Ralph Funicello

LA Opera's Richard Seaver Music Director, James Conlon explores 'The Dwarf' - the story, its history, and of course, the music. Watch this all-new video to learn even more about this stunning opera.

These books, many of which were written by current or former set designers, take a deep dive into what the art is all about, how to get started, what research goes into the craft, and even how to design on a budget!

To close out its 55th season, Orange County's Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory is mounting David Henry Hwang's intriguing and mysterious play M. BUTTERFLY, using the playwright's much more layered and riveting 2017 Broadway revival as its source material. Marked assuredly by powerful, gripping performances, this admirable OC staging---directed with clarifying precision by Desdemona Chiang that continues through June 8 in Costa Mesa---keeps you at the edge of your seat, as it unpacks a story filled with wobbly uncertainties and vague declarations. A beautifully complex production that echoes sentiments of gender conformity/fluidity crossed with geopolitical issues that still resonate in today's ever-changing world, M. BUTTERFLY---particularly with this strong new update instituted by the original playwright himself---is definitely worth seeing.

David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly, a tale of obsession, perception and the allure of fantasy, will conclude South Coast Repertory's 2018-19 season. Hwang's break-out hit-a Tony Award-winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist-is about more than steamy seduction and fantasy; inspired by a true account, it's a compelling story of espionage, East-West relations and betrayal. Desdemona Chiang, in her SCR debut, directs the show on the Segerstrom Stage, May 11-June 8. Tickets are available online at www.scr.org.

Where else can you find fog machines, winches, moving lights, outrageous fabrics and theatre lovers? Studio 54 in its heyday? No need to go back in time - all that and more were on display at the United States Institute of Theatre Technology's annual conference.

"Henry IV," staged by Tony Award winning director Daniel Sullivan, features Harry Groener as Northumberland, Tom Hanks in his Los Angeles stage debut as Sir John Falstaff, Hamish Linklater as Hal, Joe Morton as Henry IV, and Tony winner Rondi Reed as Mistress Quickly.

This week, the cast and crew of Shakespeare's Henry IV, starring Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks, came together for the first meet and greet of the production. Check out shots from the event below!

This week, the cast and crew of Shakespeare's Henry IV, starring Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks, came together for the first meet and greet of the production. Check out shots from the event below!

How do you "fix" the misogyny of Shakespeare's now antiquated THE TAMING OF THE SHREW? For playwright Amy Freed, it means injecting it with a noticeable dose of equality empowerment, and then shifting its characters' traits and motivations as if written from a female's perspective. That is the premise of South Coast Repertory's latest World Premiere production SHREW!-which continues performances in Costa Mesa through April 21. The results? A funny but flawed update with good intentions.

Playwright Amy Freed has always been a Shakespeare fan. Her breakout hit, The Beard of Avon (SCR-commissioned and premiered, 2001), was a smart, funny look at the controversy surrounding the authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Now comes SHREW! (March 24-April 21, Segerstrom Stage), in which Freed has re-imagined The Bard's play, The Taming of the Shrew, as a wickedly funny love story of two people who find their way to true, deep and mutual love. Art Manke directs SHREW!, which is an anchor production of the 2018 Pacific Playwrights Festival. Tickets are available at www.scr.org.

Witty, enchanting, and joyously self-referential, the original film version of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE fantasizes a story involving a young, virile William Shakespeare in his prime, who quells a bout of writer's block by secretly romancing an engaged lady named Viola---which apparently becomes the inspiration for the Bard's infamous star-crossed tragedy 'Romeo and Juliet.' The plot of the film remains fairly intact in Lee Hall's mostly delightful if slightly diluted stage adaptation, now continuing performances in a gorgeous-looking new regional production at Orange County's Tony Award-winning theater South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through February 10, 2018. This spunky love letter to the theater is chockfull of stagecraft-insider amusements and fun-to-find Shakespearean Easter Eggs that both aficionados and casual fans will appreciate. But, shockingly, despite the spectacular production values and the beguiling, gusto-bathed performances of its large ensemble cast, this stage adaptation somehow loses some of the inescapable romanticism that is so much more prevalent in the original film.

Romance, mistaken identities, ruthless scheming and backstage theatrics served up with a generous dash of comedy are at the heart of Shakespeare in Love, adapted by Lee Hall from the Oscar-winning film written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, with music by Paddy Cunneen. South Coast Repertory Artistic Director Marc Masterson directs the production on the Segerstrom Stage, Jan. 13-Feb. 10. Tickets are now on sale: www.scr.org.

Romance, mistaken identities, ruthless scheming and backstage theatrics served up with a generous dash of comedy are at the heart of Shakespeare in Love, adapted by Lee Hall from the Oscar-winning film written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, with music by Paddy Cunneen. South Coast Repertory Artistic Director Marc Masterson directs the production on the Segerstrom Stage, Jan. 13-Feb. 10. Tickets are now on sale: www.scr.org.

Though the Tony Award-winning musical adaptation of writer/director John Carney's well-liked indie film ONCE is a musical that this reviewer has liked quite a bit from past productions, it took seeing South Coast Repertory's brand new regional production---now on stage in Costa Mesa through September 30---for this reviewer to not only like it, but to truly adore it. From casting to staging and everything in between, SCR's enjoyable new mounting, under the astute direction of Kent Nicholson, is somehow much more emotional, thoughtful, and remarkably riveting than past touring productions. And though, yes, it is essentially the same source material, SCR's exquisite new iteration of this small, but genuinely endearing musical is by far the gold standard of how this show should look and feel in any and all future productions.

A testament to the transcendent power of love and music takes center stage as South Coast Repertory opens its 2017-18 season with the multi-award-winning Once. The musical-book by Enda Walsh; music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova-is based on John Carney's Academy Award-winning indie film of the same name. Kent Nicholson will direct Once on the Segerstrom Stage, Sept. 2-30, 2017. Tickets are available online at www.scr.org.

Alexander Street, a ProQuest company, is enabling researchers to go behind the scenes of the world's greatest theatre, dance, and opera performances through Performance Design Archive Online, the only international multimedia collection to cover all aspects of theatre production design.

Lyric Opera of Chicago presents the delightful and touching tale ofDon Quichotte by French Romantic composer Jules Massenet in a new-to-Chicago production, opening Saturday, November 19. Lyric will offer six performances throughDecember 7. Performance dates are November 19 and 28, and December 1 and 7 at 7:30pm; and November 23 and December 4 at 2:00pm. Performances are in French with English subtitles at Lyric's Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago. Tickets start at $34 and are available now at lyricopera.org/Quichotte or at 312-827-5600.

Right at the start of Robert Schenkkan's mesmerizing Tony Award-winning play ALL THE WAY---now playing in an outstanding new production at Orange County's South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through October 2---actor Hugo Armstrong is introduced in what would become one of the most powerful, fiery acting performances I have witnessed on this very stage. Commanding, and yet remarkably relatable without ever traversing caricature, Armstrong deftly portrays one of American History's most complex leaders, our 36th President, Lyndon B. Johnson. Armstrong's powerhouse portrayal is the explosive epicenter of a richly dense, dialogue-heavy drama that recounts the rocky 11-month period leading up to Johnson's re-election as the leader of the world's most powerful nation. The play spends its entirety focusing on this contentious time which finds Johnson pushing for the passage of the Civl Rights Act---which itself incites a tug-of-war between his longtime pro-segregation Dixiecrat friends and the African-American community lobbying for rights that have been long overdue.

Now on stage in an exquisite new regional production at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through February 21, 2016, John Logan's riveting Tony Award-winning two-character play RED imagines a specific time period in the life of world-renowned abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko (played with superb gusto by Mark Harelik) and his struggles to remain an appreciated, serious artiste at the dawn of pop art, Andy Warhol, and the rise of pretty (and well-funded) 'over mantle' modern art. With the help of a new young assistant (the impressive Paul David Story), Rothko forges ahead with a high-paying commission to produce a series of murals for the Four Seasons Restaurant, which causes much inner turmoil for the artist.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) continues its 2015-16 season with AH, WILDERNESS!, Eugene O'Neill's passionate coming-of-age classic. AH, WILDERNESS! is a tender portrait of a sensitive teenage poet whose experience of first love leads him into the raptures of romantic poetry and the pain of heartbreak.