Ed Harris

QUICK TAKES…Notable thesps Ed Harris, Bill Pullman, Amy Madigan and Glenne Headly will tread the boards in the previously announced premiere of Beth Henley’s The Jacksonian, scheduled for a Feb. 8 debut at Geffen Playhouse in Westwood…It would appear Topanga Canyon-based Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum wields some influence.  Not only did the company acquire the West Coast premiere rights to the comedy, Rose Cottages by Bill Bozzone, which premiered at NY’s Ensemble Studio Theatre in 1986; helmer Heidi Helen Davis convinced Bozzone to rewrite the central character of Rose, originally a male role, for a woman, two-time NAACP Theater Award recipient Earnestine Phillips, a 20-year Theatricum company member.  The production opens July 30…Veteran TV and standup yock-meister Brad Garrett is teaching a six-week Sitcom Intensive at the Acting Studio at Santa Monica-based Edgemar Center for the Arts on six consecutive Tuesday evenings starting July 26…Cabrillo Music Theatre is not only bringing back the Rodgers & Hammerstein 1959 stage classic The Sound of Music, they’re throwing in a couple of tunes (“I have Confidence” and “Something Good”) composed for the subsequent 1965 film version.  Helmed by CMT artistic director Lewis Wilkenfeld, starring Shannon Wayne (Maria) and Tom Schmid (Capt. Von Trapp), it opens July 22 at Kavli Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza…Los Angeles Jewish Symphony (LAJS) has found impressive source material for its next outing, Aug. 14 at Ford Amphitheatre. Exaltation! Biblical Stories Though Music, celebrating music inspired by the Bible’s literary heritage, is conducted by LAJS artistic director Noreen Green, featuring Broadway vet/two-time Grammy nominee Amick Byram and teenage violin virtuoso Stephen Waarts...On the opening weekend of  Antaeus Company’s ClassicsFest2011, company members  Emily Bergl and  Harry Groener, along with a few friends, are offering  10 Cents a Dance, a “Flights of Fancy” evening of tunes, July16 at Deaf West Theatre in NoHo…

MOVING ABOUT…Originally premiering in LA in 1998, Celebrity Autobiography, an evening of actual celebrity memoirs, ranging from Bieber to Zsa Zsa, read live on stage, created by Eugene Pack, has become a viral hit, performed in venues internationally, garnering a 2009 Drama Desk Award along the way.  Developed by Pack and Dayle Reyfel, the latest edition opens at Santa Monica’s Broad Stage, July 25, with an ensemble that includes Roger Bart, Illeana Douglas, Laraine Newman, Jack McBrayer, Cheri Oteri, Pack, Reyfel, Jennifer Tilly and Fred Willard…Not only is the highly acclaimed Rogue Machine premiere of John Pollono’s Small Engine Repair extending once again, it is changing venues. Helmed by Andrew Block, the four-hander is moving to Beverly Hills Playhouse on July 8 for a four week-run, hosted by Katselas Theatre Company…Lavender Love, the comedic perusal of “forbidden love” during the ’20s heyday of filmdom hangout Garden of Allah, scripted and helmed by Odalys Nanin, is returning to West Hollywood-based Macha Theatre with an all-new cast, opening July 15…Ovation Recommended one-hander Nazi Hunter – Simon Wiesenthal, created and performed by Tom Dugan, staged by Jenny Sullivan, has been on a bit of a tour but is returning to Beverly Hills High-based Theatre 40, Aug. 1 for nine performances…And arriving from around the globe are performers participating in the 15^th Annual World Championships of Performing Arts (WCOPA), taking place July 17-22 at Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown LA. Talents from more than 40 countries are competing in slew of categories. Finals are due to be webcast (http://www.wcopa.tv)…

David Schall

SEASONS…La Mirada Theatre is adding performances to its six-show 2011-2012 season, offering four-week runs instead of three. The lineup includes:  1983 Tony nominated farce Noises Off, scripted by Michael Frayn, helmed by Richard Seyd (Sep. 23); the doo-wop tuner Life Could Be a Dream, written, created and helmed by Roger Bean, choreographed by Lee Martino (Oct. 29);  the 2008 Tony-winning comedy thriller, The 39 Steps, adapted by Patrick Barlow from the novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock, helmed by Jessica Kubzansky (Jan. 21, 2012);  the 1991 Tony-winning  Vietnam-era tuner  Miss Saigon, wrought by Claude-Michel Schönberg (music), Richard Maltby, Jr. and Alain Boublil (lyrics, adapted from the original French lyrics by Boublil, additional material by Maltby, Jr.), helmed by Brian Kite (Apr. 14); the ever-recurring 1954 tuner adaptation of Sir James Barrie’s Peter Pan, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, music by Moose Charlap, additional Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, additional music by Jule Styne, choreography by Patti Columbo, helmed by Glenn Casale, starring the ever-youthful Cathy Rigby who first donned the lad’s green tights in 1990 (June 2);  and a two-performance- only special of Debby Boone’s tribute to ’50s recording artist Rosemary Clooney, Reflections of Rosemary, accompanied by Clooney’s former music director John Oddo (May 19)… Hollywood-based Actors Co-op is dedicating its 20^th season to the company’s late  co-founder David Schall. The season includes: The 1940s Radio Hour by Walton Jones (Sep. 23); To Kill A Mockingbird, adapted by Christopher Sergel from the novel by Harper Lee (Oct. 14); the American Premiere of Yours, Isabel by Christy Hall, inspired by the WWII wartime letters written by Isabel McMeniman to her husband, Nicholas D’Angelo (Feb. 3, 2012); Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill (Mar. 16); and The Learned Ladies by Moliere, translated by Richard Wilbur (May 12). Kicking off the season is a Sep. 9 evening of songs and scenes, celebrating over 80 productions in Actors Co-op history in memory of Schall, who died of a heart attack on April 11, 2003, 90 minutes before opening night of the Co-op’s production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, in which he was due to play the title role…

Michelle Danner

THE THING IS… “I am so proud of what we have accomplished here at the Center since it opened less than 10 years ago. We operate two theaters, a gallery, performance workshops and classes. We have offered world premiere plays, musicals, French cabaret, concerts, art exhibits, even film festivals. We also do outreach programs with children and with elders. Two years ago we premiered the play, Hello Herman, written by John Buffalo Mailer, the son of Norman Mailer.  It sparked a lot of debate, lots of conversation. I realized very quickly that it would make a great movie. So, we just finished principal photography and I directed it. I am still in the editing room, but hope to complete that process by the end of summer. I took some time off to do some teaching in Dubai a couple of weeks ago.  I was teaching acting to a very international group.  It was like teaching at the United Nations.  I was there for a week.  What I taught at Dubai is what I have taught all over the world, including Turkey, Canada, New York, and what I teach here at the Center. It’s called the Golden Box, basically a two-day intensive, not only for actors, but directors, writers, directors of photography and producers as well.  It is a very involving and emotional seminar that breaks down why someone gives a great performance. What are the tools that help an actor to shine and to move audiences?  I am doing the seminar here at the Center this summer. Anyone interested can just go to our website and find out all the information about it.  In the meantime, we have the play Sylvia doing great business in one theater and the comedy, It Must Be Him, opening July 14 in the other. I’m happy.”…Michelle Danner is artistic director of Santa Monica-based Edgemar Center for the Arts…

Morris Ankrum

INSIDE LA STAGE HISTORY…Morris Ankrum, who is born Morris Nussbaum in Danville, Illinois in 1896, graduates with a law degree from USC in the early 1920s. He subsequently becomes an associate professor of economics at UC Berkeley, while also developing  an interest in theater. He founds the Little Theater on campus and partakes in directing forays to the Little Theatre at Tacoma and the Theatre of the Golden Bough in Carmel, before taking off for New York where he distinguishes himself on Broadway acting in a number of plays, including The Green Goddess, opposite George Arliss. He comes to the attention of Gilmor Brown, founder and artistic director of the Pasadena Playhouse. Impressed with the former college professor’s authoritative yet empathetic handling of actors and his commanding stage presence, Brown feels he would be a perfect instructor for his neophyte school of theater arts as well as a valuable addition to the Playhouse stage. Ankrum, who makes the name change once he begins his lengthy career in the movies (over 300 films), joins the Playhouse in 1930 as an actor/associate director, a relationship that continues on and off until 1963, one year before his death. Ankrum’s first stint at the Playhouse lasts five years where many eventual acting successes, including Gloria Stuart and Pierce Lyden, credit Ankrum’s guidance with helping launch their careers. During the mid ’30s, he returns to New York, serving as a producer/director for the Federal Theatre, occasionally working with Orson Welles. Ankrum returns to Hollywood in the late ’30s, where his career as a film character actor blossoms, specializing in serious, authority figure roles such as the troubled Secretary of Defense in the 1953 science fiction classic, Red Planet Mars.  But his passion is live theater. Working predominantly at the Pasadena Playhouse, Ankrum initiates productions of Cavalcade, Within the Gates, Thr’penny Opera, No More Frontier, Richard II and III. In the early ’40s he is one of the founders of a playreading group called Eighteen Actors, with his wife, Joan Wheeler (whom he met at the Playhouse), Dana Andrews, Victor Jory, Moroni Olsen and others. By 1960, his career in film has faded but he still works vigorously at the Playhouse, directing The Dybbuk. According to Pasadena Playhouse program notes, he takes the stage in 1961, “convulsing audiences with his interpretation of Louis, King of France, in one of the lighter moments in Jean Anouilh’s Becket.” He dies in 1964. His son David Ankrum, an accomplished stage and TV actor, stars as Adam in the 1970s ABC sitcom, Tabitha; he’s now a noted talent agent. This concludes a three-part INSIDER backwards glance at Pasadena Playhouse…

- The Julio Martinez-hosted ARTS IN REVIEW, broadcast Fridays  (2 to 2:30 pm) on KPFK (90.7 FM), spotlights the best in live theater and cabaret in the Greater LA area. Upcoming on July 8, a spotlight on the play Blackbird with director Robin Larsen, actors Sam Anderson and Corryn Cummins…