Andrew Joseph Perez News

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre presents critical and audience favorite Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion, original production staged by Albert Marre, originally produced by Albert W. Selden and Hal James, and based on Cervantes' Don Quixote. ANW Artistic Director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott directs. La Mancha performs August 16 - September 9, 2018 (Press Opening August 18).

This season over 75 California Playwrights have been invited by PlayGround to write ten-minute plays in competition for Monday Night PlayGround Readings. In San Francisco and Los Angeles well over 1,000 audience members statewide have seen the winning 26 plays  to date. Play topics have included Reap What You Sow, Probable Future Or Possible Future, Home For The Holidays  and In The Beginning… This February cycle invites playwrights to write ten-minute plays inspired by "TALL TALES" for Monday Night PlayGround Readings on February 12, 8PM at the Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles and on February 19, 8PM at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley.

PlayGround is the only theatre company in California to have Statewide, Northern, and Southern California New Play Competitions. PlayGround's 78 Member Statewide Writers Company, primarily based in San Francisco and Los Angeles, compete to write original plays in four-and-a-half days. The tremendous diversity of California has infused the writers pool with many writers new, not only to California, but to the rest of the country as well. The November plays will be inspired by the topic REAP WHAT YOU SOW . As you sow, so shall you reap. (Galatians VI)

Lin-Manuel Miranda's first Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical, IN THE HEIGHTS is now on stage in a brand new Broadway-caliber regional production presented by Musical Theatre West at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach through November 5. Told as a series of interweaving vignettes about the highs and lows---and the dreams and realities---of life in the Washington Height neighborhood of New York City, IN THE HEIGHTS offers audiences a very likable glimpse into a specific multi-generational Latinx experience that not only feels fresh and new but also feels remarkably relatable no matter what background you come from. Miranda---armed with first-hand knowledge of living in such an enclave and with the obvious imbedded DNA of a musical theatre aficionado---easily made the material both universally appealing and yet refreshingly unique. In its own way, seeing IN THE HEIGHTS now feels very much like looking back at an earlier piece of work from a now more evolved artist and seeing signs of the burgeoning genius still to come---and just how far that genius really grew.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony and Grammy Award-winning show In the Heights had a lot to shout about when it played Broadway in 2008...in fact, it still does. First of all, it's a musical with and about Latinos - way overdue -plus it has a terrific book with a heartwarming storyline about a closely knit community. That's right, a real community, one that boasts a bevy of exceedingly real and likeable characters. Miranda also created a varied score with ballads & traditional pop melodies and salsa meshed together with rap. MTW brings In the Heights to The Carpenter Center with a dynamite cast and slick direction by Benjamin Perez . It's full-out, enjoyable fare!

Perfection! A Noise Within produces a stunning, modernistic, most entertaining take on MAN OF LA MANCHA, the tale of Don Quixote and his man servant Sancho during the sixteenth century Spanish Inquisition. Co-Producing Artistic Director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott most skillfully directs her very talented cast of thirteen staging them in non-stop action.

MainStreet Theatre Company begins the New Year with a stage adaptation of The Secret Garden, the beloved 1911 book by Frances Hodgson Burnet. The award-winning adaptation stays true to the original novel, which has been inspiring and delighting generations of children for more than 100 years. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

MainStreet Theatre Company begins the New Year with a stage adaptation of The Secret Garden, the beloved 1911 book by Frances Hodgson Burnet. The award-winning adaptation stays true to the original novel, which has been inspiring and delighting generations of children for more than 100 years. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

MainStreet Theatre Company begins the New Year with a stage adaptation of The Secret Garden, the beloved 1911 book by Frances Hodgson Burnet. The award- winning adaptation stays true to the original novel, whichhas been inspiring and delighting generations of children for over 100 years.

Boyle Heights will be the setting for a pull out all the stops Cinco de Mayo (May 5, 2016) celebration on the Eastside of Los Angeles as Brown Fist Productions in association with CASA 0101 Theater present the opening night of EASTSIDE HEARTBEATS, A New Rock 'n' Roll Musical.

Boyle Heights will be the setting for a pull out all the stops Cinco de Mayo (May 5, 2016) celebration on the Eastside of Los Angeles as Brown Fist Productions in association with CASA 0101 Theater present the opening night of EASTSIDE HEARTBEATS, A New Rock 'n' Roll Musical.

As special programming for the 2015/16 Season: BRAVE NEW WORLD, Capital Stage will present their first full length musical production, THE BEHAVIOR OF BROADUS, by the LA-based writing and performing partnership Burglars of Hamm. This dark comedy tells the story of John Broadus Watson, father of Behaviorism and modern advertising. THE BEHAVIOR OF BROADUS runs now through January 3 with a Press Opening tonight, December 12, 2015 at 8pm. BroaddwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

As special programming for the 2015/16 Season: BRAVE NEW WORLD, Capital Stage will present their first full length musical production, THE BEHAVIOR OF BROADUS, by the LA-based writing and performing partnership Burglars of Hamm. This dark comedy tells the story of John Broadus Watson, father of Behaviorism and modern advertising. THE BEHAVIOR OF BROADUS will run from December 9 through January 3 with a Press Opening on Saturday, December 12, 2015 at 8pm. BroaddwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Extremely strong production of the Tony Award winning play about Abstract-Expressionist Mark Rothko that will be discussed long after you drive away from your parking space.

Tennessee Shakespeare Company (TSC), the Mid-South's professional classical theatre, presents William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew inside Dixon Gallery and Garden's Winegardner Auditorium from April 23 - May 4 in Memphis.

Carrie Linquist of Memphis was the first reader last week to let me know Sullivan's Shakespeare-text request of me. Caliban speaks it in The Tempest as the drunken Stephano and Trinculo attempt to sing: 'That's not the tune!'