When I was about 10 years old, my father, for some reason known solely to him, took me to see a community theatre production of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I fell asleep in the middle of the second act. The play didn’t leave much of an impression other than my wondering why this woman dressed in nothing but a slip would not shut up. READ MORE
Pavel Cerny Revisits an Updated Three Sisters or Perestroika
by Julio Martinez | April 29, 2011
By 1972, Czechoslovakia-born writer/director Pavel Cerny, who held a Master’s degree from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, had established himself as a noted director of film and theater in his native country. On a visit to Los Angeles that year he was informed he could not return to his homeland. “No reason was given by officials from my country,” he recalls. “I was just forbidden to return. Fortunately, I was able to work at my craft in Los Angeles.” READ MORE
The Good Boy Gets Even Better
by Michael Bonnabel | April 29, 2011
he Good Boy is a project I have been writing and developing for several years. It began as a series of journal entries which then grew and were developed into a series of short stories about my childhood, growing up in a large family headed by my loving and complicated deaf parents. I am thrilled to be able to say that series of scribbles, scratches and thoughts turned into the solo play The Good Boy that begins performances at LATC this coming weekend. READ MORE
NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman Announces New Study
by LA Stage Alliance | April 28, 2011
“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it,” said American author Henry David Thoreau more than 150 years ago. Time and Money: Using Federal Data to Measure the Value of Performing Arts Activities is a new research note from the National Endowment for the Arts that looks at the value of the arts in three ways: time spent on arts activities; organizational revenue and expenses; and direct consumer spending. A particular focus on performing arts data provides consistency across these three measurements. READ MORE
LA STAGE INSIDER
by Julio Martinez | April 28, 2011
Check out Steve Yockey’s Heavier Than, Hugh Leonard’s The Au Pair Man, some Spring Dickens, and much more in this week’s LA Stage Insider. READ MORE
A Noise Within Completes Phase One of Construction
by LA Stage Alliance | April 28, 2011
With the completion at the end of April of phase one of construction on its new theater in Pasadena, A Noise Within (ANW), Los Angeles’ classical repertory theater company, is one step closer to realizing its longtime dream of a permanent home announces Terry Kay, board of directors president. According to Kay, the company is also now in the final “community phase” of its $13.5 million capital campaign, of which $12.4 million has been raised to date. READ MORE
A Noise Within:
Last “Hard-Hat Sundays” on May 1 and June 12
by LA Stage Alliance | April 28, 2011
A Noise Within has scheduled two final dates in its free “Hard Hat Sundays” series on May 1 and June 12, 2011, 4 to 5 pm. Guests for these last dates will observe A Noise Within Resident Artists informally rehearsing from the newly installed stage as well as have the opportunity to take a turn on it themselves. Seating areas and sight lines can also be explored. READ MORE
Folk Music Fuels James O’Neil’s Traveler at Rubicon
by Darlene Donloe | April 27, 2011
When Lonsesome Traveler opened April 13, it marked the end of a five-year expedition for James O’Neil, co-founder along with his wife Karyl Lynn Burns, of the Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura. READ MORE
John Pollono Writes a Small Engine that Could
by Pauline Adamek | April 27, 2011
“What if you asked your best friends to help you do something terrible?” According to John Pollono, that question was the germ of his savage and short one-act Small Engine Repair currently playing Monday nights and late night on weekends in Rogue Machine’s intimate black box theater. Featuring a tough-talking, macho cast of four males, the playwright himself appears as Frank, the seemingly most self-confident and stable guy in a bunch of longtime working-class friends. READ MORE
Adam Flemming Looks for Plays that Justify Video Design
by Rebecca Kinskey | April 27, 2011
Adam Flemming is a bit of a theater polymath. Although he has lately gained recognition as a projection designer, his long CV records training and an early career as a scenic designer. Talking on a recent late night in the lobby of the Boston Court, Flemming explains his circuitous journey. READ MORE
Jacobson’s Rising Son and Chinese Massacre Hold a Conversation
by Don Shirley | April 25, 2011
Tom Jacobson’s two plays at Atwater Village, The House of the Rising Son and The Chinese Massacre (Annotated), are very different, but their joint presentation adds up to a sum even greater than the parts. Not so with A Weekend With Pablo Picasso and The Devil’s Advocate at LATC. READ MORE
Still Life: Kahlo and O’Keeffe
by Harry Clark | April 25, 2011
“First time I set eyes on her was at MOMA—New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1930. You couldn’t miss her though the exhibit was a retrospective of the work of her husband Diego Rivera. She looked 12 but I assumed even Diego would make sure she was 16 before taking a new wife.”–Georgia O’Keeffe. READ MORE
