Chris Butler

After the excitement of the participatory pre-show, we are sat down in a hodgepodge of rickety, old chairs and spoon-fed a mediocre staging of The Tempest. The whole evening takes on a feeling that Beil warns against in her program note; the immersive elements become a gimmick, a brief reward for taking our medicine.

As a fan of Shakespeare and immersive theatre productions, I was intrigued when I heard that The Shakespeare Center LA and After Hours Theatre Company were set to present the premiere of The Tempest: An Immersive Experience, a fully reimagined audience-participation performance based on William Shakespeare's tale of family members caught up in a storm and shipwrecked on an isolated Mediterranean island. So I decided to speak with the production's director Ben Donenberg, Shakespeare Center LA Artistic Director, Graham Wetterhahn, the Producing Artistic Director at After Hours Theatre Company, and Sara Beil one of the producers for After Hours who created the immersive design, about their vision for an immersive way to include audience members in the experience of Shakespeare's tempestuous play.

Ensemble Theatre Company (ETC) presents the fourth show of its 2022-23 Season, Michael Butler, Linda Purl and Nancy Travis starring in the London and Broadway hit, THE CHILDREN,written by Lucy Kirkwood and directed by Jenny Sullivan. 

The Shakespeare Center LA and After Hours Theatre Company announce the premiere of The Tempest: An Immersive Experience, a fully reimagined immersive performance based on William Shakespeare's The Tempest.  The director is Ben Donenberg, Shakespeare Center LA Artistic Director; Graham Wetterhahn is the Producing Artistic Director at After Hours Theatre Company. 

The 49th London International Festival of Early Music (LIFEM) will welcome audiences and visitors to Blackheath venues in London from 9 - 12 November 2022.

 Mischief, madness and merry-making. L.A. Theatre Works, the world’s leading producer of audio theater, will present a state-of-the-art recording of William Shakespeare’s delightful, gender-bending rom-com, Twelfth Night. 

Rubicon Theatre Company, Ventura’s non-profit professional theatre company, will continue the company’s 2022-2023 Season with the World Premiere of LONESOME TRAVELER: GENERATIONS, conceived by George Grove and James O’Neil, with musical direction by Rick Dougherty and George Grove and direction by Rubicon Co-Founder James O’Neil.

NAACP, Garland and Ovation Award-winning actor Chris Butler plays 36 different roles in Rubicon Theatre Company’s production of Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith. The production begins previews on April 27 and opens on April 29, the 30th anniversary, to the day, of the announcement of the verdict in the Rodney King Trial and what was then called the L.A. Riots.

RUBICON THEATRE COMPANY, Ventura's non-profit professional theatre company, opens the company's 2022-2023 Season on April 29 with an exclusive engagement of TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992 by Anna Deveare Smith.

The staff and board of Rubicon Theatre in Ventura will open the company’s doors once again for the 2022-2023 “Welcome Home” Season.  

FatLab Music has announced the upcoming release of “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” a very special collection of seasonal favorites – some things old and some things new – by Broadway singing actress Lisa Howard (It Shoulda Been You, Escape to Margaritaville), just in time for the holidays!

As part of Rubicon Theatrea??s continuing September Blitz of more than 30 events in 30 days, the company presents the world premiere of a new play written in this moment and for this moment by TAYLOR FAGINS -- A SONG. Helmed by by Rubicona??s new Associate Artistic Director CHRIS BUTLER, A SONG will be livestreamed for free on Saturday, September 19 at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, September 20 at 2:00 p.m.

As part of Rubicon Theatre's continuing September Blitz of more than 30 events in 30 days, the company presents the world premiere of a new play written in this moment and for this moment by TAYLOR FAGINS -- A SONG.

The Board of Directors of RUBICON THEATRE of Ventura, California, has appointed Ovation, NAACP and Garland Award-Winner CHRIS BUTLER as the company's new Associate Artistic Director.

The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open – a drama directed by Kathleen Hepburn and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers about a friendship between two Indigenous women from different social backgrounds – has won the Toronto Film Critics Association's 2019 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award along with its $100,000 purse.

The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, announced nominations today for its 47th Annual Annie Awards recognizing the year's best in the field of animation. 

Animation Magazine has unveiled its list of this year's distinguished Animation Hall of Fame Game-Changers award recipients. The honorees will receive their awards at the World Animation & VFX Summit Opening Night Party on Sunday, Nov. 3 at the newly remodeled The Garland Hotel in N. Hollywood, Calif.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will open How To Catch Creation, helmed by Incoming Artistic Director Nataki Garrett in her OSF directorial debut, on July 27 in the Thomas Theatre. Preview performances are July 23, 25 and 26, and the play runs through Oct. 26, 2019.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment presents MISSING LINK, arriving on Digital July 9 and Blu-ray and DVD July 23.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival invites audiences to enjoy two plays by William Shakespeare-plus one about a young girl with a crucial superpower, curiosity, and the beloved fantastical dream adventure in which she tries to figure out how to stay true to who she is-under the stars when its flagship outdoor theatre opens the weekend of June 7-9, 2019. The Allen Elizabethan Theatre will feature Macbeth, directed by Jose Luis Valenzuela; Alice in Wonderland, adapted from Lewis Carroll by Eve Le Gallienne and Florida Friebus, directed by Sara Bruner; and All's Well That Ends Well, directed by Tracy Young. Previews begin May 28, and all three shows will run through the weekend of October 11-13.