Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Co-written by writer/performers David Douglas and Martin Head, Utopia revolves around a faceoff between Martin (Head), a community entrepreneur looking to create an art gallery reflecting the lives and hopes of people of color, and David (Douglas), an artist and former colleague whom he’s summoned from Albuquerque to work with him on … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw In suburban NYC, the Corelli family business — a construction company — is facing a dire threat. The firm, founded by paterfamilias Dominick (Vincent Palmieri) and henpecked Uncle Albert (David Mingrino), provides employment for Dominick’s elder son Carmine (Johnny Ferretti) and tough-talking butch daughter Marie (Heather Alyse Becker). But Albert’s … Read more
Lovell Estell III – Stage Raw The sneaky, overworked phrase “friends with benefits” takes on new meaning in this watery comedy by Bathsheba Doran. Read more… Dany Margolies – L.A. Daily News Family has not changed since ancient times. Our perceptions of family have. Playwright Bathsheba Doran seems to celebrate this in her play “The Mystery … Read more
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw Padraic Duffy’s rather sweet romantic comedy — the premiere offering at Sacred Fools’ new home at the former Elephant Asylum complex — is a good workmanlike calling card to introduce the company’s style and tone to its new neighborhood. If the play ultimately strikes one as slight, it’s salvaged by … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw The upside to reinterpretations of classic works is a fresh look at how that art still speaks to us and remains vital. The downside produces Coriolanus on Mars. Read more.. Now running through April 10.
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw If you google the town of Pocatello in Southwest Idaho, you’ll get images of dusty hills and a downtown whose architecture might have served as nostalgic backdrop for The Last Picture Show. The place is changing though; look long enough and you’ll see a shot of a Ross store as well, … Read more
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw A couple meet, fall in love and marry. But do Whitney and Jake live happily together forever and ever thereafter? Not in Dean Farell Bruggeman’s heart-wrenching drama they don’t. Read more… Now running through March 12.
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 … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Franz Altman (Michael Laskin), the protagonist of playwright Charles Dennis’s deft solo drama, is an elderly Viennese Jew born just before the turn of the 20th century. Now nearly 100 years old, he owns a second-hand store called King Solomon’s Treasures, located in mid-town Manhattan, circa 1990. Read more… Margaret Gray – … Read more
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw Robert Lawrence Nelson’s melodrama about two lonely people finding a connection disappoints on almost all fronts. While the performances from the two leads — Julie Dolan as Samantha and Chad Addison as Toby — are solid, with both actors plumbing some complicated emotional depths, the production as a whole fails … Read more