South Coast Repertory’s literary manager Kelly L. Miller provides a preview of coming attractions at SCR’s Pacific PlaywrightsFestival, which culminates next weekend with five staged readings plus two already-open full productions. READ MORE
Pianist Golabek Tells Her Mother’s Story at the Geffen
by Cynthia Citron | April 24, 2012
Mona Golabek, a third-generation concert pianist, concentrates on her mother’s story in The Pianist of Willesden Lane at the Geffen. As a child, her talented mother was shipped out of reach of the Nazis on the celebrated Kinderstransport. The play’s mingling of music and theater is familiar turf for the director, Hershey Felder. READ MORE
Young Women Come of Age in Three Musicals. A Vietnamese American Plays Kim in Miss Saigon
by Don Shirley | April 23, 2012
Three young women enter adulthood in musicals that are otherwise very different — Cloudlands at South Coast Rep, Dames at Sea at the Colony and Miss Saigon at La Mirada. In Miss Saigon, Jacqueline Nguyen is the first Vietnamese American to play the role of Kim. We talk to her about how her mother’s journey parallels that of Kim. READ MORE
This Bridge Club Doesn’t Play Cards
by Richard Raskind | April 23, 2012
A youthful first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge eventually led Richard Raskind to write a play about some of those who go there to commit suicide. The West Coast premiere of The Bridge Club opens Friday. READ MORE
Busy Bets Malone is Thrice Upon a Mattress
by Samantha Mehlinger | April 20, 2012
Bets Malone is one of those rare actors who relies on the LA stage for most of her income. Since she was a kid in San Diego County, she has been employed in southern California musicals, with side trips to Milwaukee and New York. Now she’s Princess Winnifred — for the third time — in Cabrillo’s Once Upon a Mattress. READ MORE
How Premsrirat Developed Girl Most Likely To
by Amy Tofte | April 20, 2012
Michael Premsrirat’s The Girl Most Likely To is loosely based on the story of murdered transgendered teenager Gwen Araujo. It’s being introduced in an LATC production directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera — whose Playwrights’ Arena tries to provide LA stage writers with some honor in their home town. READ MORE
LA STAGE INSIDER
by Julio Martinez | April 19, 2012
New seasons at Geffen and Pasadena playhouses, with Lynn Nottage plays at both…New seasons for Laguna Playhouse and Musical Theatre Guild…a 20th anniversary production of Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992…Lauren Lewis plays Gwendolen Fairfax…A look at the PCPA Theaterfest’s past. READ MORE
A Child — and a Teacher — Left Behind
by Alan Aymie | April 19, 2012
Laid off from his LAUSD teaching job while struggling to complete a play, Alan Aymie responded by writing another play, a solo dealing with educational issues. He also found his experiences as a father of a son with Asperger’s entering his script for A Child Left Behind. Now he’s performing it at Beverly Hills Playhouse. READ MORE
The ‘Zamerican’ Danai Gurira Examines The Convert
by Darlene Donloe | April 18, 2012
In The Convert, Danai Gurira looks at the cultural conflicts facing a young woman who’s fleeing a forced marriage in 1895 Zimbabwe. Gurira knows the turf — born in Iowa, raised in Zimbabwe, now an Angeleno who’s about to become the Kirk Douglas Theatre’s most produced playwright and a star of AMC’s The Walking Dead. READ MORE
Wendy Johnson’s Not Concealing Judy Holliday
or Herself
by Deborah Behrens | April 18, 2012
After a critic called Wendy Johnson “a Judy Holliday clone,” she began investigating her inner Holliday. The result is Johnson’s Concealing Judy Holliday, a multi-actor play about the original Born Yesterday star, opening at Pacific Resident Theatre, with the author in the title role. READ MORE
Rose’s Bedfellows Rises, Stehlin Staging
by Mark Kinsey Stephenson | April 17, 2012
Playwright Chuck Rose and producer/director Jack Stehlin discuss their current collaboration — Rose’s Bedfellows – and their pasts. Rose’s play is about a would-be California governor with a big secret. READ MORE
Class Acts — But Where’s LA in This Mix?
by Don Shirley | April 16, 2012
The subject of class distinctions looms large in this election year. Take a look at Good People, The Prince of Atlantis, Billy Elliot, Working, even Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Why are so many of these set in New England and none of them in LA? READ MORE
