We need to be an audience. We need to be on stage. Famine may kill the body.. and the lack of art is killing the human spirit. I encourage local Los Angeles theatre companies to get on board.
This from David Elzer:
LOS ANGELES, CA, AUGUST 10, 2020 – Five theater organizations today announced the formation of the #theatre5alliance to bring the arts to people’s homes and to highlight the importance of keeping local theater alive and thriving.
The
alliance is comprised of the Berkshire Playwrights Lab, Durango
PlayFest, the Laguna Playhouse, the New Jersey Repertory Company and
Seven Angels Theatre. Like similar groups nationwide, each of these
organizations canceled their summer performances due to the coronavirus
pandemic.
The
alliance will harness the writing talents of dozens of well-known
screen and stage actors to create original vignettes of three to ten
minutes each. The project is the brainchild of actor Dan Lauria (“The
Wonder Years,” “Lombardi”), who called upon friends in the industry to
create videos of themselves reading works they’ve written under the
banner “Keeping Live Theatre Alive.”
He
has brought in Filmmaker Jeremy Fletcher to edit individual videos of
the actors and alliance members will be making them available on their
websites starting August 29th, 2020. Lauria is a longstanding supporter of local theater and of the alliance members.
“Every
sector in society has been impacted negatively by COVID-19, including
theaters,” Lauria said. “I wanted to raise awareness of the plight of
these organizations while celebrating how actors are keeping their
creative juices flowing.”
Actors
committed to the project so far include Kim Brockington, Bryan
Cranston, Bruce Davidson, Andre De Shields, Judd Hirsch, Stacy Keach,
Dan Lauria, John Larroquette, Judith Light, Hal Linden, John Lithgow,
Jodi Long, Priscilla Lopez, Wendie Malick, Joe Mantegna, Carolyn
McCormick, Patty McCormack, Laurie Metcalf, Alfred Molina, Ed O’Neill,
Lou Diamond Phillips, James Pickens Jr, Stephen Root, Tony Shalhoub,
Charles Shaughnessy, Peter Scolari, Joe Spano, Chris Sullivan, Reno
Wilson, Henry Winkler, and Robert Wuhl.
The
content will be available to viewers by each theatre and they will use
the vignettes in creative ways to raise awareness of their organizations
as well as thank their patrons for their support during this difficult
year.
For more information on each theatre’s programming plans, visit any of these theatre websites: Berkshire Playwrights Lab, Durango PlayFest, Laguna Playhouse, New Jersey Repertory, or Seven Angels Theatre.