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Archive for Casa 0101

To hell (and back?) in TOOTSIE and HADESTOWN: Plus, A Heated Discussion, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Doll’s House Part 2, Masao and the Bronze Nightingale, Jane Austen Unscripted

Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

Don Shirley – Angeles Stage

Just over a month ago, millions of us witnessed a dramatic descent into chaos onstage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. At the Oscar ceremony, the usual back-patting was upstaged by the unscripted cheek-slapping of Chris Rock by Will Smith.

Now fresh drama has returned to the Dolby. Last Tuesday, the stage musical adaptation of “Tootsie” made its first LA appearance there, under the auspices of Broadway in Hollywood, depicting a very different fall from grace. It’s a contemporary take on the beloved 1982 film comedy about a man who enjoys steady employment — and even fame — while posing as a woman, before his ruse is exposed. Read more…

 

BROWN & OUT IV at Casa 0101

Photo courtesy Casa 0101

Photo courtesy Casa 0101

Neal Weaver  – Stage Raw

This is Casa 0101’s 4th collection of short plays exploring the LGBTQ+ scene from the Latinx point of view. The participating writers include Abel Alvarado, Corky Dominguez, Claudia Duran, Josefina Lopez, Jaime Mayorquin, Raymond Arturo Perez, Matthew Benjamin Ramos, Gilbert Salazar, Richard Billegas, Jr. and Patricia Zamorano.
Read more…

Now running through March 4

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST at Casa 0101

(Photo by Ed Krieger)

(Photo by Ed Krieger)

Paul Birchall  – Stage Raw

If you want tangible proof of the benefits of diversity casting, go see this homespun, upbeat production of that perennial tuner by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, Beauty and the Beast, now up at Casa 0101 in Boyle Heights.
Read more…

Now running through January 21

AN ENEMY OF THE PUEBLO at Casa 0101

Photo by Ed Krieger

Photo by Ed Krieger

Deborah Klugman – Capital & Main

In An Enemy of the Pueblo, playwright Josefina López appropriates the basic construct of Henrik Ibsen’s classic, tosses in a few large dollops of magical realism, and transforms the lead character from a 19th-century Norwegian doctor into a 21st-century Mexican curandera. The result is a stirring adaptation that features a luminous Zilah Mendoza as an earthy, compassionate, albeit flawed, woman of principle.
Read more…

Now running through November 12

 

PLACAS: THE MOST DANGEROUS TATTOO at Casa 0101

Photo by Myra Mejia

Photo by Myra Mejia

Neal Weaver  – Stage Raw

This play, by writer-director Paul S. Flores, sets out to examine the life of Salvadoran immigrants in the U.S., but it’s also part of an attempt to stop gang violence. It examines, among other things, the role of placas in gang life. (“Placas” is barrio slang for body tattoos that proclaim one’s membership and unwavering loyalty to the gang.) Read more…

Now running through February 28

 

 

DRUNK GIRL at Casa 0101

Photo by Ed Krieger

Photo by Ed Krieger

Jenny Lower – LA Weekly

Though sexual assault is never not timely, it’s been getting an extra-special dose of attention due to Bill Cosby and his 50-and-counting accusers, as well as the scrutiny directed at colleges before and after the discredited Rolling Stone account of campus assault and news generated by a White House rape-prevention initiative.  Read more…

Now running through October 18.

L.A. JOURNEY at Casa 0101

Photo by Ed Krieger

Photo by Ed Krieger

Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly

…..Money also dictates the behavior of the multitudinous characters in An L.A. Journey, the difference being that most of them don’t have much of it to invest or to lose. Read more…

Now running through June 7.

 

JULIUS CAESAR at Casa 0101

Photo by Ed Krieger

Photo by Ed Krieger

Steven Leigh Morris  – Stage Raw

Oh my — all that talk of “honor” that runs through Shakespeare’s political tragedy. Brutus (Rachel Gonzalez) murders Caesar (Vance Valencia ) because the leader stands poised to become emperor, which Brutus has concluded is bad for Rome. (“If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar’s, to him I say that Brutus’s love to Caesar was no less than his.”) Read more…

Now running through November  16.

A CAT NAMED MERCY at Casa 0101

la-et-cm-theater-review-a-cat-named-mercy-at-c-001

Photo by Ed Krieger

Margaret Gray – LA Times

“A Cat Named Mercy,” a new play by Josefina López (“Real Women Have Curves”) premiering at Casa 0101 Theater, is full of reformist passion but feels underbaked. Perhaps it was rushed into production to capitalize on the Obamacare controversy. A cautionary tale about U.S. health insurance, “Cat” has the fervor and subtlety of an Affordable Care Act public service message. Read more…

Now running through February 23.

IN THE HEIGHTS at Casa 0101

David C. Nichols – LA Times

“In the Heights” is currently irradiating Casa 0101, where it fits as felicitously as cinnamon in café con leche. This galvanic chamber edition of the 2008 Tony winner about the denizens of a Washington Heights barrio has enough heartfelt energy to alleviate a citywide power outage.
Read more…

Photo by Ed Krieger

Photo by Ed Krieger

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now running through December 22.

LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS at Casa 0101

Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly

Adapter and director Ramon Monxi Flores weaves Mayan mythology into this otherwise predictable message drama about a gangbanger and his uncertain journey toward redemption. Originating from a 1992 script by Victor Tamayo, which focused primarily on drug abuse, the familiar plot revolves around Carlos (Johnny Ortiz), a parentless youth living an empty, violent existence.  Read more…

Light

Photo by Ed Krieger

 

Now running through September 29.

 

TRIO LOS MACHOS at Casa 0101

TrioLosMachos

Photo by Ed Krieger

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly

Lalo (Miguel Santana), Paco (Henry Madrid) and Nacho (Roberto Garza) have been friends for 50 years. Former field workers, they escaped a life of hard labor by forming a trio and earning a living as singers of Mexican love songs. Now elderly and unemployed, they reflect back on the humiliations they endured as immigrant workers, as well as the one woman who touched all their lives.
Read more…

Now running through August 11.