Feature article :: Page 2 :: LA Drama Critics Circle

YELLOW FACE at the Beverly Hills Playhouse

August 18, 2018Frances Baum Nicholson – The Daily Breeze When Rachel Dolezal was forced to step down from the presidency of the local branch of the NAACP in Spokane, Wash., in 2015 because she was not (as she had claimed) African-American, it spurred a debate on the nature of race and cultural appropriation which was long past
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SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM at the Odyssey Theatre

August 18, 2018Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Apparently the songs of composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim are not failsafe. He’s the genius behind some of the last century’s and some of this one’s best musicals. Some of his early songs are showcased in the revue titled “Side by Side by Sondheim,” currently at the Odyssey in West Los
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SHINING CITY at the Hudson Guild Theatre

August 12, 2018Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Irish playwright Colin McPherson explores the dark hollows of the human psyche in this penetrating drama. A sad, intensely human story, the play speaks knowingly to the guilt, regret and unfulfilled desires that dwell within many of us. Read more… Now running through August 26

TITUS ANDRONICUS in Griffith Park

August 8, 2018Ellen Dostal – Broadway World TITUS ANDRONICUS is one of Shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedies. Characters are stabbed, beheaded, mutilated, raped, baked in a pie, and one is even buried up to his neck and left to die. At first glance it may not sound like an obvious choice for families……. Read more... Now running through September
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WAITRESS at the Pantages Theatre

August 5, 2018Erin Conley – On Stage and Screen You cannot walk five feet in the Pantages Theatre without encountering a bunch of mini pies for sale, perfectly setting the scene for Waitress, the hit Broadway musical that opened in Los Angeles for the first time last night. Read more… Rob Stevens – Haines His Way In 2007 writer/director/actress
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BEETHOVEN at the Wallis Annenberg Center

©Christopher Ash - AshChristopher@mac.com

August 5, 2018Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Actor/writer/musician/producer/designer/musicologist Hershey Felder is about as close as they come to a modern Renaissance man. He has racked up an impressive array of musical biographies — one-man shows in which he plays noted composers. Read more… Now running through August 12

THE MOTHER-F**KER WITH THE HAT at the Gloria Gifford Conservancy

August 5, 2018Lovell Estell III — Stage Raw Plays about broken people dealing with issues of addiction, violence, and toxic sexuality are legion, but they don’t always translate into provocative and humorous theater. Both qualities are found in this dour comedy by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright . Read more… Now running through August 26

Archive for Feature article – Page 2

SIGHTS PACIFIC: HOPSCOTCH AND STEEL HAMMER by Myron Meisel

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Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015

Myron Meisel – Stage Raw

Since its founding in 2010, The Industry, under the daring leadership of artistic director Yuval Sharon, has pursued a new media makeover meant to shake up not merely the Los Angeles opera world but the world at large. Its extraordinary coup de theatre, 2013’s Invisible Cities, commandeered Union Station as singers and dancers and audience wandered about as alien invaders amongst the real-life travellers, apprehending the orchestral music through Sennheiser headphones. Read more…

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Tags : Hopscotch, Julia Wolfe, Myron Meisel, Stage Raw, Steel Hammer, Yuval Sharon. The Industry

FUNDING ARTS JOURNALISM: STAGE RAW’S SECOND SYMPOSIUM ON ARTS COVERAGE BY JENNY LOWER

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Monday, November 2nd, 2015

Jenny Lower – Stage Raw

On Friday, ESPN announced the dismantling of its popular sports and culture site Grantland, eliciting shock and disappointment on the web. The move comes a few weeks after ESPN cut 300 jobs, reportedly to make up lost cable subscription revenue. It is, unfortunately, only the latest sobering development to challenge the financial viability of arts coverage.

JUBILIEE YEAR, AEA’S RESPONSE TO SUIT, FRENCH & VANESSA HOST THE OVATIONS, AND MORE by Paul Birchall

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Saturday, October 31st, 2015

Paul Birchall – Stage Raw

Howlround, the indispensable national sounding board for theatrical philosophy and policy, has announced the formation of something slightly creepy called “The Committee of the Jubilee.”

LURING MILLENIALS TO ‘CARRIE AND ‘VIETGONE’ by Don Shirley, LA Observed

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Tuesday, October 20th, 2015

Photo by Jason Niedle

Don Shirley – LA Observed

How to attract young-adult audiences to LA’s professional theaters? Plenty of pondering about this subject occurs at theater conferences and in theater journals. I won’t address the logistics of marketing to millennials here. But I’m welcoming two new productions that seemingly target them yet also offer lively experiences to those of us who are definitely not active members of that demographic group. Read more…

Photo by Jason Niedle

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Tags : Carrie, Don Shirley, LA Observed, Luring millennials to 'Carrie' and 'Vietgone', Vietgone

PAUL BIRCHALL’S GOT IT COVERED – Teapot Tempest

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Monday, October 12th, 2015

Paul Birchall – Stage Raw

In a dramatic about-face, playwright Tommy Smith on Wednesday abruptly retracted allegations that Echo Theater Company had “stolen” his short play Ghost Light, which had starred Deborah Puette and opened August 5 to rave notices. The production was the playwright’s third collaboration with Echo artistic director Chris Fields, whose stagings of Smith’s Firemen in 2014 and last spring’s Fugue were likewise met with critical acclaim. Read more…

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Tags : A Jeffrey Schoenberg, Christ Felds, Echo Theatre Company, Ghost Light, Paul Birchall, Sid Solomon, Stage Raw, Tommy Smith

REAL WOMEN OF EAST LA ARE IN THE PALISADES AND PASADENA – Don Shirley, L.A. Observed

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Wednesday, September 30th, 2015

Don Shirley – LA Observed

Center Theatre Group, which continues to call itself “L.A.’s Theatre Company,” also continues to demonstrate virtually no interest in LA stories.

When CTG recently announced the next Mark Taper Forum season, after previously revealing new seasons for the coming year at CTG’s Ahmanson and Kirk Douglas theaters, I began counting. So, how many of the 14 CTG productions at these three venues are set in or near LA?

None.

PAUL BIRCHALL’S GOT IT COVERED – SEPTEMBER 22, 2015

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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015

From an Aborted NYC Mikado to Bloomberg Foundation Largesse to the 20 Most Produced Playwrights of 2015-16

Paul Birchall – Stage Raw

Also making news is the news that Brian Kite, producing artistic director of La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, is stepping down to take over the Department Chair at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Still quite a young artist, Kite has already had an illustrious career, with credits from the Actors Co-op to the French Woods Festival in New York (where he served as director of theater programs for more than seven years) to the Geffen, and he has certainly had played a strong leadership role at La Mirada – not to mention is position of board chair at Los Angeles Stage Alliance. Read more…

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Tags : Bloomberg Foundation, Brian Kite, Film and Television, Paul Birchall, Stage Raw, The Mikado, The New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, UCLA School of Theater

PAUL BIRCHALL’S GOT IT COVERED: FROM MONDAY NIGHTS AT ROGUE MACHINE TO AWAKE AND SING! TO JENNIE WEBB

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Thursday, September 17th, 2015

From Monday Nights at Rogue Machine to Awake and Sing! to Jennie Webb

Paul Birchall – Stage Raw

I Like Mondays

What is nicer than a Monday night show? If I were a theater producer I would always slip a Monday night performance into the schedule, just on principle.

For one thing, all the critics will come, as they really won’t have anything else to do that night, except perhaps tweaking their prose before the Tuesday deadline and maybe watching Antiques Roadshow. You may even get some of the ol’ parasites (read: awards voters) from the Ovations, LADCC, and Stage Raw, given the lack of distracting other attractions. Read more…

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Tags : Awake and Sing, Jennie Webb, Marilyn Fox, Pacific Resident Theatre, Paul Birchall, Rogue Machine, Stage Raw

PAUL BIRCHALL’S GOT IT COVERED – September 2, 2015

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Tuesday, September 8th, 2015

From Paul Verdier to Dakin Matthews to A. Jeffrey Schoenberg to Stephen Sachs

Paul Verdier (contributed by Steven Leigh Morris)

Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw

Yet another passing of another era was marked September 6, when actor-director-playwright-producer Paul Verdier died of complications from Parkinson’s Disease while under hospice care in West Hollywood. Read more…

Paul Birchall – Stage Raw

In an attempt to grasp control back over the way they are perceived, Actor’s Equity Association has launched a promo campaign to improve its much-tarnished image. I suppose this was meant to dovetail with the Labor Day holiday, the national celebration of the many truly good things that the unions have done for workers. If you’re a Union and you can’t get good press on Labor Day, well, something is wrong Read more…

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Tags : Actors Equity Association, Dakin Mathews, Paul Birchall, Paul Verdier, Stage Raw, Steven Leigh Morris

THE ‘FENCES’ THAT LED TO “RIOT/REBELLION” IN WATTS

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Tuesday, September 8th, 2015

Don Shirley – LA Observed

Watts Village Theater Company is observing the 50th anniversary of its community’s most famous historical moment with “Riot/Rebellion,” an ensemble-driven documentary-style production.em>Read more…

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Tags : Don Shirley, LA Observed, Riot/Rebellion, Watts Village Theatre Company

Outside in Topanga and Griffith Park, inside in ‘Luka’s Room’

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Friday, August 28th, 2015

Don Shirley – LA Observed

Alfresco theater is one of the best features of an LA summer, yet the big LA media usually ignore it. Charles McNulty, the LA Times theater critic for nearly a decade, wrote an essay last week about ensemble acting in three of LA’s tiny indoor stages, but he has never written a word (according to a search of the LA Times database) about the ensemble acting or anything else at the two companies – Theatricum Botanicum and Independent Shakespeare — that consistently produce on Actors’ Equity contracts in LA’s considerably larger outdoor venues, for much larger audiences. em>Read more…

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Tags : Don Shirley, LA Observed, Theatricum Botanicum

WILL L.A. ACTORS SUE THEIR UNION?

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Saturday, August 1st, 2015

Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly

We haven’t been treated fairly, and everybody knows it, says actress Maria Gobetti.

She’s objecting to the union’s elimination of L.A.’s 99-Seat Theater Plan, which, for the uninitiated, was in effect for a quarter century and permitted union actors to work in theaters of up to 99-seats in L.A. County for token stipends. Read more…

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Categories : Feature article

Tags : 99-Seat Theater Plan, AEA, LA Weekly, Steven Leigh Morris

YELLOW FACE at the Beverly Hills Playhouse

SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM at the Odyssey Theatre

SHINING CITY at the Hudson Guild Theatre

TITUS ANDRONICUS in Griffith Park

WAITRESS at the Pantages Theatre

BEETHOVEN at the Wallis Annenberg Center

THE MOTHER-F**KER WITH THE HAT at the Gloria Gifford Conservancy

Archive for Feature article – Page 2

SIGHTS PACIFIC: HOPSCOTCH AND STEEL HAMMER by Myron Meisel

FUNDING ARTS JOURNALISM: STAGE RAW’S SECOND SYMPOSIUM ON ARTS COVERAGE BY JENNY LOWER

JUBILIEE YEAR, AEA’S RESPONSE TO SUIT, FRENCH & VANESSA HOST THE OVATIONS, AND MORE by Paul Birchall

LURING MILLENIALS TO ‘CARRIE AND ‘VIETGONE’ by Don Shirley, LA Observed

PAUL BIRCHALL’S GOT IT COVERED – Teapot Tempest

REAL WOMEN OF EAST LA ARE IN THE PALISADES AND PASADENA – Don Shirley, L.A. Observed

PAUL BIRCHALL’S GOT IT COVERED – SEPTEMBER 22, 2015

PAUL BIRCHALL’S GOT IT COVERED: FROM MONDAY NIGHTS AT ROGUE MACHINE TO AWAKE AND SING! TO JENNIE WEBB

PAUL BIRCHALL’S GOT IT COVERED – September 2, 2015

THE ‘FENCES’ THAT LED TO “RIOT/REBELLION” IN WATTS

Outside in Topanga and Griffith Park, inside in ‘Luka’s Room’

WILL L.A. ACTORS SUE THEIR UNION?

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