LA STAGE Times is taking a brief hiatus next week and will be back online January 3. Wishing all our readers a happy holiday and a joyous 2012! READ MORE
LA STAGE INSIDER
by Julio Martinez | December 22, 2011
A Noise Within’s Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott receive A.C.T. honors while Bess Rous joins cast of The Jacksonian at the Geffen. A new foursome of “adults behaving badly” inhabit God of Carnage at ICT, and thesp Cullen Kirkland acts on the radio. INSIDER History recalls John Steven McGroarty, The Mission Play and San Gabriel’s civic theater. READ MORE
Free Programs at the Music Center on Dec. 24
by Cynthia Citron | December 21, 2011
LA County’s annual free holiday celebration at the Music Center, which is broadcast live for three hours on KCET-TV, requires some complicated planning and split-second timing behind the scenes. The audience can number in the thousands, and there are about 500 performers of music and dance, reflecting a wide multicultural mix. Even the parking is free. READ MORE
Director Heidi Helen Davis Dies
by LA Stage Alliance | December 21, 2011
Director Heidi Helen Davis has died from breast cancer. She’s probably best know for staging more than 20 Theatricum Botanicum productions since 1988, but she also staged the premiere of EM Lewis’ award-winning Song of Extinction for Moving Arts in 2008 and worked with many other LA theater companies. READ MORE
How the Professionals Stage Manage
by Tom Provenzano | December 20, 2011
A half-dozen LA stage managers discuss the stable temperament required for their job. Then they recall a few incidents in which their temperaments were sorely tried by missing actors, abusive language, flooded scene shops and fainting theatergoers. READ MORE
Highlights of 2011 in LA Theater
by Don Shirley | December 19, 2011
A look at some of the highlights of LA theater in 2011 embraces LA plays, LA writers, CTG’s smallest shows, the return of Pasadena Playhouse, A Noise Within’s last Glendale season, two shows set about 50 years ago, two shows set in World War II, two shows from the June festivals, two surreal musicals about doomed men, two plays about pharmaceutical company workers and Iris. READ MORE
Dear Santa…
by Amy Tofte | December 16, 2011
We asked a few of LA’s small theater companies what they’re hoping to get from Santa this year, and we got a range of responses, from liquor to Lekos. READ MORE
Connie Chats on Opening Night: Fela!
by Connie Danese | December 16, 2011
Fela!, the musical about the late Nigerian political activist and Afrobeat star, opened in LA Wednesday. Among those chatting before and after the event were Thelma Houston, CCH Pounder, Kim Raver and Sandra Izsadore, who had just seen her younger self depicted in the show. READ MORE
Arts Education Providers Invited to Apply to
LA County Directory
by LA Stage Alliance | December 16, 2011
LA County arts education providers can apply to be included in the Arts for All Programs for Students, an online directory that offers free marketing opportunities to reach 97,000 teachers and administrators. READ MORE
LA STAGE INSIDER
by Julio Martinez | December 15, 2011
George Clooney to hit the boards…for one night. South Bay CLO introduces a new series at El Segundo Playhouse,while still searching for a home for its larger musicals series. Sloane Robinson takes on Josephine Baker. Lionel Barrymore played Scrooge in Hollywood for years. READ MORE
From Lagos to LA, Sahr Ngaujah Plays Fela!
by Jessica Koslow | December 14, 2011
Sahr Ngaujah, an American-born son of a father from Sierra Leone and an American mother, portrays the late Afrobeat star and political activist Fela Kuti in the Bill T. Jones-directed musical Fela!. After performances in New York (Tony nomination for best actor) and Fela’s home turf — Lagos, Nigeria — Ngaujah discusses working with Jones and the resonance of Fela in today’s America, on the eve of tonight’s opening in LA. READ MORE
Million Dollar Friends
by Steve Julian | December 14, 2011
Throughout the Pasadena Playhouse’s recent bankruptcy, the Friends of the Pasadena Playhouse, an organization of volunteer workers, tenaciously kept the faith. They have done so since 1979, when the historic theater had been shuttered for nearly a decade. Some of the Friends discuss the details of that decades-long friendship. READ MORE
