Terry Morgan – Stage Raw “I very much wanted to like Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, but even Pablo Escobar could tell that this package is suspiciously light.” Read more… Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania Children shouldn’t play with dead things. But it’s a warning that four high school teens of a banished school club … Read more
Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw In the early 1950s, playwright Arthur Miller and his friend Elia Kazan pitched Miller’s dockworker-based screenplay The Hook, with Kazan as the proposed director, to Columbia Pictures’ boss Harry Cohn. When Cohn – and the FBI – wanted to change the corrupt union villains from Mafia thugs to Communist ones, … Read more
Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw This international theatre festival has winnowed hundreds of submissions down to 52 entries, all ten-minute one-act plays, 31 in English and 21 in Spanish. Audience members and a jury of industry professionals vote on the best plays, with awards and a cash prize presented to the finalist during the closing … Read more
Socks Whitmore – Stage Raw The term masochism (defined by the dictionary as “the tendency to derive pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from one’s own pain or humiliation”) is derived from the name of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, an Austrian author whose association with the subject stems from the plot of his best-known work, Venus in Furs. … Read more
Terry Morgan – ArtsBeatLA In a world in which a repulsive con man can get elected president and turn the entire Republican party into a credulous and insane mob, it’s to be expected that somebody would try to write a play about how the conservative movement has become so unhinged. Will Arbery’s Heroes of the … 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
Tracey Paleo – Gia On The Move Did anyone else feel like it was a speed through? Magnificent though it is, there’s something about the LES MISÉRABLES (North American Tour) re-do, currently at the Hollywood Pantages, that didn’t allow me to catch my breath. Read more… Socks Whitmore – Stage Raw More than 200 years … 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…
Philip Brandes – Stage Raw Making excellent use of a 26-member ensemble and the outdoor Topanga venue’s expansive natural canyon backdrop, Ellen Geer’s atmospheric staging leans into the eerie supernatural elements; the precision and clarity are bound to satisfy viewers already familiar with the play, and provide a thrilling introduction for MacNewbies. Read more…
Dana Martin – Stage Raw La Havana Madrid, a long-forgotten social club that turned into a ’60s social movement, finds new life in Mission San Juan Capistrano’s courtyard. Writer/performer Sandra Delgado’s play of the same name articulates both the oppression and the triumphs of Latin American immigrants who arrived in Chicago during a period of … Read more