Pam MacKinnon staged the premiere of Bruce Norris’ Pulitzer-winning Clybourne Park in 2010, and now she’s preparing the Mark Taper Forum’s staging, which will morph into the Broadway debut for the Raisin in the Sun-inspired comedy in April. She discusses the play, the challenges of transplanting it and her life as an itinerant theater director. READ MORE
Aunt and Godmother Tales in Woodard’s Night Watcher
by Darlene Donloe | November 16, 2011
Charlayne Woodard, famed for her autobiographical solo plays, takes on her role as surrogate mother to nieces, nephews, godchildren and other offspring of friends in her latest production, The Night Watcher, at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. She has no children of her own, but she relishes being part of the proverbial village that takes care of them. READ MORE
For Robin Givens, The Sky’s The Limit
by Darlene Donloe | November 9, 2011
Robin Givens, starring in Blues for an Alabama Sky at Pasadena Playhouse, gets all choked up about playing Pearl Cleage’s sad and struggling blues singer in Harlem during the Depression. Director Sheldon Epps comments on the play and Givens’ performance, and Givens describes the demands of balancing work with raising two sons as a single mom. READ MORE
Karen Black and David Proval Star In Moses Supposes
by Darlene Donloe | October 12, 2011
Longtime friends Karen Black and David Proval play an aging Jewish couple in the South in Moses Supposes, at the Zephyr. Black reveals what every actor should know, and Proval discloses a previously unknown fact about his underwear, but don’t expect them to tell you why the play is called Moses Supposes. READ MORE
John Leguizamo is a Ghetto Klown
by Darlene Donloe | September 28, 2011
More tales from John Leguizamo’s life are about to take over the Montalban Theatre, in Leguizamo’s latest solo, Ghetto Klown. Here he talks about how he prepares for his on-stage self-therapy and why he’s happier on a stage than he is in the movies. READ MORE
Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP Hosts Star-Studded Theatre Awards
by Darlene Donloe | August 30, 2011
The night’s big LA theater winners were Ben Guillory’s Robey Theatre Company, who took home the Best Producer Award (local) in association with the Latino Theatre Company for The Reckoning. Their production of Transitions also earned Best Playwright (local) honors for Kellie Roberts and Best Ensemble Cast. Michael Matthews nabbed two directing awards for Celebration Theatre productions: Take Me Out and The Women of Brewster Place while Shirley Jo Finney added Best Director honors for The Ballad of Emmett Till to her Ovation Award laden mantle. READ MORE
4th Annual NAACP Theatre Festival “Raises the Curtain”
by Darlene Donloe | August 29, 2011
It was a full-on celebration at the 4th Annual Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP Theater Festival held this past weekend at Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC). Utilizing the theme “Raise the Curtain,” workshops, performances and discussions reiterated the need for black theater because “if we do not tell our stories, they won’t get told. The play is the thing.” READ MORE
Corbin Bleu Gets Tangled Up In Seaweed For Hairspray
by Darlene Donloe | August 3, 2011
Corbin Bleu discusses his August 5 Hollywood Bowl debut as Seaweed J. Stubbs in Hairspray, why musicals are now considered cool and what’s up with his Food Network fandom. READ MORE
Anna Deavere Smith Won’t Let Herself Down Easy
by Darlene Donloe | July 19, 2011
Discipline, doubt and kale are among a few of Anna Deavere Smith’s favorite things as she brings Let Me Down Easy, her solo show on health care, to the Broad Stage. READ MORE
If You Want To Clown Around, Meet Me @Metro II
by Darlene Donloe | July 1, 2011
Clowning around on public transportation is usually frowned upon. However, soon there will be a lot of real Bozos riding the Metro Rail. The Watts Village Theater Company (WVTC) in association with the Watts/Century Latino Organization have plans to turn those frowns upside down when they present, Meet Me @Metro II, a nearly three-hour theatrical journey that will take place at five stops on Los Angeles’ Metro Rail system between Long Beach and Watts during the weekends of July 2-3 and July 9-10, 2011. READ MORE
Director Debbie Allen Does the Twist at Pasadena Playhouse
by Darlene Donloe | June 22, 2011
It’s 11:30 in the morning and Debbie Allen is dancing from one end of the rehearsal hall to the other with two young actresses who probably aren’t old enough to remember her as Lydia Grant, the dance teacher, on the popular television series Fame (1982-87). At 60, Allen is directing the Pasadena Playhouse production of Twist, a musical adaptation of Oliver Twist set in New Orleans on the eve of the Great Depression. READ MORE
Project1Voice Celebrates African American Theater With 1Voice, 1Play, 1Day
by Darlene Donloe | June 13, 2011
A celebration of African American theater will take place nationwide on June 20, as 17 black theater companies across the country light their collective lights for 1Voice, 1Play, 1Day, an inaugural theatrical event spearheaded by Project1Voice. In Los Angeles, Ebony Repertory Theatre was selected to participate with the others in producing a benefit staged reading of Alice Childress’ Trouble In Mind, a provocative and satiric drama based on the conflict of not compromising one’s artistic integrity. READ MORE
