Catherine Gray News

Austenites can rejoice -- FreeFall Stage, a local community theatre known for its period pieces, has staged a new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The 1813 work is a commentary on the trappings of the Regency era social caste wrapped in a beautiful romance novel. It has been adapted to television and stage and has inspired multiple literary spinoffs. It continues to be one of the most popular novels in British literature and its themes of patriarchy, judgment, class, and love are as relevant today as they were 200 years ago.

The original Off-Broadway Cast Recording of Millennials Are Killing Musicals has been released in digital and streaming formats on Friday, September 15. Find out where to listen here!

The cast of Out of the Box Theatrics’ Millennials Are Killing Musicals by Nico Juber, directed by Ciara Renée, will head into the studio this week to record its original cast album to be released this fall on Yellow Sound Label.  

Park Avenue Armory has announced the 100 Years | 100 Women Conversation Series in collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a continuation of the 100 Years | 100 Women initiative celebrating the centennial of the 19th Amendment's ratification granting some women the right to vote.

On August 18, marking the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Park Avenue Armory and lead partner National Black Theatre, together with nine other New York City cultural institutions, unveiled the next phase of the 100 Years | 100 Women initiative.

This year the Staten Island Museum marks the centennial of the 19th Constitutional Amendment with a new exhibition, Women of the Nation Arise! Staten Islanders in the Fight for Women's Right to Vote.

On August 18, marking the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Park Avenue Armory and lead partner National Black Theatre, together with nine other New York City cultural institutions, will unveil the next phase of the 100 Years | 100 Women initiative.

This March, to coincide with Women's History Month, the Staten Island Museum marks the centennial of the 19th Constitutional Amendment with a new exhibition, Women of the Nation Arise! Staten Islanders in the Fight for Women's Right to Vote. The exhibition will present the remarkable stories of local suffragists acting on the grassroots level to create the momentum necessary for regional and national change and the bold tactics they employed to win the vote.

The Canadian Opera Company Orchestra Academy welcomes five student musicians to join its fifth annual training intensive, taking place January 7 26, 2018. Led by COC Music Director Johannes Debus, and in collaboration with The Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Schulich School of Music at McGill University and the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music, the program offers its student musicians one-on-one mentorship and practical experience in their pursuit of a career in an opera orchestra.

Following a highly successful inaugural year, the Live Love Thrive Women's Empowerment Conference kicked-off a second edition featuring expanded programming, including SHE Tank female entrepreneurs pitching female investors for funding, motivational speakers, and a panel featuring financial experts, alongside musical performances and short films about extraordinary women with inspiring stories. The Conference was held at the West Hollywood Library City Council Chambers and was presented and co-sponsored by the City of West Hollywood, the Women's Advisory Board and Honda of Downtown Los Angeles.

Georgiana Vicary, her whole family and her circle of friends are all waiting for shy Adam Lancaster to propose to her and end her shame of being almost 30 and still unmarried. Her conscience and truthfulness, however, do not make her life with the handsome fiance easy. The first London production of suffragette Cicely Hamilton's play in over 100 years is diverse and funny, but takes time to properly kick off.

The first London production in over a hundred years of Just To Get Married, a romantic comedy by renowned suffragette Cicely Hamilton opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 25 July 2017.

Actors Co-op (Ovation Award-Winner 2014 Best Intimate Theatre Musical for110 in the Shade) presents the fifth and final show in its celebratory 25th Silver Anniversary season, the killer musical from the writers of Ragtime and Once On This Island, LUCKY STIFF, book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, music by Stephen Flaherty, choreography by Julie Hall, musical direction by Taylor Stephenson and directed by Stephen Van Dorn.  LUCKY STIFF will preview on Wednesday, May 10 & Thursday, May 11 at 8pm and will open on Friday, May 12 at 8pm and run through Sunday, June 18 at the Actors Co-op David Schall Theatre, 1760 N. Gower St. (on the campus of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood) in Hollywood.

The first-ever Live Love Thrive Conference was held on Saturday, November 12 in West Hollywood and featured a line-up of trailblazing women leaders in a series of sessions designed to assist attendees in both finding their life's purpose as well as in funding, marketing and manifesting it. The conference was presented and co-sponsored by the City of West Hollywood, the Women's and Lesbian Gay Advisory Board and Honda of Downtown Los Angeles.

LIVE LOVE THRIVE, an interview-format, one-hour radio show launched on Wednesday July 13, 2016, on the United Broadcasting Network (UBN).

The Barter Players, Barter Theatre's performance group for children, will stage 'The Velveteen Rabbit' and 'Junie B. Jones: The Musical' this spring.

Actors Co-op presents Athol Fugard's spellbinding MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA!, produced by Catherine Gray and directed by Inger Tudor. MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA! opened on March 20 and runs through May 3 at the Actors Co-op Crossley Theatre, 1760 N. Gower St. (on the campus of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood) in Hollywood. Check out the first production photos below!

Actors Co-op has announced its fourth show in its 2014-2015 season (and 23rd year of producing theatrical excellence in Los Angeles!) with Athol Fugard's spellbinding MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA!, produced by Catherine Gray and directed by Inger Tudor. MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA! will preview tonight, March 18 and Thursday, March 19 at 8pm and will open on Friday, March 20 at 8pm and run through Sunday, May 3 at the Actors Co-op Crossley Theatre, 1760 N. Gower St. (on the campus of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood) in Hollywood.

Actors Co-op has announced its fourth show in its 2014-2015 season (and 23rd year of producing theatrical excellence in Los Angeles!) with Athol Fugard's spellbinding MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA!, produced by Catherine Gray and directed by Inger Tudor. MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA! will preview on Wednesday, March 18 and Thursday, March 19 at 8pm and will open on Friday, March 20 at 8pm and run through Sunday, May 3 at the Actors Co-op Crossley Theatre, 1760 N. Gower St. (on the campus of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood) in Hollywood.

Charles Dickens' last novel, unfinished at the time of his death in 1870, supplied the story for the musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood which won five Tony Awards when it first premiered in 1985. Although it won for Best Book and Best Score, I hardly find either completely satisfying. On the musical side, it's very much like operetta, with pretty singing, but with only one memorable song 'Don't Quit While You're Ahead'. As far as the book is concerned, it is a lengthy attempt to complete Dickens' story by allowing the audience to have its say...certainly a novel concept in 1985. Was he murdered? Was he in fact alive at the end? You decide! On the positive side, it is creative and very theatrical as a play within a play encouraging grande overplaying by the company of actors, and making it an assuredly fun entertainment. Despite mixed feelings about the play, I cannot but laud the current production at Actors Coop which is magnificently staged by director Stephen Van Dorn, wonderfully choreographed by Julie Hall and with an astounding ensemble... through October 26.