Alan Blumenfeld News

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.

Theatricum Botanicum takes on Shakespeare's stinging drama CORIOLANUS this summer on its outdoor stage in Topanga Canyon and offers an intriguing look at the cynicism of politics and power. The work includes a massive cast of 45. Some are seasoned veterans and many are young actors in the early stages of their careers, including a sweet Geer granddaughter (Quinnlyn Scheppner). Together they bring forth the early days of Rome when democracy was in its infancy and mob mentality could turn the tide in the blink of an eye.

When Danny, son of an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic rabbi, injures the more traditionally Orthodox Reuven during a baseball game between their rival yeshivas, their two universes collide and a unique friendship is born. "This powerful story shows how essential it is to consider the views of those who are different from us," says director Levy. "It's an antidote to the toxicity of our times. Potok beautifully depicts what it means to bridge chasms - between modernity and tradition, the secular and the sacred, Zionism and Hasidism, adolescence and adulthood, friendship and family, fathers and sons, the head and the heart, and the struggle to choose for ourselves, to fight for what we believe in and who we want to be."

Friendship, faith and fatherhood. Jonathan Arkin, Alan Blumenfeld, Dor Gvirtsman and Sam Mandelstar in The Chosen, the award-winning stage adaptation by Aaron Posner and Chaim Potok of Potok's beloved novel. Simon Levy directs for aJanuary 20 opening at the Fountain Theatre, where performances continue through March 25. The Fountain celebrates the novel's 50th anniversary (last April) with the West Coast premiere of Posner's new, streamlined version.

Friendship, faith and fatherhood.Jonathan Arkin, Alan Blumenfeld, Dor Gvirtsman and Sam Mandelstar in The Chosen, the award-winning stage adaptation by Aaron Posner and Chaim Potok of Potok's beloved novel. Simon Levydirects for a January 20 opening at the Fountain Theatre, where performances continue through March 25. The Fountain celebrates the novel's 50th anniversary (last April) with the West Coast premiere of Posner's new, streamlined version.

William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice opens the summer season at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum on June 3.

William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice opens the summer season at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum on June 3.

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum rises up and speaks out with a summer line-up of socially conscious classic and contemporary plays, music and performance. The 2017 summer season at the company's unique outdoor setting in Topanga will offer five mainstage productions in rotating repertory as well as a host of satellite events, June through October.

OPHELIA, the official selection at the 2016 Revelation Perth International Film Festival, has been selected as Best of Fest at this year's LA Shorts Fest and will screen as part of the official selection at the prestigious Oscar qualifying festival starting September 1. 

Not even a wall can keep these lovers apart. This particular wall happens to be in modern-day East Jerusalem and as Theatricum Botanicum's production of ROMEO AND JULIET commences, chaos ignites at a checkpoint that divides Israel and Palestine. It is a city that has seen struggle for thousands of years and for one Muslim boy named Romeo and one Jewish girl named Juliet, not even their innocence can change the course of this story.

Proving that laughter really is the best medicine, Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum presents a fresh and hilarious new adaptation of The Imaginary Invalid - Moliere's skewering of the health care crisis from an entirely different century - by Constance Congdon. The Imaginary Invalid joins the summer repertory season at Theatricum's spectacular outdoor amphitheater in Topanga on July 9.

Director Ellen Geer re-sets William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in East Jerusalem, kicking off the 2016 summer repertory season at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum's outdoor amphitheater on June 4.

The year 2016 marks the remembrance, worldwide, of Shakespeare's death 400 years ago, as well as what is shaping up to be a historic election year in the U.S. Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum summer season lineup of theater, music and performance includes four timeless classics that continue to reflect our life and times centuries later, shining a light on current social issues. It all takes place at Theatricum's unique and spectacular outdoor setting under the California live oaks and summer skies of Topanga.

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, continues a newly cherished family holiday tradition by presenting its production of Charles Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL. This time-honored tale of forgiveness plays for 18 performances, opening on Saturday, December 5 and closing on Wednesday, December 23, 2015. This is the fourth consecutive year that ANW has presented the timeless holiday classic. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre, presents two free, staged readings this fall: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been by Eric Bentley, directed by Apollo Dukakis, on Wednesday, November 11 at 7 pm; and, on Monday, November 16 at 7PM, in partnership with East West Players, The Recognition of Shakuntala by Kalidasa, translated by W. J. Johnson, directed by Jonathan Munoz-Proulx. Both readings are performed as part of Words Within, A Noise Within's ongoing series of free play readings by resident artists. Both readings take place at A Noise Within, 3352 East Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107.