Neal Weaver – Stage Raw In her intriguing solo-drama, writer-performer Stacie Chaiken plays archeologist Sally Jenkins, who specializes in the study of ancient DNA. As she says, “It’s easy to extract the whole gene from soft tissue, but there is never soft tissue in ancient burials. I’ve managed to replicate the material I need from … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw This play with music by Evelina Fernández is a modern-day adaptation of The Pot of Gold by the ancient Roman playwright, Plautus. Read more… Now running through April 24.
Photo by Stephen Mihalek Jenny Lower – LA Weekly Though the Latino Theater Company’s newest production never delves into contemporary politics, it’s hard to imagine a more direct or effective counter-narrative to the kind of xenophobic propaganda that so often dominates immigration debates. Read more… Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Writer Cris Franco was a year … Read more
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw Talk about site specific theater: Here’s a production of playwright John Patrick Shanley’s romantic standard that is immersive — literally. Read more… Now running through August 1.
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly At 60 years old, the spry, lean, silver-haired Sal Lopez could well be Puck’s dad. And it could be argued that Lopez’s picaresque autobiographical one-man show, This Is a Man’s World at Los Angeles Theatre Center, is a memory play. That’s because it opens with Lopez screaming on a hospital bed … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly It’s hard to imagine a more tender, more lyrical or more captivating work than this three-person piece from Kulunka Teatro, a company originating from Spain’s Basque Country. Read more… Now running through June 7.
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Let’s start by mentioning the praiseworthy elements in this problematic piece, presented by Teatro Luna, an all-Latina company out of Chicago. Read more… Now running through May 17.
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Levy Lee Simon’s play celebrates the life and times of The Dunbar Hotel, on Los Angeles’s Central Avenue. As a luxury hotel serving the African-American community at a time when poverty and discrimination made most black-oriented hotels shabby and lacking in even basic amenities, it soon became a revered institution … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw This play, written and directed by Javier Antonio Gonzalez, and presented as part of the Encuentro 2014 Festival, is set on a more or less bare stage, with two colorful grids painted on the floor. On the back wall and in the wings hang a multitude of costumes, and several … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Directed by Daniel Jáquez, Mariana Carreño King’s uneven one-act tells of a young woman who marries for love, only to grapple with loneliness and disappointment a few years later when her husband turns cold and withdrawn. It’s a common experience, surely as old as marriage itself, but it’s depicted with enough … Read more