Ellen Dostal - Page 12

Los Angeles Drama Club jumps into the controversy about rewriting Shakespeare for modern audiences in UNSPOKEN: SHAKESPEARE'S PERSONAE IN PERIL. Part II of a trilogy exploring what has become a sore subject among Shakespeare circles, it takes a strong stand and presents persuasive food for thought in this year's Hollywood Fringe Festival.

Shakespeare by way of Gilligan's Island with a cast of hammy knuckleheads is what you'll get in Fiona Austin's TITUS SHARKDRONICUS. There isn't a serious bone in this fish tale's body so leave your sophistication at the door and prepare for an hour of melodrama loosely based on the plot of Titus Andronicus, but with the addition of sharks as Tamora's sons.

The last place you'd expect to find a ballerina is in the middle of the desert; in a bustling city center full of people to fill an audience, yes, but in Death Valley Junction population less than 20? No, in this cultural hot spot, art is found in the shifting sands and sunset-washed mountains where colors and textures create breathtaking views for but a moment and then are gone.

FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its successful Broadway run in an out-and-out stellar revival at Ebony Repertory Theatre in Los Angeles. It's the summer party you don't want to miss!

Before Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty teamed up for iconic works like Ragtime, Once on this Island, and their current Broadway hit Anastasia,they wrote a crazy little musical called LUCKY STIFF. It was their first collaboration and, though it never made it to Broadway, it won the pair a Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre and launched a 30-year partnership that has helped shape the genre ever since.

LEAR'S SHADOW, a new play by Shakespeare Ensemble Theater Artistic Director, Brian Elerding, is a sensitive exploration of theatre's transformative ability to heal, even under the most devastating of circumstances. Using passages from King Lear as a tool within a contemporary storyline, it takes a thoughtful and surprisingly candid approach to the subject of loss.

Nearly a hundred years after Aline Barnsdall first envisioned an artist colony on Olive Hill in the middle of Hollywood, the public will have a rare opportunity to experience her dream come to life. Beginning May 6th, Hollyhock House, in partnership with Circle X Theatre Co. and J.U.S.T. Toys Productions, presents the Maria Irene Fornes play FEFU AND HER FRIENDS staged as an immersive theatrical event inside Hollyhock House. It is a first for this historical beauty and an exciting project that unites the past and present in more ways than one.

BELLA GAIA - A Poetic Vision of Earth From Space is a multi-dimensional musical and visual concert experience created by Kenji Williams that emotionally reconnects us - to each other and to our planet - by offering an extraordinary view of earth as one people, one world.

Elysium Conservatory Theatre has thrown everything but the kitchen sink into its latest production of Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET, the first in their brand new space in downtown San Pedro.

It takes a village to create a new musical. And it takes a village like A LITTLE NEW MUSIC to give musical theatre writers a place to showcase new material while their Broadway-hopeful shows are in development. Meet Peter Welkin, Christopher Maikish, Luke Klipp, Amy Francis Schott, and Kila Packett from A LITTLE NEW MUSIC.

Celebrate Earth Day and Shakespeare's Birthday by taking a road trip up to Yosemite National Park for a unique presentation that celebrates both on April 22 & 23.

It used to be true that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But not anymore. For the next five weeks, LA audiences will get a taste of Sin City right here in our own backyard, thanks to Spiegelworld's in-your-face adult-only production, ABSINTHE LA.

There's not a chance in hell that an audience member could fail to be engaged in Not Man Apart Physical Theatre Ensemble's latest new work, PARADISE LOST: RECLAIMING DESTINY. The company has found a tantalizing niche with its athletically rich dance, movement & sensory exploration of stories that literally leap off the stage into the stratosphere. This latest production pushes that unique concept to new heights as it invokes the mighty forces of good and evil in a struggle of epic proportions.

If Dorothy in THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ had run away from home and found this traveling circus instead of Professor Marvel and his crystal ball, she might never have gotten swept up in a twister and landed in Munchkinland. Instead, she might have become part of a new family, the kind that traveled the dust bowl in the early part of the twentieth century and instilled a sense of wonder in every child who was lucky enough to hear that the circus was coming to town.

Pulling double duty as both playwright and star, Dan Castellaneta portrays Oscar Levant in his latest new work, FOR PIANO AND HARPO. Levant was a concert pianist, and contemporary of George Gershwin, whose genius gave him entree into the glittering worlds of classical music, Broadway, and Hollywood but whose private demons ultimately undermined his career. The play explores Levant's addictions and mental health issues while committed to a Mt. Sinai psych ward in 1956, on the Jack Paar Show in 1962, and during an extended stay at the home of his friend, Harpo Marx, in 1935.

Heads up singers - want to win tickets to see Fun Home at the Ahmanson? Center Theatre Group is holding a cool choir competition in conjunction with the upcoming national tour of Fun Home, which begins performances at the Ahmanson Theatre on February 21st!

Jason Robert Brown's THE LAST FIVE YEARS is the kind of musical you often find produced in small theaters and black boxes. Written for a cast of two, it can be done very simply without much in the way of a set or props making it a popular choice for those with a limited budget or other technical constraints.

Love transcends the limitations of language in Casa 0101's charming production of Disney's ALADDIN Dual Language Edition/Edicion De Lenguaje Dual and that uplifting message is a takeaway that never loses its luster. The simple story of Aladdin (Daniel Martinez) and his magic lamp overcoming the villainous Jafar (Omar Mata), with the help of a jovial Genie (Lewis Powell III) and his loyal pet monkey (Sebastian Gonzalez), has become a family favorite thanks to the popularity of Disney's 1992 animated film.

Composer Christopher Reiner serves up a sixty-minute set of original songs and prose selections at ZJU Theatre Group that demonstrates the unique range of programming found at Zombie Joe's North Hollywood establishment. The company's niche is live horror and they have gained tremendous popularity with productions like their URBAN DEATH series and other renegade theatre pieces that deliver a purposely disquieting 'underground' take on the world. But ZJU also produces a wide variety of other theatrical offerings including Shakespeare, musicals, and even family theatre under its Limecat banner.

Not since 1950 have audiences in L.A. been able to see a live professional performance of Kurt Weill's musical masterpiece LOST IN THE STARS. That changes this month when the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, led by Music Director Jeffrey Kahane, presents a brand new production in partnership with CAP UCLA. Set during the era of South African apartheid, the devastating tale of a black minister whose son accidentally kills a white neighbor's son explores racial inequalities and the courage it takes to forgive when faced with an impossible moral dilemma.