Dan Weingarten News

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle has revealed the award recipients for 2023. See who the winners are and learn more about the awards!

Rogue Machine, renowned for its groundbreaking theatrical productions, announces dates for its most highly anticipated play of the season, 'Heroes of the Fourth Turning.' This gripping drama, written by Will Arbery and directed by Guillermo Cienfuegos, has captivated audiences with its thought-provoking exploration of ideology and identity.

As a fan of Shakespeare and immersive theatre productions, I was intrigued when I heard that The Shakespeare Center LA and After Hours Theatre Company were set to present the premiere of The Tempest: An Immersive Experience, a fully reimagined audience-participation performance based on William Shakespeare's tale of family members caught up in a storm and shipwrecked on an isolated Mediterranean island. So I decided to speak with the production's director Ben Donenberg, Shakespeare Center LA Artistic Director, Graham Wetterhahn, the Producing Artistic Director at After Hours Theatre Company, and Sara Beil one of the producers for After Hours who created the immersive design, about their vision for an immersive way to include audience members in the experience of Shakespeare's tempestuous play.

The world premiere of Smile opens IAMA’s 15th anniversary season on November 12 at Atwater Village Theatre, where performances continue through December 5. Low-priced previews begin November 10.

Taffeta’s dialog is often an attack on the audience rather than a composition about Lincoln.  A passive character study with a blow-horn built in so that you don’t doze off into your own fantasy about who she is and what SHE represents.

Acclaimed Black Filipinx playwright and Kilroys List honoree Roger Q. Mason will star as Taffeta in the World Premiere of their much-anticipated play Lavender Men with Skylight Theatre Company and Playwrights’ Arena in Los Angeles, August 6-September 4.

Six women find themselves trapped on an email chain as they plan their friend's baby shower when IAMA Theatre Company presents Untitled Baby Play by Nina Braddock. Katie Lindsay directs the IAMA-developed world premiere for a five-week run that continues through June 27 at Atwater Village Theatre.

24th Street Theatre's world premiere production of Rapunzel Alone, presented in association with the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, returns to the 24th Street venue April 9 through May 1 following a two-weekend run at The Wallis. To increase audience accessibility, all performances feature Spanish supertitles.

Lettie is a city girl and London is her home. But when the war comes to her doorstep, for her safety, Lettie is sent to the country with over 600,000 other children. But it's not as nice as she'd been promised. For the next year, Lettie spends her lonely, monotonous days on an isolated farm wishing she was anywhere else but there.

Loosely inspired by the famous children's story, Rapunzel Alone centers on Lettie, a young mixed-race girl from London who is sent to the countryside for her own safety during the daily bombings of World War II. On an isolated country farm, she faces her own battles with a strict new guardian and a very “fowl” goose.

Long Beach Opera has announced a revised 2021 Season, which will include an exciting return to live opera performance in May with an immersive drive-in Phillip Glass opera, the company’s first venture into longform digital content with a world premiere operatic television series in June, and an outdoor live performance of two operas in August.

24th Street Theatre finds color in the lives of two orphan girls living in a silent film world of black, white and varying shades of gray. Debbie Devine directs the West Coast premiere of Kerry Muir's magical, surreal, dream-like movie-within-a play, The Night Buster Keaton Dreamed Me, for an April 11 opening. Performances will continue through May 31, with low-priced previews taking place March 28 through April 5.

IAMA Theatre Company presents the West Coast premiere of Found, a new musical inspired by Davy Rothbart's popular Found Magazine, which features scores of actual discarded notes and letters that have been 'found' in the real world by everyday people.

Renowned for presenting sophisticated and provocative theater that appeals to both kids and adults, 24th Street Theatre puts a cutting edge spin on a seemingly simple tale. The Los Angeles premiere of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, adapted for the stage by Dwayne Hartford from the award-winning novel by Kate DiCamillo, opens on April 6 at 24th Street's converted carriage house on the edge of L.A.'s historic West Adams historic district. Low-priced previews take place on March 9 and 10.

Seduced by the notion that, in America, winning is everything, an immigrant loses sight of what is really important in Leon Martell's world premiere play, ICE. Commissioned by 24th STreet Theatre to commemorate its 20th anniversary, the 65-minute one act highlights the plight of every hopeful soul diligently trying to attain the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness promised by our founding fathers.

Commissioned by award-winning 24th Street Theatre in celebration of its 20th Anniversary Season, the world premiere of ICE, written by Leon Martell and directed by Debbie Devine, is a bilingual, humorous journey in search of what it means to be "American." For adults and kids 8 and up, ICE opens on April 21, with low-priced previews beginning April 7.

Ebony Repertory Theatre (ERT - Producing Artistic Director, Wren T. Brown) presents FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE starring Emmy Award-winner Obba Babatunde (Dreamgirls - Tony Award nomination, Broadway's Chicago, CBS's The Bold and the Beautiful) as 'Nomax.'

Stage Raw announces the nominations for its third annual awards show 'A Wake and Sing!,' coming Monday, May 15 to Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring Street, Downtown.

Ebony Repertory Theatre announced today the full casting and the creative team of FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE. Acclaimed veteran actor Reginald VelJohnson (ABC/CBS's Family Matters, Die Hard, Die Hard 2) will co-star as 'Big Moe' with the previously announced Emmy Award-winner Obba Babbatunde (Dreamgirls - Tony Award nomination, Broadway's Chicago, CBS's The Bold and the Beautiful) as 'Nomax.'

Goonie, a world premiere play written and performed by Terry Maratos, will run for a limited engagement of five weeks at the Atwater Village Theatre with opening set for Friday, April 7 at 8pm, it was announced today. There will be one Pay-What-You-Can preview performance on Thursday, April 6 at 8pm. Directed by Jim Anzide, the run will continue through May 5 only.