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
Myron Meisel – Stage Raw Since its founding in 2010, The Industry, under the daring leadership of artistic director Yuval Sharon, has pursued a new media makeover meant to shake up not merely the Los Angeles opera world but the world at large. Its extraordinary coup de theatre, 2013’s Invisible Cities, commandeered Union Station as singers and … Read more
Jenny Lower – Stage Raw On Friday, ESPN announced the dismantling of its popular sports and culture site Grantland, eliciting shock and disappointment on the web. The move comes a few weeks after ESPN cut 300 jobs, reportedly to make up lost cable subscription revenue. It is, unfortunately, only the latest sobering development to challenge the … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Images of skulls and skeletons are viewed as chilling or comic in our own culture, but they represent something else in Day of the Dead, the Latin American holiday in which people honor the memory of those they’ve loved and lost. Read more…
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw As Pete Townshend was once known to opine, “The world begins behind your neighbor’s walls.” It’s one of the core mysteries of modern life – what do people do or say when they think they’re unobserved or unheard? Read more… Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly The characters In Jonathan Caren’s contemporary … Read more
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw This amusing one-act by the late playwright John Mortimer is a genial, slight piece and touchingly old fashioned. You just don’t really see this sort of play anymore: an intimate two-hander involving a pair of fellows who sort of banter and bluster with each other. Read more… Now running through November … Read more
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw Howlround, the indispensable national sounding board for theatrical philosophy and policy, has announced the formation of something slightly creepy called “The Committee of the Jubilee.” Read more…
Keith Mills, Anton Chekhov, and Seven Spots on the Sun Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Keith Mills was an actor. He was other things, too. He ran, or was part of, a soft-water company in the San Gabriel Valley. He was a husband, father and grandfather. But mainly, he was an actor, from Toronto. He … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw When Tim Kelly died in 1998, a Playbill obituary noted that he was probably the most published playwright in America, having written over 300 works for the “stock, amateur and educational” market. With amateur and/or stock being the operative words, it’s no surprise that Kelly’s adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Hound of the … Read more
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw “There’s a danger with one-man shows. What if you don’t like the performer? You’re screwed.” I’m paraphrasing, but this is a sentiment that Orson Bean articulates early into his own one-man show. The ironic implications just hang in the air, unanswered. Before and after this line, however, Bean’s efforts indicate … Read more