Will Geer News

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum plans to carry on the tradition of outdoor summer repertory theater by returning to the stage in 2021.

Arts Midwest today announced the recipients of $1.17 million in Shakespeare in American Communities grants, with $1 million going to professional theater companies partnering with schools, and $170,000 going to organizations partnering with facilities in the juvenile justice system.

It's summer in L.A. and the theaters are closed. What's a Shakespeare lover to do? Well, artists continue to create in whatever way they can as they brainstorm plans for 2020 and beyond. We've heard from some of your favorite companies and here's the latest on cancellations and some of the inventive solutions meant to help you get your Bard on this season. Go see a showa??.online!

The Veterans Concert was held on November 9, 2019 in observance of Veterans Day Weekend at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum, an historic outdoor amphitheatre in Topanga Canyon, California.  The concert was presented by The Veterans National Entertainment Workshop, a nonprofit 501c3 organization that helps veterans cope with PTSD, substance abuse, homelessness and other challenges through music. 

There is no one in the tri-state region with more live theater experience than Bob Kelly, Artistic Director at Candlelight Dinner Theatre. Founded in 1969 by John and Lena O'Toole and Julian and Annabelle Borris, it quickly became a nexus for hundreds of aspiring actors, where all were inspired to self-invent and where ambition was oxygen.

With the current theatre world on hiatus, I have created a Spotlight Series on Broadway World which features interviews with some of the many talented artists who make our Los Angeles theatre community so exciting and vibrant thanks to their ongoing contribution to keeping the Arts alive in the City of the Angels. And just like all of us, I wondered how they are dealing with the abrupt end of productions in which they were involved. This Spotlight focuses on Ashley Griffin, an actor in Los Angeles since the age of five who moved to New York City to follow her theatre dreams - and is now both writing and acting in shows.

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle has announced the nominees for theatrical excellence for the year 2019. This year they are forgoing their annual event ceremony and will instead post the award recipients online in the upcoming weeks: 

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum has announced its annual summer line-up of theater, music and performance in its unique and stunning outdoor setting in Topanga.

Knot Free Productions presents In Trousers, a 'prequel' to William Finn's groundbreaking March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, directed by Ryan O'Connor.

Westside audiences are in for a treat. Last season's acclaimed, Ovation recommended production of The Gin Game, directed byChristian Lebano at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, will be re-staged outdoors atWill Geer's Theatricum Botanicum, with real life husband and wife teamAlan Blumenfeld andKatherine James reprising their roles. With Lebano again at the helm,performances of D.L Coburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning two-hander will run Aug. 17 through Sept. 29 in Theatricum's intimate S. Mark Taper Pavilion.

William Shakespeare's rollicking and ever-popular comedy of mistaken identity, TWELFTH NIGHT, brings its magical combination of mischief, madness and romance into the outdoor amphitheater at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum this summer where it plays in rep through September 28. Written in 1601 and first seen in the Inns of Court shortly after Christmas (hence, the title), the holiday was celebrated as a festival during which everything was made delightfully topsy-turvy, much like the world of the play's Illyria. And you could not ask for a more ideal cast of characters to bring The Bard's non-stop, high energy hijinks to life.

Last season's acclaimed, Ovation recommended production of The Gin Game, directed by Christian Lebano at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, will be re-staged outdoors at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum, with real life husband and wife team Alan Blumenfeld and Katherine James reprising their roles.

Botanicum Seedlings: A Development Series for Playwrights -Botanicum Seedlings augments Theatricum Botanicum's summer repertory season with free readings of two new plays about American families confronting their very particular legacies across generations. Readings take place under the oaks in Theatricum's intimate S. Mark Pavilion outdoor space in Topanga. Admission is free.

Two venerable Los Angeles intimate theaters will each host a Mueller Report Read-A-Thon, offering Angelenos the opportunity to hear the Mueller Report read aloud, in its entirety, on either side of the City. The Fountain Theatre in East Hollywood will host a single, 15-hour event on Thursday, July 18 from 9 a.m. to midnight. The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble in West L.A. will hold a separate marathon reading, breaking it up into two 8-hour sessions on Monday, July 22 and Tuesday, July 23, each from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Admission to both Read-A-thons is free and open to the public.

The Skin of Our Teeth, the Pulitzer Prize-winning tribute to the indestructibility of the human race by Thornton Wilder, opens on the beautiful outdoor stage at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum on Saturday,July 13, where performances continue through Sept. 29. 

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum continues its mission to resist and struggle against the forces of inequality and injustice by presenting socially conscious classics that speak to today. A new version of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, freely adapted by artistic director Ellen Geer and co-directed by Geer and Melora Marshall, joins Theatricum's 2019 summer repertory season beginning Saturday, June 22.

Actor Will Holbrook made a big splash as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet when he first arrived in Los Angeles in 2016 at the Archway Theatre Co. The grandson of Hal Holbrook, Will is ambitious with two plays scheduled to perform this summer and the presentation of his new production company dedicated to film. In our conversation, Will talks with candor and enthusiasm about his plans for this summer and beyond.

The Wallis Studio Ensemble's latest production THE HITCH-HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY will open at The Wallis June 6, 2019. Established in 2016 by theatre director and choreographer Madeleine Dahm, WSE (in partnership with GRoW @ The Wallis) strives to share the arts with audiences of all ages. One of WSE's four original company members Alexander Sheldon will be performing multiple roles onstage and off in HITCH-HIKER. Alexander made some time available to answer my queries between his never-ending multi-tasking for WSE.

Mischief, madness and romance are in the air this summer when Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum presents William Shakespeare's rollicking comedy, Twelfth Night, in its magical, outdoor Topanga amphitheater. Twelfth Night opens Theatricum's summer repertory season onSaturday, June 1 at 8 p.m., where performances will continue through Sept. 28.

A celebration of one of the greatest novels ever written and a triumph of theatrical imagination. Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum presents Moby Dick-Rehearsed by Orson Welles.