Andrew Schmedake News

“Lift it up, lift it up: we can sing our country free!” Twenty triple-threat performers and a five piece band will bring an inspirational new musical based on historical events to life this January. Presented by Dreamtone Productions in association with NewYorkRep, the world premiere of Singing Revolution: The Musical sets a tale of star-crossed lovers against the beautiful, moving and timeless true story of Estonia’s 1987 song-filled, peaceful uprising against the Soviet Union. 

The world premiere of Singing Revolution: The Musical sets a tale of star-crossed lovers against the beautiful, moving and timeless true story of Estonia's 1987 song-filled, peaceful uprising against the Soviet Union.

With live performance venues closed around the world, many artists are looking to the future by creating new material, adapting old material, and exploring artistic ways to utilize the digital landscape. Many others are trying to figure out just what's next for live entertainment.

Definitely Not Clue is an ambitious, interactive murder mystery musical adventure developed for Twitch that combines live and pre-recorded elements with in-chat audience engagement for a truly unique and polished take on digital theatre.

Casting is set for Sacred Fools Theater Company's production of a?oeThe Art Couple,a?? which will be performed at the Kirk Douglas Theatre as part of Center Theatre Group's fourth annual Block Party: Celebrating Los Angeles Theatre. Written by Brendan Hunt and directed by Lauren Van Kurin,

Actors Co-op's production of Lee Blessing's “A Body of Water” with the world premiere of Blessing's new ending, directed by Nan McNamara, produced by Crystal Jackson, opened to a SOLD OUT house Friday night.   The play runs now through March 15, at Actors Co-op Crossley Theatre in Hollywood, California.

The Award-winning Actors Co-op Theatre Company will present 'A Body of Water' written by Lee Blessing with the world premiere of Blessing's new ending, directed by Nan McNamara, produced by Crystal Jackson. The play will run February 7 through March 15, at Actors Co-op Crossley Theatre in Hollywood, California.

The 30th Annual LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards, celebrating theatrical excellence and achievement throughout Los Angeles, were presented on Monday, January 13, at the Theatre at Ace Hotel in downtown LA.

The Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center will be presenting the family classic holiday show ELF THE MUSICAL from December 14 a?" 29, 2019 at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, 3050 Los Angeles Avenue, Simi Valley CA 93065. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm. Additional performances will be December 18 and 19 at 8 pm and Saturday matinees at 2 pm on December 21 and 28, 2019.

It's 1946 in Pittsburgh. An 18-year-old Andy Warhol finds himself in the basement of the working class bar. Over the course of a summer, Andy gives and gets inspiration, guidance, and friendship from a surprising source.

A well-acted ensemble gives THE ABUELAS its relatable humanity. Stephanie Alison Walker has written a unflinching look at realistic, flawed relationships under the most atypical circumstances. THE ABUELAS (THE GRANDMOTHERS) - a follow-up of Walker's THE MADRES (THE MOTHERS) also deals with the Dirty War in Argentina in the mid-1970s.

Sacred Fools Theater Company is launching its 23rd season with the World Premiere of the musical DEADLY by Vanessa Claire Stewart with Music by Ryan Thomas Johnson and directed by Jaime Robledo. Taking place in 1893, a time of hope and optimism as the World's Fair turns the globe's eyes toward Chicago and the cultural explosion of art and technology on display. But it is also a time when a demon lurks beneath, taking advantage of the adventuresome spirit of modern-thinking and very independent women. It just wouldn't do to forget who they were.

Pacific Resident Theatre announces the extension of a?oeANDY WARHOL'S TOMATOa?? by Vince Melocchi through October 27th.

Actors Co-op Theatre Company (Ovation Winner 2018 Best Direction of a Musical - Intimate Theatre) announces its 28th Season of shows!

a?oeIf you have doubts about your identity, contact Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo.a?? So read billboards across Argentina, where thousands of people were a?oedisappeareda?? between 1976 and 1983 under a brutal military dictatorship. Questions of truth and identity are explored when Antaeus Theatre Company presents theWest Coast premiere ofStephanie Alison Walker's striking new play, The Abuelas. Andi Chapman directs for anOct. 11 opening at the Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center in Glendale, where performances continue through Nov. 25. Low-priced previews begin Oct. 3.

It's very rare for a play to leave me in tears, the first to stand to applaud a cast during their curtain call. But this was the case when I attended the World Premiere of DOPE QUEENS, brilliantly written and directed by Grafton Doyle at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre, which takes us to real places inhabited by real characters inspired by real people, grappling with hardcore real-life problems tempered by the only practical survival strategies available to them on the gritty streets of the infamous Tenderloin District in San Francisco.

Today, South Coast Repertory Artistic Director David Ivers and Managing Director Paula Tomei announced the 13 creative dream teams for the 2019-20 season, the first programmed by Ivers. The roughly 100 individuals are among the theatre industry's finest, most creative and versatile talents.

The world premiere of playwright Vince Melocchi's ANDY WARHOL'S TOMATO receives a solid mounting at the Pacific Resident Theatre. Dana Jackson directs this fictionalized two-hander on the possible beginnings of pop artist icon Andy Warhol, with a deft hand and a meticulous eye for character development via the subtle physical actions of the two wonderfully convincing actors - Derek Chariton as Andy Warhol and Keith Stevenson as Bones Bonino, the owner of the bar's storage room which TOMATO entirely takes place in.

TomorrowLand Productions & Pop Up Theater present a world premiere play, DOPE QUEENS, written and directed by Grafton Doyle.

NATIVE SON, a novel written in 1940 by Richard Wright, tells the story of 20-year of Bigger Thomas, an African American youth living in utter poverty in a poor area on Chicago's South Side in 1939. While not apologizing for Bigger's crimes, Wright portrays a systemic inevitability behind them, making the case that there is no escape from his destiny since he is the inevitable product of the society in which he has lived since birth, faced by expectations imposed upon him by others tasked to teach him the proper way for a Black man to live in society. It is often said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. This is certainly the case in Wright's original story which could have been written today, given the similar news stories filling the airwaves right now involving police beatings of Black men and gun violence leading to senseless murders.