Stage West News

What do the first race riot in Los Angeles and gay life in steamy New Orleans have in common? Each is the subject of a new play by Tom Jacobson, one of Los Angeles' most acclaimed and prolific playwrights. Circle X Theatre Co. presents Jacobson's The Chinese Massacre (Annotated), directed by Jeff Liu, opening April 22, and Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA presents House of the Rising Son, directed by Michael Michetti, opening April 23, both at the new Atwater Village Theatre where the two companies offer a joint season in 2011.

PHANTOM PROJECTS THEATRE GROUP, celebrating their 15th Anniversary Season and Toni Morrison's 80th Birthday, brings THE BLUEST EYE to Los Angeles.

The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center's production of the world premiere of The Sonneteer, the new play by award-winning playwright Nick Salamone, has been extended due to tremendous response from audiences and critics alike.

Asolo Repertory Theatre is thrilled to introduce Florida audiences to Las Meninas, by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage.

The First Annual STAND-UP 360TM COMEDY FESTIVAL will take to the stage in New York City from May 31 to June 4th 2011. The festival will capture the unmistakeable energy of a Live New York comedy presenting a line-up of top names from headliners to break-out stars.

Catalyst Collaborative@MIT, a science theater collaboration between MIT and Underground Railway Theater, presents Hugh Whitemore's BREAKING THE CODE, an elegant, deeply moving portrait of mathematician Alan Turning, played by Allyn Burrows and directed by Adam Zahler. The press performance is April 10, 2011 at 2PM.

Playwrights Horizons (Artistic Director, Tim Sanford; Managing Director, Leslie Marcus) and New York Theatre Workshop (Artistic Director, James C. Nicola; Managing Director, William Russo) have announced complete casting and creative team for THE SHAGGS: PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD, a new musical with book by Joy Gregory; music by Gunnar Madsen; lyrics by Ms. Gregory and Mr. Madsen; and story by Ms. Gregory, Mr. Madsen and John Langs.

Broadway and Off-Broadway producer Ken Davenport (author of the popular blog, The Producer's Perspective) will present Paul Gordon's Analog and Vinyl as the fifth selection in THE DAVENPORT DEVELOPMENTAL READING SERIES, for readings of new works (plays and/or musicals), on Monday, March 14th at the Davenport Studio (250 West 49th Street, Suite 302, NYC).

Dallas-Fort Worth arts organizations and cultural instituutions participating in the metroplex-wide Foote Festival have announced festival selections and events. The Foote Festival, March 14 - May 1, 2011, will celebrate the life and work of the late, award winning, Texas playwright Horton Foote (March 14, 1916 - Marc 4, 2009).

Annie Baker's 2010 OBIE-Award winner for Best New American Play, Circle Mirror Transformation, closes out Actors Theatre's 25th anniversary season from April 22 through May 8 on Stage West at The Herberger Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe. Called "absorbing, unblinking and sharply funny" by The New York Times and a "very compassionate and quite lovely new play from rising young scribe Annie Baker" by The Chicago Tribune, the play follows four students in a small-town Vermont acting class.

As two shows seen on its stage rock Broadway, one extends its stay off Broadway, and another just wrapped a local run that grabbed national headlines, Berkeley Repertory Theatre proudly announces a new year of exhilarating plays.

Broadway and Off-Broadway producer Ken Davenport (author of the popular blog, The Producer's Perspective) will present Paul Gordon's Analog and Vinyl as the fifth selection in THE DAVENPORT DEVELOPMENTAL READING SERIES, for readings of new works (plays and/or musicals), on Monday, March 14th at the Davenport Studio (250 West 49th Street, Suite 302, NYC).

Padua Playwrights presents the world premiere of DaddyO Dies Well, written and directed by legendary poet-playwright Murray Mednick. A deeply lyrical and darkly comic meditation on the sacred and profane that is the fifth installment in Mednick's eight-play 'Gary Plays' cycle, DaddyO Dies Well will run April 2 through May 22 at the Electric Lodge in Venice.

Donald Schaffer Management and Public Relations in association with Ward Morehouse III presents Kirsten Holly Smith Sings Dusty Springfield Friday, March 4, 2011 at 7:30pm at Joe's Pub

Josh Kornbluth, whose monologue style was shaped by his mentor and monologue pioneer Spalding Gray, will perform his first commissioned piece, Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews? from March 4-20 on Stage West at the Herberger Theatre.

Donald Schaffer Management and Public Relations in association with Ward Morehouse III presents Kirsten Holly Smith Sings Dusty Springfield Friday, March 4, 2011 at 7:30pm at Joe's Pub

It's the summer of 1929, and Myra Tolliver, a divorced woman, is struggling to raise her teenage son in the small town of Harrison, Texas. It's not been easy for her, but she's managed to get by. But now, everything around her is starting to change, in Horton Foote's Talking Pictures, beginning its run at Stage West on Thursday, March 10, as part of the area-wide Foote Festival.

The works of Jane Austen have been read and adapted for almost two hundred years, but no adaptation has been more popular or illuminating than the recent translation to the stage of Pride and Prejudice by Joseph Hanreddy and J.R. Sullivan. This version captures Austen's cleverness and fervor in the telling of this witty, elegant, sharply observed and richly rendered love story. Even the most cynical among us have trouble resisting this story's most satisfying resolution.

The Ovation award-winning Fountain Theatre ('Best Season, 2010') celebrates the centennial of Tennessee Williams' birth (March 26, 1911) with the West Coast premiere of his final play, by special permission of the Williams Estate. Simon Levy, just announced as the recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle's 2010 Milton Katselas Award for special achievement in directing, directs A House Not Meant to Stand, opening February 26 at The Fountain Theatre. Low-priced previews begin February 19.

Donald Schaffer Management and Public Relations in association with Ward Morehouse III presents Kirsten Holly Smith Sings Dusty Springfield Friday, March 4, 2011 at 7:30pm at Joe's Pub