Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw What does it take to be a caring mother? And why bear a child if you grasp beforehand that the pain, the hardships — and the apocalyptic threat of climate change! — are likely to pursue a person born today into a traumatic future? These questions arise in Hungry Ghost — … Read more
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way Often when I see the World Premiere of a play in our local theatres, I will read in the program that the play was the winner of the so and so playwriting award. Then often after sitting through a very dispiriting piece of theatre, I begin to wonder who … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw In 2015, actor, writer producer and all-around member of the LA’s theater community Michael Shutt underwent a series of strokes that left him partially blind and partially paralyzed. The experience frightened and bewildered him, and totally transformed his life. Read more…
Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld Bernardo Cubría’s world premiere CRABS IN A BUCKET: OR HOW BITTERNESS RUINED THE FUN is a riotous satire of small minds divided by envy. Focused on literal crabs in a shucking bucket, the crabbiest crab, Amargo (Xochitl Romero), and daffy sidekick Pootz, (Anna Lamadrid), spend their days bitching about the crabs … Read more
Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania Power is an illusion in Will Power’s startling play Fetch Clay, Make Man, now running at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles. All the characters believe they have control of their destinies, but each is desperate to break free from someone’s influence — even Muhammad Ali, marvelously played by Ray … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw A party in a bar on the eve of an apocalyptic event becomes the foundation for one woman’s investigation of events 500 years in her past in The Catastrophe Club, Devin Burnam’s intellectually ambitious but underdeveloped drama. Read more…
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw “Religion isn’t really that bad on its own,” observes Dan Prevette in Missionary Positions, his poignant yet entertaining account of growing up first within — and then away from — the strictures of a worldwide evangelical church. Read more…
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw An old-timey small town in Kansas. A young person chafing at its limitations and longing to see the world. A handsome stranger of uncertain moral character who appears as a catalyst for change. These plot elements appear front and center in William Inge’s Pulitzer-prize-winning play, Picnic, and they’re appropriated with … 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
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