Ann Marie Wilding

Silent Sky, a play by Lauren Gunderson. will be presented by Sierra Madre Playhouse in a production directed by Barbara Schofield.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM is given a fresh spin by the Open Fist Theatre Company, changing the setting from Athens, Greece, to Athens, Georgia, in the antebellum South to mixed results.

Director/choreographer James Fowler has moved his Open Fist Theatre Company production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream from Athens, Greece to Athens, Georgia circa 1855, where Shakespeare’s text remains intact, but casting and design land us in the world of the Antebellum South.

Open Fist Theatre Company returns to live, in-person performance at Atwater Village Theatre with concurrent runs of two plays by celebrated Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor.

Perception is everything. Open Fist Theatre Company opens its 30th anniversary season with three programs of short works, performed in rotating repertory, by playwrights renowned for pushing the boundaries of theatrical invention. Rorschach Fest, featuring seminal work by John O'Keefe, Daniel MacIvor, Harold Pinter and Caryl Churchill, opened Feb. 14 at Atwater Village Theatre, where performances continue through April 5.

Perception is everything. Open Fist Theatre Company opens its 30th anniversary season with three programs of short works, performed in rotating repertory, by playwrights renowned for pushing the boundaries of theatrical invention. Rorshach Fest, featuring seminal work by John O'Keefe, Daniel MacIvor, Harold Pinter and Caryl Churchill, opens Feb. 14 at Atwater Village Theatre, where performances continue through April 5. Pay-What-You-Want previews begin Feb. 11.

The beautiful, rolling hills of Ireland hold many stories and secrets.Open Fist Theatre Company presents Dancing at Lughnasa by the great Irish playwright Brian Friel. Barbara Schofield directs Friel's Tony Award-winning masterpiece for a July 12 opening at Atwater Village Theatre, where performances will continue through Aug. 18. Pay-what-you-want previews begin July 6.

Open Fist Theatre Company presents Dancing at Lughnasa by the great Irish playwright Brian Friel. Barbara Schofield directs Friel's Tony Award-winning masterpiece for a July 12 opening at Atwater Village Theatre, where performances will continue through Aug. 18. Pay-what-you-want previews begin July 6.

The Bridge Initiative: Women in Theatre announces contest winners for their second Bechdel Test Fest to be presented at Tempe Center for the Arts, April 26th-28th. The contest received more than 100 eligible submissions from 19 states and the District of Columbia, as well as the U.K. and Canada. Over the course of six months, a team of professional theatre practitioners from both Arizona and across the country served as adjudicators. Every submission was scored anonymously, on criteria of originality, storytelling, dialogue, characters, an X factor ('I want to see this play'), and whether or not it satisfied the requirements of the Bechdel Test: two female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man.

Tennessee Williams published Summer and Smoke in 1948 and revised and rewrote it in 1964 as The Eccentricities of a Nightingale. Summer and Smoke is the popular, much revived version despite the fact Tennessee himself among many critics considered the second version to be the most lyrical representation of Miss Alma, the Spanish word for soul. In both plays singer/music teacher Alma Winemiller (Tara Battani), daughter of an Episcopalean minister (Jeffrey Markle), is passionately in love with her neighbor young Dr. John Buchanan (Gregory James) and when that love is gradually unrequited rather than become a miserable spinster, after a long struggle of illness and isolation, she turns to prostitution. In a handsome production of Summer and Smoke at Actors co-op, Williams' debate between the flesh and the spirit, body vs. soul, is still burning with poetic truth after almost 70 years.

Actors Co-op (Ovation Award-Winner 2014 Best Intimate Theatre Musical for 110 in the Shade) announces the third show in its 2015-2016 season (and 24th year of producing theatrical excellence in Los Angeles!) with Tennessee Williams masterpiece SUMMER AND SMOKE, directed by Thom Babbes.  SUMMER AND SMOKE will preview on Wednesday, March 2 and Thursday, March 3 at 8pm and will open on Friday, March 4 at 8pm and run through Sunday, April 17 at the Actors Co-op David Schall Theatre, 1760 N. Gower St. (on the campus of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood) in Hollywood. Scroll down to see photos from the production below!

Actors Co-op (Ovation Award-Winner 2014 Best Intimate Theatre Musical for 110 in the Shade) announces the third show in its 2015-2016 season (and 24th year of producing theatrical excellence in Los Angeles!) with Tennessee Williams masterpiece SUMMER AND SMOKE, directed by Thom Babbes.  SUMMER AND SMOKE will preview on Wednesday, March 2 and Thursday, March 3 at 8pm and will open on Friday, March 4 at 8pm and run through Sunday, April 17 at the Actors Co-op David Schall Theatre, 1760 N. Gower St. (on the campus of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood) in Hollywood.