Montae Russell News

The African Diasporic Network has finally announced plans for its first production, Echoes of Us, to be directed by none other than Michele Shay. 

You can't beat City Hall, but you can try. In this 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy-drama by Stephen Adly Guirgis, ex-cop and recent widower Walter 'Pops' Washington has made a home for his newly paroled son in his sprawling, rent-controlled New York City apartment on Riverside Drive. But now the NYPD is demanding his signature to close an outstanding lawsuit, the landlord wants him out, the liquor store is closed, and the church is on his back - leaving Pops somewhere between Riverside... and crazy.

BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY, which makes its Los Angeles debut at The Fountain Theatre, is a hard-hitting drama about wanderers, those unattached, ungrounded people who lack the support to make smart choices, but still deserve grace and hope. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2015, the play features all that one expects from playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis: incisive dialogue, complex characterizations and relationships that are unique but also relatable. The cast and director Guillermo Cienfuegos serve the play well.

You can't beat City Hall… but you can try. The Fountain Theatre presents the Los Angeles premiere of the fearless, hilarious Pulitzer Prize, New York Drama Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel award-winning comedy-drama, Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis. Guillermo Cienfuegos directs for an Oct. 19 opening, with performances continuing through Dec. 15. Pay-what-you-want previews begin Oct. 16.

You can't beat City Halla?? but you can try. The Fountain Theatre presents the Los Angeles premiere of the fearless, hilarious Pulitzer Prize, New York Drama Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel award-winning comedy-drama, Between Riverside and Crazy byStephen Adly Guirgis.Guillermo Cienfuegos directs for an Oct. 19 opening, with performances continuing through Dec. 15. Pay-what-you-want previews begin Oct. 16.

Digital arts journal Stage Raw announces the nominees for its fifth annual Stage Raw Theater Awards, to be held Monday night September 9, 2019, at Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring Street. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets will go on sale Wednesday August 7, 2019. The Stage Raw Theater Awards honor the finest work performed on Los Angeles area stages of 99-seats or fewer, and are selected by a jury of Stage Raw critics. This year's awards celebrate work performed between June 1, 2018 and May 31, 2019.

The 2018 Stage Raw Theater Awards celebrate excellence on the Los Angeles stages in venues of 99-seats or under. This fourth annual edition included productions that opened between January 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018. Stage Raw is a community funded professional journalism website that was created in response to the decline of arts coverage in local mainstream and alternative media.The Awards ceremony was held Monday night, August 20, at Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles, hosted by Coeurage Theatre Company, and co-directed by Jer Adrianne Lelliott, Thaddeus Shafer and Lauren Ludwig. Winners notated in red below.

The 2018 Stage Raw Theater Awards celebrate excellence on the Los Angeles stages in venues of 99-seats or under. This fourth annual edition includes productions that opened between January 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018.

The 2018 Stage Raw Theater Awards celebrate excellence on the Los Angeles stages in venues of 99-seats or under. This fourth annual edition includes productions that opened between January 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018.

A little bit of King Hedley's ambition might have rubbed off on television actress turned theatrical producer Sophina Brown. Better known as Nikki Betancourt from CBS's hit NUMB3RS, Brown has delved into the Los Angeles 99-seat theatre scene with the goal of producing all ten of August Wilson's plays in the Century Cycle. First up -- KING HEDLEY II, which opened last Thursday at the Matrix Theatre in West Hollywood.

Actress and producer Sophina Brown is on a mission to bring the wonderful work of August Wilson to the Los Angeles community. Her goal is to produce August Wilson's American Century Cycle in Los Angeles in its entirety. What begin as a group of actors meeting up to read August Wilson plays at her house, has evolved into the first production.

Coming off the heels of another politically-charged play ALL THE WAY that they presented last month, Orange County's Tony Award-winning regional theater South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa is following up that searing drama with a staging of a brand new production of playwright Aaron Posner's DISTRICT MERCHANTS, a clever, thoughtful, and occasionally humorous re-imagining of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. This time around, the play-a self-aware comedic drama set during America's post-Civil War Reconstruction era-continues performances through October 23, 2016.

Local Playwright Willard Manus' Joe & Marilyn: A Love Story, a new play about the troubled relationship between baseball great Joe DiMaggio and Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe, debuts this Saturday, April 23rd at 8:00 pm, runs April 23 - May 22, produced by John Lant and Anne Mesa, directed by T.J. Castronovo and starring Rico Simonini and Emily Alicia Low, produced by Write Act Rep@TheBrickhouse Theatre in North Hollywood. The play was developed at the Actors Studio Playwrights/Directors Unit (West Coast), where Manus and Castronovo are fellow-members. He shared with us a bit about the play and quite a bit about his life.

The NAACP Beverly Hills/Hollywood Branch's Theatre Viewing Committee announces nominations for the 25th Annual NAACP Theatre Awards. The awards include 32 categories, which encompass local and equity nominations. Winners will be announced in the first quarter of 2016.

Charlie 'Bird' Parker's belief that "music is like a fire to warm your hands on" and a "joyful noise" is currently being celebrated in BIRD LIVES! at the Chromolume Theatre at the Attic starring Montae Russell as the jazz icon. Written by Willard Manus and directed by Tommy Hicks, the play continues with a strictly limited engagement through September 21 only.

Chromolume Theatre has announced Bird Lives! as its next production, opening on Friday, August 15 at 8pm. Written by Willard Manus and directed by Tommy Hicks, Bird Lives! will star Montae Russell as jazz icon Charlie Parker in this solo play with music. Parker, a legendary saxophone virtuoso, ushered in a new era of jazz by pioneering bebop and influencing subsequent generations of musicians. Bird Lives! will play a strictly limited engagement through September 21 only.

Florida Studio Theatre will welcome Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Gilbert King for a discussion of his book Devil in the Grove, and its relation to the themes present in the production of THURGOOD. As an addition to FST's panel discussions, it will take place tonight, February 26 from 5:30-6:45pm in the Keating Theatre.

Florida Studio Theatre will welcome Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Gilbert King for a discussion of his book Devil in the Grove, and its relation to the themes present in the production of THURGOOD. As an addition to FST's panel discussions, it will take place on February 26 from 5:30-6:45pm in the Keating Theatre.

Due to popular demand, Florida Studio Theatre announces the extensions of THE PRIMA DONNETTES, developed by Richard Hopkins and Jim Prosser with special assistance by Rebecca Hopkins and THURGOOD, by George Stevens, Jr.