Michael Shepperd News

When a producer asks to see your musical…you need to be ready, right? But where are you going to go to find out everything you need to know before your musical is ready for production? Things like how to approach producers (and how NOT to), and collaboration agreements, contracts, pitfalls of marketing through social media, over-produced demos/under-produced demos…or the new exciting trends of multi-ethnic casting?

The early registration deadline for the sixth biennial Biz of the Musical Theatre Biz Conference is coming up on June 1.

When a producer asks to see your musical…you need to be ready, right? But where are you going to go to find out everything you need to know before your musical is ready for production? Things like how to approach producers (and how NOT to), and collaboration agreements, contracts, pitfalls of marketing through social media, over-produced demos/under-produced demos…or the new exciting trends of multi-ethnic casting?

Professional Los Angeles intimate theater companies and their friends sold out Los Angeles Theatre Center to support the second-ever STAGE RAW THEATRE AWARDS.  Picking up where the LA WEEKLY Awards left off, and hosted by the Independent Shakespeare Co. and Dr. Pinch and Pinchtones, the best of 99-seat theatre was celebrated in an exuberant and emotional evening that put a "Raw" spotlight on the year's best work.

The answer to last year's question of whether the digital arts venture STAGE RAW could bring back its awards ceremony celebrating the best of LA's up-to-99-seat theaters, the answer is YES. STAGE RAW is pleased to announce the SECOND ANNUAL STAGE RAW LOS ANGELES THEATER AWARDS, championing the best work of 2015 in L.A.'s still-embattled theaters of up to 99-seats.

Nominees for the 2015 LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards were announced on Thursday, September 24 on @ This Stage Magazine [ThisStage.la]. This year's Ovation Awards ceremony will take place Monday, November 9 at the Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center. The curtain will rise at7:30pm.

It's 1936; the golden age of Hollywood, and two rival movie studios are in a heated battle for survival when their opposing leading men fall in love. Reminiscent of screwball comedies of the past, this new musical takes place in a world of artifice, backstabbing, lavender weddings, double-crossing starlets, and a moral crusader from the Legion of Rectitude, making it increasingly more difficult for the leading men to hold on to the one real thing each has ever found. It's funny, charming, romantic, happily nostalgic, and very tuneful.

It's 1936; the golden age of Hollywood, and two rival movie studios are in a heated battle for survival when their opposing leading men fall in love. Reminiscent of screwball comedies of the past, this new musical takes place in a world of artifice, backstabbing, lavender weddings, double-crossing starlets, and a moral crusader from the Legion of Rectitude, making it increasingly more difficult for the leading men to hold on to the one real thing each has ever found. It's funny, charming, romantic, happily nostalgic, and very tuneful.

Due to high ticket demand, a second concert performance of Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera has been set for Wednesday, February 5 at 8pm at Hollywood's legendary King King Club. The February 4 & 5 concerts will take place just a few days before the start of the 2014 Olympics, which is also the 20th anniversary of the lead pipe assault heard 'round the world and their subsequent skate-off at the 1994 Winter Olympics. With libretto by Elizabeth Searle and music by Michael Teoli, the concert version of Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera will be choreographed and directed by NAACP and Ovation Award-winner Janet Roston. Produced by Los Angeles Rock Opera Company in association with HarborSide Films, proceeds from the two evenings will go to support Celebration Theatre. [For more info about Celebration, see page 2 of this release.]

A one-night-only concert performance of Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera has been set for Tuesday, February 4 at 8pm at Hollywood's legendary King King Club. The concert will take place just a few days before the start of the 2014 Olympics, which is also the 20th anniversary of the lead pipe assault heard 'round the world and their subsequent skate-off at the 1994 Winter Olympics. The librettist is Elizabeth Searle and music by Michael Teoli, the concert version of Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera will be choreographed and directed by NAACP and Ovation Award-winner Janet Roston. Proceeds from the evening will go to support Celebration Theatre.

The 24th Annual LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards, celebrating theatrical excellence and achievement during the 2013 season, were presented on Sunday, November 3 at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse Thirty-five awards were bestowed upon 13 different Southern California theatre companies. Leading the pack with 12 was Center Theatre Group (seven for The Nether at the Kirk Douglas Theatre; three for Joe Turner's Come and Gone at the Mark Taper Forum; one for The Scottsboro Boys at the Ahmanson Theatre; and one for The Royale at the Kirk Douglas Theatre). CTG was followed by 3-D Theatricals with five awards (four for Parade and one for Shrek the Musical). The Chance Theater and La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts took home three awards each (including Best Season for La Mirada); Circle X Theatre Company, the Fountain Theatre, and the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble tied with two each. Check out a look back at the red carpet arrivals, award ceremony, and more below!

Musical Theatre Guild, the winner of the Los Angles Drama Critic's Circle Margaret Harford Award for sustained excellence in the theatre, will present WONDERFUL TOWN, the inaugural performance of their 2013-2014 season at the Moss Theatre at New Roads School in Santa Monica. The one-night-only concert will take place on Sunday, November 17, 2013 at 7:00 pm.

Ipso Facto Theatricals celebrates Halloween and the talents of the L.A. theatre community in grand style with 'Halloween Hullaballoo,' conceived and directed by Kyle Nudo at King King Nightclub in Hollywood on Friday, October 25, 2013.

Now celebrating its 21st Anniversary, The Blank Theatre's Nationwide Young Playwrights Festival has chosen 12 plays by young playwrights aged 10 - 19, from six different states. These plays will be presented by professional actors and directors in this year's festival at The Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood, today, June 6 - 30.

I can't help but borrow from the genius of Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse when I affirm it was The Roar of Kritzerland, The Smell of the burgers at the Federal on Sunday May 5 - Cinco de Mayo, no less - as Kritzerland presented its 33rd show in its current home at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal, entitled Once in a Lifetime: The Songs of Anthony Newley & Leslie Bricusse. And it was a lollapalooza of an evening!

Now celebrating its 21st Anniversary, The Blank Theatre's Nationwide Young Playwrights Festival has chosen 12 plays by young playwrights aged 10 - 19, from six different states. These plays will be presented by professional actors and directors in this year's festival at The Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood, June 6 - 30.

Celebration Theatre announced today changes to their management team. Effective immediately, the Artistic Director position will be shared by the Ovation award-winning duo of Michael Matthews and Michael A. Shepperd. Both Matthews and Shepperd are former Artistic Directors of Celebration Theatre and are excited to be back to guide the theatre into it's thirty-first season and beyond.

The LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards, celebrating theatrical excellence and achievement during the 2012 season, were presented last night, November 12, at the Los Angeles Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. Scroll below for photos of hosts Jane Kaczmarek and Herbert Siguenza and the honorees!

The LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards, celebrating theatrical excellence and achievement during the 2012 season, were presented last night, November 12, at the Los Angeles Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. Scroll below for photos of the arrivals, featuring hosts Jane Kaczmarek and Herbert Siguenza, the honorees and more!

Nominees for the 2012 LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards were announced Tuesday evening at the Renberg Theatre inside the Gay and Lesbian Center in Los Angeles. The 2012 Ovation Awards ceremony will take place on Monday, November 12, at the historic Los Angeles Theatre, 615 South Broadway, in downtown Los Angeles at 7:30 pm. For more information, visit www.LASTAGEOvations.com.