Jacob Sidney News

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.

The title of Jacob Sidney's futuristic Hamlet refers to the Dane's dead father Maximus, a character who never appears live on stage but only materializes as part of Hillary Bauman's black & white anime projections on a screen behind the actors. The audience sees the ghost fade in and out behind them while a mirthless Hamlet peers out over the audience and responds to his father somewhere out in the empty wasteland beyond us

Jacob Sidney takes Shakespeare's Hamlet and turns it into HAMLET MAX for the Hollywood Fringe Festival, setting the production in a post-apocalyptic dystopian future that allows for a freer style of interpretation.

In 2012, Viola Davis and her husband Julius Tennon founded a multi-ethnic production company, JuVee Productions, committed to excellence in film, television, and theater. JuVee's first stage production is the multi-NAACP Theater Award winning show, CAMP LOGAN, which returned on January 25 and runs through March 23, 2014.

Shakespeare. It's not just for highbrows anymore. You can be sure of that when you see The Flynnsmen present Shakespeare's KING PHYCUS at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. What may have once scared off those less familiar with Shakespeare's plays for fear of not understanding the language is now made completely and hilariously accessible to everyone.

Playwrights Kaufman and Hart saw the vitality and urgency of comedy within drama when they penned You Can't Take It With You in 1936. It won a Pulitzer for Drama in 1937 and then a Best Picture Oscar for the film version in 1938. Their other big hit The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1939 has a similar theme and tone. In both plays it's wild, zany over-the-top characters and off-kilter incidents that blow the lid off the humdrum existence of the well to do middle class, and to meaningful avail. In Y.C.T.I.W.Y., the wealthy Kirbys are about as unlike the crazy free-living Sycamores as black is to white. Yet, when meshed together, merriment and unexpected happiness abound. With a spectacular cast (double) and brightly paced direction from Gigi Birmingham, Antaeus' Y.C.T.I.W.Y. is a splendid tonic for our depressing economic times and simply a whole lot of fun.

Find out who's really crazy when a couple of lovebirds bring their mismatched families together. The Antaeus Company, L.A.'s multiple award-winning classical theater company, presents You Can't Take It With You, the timeless comedy about love, life and living by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Gigi Bermingham directs the fully double cast production Oct. 18 through Dec. 9, with low-priced previews beginning Oct. 11.

The Theatre @ Boston Court and Furious Theatre Company present 'The Government Inspector," a World Premiere adaptation of Nikolai Gogol's "The Government Inspector" adapted by, and original songs by Oded Gross, directed by Stefan Novinksi. The play opens July 28 on the Main Stage at Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue.

The Theatre @ Boston Court and Theatre Movement Bazaar present 'The Treatment," a world premiere adaptation of Anton Chekhov's short story titled "Ward 6." The play is conceived by Richard Alger + Tina Kronis, written by Alger, directed and choreographed by Kronis. Opening night is Saturday, February 25, 2012 on the Main Stage at Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue.

The Theatre @ Boston Court and Theatre Movement Bazaar present 'The Treatment," a world premiere adaptation of Anton Chekhov's short story titled "Ward 6." The play is conceived by Richard Alger + Tina Kronis, written by Alger, directed and choreographed by Kronis. Opening night is Saturday, February 25, 2012 on the Main Stage at Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue.

'The Beastly Bombing', Julien Nitzberg and Roger Neill's Gilbert and Sullivan pastiche with modern themes, is the Very Model of Postmodern Operetta Plots.