Garry Lennon News

With panache and pedal-to-the-metal intensity, Molly Smith Metzler's culture clash comedy-of-bad-manners, ELEMENO PEA, squares off two sisters with a wealthy employer, unleashing a succession of secrets in a brutal dissection of significant moments and how they can launch or derail a life. Unfolding in real time, this hearty class system stew transitions fluidly from hilarity to poignancy and offers an amusing morality tale about the compromising consequences of money's seductive power. Mark Valdez (Learn to Be Latina) returns to Mixed Blood to direct the regional premiere, which opens February 22 and runs through March 17, 2013 at Mixed Blood's historic firehouse theatre on the West Bank, 1501 S. Fourth St. in Minneapolis.

What revels are in hand in Griffith Park this summer? An abundance of mirth, merriment, mischief, and magic, all part of Independent Shakespeare Co.'s 2012 summer of Free Shakespeare.

GRIFFITH PARK FREE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL 2012, the largest summer theater event in the City of Los Angeles, began its performances June 28 and runs Thursdays through Sundays at 7 p.m. through to September 2. All Performances are free. A Midsummer Night's Dream opens tonight, July 5.

GRIFFITH PARK FREE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL 2012, the largest summer theater event in the City of Los Angeles, begins its performances June 28 and runs Thursdays through Sundays at 7 p.m. through to September 2. All Performances are free.

GRIFFITH PARK FREE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL 2012, the largest summer theater event in the City of Los Angeles, begins its performances June 28. This year ISC is offering over 40 nights of programming. In addition to the productions, there are nine PLAYERS IN THE PARK/JUGAMOS EN EL PARQUE pre-show workshops on select evenings. These workshops are an interactive, entertaining way for families to learn about the evening's performance. There are also these are lectures on topics related to Shakespeare as well as curtain-raising performances by local musicians and dancers.

Growing up is hard to do-especially if you wake up one day with spots and a tail. In the season's final production of South Coast Repertory's Theatre for Young Audiences series, Jane of the Jungle, a world premiere musical from playwright Karen Zacarias and composer Deborah Wicks La Puma, tells the story of an average girl who is about to undergo some big changes. The show will run on the Julianne Argyros Stage from tonight May 25 - June 10.

Growing up is hard to do-especially if you wake up one day with spots and a tail. In the season's final production of South Coast Repertory's Theatre for Young Audiences series, Jane of the Jungle, a world premiere musical from playwright Karen Zacarias and composer Deborah Wicks La Puma, tells the story of an average girl who is about to undergo some big changes. The show will run on the Julianne Argyros Stage from May 25 - June 10.

The ISC Studio hosts its final workshop performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream tonight, May 5 at 5:00 pm at the Atwater Crossing Arts and Innovation Complex 3191 Casitas Ave, #168, Los Angeles, 90039.

The ISC Studio will host workshop performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream on Saturdays April 7, 14, 28 and May 5 at 5:00 pm at the Atwater Crossing Arts and Innovation Complex 3191 Casitas Ave, #168, Los Angeles, 90039.

GRIFFITH PARK FREE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL 2012, the largest summer theater event in the City of Los Angeles, begins its performances June 28 and runs Thursdays through Sundays at 7 p.m. through to September 2. All Performances are free.

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle's 43rd Annual Awards Show will take place on Monday, March 19, 2012 at A Noise Within in Pasadena. The show will feature performances from previously-announced hosts Jason Graae (recipient of the 2007 Joel Hirschhorn Award for outstanding achievement in musical theatre) and Lesli Margherita (nominee for Kiss Me, Kate). In addition, the Awards show will feature the Los Angeles premiere performance of My Husband, by Paul Rudnick, a short play added to the New York production of Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays. Also, Yvette Tucker and Salvatore Vasallo will perform an excerpt from "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue," from On Your Toes, choreographed by this year's Hirschhorn Award recipient, Lee Martino.

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle has announced its nominations and special awards for excellence in Los Angeles, Orange County and Ventura County theatre for the year 2011. The 43rd Annual Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards ceremony will take place on Monday, March 19, 2012 at A Noise Within, the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, in its new 33,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art venue in Pasadena, thanks to the generous donation of A Noise Within's management. The theatre is located on the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Sierra Madre Villa Avenue at 3352 East Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107. Tickets are $40, and should be reserved in advance from the LADCC's website, at www.ladramacriticscircle.com. The doors open at 6:30 p.m. for pre-show hors d'oeuvres (with no-host bar), and the show commences at 7:30 p.m.

Tanya Saracho's El Nogalar means The Pecan Orchard in English, so its similarity to Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard rings a bell even before one sees the play. There are differences between the two, of course. Saracho has taken out most of Chekhov's male characters and leaves but one: Lopez (Justin Huen) - Lopakhin in Cherry Orchard - the grandson of servants who has risen to sudden power and wealth through Mexico's drug cartel. It's not the Russian aristocratic middle class who have lost out to the rising lower class as in Chekhov, where the bank forecloses on the Ranevsky estate, but the Mexican drug dynasty that has contaminated all Mexican citizens, allowing the poor to usurp control and money - Saracho calls it new money, Facebook money. Now in a splendidly directed and acted production at the Fountain Theatre, this West Coast premiere sizzles with earthy passion and sensuality.

Nominees for the 2011 LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards were announced on the evening of Monday, September 19 at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank; the complete list of nominees is as follows.

Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate is a delightful musical romp that can be seen again and again. It's timeless and an overblown, yet joyous account of two egotistical actors, once married to each other, who adore one another but just cannot be around each other very long without catastrophic, calamitous results. It's also a play within a play, as Lilli Vanessi (Lesli Margherita) and Fred Graham (Tom Hewitt) are on tour essaying Katharine and Petruchio in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Above all, the silly contrived story is overshadowed by Cole Porter's divine score with some of the most glorious tunes ever composed. Kiss Me Kate is a showcase to Porter's genius. Reprise Theatre's current revival is devastatingly hilarious with top-notch direction from Michael Michetti and a magnificent cast.