Will Geer News

Stars & Shakespeare Celebrity guests join company members from Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum to read and perform selected scenes and monologues from Shakespeare's plays. Step into a world of Elizabethan delights with costumed characters, madrigal singers, festive libations and Shakespearean nibbles, and a silent auction featuring exclusive gifts, getaways and VIP experiences.

For its second play of Season 36, North Coast Rep is reviving John Steinbeck's classic drama novella-turned play, OF MICE AND MEN.

For its second play of Season 36, North Coast Rep is reviving John Steinbeck's classic drama novella-turned play, OF MICE AND MEN.

UD Rep Ensemble by and large stages classics: Shakespeare, Moliere, Bernard Shaw, Tennessee Williams, etc. Plays become classics due to their timeless quality and universal truths; truths that lived, for example, in Shakespeare's time as they do today. The immediacy of live theatre brings these principals to life before our eyes.

For its second play of Season 36, North Coast Rep is reviving John Steinbeck's classic drama novella-turned play, OF MICE AND MEN.

Acclaimed singer/songwriter and homegrown Topangan Inara George returns to Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum for her annual concert that benefits the theater's artistic and educational programming on Sunday, October 8 at 6 p.m.

After three sold-out, award-winning runs in international Fringe Festivals (New York City, Edinburgh, and Chicago), a critically-acclaimed Off-Broadway run, and a featured performance at the The Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska, Valerie Hager's autobiographical solo play about her years stripping in the Alaskan frontier will open at Bootleg Theater on Saturday, October 28 at 7:30 p.m.

TROUBLE IN MIND, the scathingly funny and thought-provoking backstage drama about interracial politics by pioneering African American playwright Alice Childress, is currently enjoying a brilliant revival at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum in Malibu thanks to director Ellen Geer's vision of the groundbreaking 1955 satire in which an integrated theater company in rehearsal for a “progressive” anti-lynching drama marks the first opportunity for gifted African American actress Willetta Mayer (portrayed by multiple NAACP Award-winner Earnestine Phillips who commands the stage) to play a leading lady on Broadway. This could be her dream come true, but what compromises must she make to succeed?

Botanicum Seedlings, the development series for playwrights at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum, has announced the recipient of the 7th annual "Izzy" Award for new plays. The winning play, Still Life by Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich, was presented during last year's Summer Playreadings. The Izzy is named for Theatricum's first dramaturg, Israel Baran, who passed away in 2007. To honor Israel's keen mind, sharp tongue, and ear for language (despite the fact that he was frustratingly deaf), the Izzy was established to recognize the Seedlings play that "speaks to us the loudest."

ANIMAL FARM, Orwell's brilliant political satire about the corrupting influence of power, charts the fall of idealism and the rise of tyranny after the animals of Manor Farm rise up against their oppressive human owner in a struggle for rights, equality, gaining the right to make their own choices on how to live their lives. Onstage, the story is read by two children, the girl (Sierra Rose Friday) and boy (Shane McDermott), keeping the audience informed as to the action taking place or what has gone on off stage leading to that particular scene. It all begins as the animals, led by Snowball, an idealistic pig (Christopher Yarrow), take over the farm from Mr. Jones (Steve Fisher). Their plan goes well at first; all the animals are equal and content. But eventually, several of the other pigs, led by Napoleon (Mark Lewis) and Squealer (Melora Marshall), yield to the lure of power and start to make decisions that serve their own interests best, eventually leading them to proclaim that some animals are more equal than others. The quote, 'absolute power corrupts absolutely,' certainly applies to Orwell's masterful work.

Trouble in Mind, the scathingly funny backstage drama about interracial politics by pioneering African American playwright Alice Childress, will get a revival at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum beginning July 29.

Interview with Executive Producers Joey Maya Safchik, Chandler David, Judy Durkin, and Charlotte Weinman of DOG SEES GOD at The Blank Theater

Botanicum Seedlings: A Development Series for Playwrights - This summer, Seedlings augments the Theatricum Botanicum summer season with free readings of two new plays. Both Stop-Motion by Liz Kerin (on Sunday, Aug. 20) and The Orange Garden by Joanna Garner (on Sunday, Aug. 27) explore how choices compelled by extraordinary circumstances can lead us into unknown territory. Admission is free.

North Coast Repertory Theatre closes Season 35 with the San Diego premiere of AT THIS EVENING'S PERFORMANCE, an uproarious comedy about a bohemian theatre troupe appearing in an Eastern European police state.

The manicured life of a conservative actor-turned-politician and his impeccable wife is upset when relatives arrive at their Palm Springs home for the holidays - including politically liberal daughter Brooke, who's about to publish a tell-all memoir. Mary Jo DuPrey directs Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities, opening July 8 at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum.

Trouble in Mind, the scathingly funny backstage drama about interracial politics by pioneering African American playwright Alice Childress, will get a revival at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum beginning July 29.

Old-fashioned Family Barn Dance and Barbeque  - Celebrate the 4th at Theatricum with a family hoe-down. Activities include live music, a barn dance, pie-eating contest, watermelon seed-spitting contest, cake walk, horseshoes, relay races, dunk bucket, family games and more. Barbeque and fixin's, beer and wine available for purchase. Folk and country fun!

North Coast Repertory Theatre closes Season 35 with the San Diego premiere of AT THIS EVENING'S PERFORMANCE, an uproarious comedy about a bohemian theatre troupe appearing in an Eastern European police state.

The manicured life of a conservative actor-turned-politician and his impeccable wife is upset when relatives arrive at their Palm Springs home for the holidays - including politically liberal daughter Brooke, who's about to publish a tell-all memoir. Mary Jo DuPrey directs Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities, opening July 8 at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum.

Under the auspices of GRoW @ The Wallis, The Wallis Youth Theater Company presents its second theater production of the 2016-17 season, playwright Gareth Jandrell's Thebes, which makes its North American premiere on Saturday, June 10 at 8pm and Sunday, June 11 at 6pm at The Wallis in Beverly Hills. Ravaged by climate change and shaken by political turmoil, the citizens of Thebes must unite in order to revolutionize their democracy. From Oedipus to Antigone, the story of Thebes  remains a fascinating exploration of fate, morality and power, two and a half thousand years after the saga was originally written. Thebes is directed by Madeleine Dahm, with lighting design by Bosco Flanagan, recently named Lighting Designer of the Year by Los Angeles' Stage Raw. The cast includes young actors: Trecey Dory, Malakai Jones, Jayde Kief, Samantha Marino, Kelvin Morales, Jordan Rodriguez, Alexander Sheldon and Clementine Turner.