NogoodDeed

NogoodDeed

That the current Inside the Ford projects take chances and LA County makes the space available to companies like Furious is commendable. The space itself has gone through many metamorphoses over the years as the Pilgrimage became the John Anson Ford. The Company Theatre produced a unique version of their James Joyce Memorial Liquid Theatre there in the early seventies to huge audiences upstairs … Outside at the Pilgrimage. Prolific playwright Robert Patrick (Kennedy’s Children) held theatre workshops in what was then a simple open space downstairs. Later, Steven Kent’s ProVisional Theatre, split off from The Company, performed political theatre with the story of Xa reminding audiences of the horrors of war.

The space was called the “Taper, too,” for a while, with small creative productions sponsored by the Mark Taper Forum. It’s been a space for experiments. And, yes, experimental theatre is sorely needed to keep the art form vital and fresh.

If nothing else, Furious Theatre Company is taking chances. This lurid tale of teenager Josh Jaxson (Nick Cernoch), spray paint huffer/graphic artist/burgeoning super hero is a stretch. Like a 21^st Century graphic novel, Pelfrey’s script flings the audience left and right with unprovoked violent attacks, super hero interventions, parallel universes and some wild video projections reflecting, as a friend pointed out, the heavy influence of television on the youth of today.

SG

FM

HH

The triumverate of erstwhile Super Heros:

Security Guard (Troy Metcalf)

Fire Man (Shawn Lee)

Hellbound Hero (Nick Cernoch)

These three hapless heroes, modern day everymen: just pretty much normal guys, are thrust by individual heroic efforts into the spotlight, lionized, vilified and eventually driven to a bad end are based on playwright Matt Pelfrey’s examination of Richard Jewell, the Atlanta security guard who may have saved lives at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Enjoyment of and relating to this play will turn on the generation with whom you survive. Twentieth century aficionados who remember early comic books with super heroes like Superman and Batman will find themselves struggling for a point of reference. Evidently, the Graphic Novel has supplanted the comic book in the geek spotlight. There’s a bad moon rising.

In the cast we find a mixed bag of mumblers, screamers, good guys, bad guys, archetypes, stereotypes and bad impersonators. The task is for the audience to figure out which is which, who is who and whether or not to care. With all the doubling going on, program references are a must. Director Damaso Rodriguez has his hands full. Skill levels are uneven and dialogue like “It’s cool, man. Seriously, I’m good.” speaks for itself.

Video projections by Jason H. Thompson are terrific using moving scrims for projections to set the scene on the grungy multipurpose set. Actors duplicate themselves now and then via video. That part works, too. It may be the acoustics in this small space, but much of the dialogue, to me, was garbled, though the action pretty much made up for the loss of any words. Thank goodness the action was graphic. The staged fight scenes need work.

Furious has spent a lot of time, money and energy on this project. I learned that there are five hundred cues: lights, sound and video, making the real super heroes of the evening the Furious technical crew.

No Good Deed by Matt Pelfrey

Furious Theatre Company

A live-on-stage graphic novel adventure

Inside the Ford

2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East

Hollywood, CA 90068

Tickets and information 323 461 3673

http://fordtheatres.org

www.iamhellbound.com

General Admission $25

Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays Through February 26

Call theatre for specific times and prices

PARAMOUNT'S WINGS SOARS AGAIN

I don't usually review films, but I was invited to Paramount Studios tonight to see Paramount's restored version of WINGS. The effect that I'm sure it will have on audiences makes it important to share.

Though it is unlikely that the restored version of the first Academy Award Winning Picture, WINGS, with Buddy Rogers, Clara Bow, Richard Arlen and a very young Gary Cooper will show up in your local movie palace, it needs commenting on. It’s been over 85 years since William A. Wellman directed this epic of the air. Most of us have seen clips from the film, perhaps in a Chuck Workman montage with Richard Arlen grimacing directly to camera as he bears down on the Heinies. This is to report that this silent film, though over two and a half hours long, with an intermission… takes us back to what a movie is supposed to do. It involves us emotionally, mentally and physically. The declamatory style of acting is what actors practiced in 1925. It’s broad, over the top and totally appropriate.

Clara Bow and Buddy Rogers were at the top of their game in silent films and hundreds of thousands of fans filled the movie houses to thrill to the story. Budgeted at two million dollars, it brought in over four million, a tidy sum in 1927. The story holds up beautifully. The enhanced sound effects, especially the dogfight sequences and battle scenes on the ground are truly amazing. In a day with no green screen nor rear screen projection, Wellman mounted cameras on the bi-planes that the actors themselves literally flew. Bombing sequences were done in real time with real bombs. Thousands of U.S. troops were recruited to re-enact battle scenes which took Wellman and his crew to Texas to accommodate the use of battle gear and soldiers stationed at Camp Stanley in near by San Antonio.

John Stepan Zamecnik’s magnificent score was literally collected, researched, reassembled and restored by Paramount musicologist, Jeannie Gayle Pool. Contrary to information on the Internet, the collection of the original paper music restoration for WINGS was all due to the expert work of Pool. In their introduction to the film, Paramount officials acknowledged the music, having Zamecnik’s family rise for acknowledgement.However, they opted to not mention Dr. Pool nor acknowledge the many members of the orchestra in attendance who recorded the score.

To see the film projected, fully restored, featuring a full orchestra was a unique moment in cinema. As the credits rolled, I searched for Dr. Pool’s name along with the credits for every musician in the orchestra and was disappointed that she was not credited there.

WINGS will be released on Blu-Ray. However, any opportunity to see the it in a real theater with a great sound system will deliver the goods and then some. The Academy’s first Best Picture holds up in every way. Applause to Paramount for dedicating itself to the preservation of this beautiful film.

Michael Sheehan

NOISES OFF! PARTY ON!!

The new space that is almost paid for created by A Noise Within Theatre Company was shaking with laughter, literally, this weekend. A love letter review will follow with kudos to ANW for transplanting the rickety set and the rollicking performances from the old Glendale space to the new theater. A pitch was made for donors who may have the desire to fund a seat for a donation of $2,500 to pay down the remaining half million that the Company hopes to eliminate in the next three years.


Jill Hill and Stephen Rockwell in Noises Off! Photo Credit Craig Schwartz

Sadly, Noises Off! closes on January 15, 2012.

Here is my actual review. Michael Sheehan

Noises Off! Party On!!

The beauty of writing what I want to write is that when a show as entertaining and professionally presented as is Noises Off (through January 15^th at A Noise Within in Pasadena) in this brief reincarnation, I can rave about the acting, the writing, the production values, the costumes, (not to mention the lovely set pieces donated to ANW by a friend) and the way a matinee audience explodes with appreciation as this charming cast of players: Shaun Anthony, Apollo Dukakis, Geoff Elliott, Jill Hill, Mikael Salazar, Lenne Klingaman, Emily Kosloski, Stephen Rockwell, and Deborah Strang, cavorts for three amazing acts that rival anything you’ll see at the big houses in town or in New York or London, though I’ve never actually seen the show done anywhere else, so I’m spoiled with the way that Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and co-director Geoff Elliott guide their ship away from rocks, reefs and rough seas, sailing in smoother waters, this errant “British company” of players who, after a tense final rehearsal, which may be a tech or a dress or just a panic before opening night, launch into a voyage filled with sardines, grimaces and doors, doors, doors opening and closing with imprecise precision, locked and blocked and otherwise the fodder of what Moliere would agree most certainly is the heart of farce: as Lloyd Dallas, director of Nothing On, the play within Noises Off, well ranted by Geoff Elliott, announces in the depth of his frustration that this play, funded by-the-by by Dotty Otley (again, triumphant Deborah Strang) is simply put, just about doors and sardines, of which Dotty has an intimate knowledge and that “Looks and gestures is what acting is all about!” encouraging his cast to get on with it while one or another of them asks questions about motivation that anyone who has ever been in a play has asked and probably been answered that maybe just pretending and getting the job done is our objective now and that question should have been asked in the first rehearsal, not the night… well, the morning, now, before the show must go on because that’s what show folk do, they make the show go on and with the carryings on of the assistant stage manager, Poppy Norton-Taylor limned to a fine finish by Lenne Klingaman with whom Dallas may have had an intimate interlude as well as with the blonde bombshell, Vicki, played by Brooke Ashton, brilliantly bouncing down the stairs in her garters or suspenders or whatever you call that sexy thing that holds ones stockings up, Emily Kosloski (which for the gentlemen in our audience, makes the whole three acts certainly exciting and worth the price of admission alone); Act II back stage presents mayhem with jealous abandon, missed understandings and missing actors, which in Act III, as the show playing on the road winds up in the British hinterlands, brings us not one, not two but three burglars crashing through the window, nose bleeds, and of course, several courses of, dare I say… yes, my mountain flower… yes… sardines.

Noises Off by Michael Frayn

A Noise Within

3352 East Foothill

Pasadena, CA 91107

Through January 15, 2012

Tickets and Information

www.anoisewithin.org

626-356-3100

$46.00 top

"THE SHERMAN SHOW"

Michael Sherman is an old actor pal who has made a living in every form of show business for the past sixty or seventy years. Well.. for a long time! He's been an actor, a balloon animal clown and a Friendly Santa

Michael's doing a matinee, evidently undaunted by superstition, on Friday the Thirteenth at One PM at the Fairfax Senior Center. Free Coffee and Donuts for Members, but I'm sure that Michael will make a good deal for non - members.

One Show Only 1/13/12 1PM
Fairfax Senior Center
7929 Melrose
Hollywood

Baby Doll at the Lillian

L to R: Dave Metz, Jacque Lynn Colton, Tony Gatto.

There's a whole lot of acting going on in The Elephant Theatre production of Baby Doll. With accents so thick you can cut them with a knife, the ensemble at The Lillian takes its work very seriously. They combine Williams’s pithy one act, 27 Wagon Loads of Cotton and Elia Kazan’s award winning film Baby Doll, blending them into an acting exercise. It looks as though the cast is having a good time. The work is consistent, with dancing cotton pickers and cotton pickin' dancers, all painted in broad strokes. It takes almost two hours to unfold.

This is not to say it's a bad show. It is, after all, Tennessee Williams, but these folks are not the iconic characters whom we remember from Streetcar or The Glass Menagerie. Instead we are given, perhaps, Blanche DuBois as a child… in Blanche’s imagination and Stanley Kowalski long gone to seed and nefarious deeds in The Deep South: Tiger Tail, Mississippi.

Archie Lee Meighan (powerful Tony Gatto) rants from the git go in sweaty anticipation of consummating his marriage to sweet cheeks and lovely Baby Doll:  Lulu Brud.    Brud, is a near personification of Carol Baker in the title role of Kazan’s film. Baby Doll’s twentieth birthday is imminent and she’s promised to give it up to Archie Lee the day she actually turns twenty. 

 At rise we meet the wonderful Jacque Lynn Colton as Aunt Rose Comfort whose hearing is failing. Just why she puts up with so much crap from Archie Lee is a mystery. She feeds the chickens. She cleans and cooks for Archie and Baby Doll while living in the virtually empty haunted house, evidently unpaid.

Enter another accent from Sicilian Silva Vacarro (sinewy, man  in black, Ronnie Marmo) who suspects Archie Lee as the arsonist who has burned his cotton gin to the ground. Vacarro’s gin has basically put Archie’s gin out of business and because Silva is a foreigner, he is held in contempt by the locals. The sensuality of other Williams’s characters is evident, but more as two dimensional cut outs rather than the complicated icons in Williams’s plays.

The up side is that director/set designer Joel Daavid has created a beautifully utilitarian multifunctional set, including a floating ceiling where “run away - come hither” Baby Doll escapes from Vacarro even though she can’t play hide and seek because she is “not athletic.” Well executed  lights by Daavid and Matt Richter’s sound, with the assistance of the director’s dedicated ensemble, almost become an additional character in the play.

Briefly, a live fiddle appears and accentuates the show, but recorded guitar score by Nick Block almost overwhelms. The music could have been even more effective with a live guitarist on stage.

Baby Doll by Tennessee Williams

An Elephant Theatre Production

Lillian Theatre

1076 Lillian Way

Hollywood, CA 90038

Tickets and Information:

ElephantTheatreCompany.com

323 960 4420

Friday and Saturday at 8PM

Sunday at 7PM

$25 top

Desire Under the Elms at ANW

Photo Credit: Craig Schwartz
L to R: Monette Magrath, Jason Dechrt, William Dennis Hunt

In the description of the set for Desire Under the Elms, Eugene O’Neill describes the scene poetically: "...a farm house needing paint with two huge elm trees framing it. They bend their trailing branches down over the roof… to protect and at the same time subdue… like exhausted women resting their sagging breasts and hands and hair on its roof…” Doesn’t sound like a lot of laughs.

Written in 1920, when O’Neill was just 36 years of age, this modern tragedy echoes the classic Greek drama Phaedra. A seasoned theatre scholar once told me that everyone cribs from time to time. O’Neill’s effort is, indeed tragic and rambles its way to a sad conclusion.

The tyrannical Ephraim Cabot (William Dennis Hunt) shows the power of age and religious conviction. He has ruled his domain, a hard scrabble New England farm, for fifty years. Ephraim’s stern exterior, a reflection of his stony soul rules with an iron fist. Jason Dechert plays Eben, a clever and on again, off again fellow with confused emotions and a plan to keep the farm for himself.

At rise, Ephraim has abandoned the family farm leaving his two sons, Simeon and Peter, (Christopher Fairbanks and Stephen Rockwell) from his first marriage and his son by his second wife, Eben. Eben persuades the brothers hit the trail for the Gold Fields of California by buying out the brothers’ shares and sending them on their way. Suddenly, Ephraim returns, having married the young and beautiful Abbie (Monette Magrath), who in a confusing love/hate beginning falls for Eben and under the influence and elms, is impregnated by him. A son is born and Ephraim is allowed to believe the child is his, becoming his heir to the farm. Adultery evolves to an even darker hue. The desire of the flesh and the avarice that turns men… and women into lustful greedy people foments into loss for all involved: a tragedy in the classical sense.

Andre Balogh, the Fiddler, beautifully enhances the scene changes with his own minor key melancholies that emphasize the great acoustics of the new performance space.

Director Damaso Rodriguez has cast the play well, though the revelations at the close of the piece are somewhat confusing with a split focus that might be difficult to puzzle out at first.

John Iacovilli’s two level set echoes the hard existence as described by O’Neill. Clever lighting by James P. Taylor works beautifully.

DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS

By Eugene O’Neill

A Noise Within

3352 East Foothill Boulevard

Pasadena, CA 91107

In Repertory through December 18, 2011

Tickets and Information

626 356-3500 ext. 1

www. A NoiseWithin . org

A NEW NOISE AT A NOISE WITHIN PASADENA

Debra Strang and Apollo Dukakis Photo by Craig Schwartz

TWELFTH NIGHT.. or What you Will by William Shakespeare

Richard Boone is possibly best remembered for his TV western, Have Gun, Will Travel. It told the story of a fast gun for hire in the early American West. Later, The Richard Boone Show set out of do a somewhat radical approach to television using a company of actors in repertory, featuring Mr. Boone acting and directing in a variety of roles that stretched their artistic abilities, allowing the television audience to enjoy familiar faces in a variety of roles from week to week. It was a noble effort and as we got to know the actors, including Ford Rainey and Harry Morgan, it was a pleasure to welcome them into our homes.

It is that familiar feeling that blossoms as we settle into A Noise Within Theater’s brand new space in Pasadena. It feels right to see Geoff Elliott (ridiculously silly Malvolio), Debra Strang (apt and sexy Maria), Apollo Dukakis (bawdy and then some Sir Toby Belch) and Robertson Dean as Orsino mount this stage, in this great new venue, having such a very good time. After nineteen years at their Masonic Lodge location, it became obvious to the Elliotts and the company that Glendale was not going to make any effort to keep the company there. Fortunately, more welcoming arms were outstretched in Pasadena. Mayor Bill Bogaard welcomed attendees as an unofficial greeter as we filed into the theater. The feeling of support not only for A Noise Within, but for the spirit of Art filled the auditorium.

Before their first official performance, ANW co-founder, Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, held forth to welcome the invited audience Home to ANW and The Redmond Stage, named for Charles Redmond, VP of the Times-Mirror and chair of the ANW board for many years. She thanked the assembled supporters of more than 300 as they rose to their feet to inaugurate the space with its first standing ovation.

Having rushed from a screening of ANONYMOUS (the new Roland Emmerich film) to make the early six o’clock curtain of Twelfth Night, I had had a taste of the play presented briefly in the film: the final scene where Sebastian and Viola reunite. Director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott’s take on the show was miles from the traditional sixteenth century presentation. She sets the scene in 1950’s Cuba with colorful rhumba and mambo dancers affecting the storm that blew the twins, Sebastian (Max Rosenak) and Viola ( Angela Gulner) asunder. The strong presence of Afro-Cuban influence erupts with Anthony Mark Barrow’s interpretation of Feste, the Fool in his prologue and through the play. It’s pre-Castro with cigars and rum in abundance. Also notable are Abby Craden as Olivia, sexy in polka dots and Steve Weingartner as Antonio.

Inventive use of machetes in the opening number with un-credited choreography, probably by director Rodriguez-Elliott sets the tone for the remainder of the play: fast paced and true to the letter of the author (I still think Shakespeare wrote everything he’s been credited with!!).

Keeping the thrust stage the company used in the former space, Kurt Boetcher’s simple sets transition quickly and smoothly with a feeling that may echo presentations at The Globe itself. Dedicated to the classics, Twelfth Night is a fine choice with which to open the new theater. With the exception of a couple of unsure soldiers, the cast delivers the show beautifully to life, bringing the audience to its feet once more as a final dance number somewhat confused the curtain call.

It’s a short walk from the Gold Line Parking to the theater. Consider taking the train and tell your friends that Shakespeare (or the Earl of Oxford?) is alive and well in Pasadena. Congratulations to the Company as this new venture becomes another bright jewel in the Crown City of California.

TWELFTH NIGHT

By William Shakespeare

A Noise Within

3352 E. Foothill Blvd.

Pasadena, CA 91107

Through December 16^th, 2011 in repertory

Tickets and Information: 626 356 3100

Visit www . ANoiseWithin . org

$42.00 Top

HOUSE OF GOLD (an anatomy) / Ensemble Studio Theatre

It’s a fine line between what could almost be a simple narrative and the psychedelic trip currently on hand at the Atwater Village Theatre. House of Gold, playwright Gregory Moss’s surrealistic examination of the odd world of the Ramsey family of Boulder, Colorado may be searching for answers or, perhaps, the play is like a Magritte painting, leaving discovery to the beholder. The ‘fine line’ becomes a tightrope for Jacqueline Wright as JonBenet upon which to balance. For an adult to play a child is a challenge because the line between ‘playing at’ and becoming the character fluxuates unless there is a believable commitment to finding the truth of the child. This holds true for Wright as well as Alex Davis as Jasper, JonBenet’s put upon childhood pal (or is he her brother?) Their performances are mostly consistent as the story unfolds. However, accepting adults in the role of children is a stretch. Of course, what the Ramseys did to JonBenet was to manipulate her into the role of an adult, probably to allow the mother, (an excellent Denise Crosby as Woman), to live vicariously through her pretty little six year old daughter.

The opening scene exposes the strained relationship between the Woman and the Man (Tony Pasqualini)/the Father as she serves up sausages made from JonBenet. Director Gates McFadden (artistic director of Ensemble Theatre/LA) has woven together the disparate aspects of this odd piece nicely. Notwithstanding the disjointed and highly physical interstitials of the four buff Apollonian Boys (Chris Arvan, Josh Heine, Matt Little and Eric Schulman) who gang up to plague Jasper, the dreamlike quality of the piece is augmented by a very innovative use of ET/LA’s basic black box. With the audience seated at just the north and west walls of the space, the scenes change seamlessly. Kurt Boetcher’s bare bones set featuring rolling screens and set pieces provide for innovative videos by Alexander Mirecki throughout the play. Like the play itself, the set, populated with impressive video screens and psychedelic artwork covering the floor are augmented by William H. Parks’ projections and Drew Christie’s animations.

Any surrealist work of art is open for interpretation. Certainly, House of Gold is deliberately thought provoking in this regard. In the fifteen years since the tragic death of JonBenet, no one has been brought to trial for her murder. The introduction of a very creepy guy, Joe (Graham Sibley), (who may echo Jasper as an adult?) may be a suspect, but clearly, the real culprit in the sad demise of JonBenet’s spirit is The Woman who browbeats the little girl into submission to present herself as a sexy six year old.

A disparate detour from the story (perhaps a nod to Arthur Kopit?) involves JonBenet’s visit to Grandpop (Melvin Weiss) who seems to be stored in the attic. He may be her refuge or even a fantasy in the midst of her father’s advances and her mother’s manic goal of making her daughter a beauty queen. Keith Arthur Bolden rounds out the cast as the detective and the coroner.

The beauty of McFadden’s and her professional crew’s efforts for this production and the other shows I’ve seen at the Atwater Village Theatre is that they spend the energy and truly invest talent and cash to commit fully to the edgy and innovative productions they opt to mount. This is disturbing material and though not always clear as to the argument of the story, the actors and the tech work beautifully together to fulfill the director’s vision.

House of Gold by Gregory Moss

Ensemble Studio Theatre / LA

Atwater Village Theatre

3269 Casitas Avenue

Awater Village, CA 90039

Runs through December 4, 2011

Tickets and Information

323 644 1929

ensemblestudiotheatrela.org

PEACE IN OUR TIME / ANTEAUS

PEACE IN OUR TIME / ANTEAUS

Anteaus’s current offering adapted by Barry Creyton from Noel Coward’s somewhat obscure drama is directed smoothly by Casey Stangl. Curtain speech by the co-directors of Anteaus mention that it is the goal of the company to not only present important and classical theatre, but to create a space for the next generation of classically trained actors for the American Stage. A noble calling, indeed. The professional presentation runs for more than two hours with an intermission.

Stangl keeps the story moving apace as it examines what life in London might have been like had the Nazis invaded and held the city during WWII. Interesting video montages separate the scenes with stock footage manipulated to show Trafalger Square and Nelson’s Column surrounded by legions of German troops with the King and Queen on hand.

There is a contract that, though unwritten, between any theatrical presentation and its audience that relies on the abandonment of disbelief ; allowing the work of the play to become more a reality than simply an evening’s entertainment. I must admit that I have a prejudice in this regard and though Anteaus productions adhere closely to maintaining the reality of their shows, in this one, the first appearance of one of those phony plastic cigarettes, frankly, bounced me wholly out of the play. Certainly, the folks in London in the forties and around the world used tobacco all the time. It may be important to the argument of the script, but, to me, it was just silly. A London pub not filled with smoke was okay, but to fake the tobacco did not make sense to me.

It’s hard to get back to the contract when the agreement is broken. The second breech of contract comes with the brilliant video montages that separate the scenes and announce the passage of time. John Apicella’s projections would have worked beautifully, had it not been for the literal explosion of over amped sound effects that accompany the images. At least one other patron literally pressed her fingers into her ears to shut out the abusive volume. Theatre of Cruelty may be okay for Artaud and in other circumstances, totally called for. However, this story, though filled with palpable tension and effective brutality, is not served by the assault that the opening night audience was subjected to.

Stangl’s ability to hone his cast to a single unit, especially as he is directing essentially two separate shows is professional. The choice to insert some of Coward’s music accompanied by Richard Levinson’s live piano in the pub is an effective one. There are stand outs in the company. Steve Hofvendahl as the pub owner, Fred Shattock, holds the cast together beautifully. Because the cast is huge and references to the character names come infrequently, a strong nod to the raven haired chanteuse is in order as well as to Shattock’s wife, Nora, played by Lily Knight. This is an ensemble piece and notwithstanding the blatant distractions noted above, if one is a fan of Antaeus and owns earplugs, it may be worth a trip to NoHo for the show. It’s a long one. The British accents are acceptable to each Brit. Not so much for the Germans and one Austrian.

Peace in Our Time by Noel Coward

The Antaeus Company @ Deaf West Theatre

5112 Lankershim Blvd.

NoHo 91601

October 20 through December 11, 2011

$34 top

Tickets: 818 506 1983

www.Antaeus.org

IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE! ANTAEUS READING

Some theatre and literature is so vital that it cannot be denied. Antaeus Theatre Company dedicates itself to meaty stuff and this reading is one that should be heard, the novel read or the play presented. Unfortunately, Antaeus will do this reading only one time, but I hope they will consider mounting it or at least extending the readings to otherwise dark nights at Deaf West. Sinclair Lewis's novel was adapted into a play for the Federal Theatre in 1936. This reading commemorates the 75th anniversary of the production of the play. From Lucy Pollak, the following information:

WHAT:
Antaeus presents a reading of It Can’t Happen Here as part of a nation-wide effort to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Federal Theatre’s production in 1936. The dramatization of Sinclair Lewis’ satirical novel imagines an America overtaken by Fascism, tying in with the current Antaues production of Noël Coward’s Peace In Our Time which poses a similar question: what if the Nazis had successfully invaded and occupied Britain?

WHO:
Written by by Sinclair Lewis and John C. Moffitt
Directed by Gigi Birmingham
Featuring John Achorn, Daniel Blinkoff, Avery Clyde, Kevin Daniels, Jeff Doba, Robert Goldsby, Arye Gross, Shannon Holt, Adrian Latourelle, William Mitchell, Angela Paton, Nicholas Podany, Joseph Ruskin, James Sutorius, Jason Thomas, and the voice of Dakin Matthews

WHEN:
Wednesday, Oct 26 @ 8 pm

WHERE:
THE ANTAEUS COMPANY@ Deaf West Theatre
5112 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood CA 91601
(one block south of Magnolia; free parking available in Citibank lot on Lankershim Blvd. South of Otsego St.)

HOW:
(818) 506-1983 or www.Antaeus.org

TICKETS:
Free (donations accepted)

More good news

One of the best things about this opportunity to share information about theatre in Los Angeles and environs is that I get to be objective and subjective at the same time. The handful of theatres who invite us to see their shows are generally professional in their approach and quality.

With the opening of their new ten million dollar plus theatre, A Noise Within Theatre Company has just announced their premiere Pasadena season. The Elliotts have taken the concept of "My uncle has a barn!" and "I can get some lights, let's put on a show!" to new heights. They deserve an audience. Though, once word gets out, tickets may be a challenge to obtain.

Check the ANW website for the upcoming season and ... if you are a fan of farce, check your supply of Depends and do not fail to see Noises Off revived in January in the new ANW space!

They open soon with Twelfth Night. Play on!

http://www.anoisewithin.org/theplays.html

GOOD NEWS!!

If you have not made it down to the Fountain Theater to see Bakersfield Mist, the good news is that it's been extended for the third time and for art aficianados and fans of fine acting and a good script, you have until December 18th to see Jenny O'Hara and Nick Ullett bringing home yeoman's work. Stephen Sachs' script and his fluid direction bring his show to life. It's a tour de force for the actors. The audience can't help but have great time. Thought provoking and funny.

Google Bakersfield Mist / Fountain Theatre for details or page back to my review here. Don't miss this one!!

ANW OPEN HOUSE OCTOBER 23, 2011

A NOISE WITHIN, Pasadena's brand new theatre complex, will host an Open House on Sunday, October 23, 2011 from 1 to 4PM. Glendale's favorite arts venue is almost ready to bring Classic Theatre back to the boards. Seeing the space should be a unique pleasure for aficianados of Theatre with a capital "T."

Reservations are a must.

A NOISE WITHIN is located on the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Sierra Madre Villa Avenue at 3352 East Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107. Free self parking is located in the Sierra Madre Villa Metro parking structure, with entrances on northbound Sierra Madre Villa Avenue or North Halsted Street. The Open House is free, but reservations are required and may be made by calling (626) 356-3127. www.ANoiseWithin.org.

The Encyclopedia of Hallucinations La Luz de Jesus Gallery

If you have not visited Billy Shire's La Luz de Jesus / Wacko / Soap Plant Gallery on Hollywood Boulevard, you are missing out on a piece of Hollywood history. Originally on Melrose in the heart of hip and happening, the gallery moved to East Hollywood (just east of Vermont) bringing the feeling of Melrose to the neighborhood. The area is burgeoning with 21st century boutiques and venues.

The current show in the Gallery features the art of Rob Reger and his gal pal, Emily the Strange. Emily, for those who may not have heard, is a darkly "tween" who brooks no fools nor posers. Now a world wide phenomenon, Rob's original artwork featuring Emily and many images of kitties, is exciting collectors.

The show next door features outsider artists presented by Gordon W. Bailey including south eastern US artists including the raw emotion of Sam Doyle.

Included in the gallery with Rob's paintings are weird little critters "Misfits of the Forest" by Lauren Gardiner.

The amazing inventory of the space is worth the trip alone. Say hello to Matt Kennedy, the gallery director and tell him OnStageLosAngeles sent you. Gallery owner, Billy Shire is hard to miss. His championing of new art should be applauded.

Show closes on October 3, 2011. Parking is tough on the weekends, but not impossible.

http://www.laluzdejesus.com/shows/2011/September_2011.html

http://www.emilystrange.com/blog/index.cfm/2011/8/31/Rob-Reger-Art-Show-The-Encyclopedia-of-Hallucinations-La-Luz-de-Jesus-Gallery

DRAMA WEST FEST: Play Readings by the Seat of Their Pants!

DRAMA WEST FEST

Good news for Silverlake locals and fans of new theatre. In a funky little community meeting room at the Edendale Library at Sunset and Alvarado, theatre by the seat of its pants is burgeoning.

Every other month Catherine Stanley, producer and Hettie Lynne Hurtes, casting director, present a handful of very short plays in staged readings. This kind of theatre is vital to the community as it gives playwrights, actors and directors an opportunity to toss ideas into the air just to hear them on their feet. Or to see if they might fly?

Playing to a packed house (over fifty in attendance) Saturday’s performances included six clever pieces that showcased six playwrights and a healthy company of players and directors. Also included was a well written and produced short film, "Misusing Irony."

Play readings were climaxed by Mary Steelsmith’s “The Miraculous Day Quartet,” a chilling recounting of four diverse characters all somehow not where they should have been on September 11^th 2001. Presented in a somewhat Beckettian manner conducted by a maestro with a baton, director Susan Stangl brought the piece in nicely.

Steelsmith has been writing plays for over thirty years and it was a pleasure to see her and remembering her one act, “WACs in Khaki” which we produced at The Company Theatre in 1981!

Playwrights, directors and actors are solicited for the Drama West Fest at the Edendale. Pieces should be no longer than ten minutes and may be presented as a staged reading. This is truly theatre by the seat of its pants.

Next readings will be presented around the last Saturday in October.

For more information producer Catherine Staley may be reached at dramawest@cox.net.

Virtual Realty Comes to the Stage

“You are Dead. You are Here.” is a theatre piece in progress written by playwright Christine Evans collaborating with University of North Carolina director Joseph Megel. Story turns on actual therapy currently being developed along with a program called Virtual Iraq that literally takes Post Traumatic Stress Disorder patients back to the scene of the crime: war torn Iraq, to help them confront the issues brought on by the tragedy of being in war.

Presented at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies, a beautiful complex in Playa Vista, Evans’ play will eventually be mounted using Virtual Reality programs currently in development at the ICT. Today’s reading featured Media design by Jared Mezzochi which incorporated projections including Skype images as well as use of the current Virtual Iraq program.

Essentially, a trained psychologist sits with a young African American soldier who has reluctantly agreed to “give a shot” at what he expects to be a virtual reality game. The depths to which the therapist and the client must delve unfold readily with examples of the new technology being used with actual patients who are suffering from PTSD. As in any good story an additional element is brought in to add to the mystery of the play. Apologies to the excellent actors whose names I neglected to take down.

It was noted that not everyone thinks that having PTSD patients wading back into their traumatic situations via Virtual Iraq is a good idea. The results in the real world remain to be tallied.

The evolving use of New Media in theatre is on the cutting edge thanks to the collaboration with USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies.

Thanks to Joseph Megel, Christine Evans and Jared Mezzochi and their cast of three who are opening not only these new techniques to the stage, but helping to defuse the stigma of seeking treatment for trauma experienced by the fighting men and women of the United States.

Please check the attached video for the results of the work in a reading at UNC in May, 2011.

http://vimeo.com/23592174

Free Theatah!

For those of you who listen to KPCC, Hettie Lynne Hurtes and friends produce readings of original One Act Plays at the Edendale Library (Alvarado and Sunset) this Saturday, August 27, 2011 at 2PM. Free Parking behind the library.

Drama West this SATURDAY!!!

Location: Edendale Library Sunset at Alvalrado

Time: ‎2:00PM Saturday, August 27th