Gloria Stroock

For the final entry of 2021 in its popular series of Monday Night Seminars, Theatre 40 will present a rehearsed reading via Zoom of a classic holiday tale, Beasley's Christmas Party.

On Saturday, December 21st at 2:30PM, Theatre Forty will present its Holiday Show. Professional actors will read seasonal poems, stories and essays from such authors as Ray Bradbury, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E.B. White and many others. Our readers include Katherine Henryk, Daniel Leslie, Melanie MacQueen, LeeAnne Rowe, and Gloria Stroock.

Following a highly successful inaugural year, the Live Love Thrive Women's Empowerment Conference kicked-off a second edition featuring expanded programming, including SHE Tank female entrepreneurs pitching female investors for funding, motivational speakers, and a panel featuring financial experts, alongside musical performances and short films about extraordinary women with inspiring stories. The Conference was held at the West Hollywood Library City Council Chambers and was presented and co-sponsored by the City of West Hollywood, the Women's Advisory Board and Honda of Downtown Los Angeles.

'Rise above it!' was a phrase used throughout Rose Kennedy's long life (1890-1995) to get her past the personal turmoil and tragedies that beset her and her large Irish clan. One question overheard by many in the audience on the opening night at Theatre 40 of Kathrine Bates' The Color of Rose was 'How could she stay with such an awful man for so many years?' Joe Kennedy had a reputation as a womanizer; he was also a manipulator of money and corporations, and an alcoholic to boot. But he was Irish Catholic. Rose Fitzgerald was also Irish Catholic, and Irish Catholic people in those days remained loyal to one another and by and large did not divorce. Divorce was rare. Rose's life was hardly a bed of roses, but she contented herself with her children's achievements and never said an unkind word in public about Joe's wrongdoings. That's the way it was, and in Bates' new play, Rose Kennedy receives a pure but totally human rendering as the icon of motherhood. She does regret never having attended Wellesley College, and of course, her rejection of daughter Kathleen who rebelled and married a Protestant, living her life in England until her untimely death in a plane crash. If only they had reconciled: it's not difficult to comprehend how a mother would feel about that or about poor daughter Rosemary, who had undergone a labotomy at the insistence of father Joe, who took medical advice as the best recourse. Again, it's Rose defending Joe's decisions and standing behind him 100%. It was her job as a dutiful wife, and she remained stalwart, as was expected of her.