Louis Baker News

Parson's Nose Theater (PNT), the acclaimed, Los Angeles' professional, classical comedy theater company, kicks off their 2018-19 season this weekend with "Mark Twain and Friends: A River Journey. This is an original play by Los Angeles playwright and actor, Greg White. The production is partly sponsored by the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Department. It begins the second season in their new home in Pasadena.

Parson's Nose Theater (PNT), the acclaimed, Los Angeles' professional, classical comedy theater company, kicks off their 2018-19 season with "Mark Twain and Friends: A River Journey. This is an original play by Los Angeles playwright and actor, Greg White. The production is partly sponsored by the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Department. It begins the second season in their new home, an intimate, historic chapel designed by esteemed Pasadena architects Marston and Van Pelt in 1911.

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum presents the first-ever revival of a historical melodrama about the Haitian revolution that graced the stage at New York's Lafayette Theatre in Harlem in 1938 as part of the Federal Theatre Project. Haiti by William DuBois will join Theatricum's summer repertory season beginning July 28. Performances will continue at Theatricum's beautiful outdoor venue in Topanga through Sept. 29.

This May four bands and artists from New Zealand will be making their way to the south of England to perform at the annual music festival, The Great Escape. This year Louis Baker, Delaney Davidson, Yukon Era and Teeks will be making the trip appearing at their own showcases as well as the 'NZ @ The Great Escape' day party which will be taking place on Thursday 18h of May, 12pm - 4pm at One Church, Gloucester Place.

This May four bands and artists from New Zealand will be making their way to the south of England to perform at the annual music festival, The Great Escape. This year Louis Baker, Delaney Davidson, Yukon Era and Teeks will be making the trip appearing at their own showcases as well as the 'NZ @ The Great Escape' day party which will be taking place on Thursday 18h of May, 12pm - 4pm at One Church, Gloucester Place.

Louis Baker has had a varied career in the entertainment world. As an actor, he studied under three prestigious performers: Bill Duke, Haile Gerima, and Debbie Allen. He has worked as a voiceover artist in the animation world, co-produces with his wife a family-centered web series called Faces of Offense, and has played a variety of roles on stage in shows such as Tommy, West Side Story, and The Wiz. But none of those parts are as meaningful to Louis as his current one - playing the historically-based author/orator Booker T. Washington in the Actors Repertory Theatre of Simi's production of Ragtime. The show closes this weekend, but we cornered Louis after last Sunday's performance to talk about his character in the context of the current political turmoil in America, which, unfortunately, is not that much different from what was depicted in E. L. Doctorow's famous novel.

The musical Ragtime, which plays through this Sunday, December 4, at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, is an important work that weaves actual historical personages into the fabric of its three intersecting stories: an upper-class white family, the African American ragtime pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr., and the Latvian immigrant Tateh. Two of the historical characters in the musical had profound impacts on American political history, which have heightened relevance due to the emotionally charged 2016 election, refocusing attention on matters of race, class, and immigration. This weekend, we interviewed the actors portraying anarchist Emma Goldman and educator/orator Booker T. Washington in the show, which will be featured in advance of this weekend's final performances of this essential work of musical theater.

RAGTIME: The Musical, currently being presented brilliantly by Actors' Repertory Theatre of Simi at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center through December 4, 2016, is set in the volatile melting pot of turn-of-the-century New York. Based on the classic E. L. Doctorow novel, featuring a Tony Award-winning book by Terrence McNally, RAGTIME weaves together three distinctly American tales -- that of a stifled suburban mother represented by Mother, the matriarch of a white upper-class family in New Rochelle, New York; Tateh, an inventive Jewish immigrant from Latvia; and Coalhouse Walker Jr., a daring young Harlem musician - all united by their courage, compassion and belief in the promise of the future in America at the turn of the 20th Century.

Richard (Rich) Baker, President of Fox Associates in St. Louis, will take the helm as President and Chief Executive Officer of Starlight Theatre Association beginning in March. Baker will oversee all of Starlight's operations and programming including the not-for-profit's Broadway and Concert series, extensive education programs, and all development activities for the 64 year-old performing arts organization.