Naila Aladdin Sanders

Whittier Boulevard will run April 29 through May 28 at The Los Angeles Theatre Center. Low-priced previews begin April 20.

The Robey Theatre Company presents Man's Favor Devil's Plan. World Premiere engagement of a new play written by Kwik Jones and directed by C. Julian White.

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle has announced the nominees for theatrical excellence for 2020 and 2021. This year's awards have been combined due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A Heated Discussion by Levy Lee Simon, based on an idea by Ben Guillory is set to run at the Los Angeles Theatre Center from April 7th through May 14th. The production is produced and directed by Ben Guillory and presented by The Robey Theatre Company. The show is to take place in Theatre Four, 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013.

What is our responsibility to the future? What legacy do we want to leave? The Los Angeles premiere of The Children, written by Lucy Kirkwood and directed by Simon Levy, asks those questions and more in its Los Angeles premiere at the Fountain Theatre.

The Fountain Theatre will inaugurate their new outdoor stage with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ 2014 Obie Award-winning AN OCTOROON, with previews beginning June 11, 2021. Judith Moreland directs the cast of Leea Ayers, Matthew Hancock, Mara Klein, Hazel Lozano, Rob Nagle, Kacie Rogers, Vanessa Claire Stewart and Pam Trotter. Between final rehearsals, Matthew, who plays the playwright’s alter-ego among other characters, made some time to answer a few of my inquiries.

Casting is complete and rehearsals begin this week for the Los Angeles premiere of a radical, incendiary and subversively funny Obie award-winning play by MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” recipient Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

The two-time Telly Award-winning film version of The Blank Theatre's production of The Tragedy of JFK (as told by Wm. Shakespeare) is now available for free streaming on YouTube (https://youtu.be/jhnBy9fKvHk). Conceived, adapted, and directed by Daniel Henning, the play had its world premiere in Los Angeles on October 1, 2016.

At Broadway and 52nd Street in New York City, the nightclub Birdland was the legendary center of the jazz world, where the glitterati of Broadway, Hollywood and the sports world regularly filled its 500 seats. In August 1959, the biggest star in jazz was Miles Davis, who earlier that year recorded Kind of Blue, regarded then and now as the most innovative and best jazz album of all time. The Miles Davis Sextet, as constituted that summer, was regarded as the best jazz combo ever. Honoring his love of all things jazz, Randy Ross Ph.D., an accomplished saxophonist and member of the jazz group the Blue Morning Quintet, spent several years researching Miles Davis and the amazing musicians in his Sextet. After gathering enough information to paint a clear picture of these jazz greats, Ross wrote his world premiere play BIRDLAND BLUE, directed by Ben Guillory, Artistic Director and Co-Founder of The Robey Theatre Company, the group producing the show at LA Theatre Center through May 12.

Skylight Theatre Company's production of 'Rotterdam,' opened this weekend at Center Theatre Group at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Written by Jon Brittain and directed by Michael A. Shepperd, 'Rotterdam' will close April 7.

Skylight Theatre Company's production of "Rotterdam," which Center Theatre Group is remounting at the Kirk Douglas Theatre as part of the third annual Block Party: Celebrating Los Angeles Theatre, will open this Saturday, March 30 at 8 p.m. Written by Jon Brittain and directed by Michael A. Shepperd, "Rotterdam" is currently in previews and will close April 7.

Casting is set for Skylight Theatre Company's production of "Rotterdam," which Center Theatre Group is remounting at the Kirk Douglas Theatre as part of the third annual Block Party: Celebrating Los Angeles Theatre. Written by Jon Brittain and directed by Michael A. Shepperd, "Rotterdam" will begin previews March 28, open March 30 and continue through April 7.

I had several reasons for wanting to see the West Coast Premiere of Jireh Breon Holder's TOO HEAVY FOR MY POCKET, produced by Scott Golden for Sacred Fools Theater Company, brilliantly directed by the talented Michael A. Shepperd, Artistic Director of Los Angeles' award-winning Celebration Theatre. I knew he would honor this delicate story of aspiration and familial love centering on two African-American couples struggling to find their way in a year filled with the promise of a better future for everyone, taking place at the height of the Civil Rights Movement when Freedom Fighters took to the road in buses to battle justice in the Deep South, firmly believing that equal rights for all people deserved to be the law of the land. And that boys will be boys and women will always forgive them their trespasses when babies are part of the equation by speaking out for equality in their own lives and homes.

Sacred Fools Theater Company is excited to continue its 22st season with the West Coast Premiere of Too Heavy for Your Pocket written by Jireh Breon Holder and directed by Michael Shepperd. "We have been tracking Too Heavy For Your Pocket since its world premiere, and were deeply affected by the poetry and humanity on display in Jiren's work," former Artistic Director Bryan Bellomo says. "We are honored to bring a west coast premiere to Los Angeles, and thrilled to finally have the opportunity to partner with Michael A. Shepperd, the perfect director to tell this delicate story of aspiration and familial love."

The world premiere of playwright Michelle Kholos Brooks' HOSTAGE receives an absolutely stunning mounting by the Skylight Theatre Company. Tracie Lockwood gives a tour de force performance as Barbara, normally an inconspicuous, yet outspoken, mother like most in the Oak Creek, Wisconsin neighborhood; but a real pit bull when matters concern her hostaged son.

Skylight Theatre Company Stages West Coast Premiere of ROTTERDAM by Jon Brittain and Directed by Ovation Award Winner Michael A. Shepperd

Watch Danny Glover and June Angela discuss their characters in Philip Kan Gotanda's YOHEN!

YOHEN runs through November 19 at East West Players Theatre, and the critics are weighing in!

Skylight Theatre Company Stages West Coast Premiere of ROTTERDAM by Jon Brittain and Directed by Ovation Award Winner Michael A. Shepperd

YOHEN runs through November 19 at East West Players Theatre! See photos from the show here!