Warren Hard

"The Manor" is by now a Los Angeles/Beverly Hills institution, now in its 14th year and having surpassed its 200th performance in 2014. The show is a roman a clef, a fictionalization based on real events with the actual historical characters given new names. "The names have been changed to protect the guilty," is shared during the show's introduction to the audience. To lend authenticity to the tale, the show is presented in the grand and glorious architectural landmark in which the events of 87 years ago actually took place. Audience members are led from room to room in the lovingly restored marvelous Greystone Mansion as different scenes of the narrative are portrayed, leading up to a shocking and apparent murder and suicide.

Marquis Publishing, an affiliate of the Marquis Gallery announces the release of the edition 'The Topography of Evil: Notorious Northern California Murder Sites.' The paperback and eBook is California author and photographer Marques Vickers' visual return to 43 infamous crime scenes detailing the shocking narratives behind each tragedy. Over 95 visual images amplify the experience by escorting the reader to the precise physical location, offering a critical context and perspective for understanding. 'Obscured by time and collective memory,' notes Vickers' preface, 'revisiting a dormant crime scene is a process of comprehending the convergence of evil absorbed into a physical space. Crime scenes typically revert back into unremarkable landscape or unassuming buildings over the ensuing years and decades. Many are passed daily by pedestrian and vehicular traffic unaware of a location's unique significance. The captured snapshots portray searing testimonies of extinguished lives removed by acts of violence.' Northern California has been the residence for many notorious individual and serial killers including the Zodiac, Ted 'Unabomber' Kaczynski, Dan White, Edmund Kemper III, Jim Jones, Richard Allen Davis, David Carpenter, Juan Corona and Scott Peterson. The media has renamed some such as the Trailside Killer, Co-ed Killer, Children of Thunder, Vampire of Sacramento, Zebra Killers and the Death House Landlady. Over 40+ convicted or deceased murderers are profiled including 24 who remain incarcerated and 5 awaiting execution at San Quentin Prison. The region has also buried notables among the profiled victims including San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, Supervisor Harvey Milk, Black Panther Huey P. Newton, Journalist Chauncey Bailey, Oscar Grant III, Polly Klaas, Lacy Peterson and 412 unclaimed bodies from the People's Temple Massacre in Jonestown, Guyana. "The Topography of Evil" edition is segmented into seven categories including assassinations, abductions, historical legacies, reckless homicides, unsolved murders, rampage and serial killers. Within the context of each profile, crucial issues and questions are raised regarding capital punishment, American racial perceptions, parental influences, media reporting, public bias, self-incrimination protections and the fairness of judicial sentencing. A controversial alternative of voluntary euthanasia for the condemned is raised following the observation of California's hopelessly backlogged number of inmates awaiting execution. Currently 743 inmates are sentenced to Death Row. Florida is second with 403 and Texas third at 276. The last California execution was in 2006. An extensive listing of fatality victims is included along with convicted and deceased killers. Each living convict still registered in the California penal system is identified by their respective current penitentiary, verdict and length of original jury sentencing. Vickers' own introduction to the consequences of murder commenced with the 1968 killings of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jenson by the Zodiac killer in the author's hometown. Faraday was an acquaintance of the author through Boy Scouts and his older sister knew both victims. His reflections on the trauma inflicted on his intimate suburban community correspond with the realization that a single homicide affects far more individuals than simply the victim. Hundreds and ultimately thousands may be touched by the arbitrariness and unfairness of life being terminated abruptly and prematurely. The 294-page paperback edition is available through Amazon.com and in electronic format via the Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook stores. Supplementary promotional videos on numerous chapter including Huey Newton, Brooke Hart, Fishhead Beach Killings and the Marin County Courthouse Massacre are available on YouTube.com and Vimeo.com. A southern California version is current in the production stages. For further information regarding Marquis Publishing, visit TopographyofEvil.com and InsiderSeriesBooks.com. Cases Profiled (By Sequential Order and Category) Assassinations: Oakland School Superintendent Dr. Marcus Foster, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, Oakland Times Journalist Chauncey Bailey, The Marin County Courthouse Shootout Massacre and The Contract Killing of Joseph 'The Animal' Barboza. Abductions: San Francisco's Kevin Collins, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Student Kristin Smart, Brooke Hart and the Resulting 1933 San Jose Public Lynching, Heiress Patty Hearst, Petaluma's Polly Klaas and San Luis Obispo's Rachel Newhouse and Aundria Crawford. Historical Legacies: Dashiell Hammett's Miles Archer, Chinatown Gangster Fung 'Little Pete' Jing Toy and Mysterious Rumors involving Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, Mary Ellen Pleasant and American President Warren Harding Reckless Homicides: Oscar Grant III, O'Farrell Theatre's Artie Mitchell, Diane Whipple Dog Mauling, Black Panther Huey P. Newton, Laci Peterson and Multiple Police Officer Killer Lovelle Mixon Unsolved Murders: Ashkenaz Performance Owner David Nadel, The Santa Rosa Hitchhiking Murders, Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen on Fish Head Beach. Rampage Mass Murders: Reverend Jim Jones and the People's Temple Massacre, The Helzer Brothers and the Children of Thunder, The 101 California Building Rampage, Dr. Victor Ohta mansion burning and mass slaying, The 1977 Golden Dragon Bloodbath, Carmel Valley's Mel and Elizabeth Grimes, The Oikos University Shootings, Eastside Salinas Gang Killings and Morro Bay's Lynwood 'Jim' Drake rampage. Serial Killers: 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski, 'Co-ed Killer' Edmund Kemper III, 'Sacramento Vampire' Richard Trenton Chase, Juan Corona, Herbert Mullin, 'Death House Landlady' Dorothea Puente, 'Trailside Killer' David Carpenter, The San Francisco Zebra Killings and Zodiac Killer.

Porchlight Music Theatre and Artistic Director Michael Weber present the next production in the second season of Chicago's hit 'lost' musicals in staged concert series, Porchlight Revisits... City of Angels, featuring book by Larry Gelbart (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, M*A*S*H), music by Cy Coleman (Sweet Charity, Barnum) and lyrics by David Zippel (The Goodbye Girl, Disney's Mulan) with direction by Christopher Pazdernik and music direction by Aaron Benham. City of Angels is presented for two-nights-only tonight, March 3 and Wednesday, March 4 at 8:00 p.m. and is performed on the set of Porchlight's Sondheim on Sondheim (February 6 - March 15) on nights when there are no performances at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave.

Porchlight Music Theatre and Artistic Director Michael Weber have announced the next production in the second season of Chicago's hit 'lost' musicals in staged concert series, Porchlight Revisits... City of Angels, featuring book by Larry Gelbart (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, M*A*S*H), music by Cy Coleman (Sweet Charity, Barnum) and lyrics by David Zippel (The Goodbye Girl, Disney's Mulan) with direction by Christopher Pazdernik and music direction by Aaron Benham. City of Angels is presented for two-nights-only Tuesday, March 3 and Wednesday, March 4 at 8:00 p.m. and is performed on the set of Porchlight's Sondheim on Sondheim (February 6 - March 15) on nights when there are no performances at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave.

In celebration of the 75th anniversary of Thornton Wilder's great dramatic homage to small-town American life and the greater universal experience of life, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey presents Our Town beginning October 17th and continuing through November 17th at the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre, 36 Madison Ave. (at Lancaster Road) in Madison. Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased by calling the Box Office at973-408-5600 or by visiting www.ShakespeareNJ.org. Performances are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays at 7:30 p.m.; Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Individual tickets range from $35 to $70; student rush tickets are available 30 minutes prior to curtain for $15.

To celebrate An Evening with Buddy Valastro: The Cake Boss coming to the Mortensen Hall stage, The Bushnell will host a cake decorating competition, with the five finalist cakes to be previewed and judged by the Cake Boss himself! The winning cake will be presented on stage during the live show, An Evening with Buddy Valastro: The Cake Boss at The Bushnell on Friday, April 27 at 7:30 p.m, part of the Robinson & Cole Family Series.