Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Born in the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival, Korean-Canadian scribe Ins Choi’s widely produced family comedy (spurring a spinoff sitcom on Canadian TV and Netflix) is a paeon to family. It clearly fills a hunger to reinforce embattled institutions (family businesses and family bonds), against children’s quest for independence, and … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Religious ideology and its impact on young minds serves as the theme for playwright Jesse Mu-En Shao’s The End Times, a lean narrative enriched with well-grounded performances and a modest but handsome production design. The play, developed jointly by Playwrights’ Arena and the Skylight Theatre, is cogently directed by Jon Lawrence … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Salani (Jennifer Hubilla), the central character in Velina Hasu Houston’s charmless chick lit musical, is a lovely orphaned teen, an upright individual who must contend with poverty, hard labor, and arrogant or lustful employers before triumphantly attaining freedom and self-realization. The story is set in British Ceylon circa 1939; Read more… Neal Weaver – … Read more
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Young and naive, Girlie (Sandy Yu) has moved from her Philippines village to the city to train at a regional call center for a major American airline. Obsessed with the TV soap Dallas, Girlie fantasizes about moving there to live a dream life. But her single-minded pursuit and ultimate triumph … Read more