Alan Blumenfeld News

Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum will open its 50th Anniversary Summer Season with two of William Shakespeare’s most mystical offerings: the thrilling supernatural tragedy, Macbeth, and that most magical of romantic comedies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

A Noise Within’s next production Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses will open May 14, 2022, with previews beginning May 8th. A re-envisioning of ancient Greek myths for a modern audience, Metamorphoses is set entirely in and around an on-stage swimming pool. ANW’s co-producing artistic director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott directs a cast of ten ANW resident artists who tackle over 85 roles in six myths: Alan Blumenfeld, DeJuan Christopher, Geoff Elliott, Rafael Goldstein, Nicole Javier, Kasey Mahaffy, Sydney A. Mason, Trisha Miller, Cassandra Marie Murphy and Erika Soto. Julia took some time from her multiple duties as Metamorphoses’ director and ANW’s co-producing artistic director to discuss Metamorphoses logistics, as well as her successful working relationship with co-producing artistic director husband Geoff Elliott.

A Noise Within, California's acclaimed classic theatre company, announces that four members of the Los Angeles community will join the ANW Board of Directors. Randi Tahara, Susan Toler Carr, Veralyn Jones, and Alan Blumenfeld bring a wide range of experience and expertise along with diverse perspectives to ANW as we enter the 30th Anniversary Season.

Sierra Madre Playhouse is continuing its series of FREE online events on February 7 with a live actor panel featuring Alan Blumenfeld and Katherine James. Sierra Madre Playhouse Artistic Director Christian Lebano will moderate.

Westside audiences are in for a treat. Last season's acclaimed, Ovation recommended production of The Gin Game, directed byChristian Lebano at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, will be re-staged outdoors atWill Geer's Theatricum Botanicum, with real life husband and wife teamAlan Blumenfeld andKatherine James reprising their roles. With Lebano again at the helm,performances of D.L Coburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning two-hander will run Aug. 17 through Sept. 29 in Theatricum's intimate S. Mark Taper Pavilion.

William Shakespeare's rollicking and ever-popular comedy of mistaken identity, TWELFTH NIGHT, brings its magical combination of mischief, madness and romance into the outdoor amphitheater at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum this summer where it plays in rep through September 28. Written in 1601 and first seen in the Inns of Court shortly after Christmas (hence, the title), the holiday was celebrated as a festival during which everything was made delightfully topsy-turvy, much like the world of the play's Illyria. And you could not ask for a more ideal cast of characters to bring The Bard's non-stop, high energy hijinks to life.

Last season's acclaimed, Ovation recommended production of The Gin Game, directed by Christian Lebano at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, will be re-staged outdoors at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum, with real life husband and wife team Alan Blumenfeld and Katherine James reprising their roles.

The Skin of Our Teeth, the Pulitzer Prize-winning tribute to the indestructibility of the human race by Thornton Wilder, opens on the beautiful outdoor stage at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum on Saturday,July 13, where performances continue through Sept. 29. 

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum continues its mission to resist and struggle against the forces of inequality and injustice by presenting socially conscious classics that speak to today. A new version of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, freely adapted by artistic director Ellen Geer and co-directed by Geer and Melora Marshall, joins Theatricum's 2019 summer repertory season beginning Saturday, June 22.

Mischief, madness and romance are in the air this summer when Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum presents William Shakespeare's rollicking comedy, Twelfth Night, in its magical, outdoor Topanga amphitheater. Twelfth Night opens Theatricum's summer repertory season onSaturday, June 1 at 8 p.m., where performances will continue through Sept. 28.

A celebration of one of the greatest novels ever written and a triumph of theatrical imagination. Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum presents Moby Dick-Rehearsed by Orson Welles.

Mischief, madness and romance are in the air this summer when Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum presents William Shakespeare's rollicking comedy, Twelfth Night, in its magical, outdoor Topanga amphitheater. Twelfth Night opens Theatricum's summer repertory season on Saturday, June 1 at 8 p.m., where performances will continue through Sept. 28.

The best way to characterize Mary Zimmerman's adaptation of the mythical tale of Jason and the Argonauts is as a playground for adults in which theatre artists use every storytelling trick in the book to bring gods, monsters, mortals, and kings to life. Puppets, masks, stilts and aerial silks trade stage time with original music, dashing fight scenes, and flights of fancy in Jason's epic adventure to find the Golden Fleece.

Spring has sprung, andWill Geer's Theatricum Botanicum is thrilled to announce its annual summer line-up of theater, music and performance in its unique and stunning outdoor setting in Topanga. The Summer 2019 Season will include six plays opening in rapid succession and performed in repertory throughout the summer, along with a host of satellite events.

Sam Waterston (L.A. Law, The Newsroom, Gracie and Frankie) will join Scandal co-stars Joshua Malina, Jeff Perry and Bellamy Young for a one-night only, all-star reading of Ms. Smith Goes to Washington at Los Angeles City Hall on Thursday, Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m.

The nominees for the 29th Annual LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards, celebrating theatrical excellence and achievement throughout Los Angeles, were announced this week.

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, continues the cherished holiday tradition of presenting its well-loved production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol this year, onstage for the seventh holiday season. This time-honored tale of forgiveness plays 17 performances only, Saturday, December 1 through Sunday, December 23, 2018. After the show, audience members are invited to enjoy a cup of cider and take photos with the cast.

D.L. Coburn's Pulitzer Prize winning The Gin Game with its focus on two elderly people in a run down nursing facility circa 1977 is rarely if ever revived in Los Angeles. Why? I'm not sure. It requires great actors, but LA does have them. Maybe it's the theme. Too depressing? No excuse! The play is a brilliant, thought-provoking work of art. On the surface it's exceedingly funny but underneath, a seriously disquieting potboiler for seniors. Loneliness, and insufficient finances for decent old age care create a bleak outlook. Currently onstage at the Sierra Madre Playhouse through October 6, real life husband and wife Alan Blumenfeld and Katherine James beautifully play Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey under the meticulous direction of Christian Lebano.