Ellen Dostal - Page 6

If you were captivated by the film Hidden Figures and its story of the women known as 'human computers' who saved John Glenn's NASA space mission, get ready for Lauren Gunderson's play SILENT SKY, opening this month at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center.

ISC sets TWO GENTS in the 1950s, accompanied by a live band on stage playing an infectious rock 'n' roll score. Musical director Dave Beukers' arrangements are bright and sexy with a beat that's perfect for dancing (think Elvis Presley during his Sun Records days or Jerry Lee Lewis). It's a choice that admirably complements Shakespeare's early play - thought by many to be his first - and the erratic appetites of youth.

Every theatre production comes with its share of backstage drama. One Hit Wonderland, the Broadway musical comedy depicted in Gary De Leon and Greg Lisi's indie film OPENING NIGHT is no exception. Sex, drugs, and crazy characters collide in this rousing tongue-in-cheek comedy full of splashy production numbers and entertainment in-jokes. It's a movie for, and about, theatre people - their quirks, their insecurities, and above all, their passions.

Theatre Palisades Youth invites you to 'be their guest' for a special presentation of Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST JR. opening July 28th at Pierson Playhouse in Pacific Palisades. Forty members of the youth theatre group are getting ready to tell the tale of an adventurous young girl and a prince trapped under a spell who find that the power of love can overcome any evil. Director Lara Ganz helms the production and lets us in on the behind-the-scenes workings in this charming interview.

Our hearts go out to the members of Kingsmen Shakespeare Company who are mourning the unexpected death of John Slade. John was directing this summer's production of JULIUS CAESAR set to open July 21st. The show will go on with the festival's founder stepping in to bring his colleague's vision to the stage.

London Calling, The Clash's third album, is considered by many to be one of the band's greatest achievements. It is also the title of a musical that has been knocking around for the last decade, now being presented at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Using songs by The Clash, it is the story of four bandmates who share a dream of making it big. According to the program it is not based on The Clash's rise to fame but on the writers' own experiences of, 'A youth spent playing in bands, living in squats and pursuing dreams…'

What a difference one decision makes. Turn a corner, say hello, say nothing, leave - even the smallest of choices has the power to alter our future. In CONSTELLATIONS, Nick Payne's exquisite play for two, now on stage at Geffen Playhouse, we watch the various stages of a couple's relationship play out as a series of overlapping alternate realities.

I'm sorry if you missed Art-In-Relation's production of IT'S ONLY LIFE this past weekend because you missed hearing a remarkable musician play his own magnificent songs in a tiny 50-seat theater. To have that luxury is a rare occurrence, even for a city like Los Angeles. It was a breathtaking evening with the composer at the piano expressing, as only one who has written a song truly can, the most intimate nuances of a piece. For a lover of music, it was transcendent.

Set to an upbeat '80s-style pop rock score, TURBULENCE! is a screwball mash-up of Friday night SyFy comedy classics and Saturday morning cartoons with colorful characters and bright, energetic choreography. Two musical departures - a hokey country 'Hoedown Throwdown' style number (priceless) and a beautiful a cappella choral piece add variety. The friendly rough-and-tumble nature of the work is a good fit for those looking for an escape from the more cynical/slit-your-wrists drama one often finds at the Fringe. This is comical territory, bold and fun-loving. It won't tax any brain cells but the rowdy good time it delivers is all you need.

Unbound Productions producers Jonathan Josephson, Paul Millet and Jeff G. Rack have already proven they can create smart theatre based on classical literature. Their wildly popular Wicked Lit horror series at Mountain View Mausoleum has developed a loyal legion of fans who keep coming back year after year. Now they've taken their outdoor immersive theatre experience and expanded into the mystery genre, mounting their first major production under the moniker Mystery Lit with HOLMES, SHERLOCK AND THE CONSULTING DETECTIVE. Written by Josephson, directed by Millet, and designed by Rack, it combines three of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries into one epic whodunit.

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.