Gregg Lawrence

Pacific Opera Project (POP) announces an interactive watch party of a rebroadcast of POP's hit production of Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio from The Ford Amphitheatre, recorded in September of 2016, on Wednesday, April 8, 2020 at 5pm PT.

With the current theatre world on hiatus, I have created a Spotlight Series on Broadway World Los Angeles which features interviews with some of the many talented artists who make our Los Angeles theatre community so exciting and vibrant thanks to their ongoing contribution to keeping the arts alive in the City of the Angels. And like all of us, how are they dealing with the abrupt end of productions in which they were involved? This Spotlight focuses on Gregg Lawrence, a versatile actor who commands the stage as larger-than-life, fully-embodied characters.

Anyone following today's ever-present and socially-challenging political scene via news outlets will certainly appreciate the humor and biting commentary in Larry Shue's comedy THE FOREIGNER. From its setting in rural Georgia with individuals who appear to be living in a social world hundreds of years in the past, to the danger of racial and religious prejudice those people promote as being the right way for people to live, there may be times now when many can just shake their head at the nonsense - or, hopefully, admit it is time to take a different message out in the world ourselves.

Larry Shue's side-splitting comedy about small towns and mistaken identity takes the stage in Little Fish Theatre's production of The Foreigner directed by LFT Company Member David Graham.  Winner of two Obie Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards as Best New American Play and Best Off-Broadway Production, The Foreigner is a melee of misunderstanding and mischief.

Perhaps you are one of those people who cringe at opera's lengthy runtimes, rambling plot lines, and the need to read English subtitles rather than pay attention to the overall magnificent scenes being paraded before you. Then again, perhaps you are among the select group of aficionados who relish the pomp and splendor created by opera singers whose voices reach to the heavens while performing in the popular operas of Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini, Wagner, and Verdi. Certainly the four characters in Ronald Harwood's play QUARTET count themselves among not only the greatest operatic performers but also as some of the greatest fans of the genre to ever tread the boards in their glory days.

The return of one of opera's brightest stars upsets the equilibrium at a home for retired singers in Quartet, Little Fish Theatre's second show of its 2018 season. Written by Academy Award-winner Ronald Harwood and directed by Little Fish Theatre Company Member Margaret Schugt, Quartet is a funny and poignant play that is sure to strike chords in audiences of all ages.

Members of the 'Pro99' movement of Actors' Equity Association have issued an open letter to AEA's newly elected president, Kate Shindle, in response to her victory and to her inaugural address as president of the national union for actors and stage managers. The open letter is signed by over 400 Equity members (listed below), including such notable names as Ed Asner, Francis Fisher, Sally Kirkland and Alfred Molina. The 'Pro99' movement formed in late 2014 in opposition to AEA's rollout of a new plan that will effectively force 'intimate theaters' in Los Angeles to pay Equity actors minimum wage, go 'non-union' or even close - despite an overwhelming vote against the plan by 66% of the Los Angeles membership on an advisory referendum. 'Pro99' members around the nation, who take their name from the current AEA '99 Seat Plan' that allows members to volunteer in smaller venues, oppose AEA's new promulgated plan. They are requesting that Equity leadership put a moratorium on the plan until local members' voices can be heard, and that the union work with its members to develop an alternative plan that will more realistically address the needs of the Los Angeles theater community.

Pacific Opera Project boldly goes where no opera company has gone before in a Star Trek-themed production of ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO: POP puts their zany spin on Mozart's kidnapping caper by setting it in space... the final frontier. Klingons, slave girls, and all your favorite characters from the original Star Trek series sing and dance their way through Abduction accompanied by a spectacular 27-piece orchestra conducted by POP co-founder Stephen Karr. The new English libretto, written by artistic director Josh Shaw who also directs the POP production, takes the action from an 18th century harem in Turkey and places it Stardate 14-20.27 on the hereto unexplored planet M113.

Directed with a keen vision by Alistair Hunter and featuring talented actors Gil Hagen-Hill, Daniel Houston-Davila, Belinda Howell, Susan Kussman and Gregg Lawrence, BRECHT ON BRECHT will take you on an extraordinary journey via a multimedia revue focusing on the work of the prolific playwright, poet, lyricist, screenwriter, and theatre director Bertolt Brecht. This is thought-provoking theater at its best.