Brian Slaten News

The Final Weekend of Chalk Repertory Theatre's fourth biennial FLASH Festival concludes with a new slate of five short plays. Fifteen Los Angeles playwrights were invited to create original 10-minute plays inspired by the space in which they are performed. This year's Chalk RepFLASH Festival is in residence at Los Angeles' St. John's Cathedral with plays written on the timely theme of Religion and Politics, performed by 15 teams of Actors and directed by 15 directors, presented on-site over three weekends, October 6-22, 2016, where five of the short plays are performed each weekend.

Ed and his three adult sons have gotten together to celebrate Christmas. They enjoy cheerful trash-talking, brotherly pranks and takeout Chinese, but find themselves confronting a problem that even being a happy family can't solve when youngest brother Matt seems upset about something he cannot share with his family. Their unconditional love is what matters when identity and privilege are problematic, for what is the value of being a straight white man if you have no real purpose or goals in life?

STRAIGHT WHITE MEN written and directed by Young Jean Lee, opened last Sunday, November 22 at 6:30 p.m. at the Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre. The West Coast premiere of the production, presented in collaboration with Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, will run through December 20, 2015. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivities below!

Young Jean Lee's STRAIGHT WHITE MEN will have its West Coast premiere November 20 - December 20, 2015, at the Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre, directed by Lee and presented in collaboration with the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA. The first U.S. performances of the play since The Public Theater presented its New York premiere last fall will feature a cast of Frank Boyd, Richard Riehle, Brian Slaten and Gary Wilmes.

STRAIGHT WHITE MEN written and directed by Young Jean Lee, opens this Sunday, November 22 at 6:30 p.m. at the Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre. The West Coast premiere of the production, presented in collaboration with Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, will have two previews on Friday, November 20 and Saturday, November 21 at 8 p.m. and will run through December 20, 2015. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the company in rehearsal below!

Young Jean Lee's STRAIGHT WHITE MEN will have its West Coast premiere November 20 - December 20, 2015, at the Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre, directed by Lee and presented in collaboration with the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA. The first U.S. performances of the play since The Public Theater presented its New York premiere last fall will feature a cast of Frank Boyd, Richard Riehle, Brian Slaten and Gary Wilmes.

Just in to BroadwayWorld! Martin Sherman's BENT, a groundbreaking drama about the rare power of love in the most inhumane conditions, will be directed by Moisés Kaufman, began previews on July 15 and opens July 26 for a run through August 23, 2015, at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. BroadwayWorld has a stunning first look at highlights below!

Martin Sherman's BENT, a groundbreaking drama about the rare power of love in the most inhumane conditions, opened at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum last Sunday, July 26, 2015. Directed by Moises Kaufman, performances for BENT will continue through August 23.  Let's see what the critics had to say...

Martin Sherman's 'Bent,' a groundbreaking drama about the rare power of love in the most inhumane conditions, opened on July 26 at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. Directed by Moises Kaufman, performances for 'Bent' will continue through August 23. (Previews started on July 15.) Check out a behind-the-scenes look below!

When Bent first premiered in 1979 its persecution of gays in Nazi Germany was a real eye opener. This was before the onset of AIDS...in the first scene, the depiction of Max's (Patrick Heusinger)one night stand and his gay relationship with a dancer could have been taken right out of contemporary West Hollywood were it not for the fact that we are told up front that the play takes place in 1934-36. The violence against gays that follows is staggering and horrifying. Deep down we knew that being homosexual had built-in problems and tensions, but did we really think about it so seriously? Did we really know how ugly it all was back then? And what about now? In spite of marriage equality in the US, in Kenya and in other areas of the world, the struggle for sexual freedom unbelievably goes on...to this very day. In a rare revival, Moises Kaufman brilliantly directs this new production of Bent at the Mark Taper Forum, and you'd be a fool to miss it. The cast is extraordinary, and Martin Sherman's poignant lyricism is simultaneously funny, touching and thoroughly riveting from moment to moment.

Martin Sherman's 'Bent,' a groundbreaking drama about the rare power of love in the most inhumane conditions, opened last night, July 26 at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. Directed by Moises Kaufman, performances for 'Bent' will continue through August 23. (Previews started on July 15.) Check out a look inside opening night below!

Martin Sherman's "Bent," a groundbreaking drama about the rare power of love in the most inhumane conditions, will open at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum next Sunday, July 26 at 7 p.m. Directed by Moises Kaufman, performances for "Bent" will continue through August 23.

Martin Sherman's BENT, a groundbreaking drama about the rare power of love in the most inhumane conditions, will be directed by Moises Kaufman, began previews on July 15 and opens July 26 for a run through August 23, 2015, at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. BroadwayWorld has a stunning first look at the actors onstage below!

Get a sneak peek of an edgy new production of BENT!

Martin Sherman's BENT, a groundbreaking drama about the rare power of love in the most inhumane conditions, will be directed by Moises Kaufman, beginning previews tomorrow, July 15, and opening July 26 for a run through August 23, 2015, at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. Check out a first look at rehearsals below!

Martin Sherman's BENT, a groundbreaking drama about the rare power of love in the most inhumane conditions, will be directed by Moises Kaufman, beginning previews tomorrow, July 15, and opening July 26 for a run through August 23, 2015, at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. Below, watch Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters) sing 'Streets of Berlin,' a song he wrote and performs in the play!

Rehearsals have begun for Martin Sherman's 'Bent,' a groundbreaking drama about the rare power of love in the most inhumane conditions. Directed by Moise?s Kaufman, previews for 'Bent' begin July 15 and opening is set for July 26. Performances continue through August 23, 2015, at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum.

The William Andrews Clark Memorial Library is located in the historic West Adams District of Los Angeles and houses the pre-eminent collection of Oscar Wilde materials in the world, including a typed copy of "Lady Windermere's Fan" with Wilde's handwritten notes from 1892, the year this comedy of manners was first produced. Thus it is the perfect site for Wilde's brilliant examination of status, family values, gossip and loyalty, presented by Chalk Rep..

Back by popular demand after sold-out houses last summer, Chalk Repertory Theatre, the Los Angeles-based production company that is a leader "in the growing conversation about the shape of immersive theatre," will re-mount Oscar Wilde's LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN at UCLA's William Andrews Clark Memorial Library in in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles this summer for 5 performances.

Chalk Repertory Theatre has created a very intimate way to experience the show, setting it in the backhouse of a Beverlywood area home transforming it into May's 1980s hotel room as she attempts to untangle herself from Eddie on the night their hearts reach their breaking points. With only 20 audience members at each performance, you can't help but be drawn into the story and characters since you are sitting in the hotel room with them, watching them run in and out of the room, slamming doors, hiding in the bathroom, drinking, and of course wrestling on the floor right at your feet.