The Reprise Theatre Company led the 2011 Ovation Award nominations with (17), followed by the Troubadour Theater Company (16), Center Theatre Group (12) and Demand Productions (11). Most nominations for a single production went to Reprise’s Kiss Me Kate (14), CTG’s Venice (11), Troubadour’s A Wither’s Tale (10), Ebony Repertory Theatre’s A Raisin in the Sun (8) and Demand Productions’ Having It All (7). READ MORE
Creating The Vault: Unlocked
by Aaron Garcia | September 19, 2011
The Vault: Unlocked presents a “devised” production about the redevelopment of downtown LA, in the heart of that redevelopment, at LATC. One of the directors of this young company writes about the process that unlocked the core of the piece. READ MORE
CTG’s LA Grade Rises From F to C
by Don Shirley | September 16, 2011
Michael Ritchie’s grade on using LA content and LA talent is moving from last year’s F to this year’s C, thanks to scheduled shows at the Mark Taper Forum and the Kirk Douglas Theatre, if not the Ahmanson Theatre. READ MORE
REDCAT NOW FESTIVAL: Medium Big Inefficient Considerably Imbalanced Dance
by Victoria Marks | September 16, 2011
Victoria Marks was thinking mostly about her son when she began to create Medium Big Inefficient Considerably Unbalanced Dance, but it grew into a dance about her own connections with others. It’s part of REDCAT’s Festival of New Original Works. READ MORE
LA STAGE INSIDER
by Julio Martinez | September 15, 2011
[Inside] the Ford hosts three new stage works while El Portal Theatre unveils a more contempo Snow White. Albie Selznick does his magic at Santa Monica Playhouse while comics Howard Storm and Pat Harrington go legit at Theatre 40. INSIDER History spotlights film legend Charles Laughton’s journey with Don Juan in Hell. READ MORE
There’s No Shooting Down Michelle Duffy’s Star
by Steve Julian | September 15, 2011
Michelle Duffy isn’t just for musicals. The Ovation winner for Can Can is co-starring in Steven Dietz’s non-musical Shooting Star at the Colony Theatre. What’s next — a reality TV show? READ MORE
Hughes and Rebeck Encourage Poor Behavior
at Mark Taper
by Julio Martinez | September 14, 2011
Marriages hit a rough spot in a supposedly tranquil weekend in the country in Theresa Rebeck’s Poor Behavior, opening Sunday at the Mark Taper Forum. Director Doug Hughes and Rebeck analyze the development of this new-fashioned “boulevard play.” READ MORE
REDCAT NOW FESTIVAL: Layla Means Night
by Carin Noland | September 14, 2011
The ancient story of Scheherazade is the initial source of Rosanna Gamson’s Layla Means Night, which is part of REDCAT’s New Original Works Festival. Carin Noland, who’s dancing in the production, describes the process. READ MORE
CTG and LA Stage Alliance Host Reception for New SCR Artistic Director Marc Masterson
by LA Stage Alliance | September 13, 2011
Center Theatre Group and the LA Stage Alliance hosted a reception at Corkbar in downtown LA to welcome South Coast Repertory’s new Artistic Director Marc Masterson to the Los Angeles theater community. READ MORE
Marcia Milgrom Dodge Explains Why Life is a Cabaret,
Old Chum
by A.R. Cassell | September 13, 2011
Cabaret may not be as “under-produced” as many of Reprise’s productions. But director Marcia Milgrom Dodge believes she has come up with some new ways of interpreting this dark and disturbing musical classic. READ MORE
REDCAT NOW FESTIVAL: the Who, the What, and the Word Zoophilia
by Sibyl O'Malley | September 13, 2011
Librettist Sibyl O’Malley discusses her work on Zoophilic Follies. It covers a queen-ram romance, a maze and the perils of flying too close to the sun, for REDCAT’s New Original Works Festival. READ MORE
When the Talkback Tops the Play. Crichton, Anyone?
by Don Shirley | September 12, 2011
The panel and talkback following My Name is Rachel Corrie at the Theatricum Botanicum are much more dramatic than the solo play itself, especially if devoted advocates of Israeli and Palestinian points of view are on hand. And why hasn’t anyone in LA done Barrie’s The Admirable Crichton recently? But could anyone do it as well as the current production at Ontario’s Shaw Festival? READ MORE
