LADCC Critics 
Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw. After actor-playwright Michael Shayan’s years of pestering his Iranian-Jewish immigrant mother Roya to tell her life story, she finally relented to being recorded. After a writing retreat exercise, he took his mother’s interview and his own imagination and melded them together to craft a compelling one-person show. Part stand-up comedy … Read more
Patrick Chavis – The Orange Curtain Review. The experience of going out and exploring America on a road trip has been a staple in stories, plays, and movies. Some are serious stories like On the Road by Jack Kerouac, and others are comedies like the early 80s film Vacation with Chevy Chase. In Coleman ’72, now playing at South Coast … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw. Show me a play about a working woman who pits her strength and smarts against predatory banks, and you’ll have me rooting for it, and her, from the start. Directed by Gregg T. Daniel, francisca da silveira’s can i touch it?, a rolling premiere at Rogue Machine, features all the ingredients … Read more
Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld. Aerosol in the air as Tracy Turnblad, Penny Pingleton, and the teens of Baltimore bring politics and pizzazz to Hollywood with a stunning production of one of the best and beloved musicals of all time… It’s a thrilling, unsinkably upbeat show, gleefully over the top, with colorful characters, costumes, and sets. … Read more
Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld. Despite the sex comedy aspects of the show, a vein of melancholy runs throughout it, much of it being told through the lens of regret. This isn’t encapsulated any better than in Desirée’s lament “Send in the Clowns,” which is hopeless and hopeful and remorseful and accepting and existential all bound … Read more
Terry Morgan – ArtsBeat LA, reviewed at Rubicon Theatre, January 2023. The first time I saw a play by Will Eno was about 15 years ago, by Circle X Theatre Company of The Flu Season. It was an excellent production in many ways, but there was one scene in which a character died, and instead of having … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw. In a world grown progressively more dystopian, the collectively created Whittier Boulevard seems apt indeed —even more so for people of a certain age. An ensemble piece from the Latino Theater Company, made resonant by stunning projections and a sonorous score and sound, it’s a stygian satire set in a … Read more
Tracey Paelo – Gia On The Move. As is her trademark…actor, producer, fight choreographer Jen Albert who also plays the title role, is 100% committed to a display of historical context about an ancient, iron-age war in Celtic Britannia, and the legendary woman who, for a brief glorious moment, brought the disunified tribes together to … Read more
Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw. At moments, the play is an absolute delight. Melville seems born to play a Coward crank, and really shines in the role. Chalsma is charming, especially when Amanda is at her most flustered. Charles is also strong as Victor, a gentleman who reaches his breaking point as things cycle out … Read more
Socks Whitmore – Stage Raw. Like other Actors’ Gang productions, (Im)migrants of the State draws from a distinctly stylized form of physical theater, ranging from the comedic use of cardboard cutout props to the out-of-time, slow-motion dramatization of a gang jumping. The medium feels fitting for the project; the technical simplicity keeps the focus on … Read more