Cornerstone Theater’s Café Vida was inspired by the former gang members who re-enter productive society via jobs at downtown LA’s Homegirl Café. Lisa Loomer was hired to write the play, which kicks off Cornerstone’s Hunger Cycle. Sometimes she feels the experience has given her a more productive job, too. READ MORE
Felder’s Lincoln — He Doesn’t Play Lincoln or a Piano
by Rachel Fain | March 28, 2012
Hershey Felder is known for his solo shows about composers. But in his new Lincoln, he is the composer, and he has eliminated his usual piano in favor of an orchestra. He plays the doctor who first treated Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre, not Lincoln himself. It opens tonight at Felder’s favorite place to perform in California, the Pasadena Playhouse. READ MORE
A Touch of Evil For Headly, Madigan and Rous at
Henley’s The Jacksonian
by Rachel Fain | February 15, 2012
Beth Henley’s new The Jacksonian opens tonight at the Geffen Playhouse. The three women in the cast — Amy Madigan, Glenne Headly and Bess Rous — gather to discuss the evil that permeates the play, which is set in the year that Jackson, Mississippi was desegregated. Headly was instrumental in getting the play produced. Original photography by Eric Schwabel. READ MORE
Association for Jewish Theatre Conference: Day 3
by Rachel Fain | February 8, 2012
Theater artists who use first-person testimony and historical artifacts was the topic of a panel on Day 3 of the Association for Jewish Theatre conference, which met at USC on Tuesday. The day continued with a producers’ panel that featured Ron Sossi of the Odyssey Theatre and Joe Stern of the Matrix Theatre. READ MORE
Meet the Music Center’s Ushers — Guides by the Sides
by Rachel Fain | February 1, 2012
The Music Center employs a corps of 300 paid ushers. They are trained to work at all four of the Music Center venues — which host more than 1000 performances a year, plus plenty of special events. A few of these helpful guides recall some memorable moments from the annals of Music Center ushering. READ MORE
Dukakis and Barricelli — Together Again in Vigil
by Rachel Fain | November 3, 2011
Olympia Dukakis and Marco Barricelli are appearing in the only two roles in Morris Panych’s Vigil at the Mark Taper Forum. Barricelli talks during most of the play, and Dukakis mostly listens. But in a rehearsal room interview, they share the conversation just about equally, which comes naturally after appearing together in four plays. READ MORE
Cornerstone’s Hunger Cycle Plants Creative Seeds
by Rachel Fain | October 27, 2011
Cornerstone Theater’s next big cycle will include nine plays on hunger and food-related subjects over the next five years. But first, the public is invited to two weeks of appetizers under the Creative Seeds title, Nov. 7-20. It’s a festival of panels, roundtables, and small performances that will help the playwrights and other ensemble members prepare for the upcoming productions. Besides the main article about the events, here’s a close-up look at one of the participants, farmer/performer Nikiko Masumoto. READ MORE
