing down feelings and stories from my own life and realized although we are from totally different times and heritages our stories sounded the same. So began the journey of An Italian American Indian. READ MORE
The End of a Crooked Road
by Naisa Wong | March 16, 2011
What I love most about our Streetlamp Studio theater company is that it has become a gateway for honest and relational interaction within the neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles. All of our original plays begin within these conversations. In fact, our stories are taken from themes which are extracted from our community circles. It is our goal to provide a forum which will lead to a larger dialogue with the people of Los Angeles and, we hope, the greater populace of Southern California. READ MORE
Stacy Keach Finally Tackles Willy Loman
by Steve Julian | March 16, 2011
No one can claim Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is a comedy, yet classically trained actor Stacy Keach is looking for the comic moments within it. Keach leads the cast of Miller’s play this week for LA Theatre Works. READ MORE
