Alan Blumenfeld News

I confess to being very confused by the production. In this modern twist on Shakespeare's classic Romeo and Juliet, women play men and men play women. Or rather, women play male characters as men and men play female characters as women…I think.

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum continues its 2015 'Americana' season with August: Osage County, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play by Tracy Letts that unflinchingly - and uproariously - exposes the dark side of the Midwestern American family. Mary Jo DuPrey directs for a June 20 opening.

As part of the 2015 Hollywood Fringe Festival, Mine is Yours Theatre Company will remount their adventurous 90-minute production of R&J, a gender-reversed Romeo and Juliet, which had a successful preview run last November at Theatre of NOTE. While remaining faithful to Shakespeare's language, R&J transforms Romeo into Romea, Juliet into Julian, Friar Laurence into Sister Laurence, etc., in an extravaganza of gender-swapping that makes this classic love story resonate in an electrifying new way. 

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, presents the final weeks of its 2015 Spring repertory season with The Threepenny Opera, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's groundbreaking theatrical work in Michael Feingold's translation (which has become the most popular production in the history of A Noise Within), now playing through May 27, the Los Angeles Times Critic's Choice Figaro by Charles Morey, freely adapted from Le Mariage de Figaro by Beaumarchais in its West Coast premiere now through May 10, and the Ovation-Recommended Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, in its final extension through May 24.

Impassioned members of Actors' Equity Association in Los Angeles have raised funds from within their own ranks to follow up yesterday's North Hollywood rally with a full-page ad in Wednesday's Los Angeles Times to urge a 'No' vote on the upcoming AEA advisory referendum to eliminate L.A.'s 99-Seat Theater Plan. Scroll down for photos from the Pro-99 Rally, held yesterday, March 23!

LA Female Playwrights Initiative (LA FPI) and Free Association Theatre present a day of play readings and connections to celebrate Support Women Artists Now Day, hosted by City Garage Theatre.

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre, presents a free, staged reading of Georg Buchner's Woyzeck, directed by Jeremy Rabb and performed by A Noise Within's resident company, on Monday, January 26 at 7 pm as part of Words Within, their ongoing series of free play readings by resident artists. Please RSVP via phone to 626-356-3100 x1 to reserve your seat.

HERO Theatre announced today the full cast of its upcoming production of Clifford Odets' "Waiting for Lefty'. Charlie Hofheimer ("Mad Men"), Robin Gammell ("How to Get Away with Murder") and Dion Mucciacito (Lincoln Center's "Golden Boy") are part of a cast that includes Elisa Bocanegra (Roundabout's "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore"), Alan Blumenfeld ("The Interview"), Nick Caballero, Johnny Ray Gill (Sundance Channel's "Rectify"), Ephraim Lopez, Shannon Lucio ("True Blood"), Jonathan Medina and Jerry Nessis. Performances begin January 23rd, 2015 and will be held at the Rosenthal Theater at Inner-City Arts in Los Angeles, CA.

Mine is Yours Theatre Company presents R&J, a gender-reversed Romeo and Juliet, at Theatre of NOTE in Hollywood for two weekends only! Playing tonight, November 7-16th, 2014.

On September 15, 2014, Mine is Yours officially announced their upcoming production of R&J, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, edited and gender-reversed by Hannah Pell, and directed by the bold and brilliant Abby Craden*.

Mine is Yours Theatre Company presents R&J, a gender-reversed Romeo and Juliet, at Theatre of NOTE in Hollywood for two weekends only! Playing November 7-16th, 2014.

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 opens on Friday, December 5 and closes on Tuesday, December 23, 2014. This is the third consecutive year that ANW has presented the timeless holiday classic.

On September 15, 2014, Mine is Yours officially announced their upcoming production of R&J, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, edited and gender-reversed by Hannah Pell, and directed by the bold and brilliant Abby Craden*.

Throughout two thirds of Bill Cain's political thriller EQUIVOCATION, a confused Shagspeare (known to us otherwise as Shakespeare and played by Ted Barton) keeps asking questions and getting answers that don't make sense. Finally a circumspect Father Garnet (Franc Ross) tells him to look for the question beneath the question and suddenly the pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place.

According to the history books, the infamous Gunpowder Plot was a conspiracy by England's marginalized Catholics to blow up Protestant King James I and his entire Parliament. Or was it? What if the official story concealed a darker truth? And what if King James had commanded William Shakespeare to write a play -- a "true historie" -- on order to further cement the government's account? These are some of the questions asked in Equivocation, Bill Cain's witty exploration of political power and artistic integrity. Winner of the prestigious 2010 Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, Equivocation opens on Sept. 5 at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

According to the history books, the infamous Gunpowder Plot was a conspiracy by England's marginalized Catholics to blow up Protestant King James I and his entire Parliament. Or was it? What if the official story concealed a darker truth? And what if King James had commanded William Shakespeare to write a play - a "true historie" - in order to further cement the government's account? These are some of the questions asked in Equivocation, Bill Cain's witty exploration of political power and artistic integrity. Winner of the prestigious 2010 Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award and called "one of the most bracingly intelligent, sizzlingly theatrical American plays in a decade" by Variety, Equivocation opens on Sept. 5 at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga.

A frightening thing happens when a woman plays the title role in a gender-reversed King Lear; the betrayal and revenge between mother and sons takes on an added level of horror. What was already tragic to begin with, as originally written for a father and daughters, now feels even more threatening in the reverse.

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum kicks off its All-Shakespeare Summer Season in celebration of the Bard's 450th birthday with a gender-reversed Lear for the 21st century, opening tonight, Saturday, June 7 at 8 p.m. in the theater's spectacular outdoor amphitheater in Topanga Canyon.

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum continues its celebration of the Bard's 450th birthday with a new production of All's Well That Ends Well that joins the All-Shakespeare Repertory Season on June 21.

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum kicks off its All-Shakespeare Summer Season in celebration of the Bard's 450th birthday with a gender-reversed Lear for the 21st century, opening on Saturday, June 7 at 8 p.m., and the return of the company's signature rendering of A Midsummer Night's Dream, with performances beginning Sunday, June 8 at 3:30 p.m. The two productions will continue to run in repertory through the end of Sept. in the theater's spectacular outdoor amphitheater nestled in a Topanga Canyon ravine, and will be joined later in the season by three additional mainstage offerings.