Dennis Gersten News

How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel. The play is a funny, surprising and devastating tale of survival as seen through the lens of a troubling relationship between a young girl and an older man.

Culver City residents Jeannine and Jack Stehlin are celebrating the 21st anniversary season of their New American Theatre production company by presenting MACBETH: REVISITED, directed by and starring Jack Stehlin in the title role with choreography and sound design by John Farmanesh-Bocca. Last year, this team of two brilliant production designers brought the award-winning Tempest Redux to the Odyssey Theatre, with mind-blowing choreography enabling the classic tale to resonant with modern audiences. Their great skill working together is again gracing a local stage at Sacred Fools on Hollywood's Theatre Row, featuring a gender-bending cast of company members who tell Shakespeare's tale of power, greed, and the blood-thirst for ambition - all in a roughly 95-minute theatrical journey.

2Cents Theatre Group's popular 3-day festival of female playwrights is back for year four! We are once again gathering around 100 artists for this exciting event, from playwrights to directors to actors and street artists, to celebrate the FEMALE PLAYWRIGHT and ART! The Fest will take place March 17-19 at the Hudson Theatres in Hollywood, right in the heart of Theatre Row and the Los Angeles 99-seat community.

The New American Theatre celebrates their 21st Anniversary season with William Shakespeare's 'Macbeth: Revisited.'

THE HAIRY APE at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble through July 17 tells the story of Robert 'Yank' Smith, a brutish ship laborer who searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the wealthy elite who he believes only see him as a dirty and hairy ape rather than a real human being. As head coal stoker on an ocean liner, Yank (Haile D'Alan whose incredible and extremely physical performance lifts the entire production to the highest artistic quality) is in his element where he rules his dark, hot, hard-drinking smoky world while managing a group of six other coal stokers who seem to prove their resemblance to simians no matter what they do thanks to the brilliant and totally physical ape-like choreography of their every move by director Steven Berkoff. It's truly a wonder as to how the ensemble manages to keep their energy at such a high level throughout the entire show.

Renowned British actor/writer/director Steven Berkoff directs a rare production of Eugene O'Neill's 1922 expressionist play THE HAIRY APE. The production opened on May 14 at West L.A.'s Odyssey Theatre, and BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

2Cents's Acting Out INK Fest is back for its 3rd exciting year, organized by its Founding President and Artistic Director Kristin Boule. The Fest is being held for 3 days this weekend at the Hudson Theatres in Hollywood, right in the heart of Theatre Row and the LA 99-seat community. INK FEST 2016 features fully produced 1-act plays, ranging from 10-60 minutes, organized in themed-groups, featuring over 100 artists from playwrights to directors to actors and street artists celebrating the FEMALE PLAYWRIGHT and ART. A total of 21 plays by 19 female playwrights are being presented, with 19 directors and 49 actors. What's more, the festival will flood not just the theatre, but also the street & the Hudson Cafe, serving wine & beer all weekend long, with special events scattered throughout.

2Cents's Acting Out INK Fest is back for its 3rd exciting year!!! We are once again gathering over 100 artists for this 3-day event, from playwrights to directors to actors and street artists, to celebrate the FEMALE PLAYWRIGHT and ART! The Fest will kickoff beginning on Friday April 15 at 1pm at the Hudson Theatres in Hollywood, right in the heart of Theatre Row and the LA 99-seat community.

TEMPEST REDUX's certainly an welcomed addition to John Farmanesh-Bocca's resume of his visceral, modern re-workings of Shakespeare classics. Farmanesh-Bocca's trademark physicality shines in the inspired pairing of Dash Pepin and Willem Long, both portraying Prospero's slave Caliban in tandem. Their heightened primal antics, acrobatic lifts, frog-leaping and finishing each other's sentences command the stage.

I had never heard of the romantic comedy PERFECT TIMING by Kristi Kane before enjoying it so much at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills - and with good reason as this is only the second production of the play. This wild and often bordering on farce production is perfectly marvelous and brilliantly cast, directed with great style and panache by Bruce Gray who took over the reins just two weeks prior to opening. Add in the perfectly glamorous and homespun costumes by Michele Young and you have a perfect production that will keep you laughing throughout its quick two hour run time.

Barret Lewis, Gabriela Ortega, Lockne O'Brien star in the ROAD THEATRE COMPANY's World Premiere Production of 'HOMEFREE' Saturday August 2 2PM- written by Lisa Loomer and directed by Michael Matthews and now playing at the Road Theatre on Magnolia. BroadwayWorld has photos from the show below!

The Coachella Valley Repertory Theatre, in Rancho Mirage, California, has mounted a brilliant production of THE CHOSEN as part of its 'American Melting Pot' series. THE CHOSEN examines the lives of two Orthodox Jewish high school friends in Brooklyn during and immediately after World War II. One boy lives in the modern world and one is cocooned in the Hasidic community, but both must deal with their own family concerns, the horror of the Holocaust, and their fathers' estrangement over differing views on Zionism.

CVRep Theatre is back for its fourth outstanding season with a melange of four plays by four critically acclaimed playwrights that celebrate some of the distinct cultures that resonate in America today.

CVRep Theatre is back for its fourth outstanding season with a melange of four plays by four critically acclaimed playwrights that celebrate some of the distinct cultures that resonate in America today.

The time: 1661. The place: London, England. It was illegal for women to perform onstage in any capacity. Women's roles were played by male actors, and there was no one more illustrious than Edward Kynaston (Ben Rovner), whose atypical livelihood came to an abrupt standstill. This is told via a splendid theatrical style of the period in Jeffrey Hatcher's superbly written Compleat Female Stage Beauty, currently receiving an outstanding production at Crown City Theatre.

Crown City Theatre presents Jeffrey Hatchers' Compleat Female STAGE BEAUTY. The official press opening is tonight, May 31. The show runs through July 1.

Crown City Theatre presents Jeffrey Hatchers' Compleat Female STAGE BEAUTY. Previews begin May 25, with an official press opening of May 31. The show runs through July 1.

Coeurage Theatre Company's artistic director Jeremy Lelliiott talks about producing Double Falsehood, thought to be a 'long lost play' by William Shakespeare.

This April, the critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning Fountain Theatre brings back last season's sold-out production of The Accomplices by former New York Times political reporter Bernard Weinraub. The true story of firebrand Peter Bergson, who shook up the U.S. State Department and the American Jewish establishment in his fight to rescue European Jews from the Nazis, is back with Steven Schub heading the cast ('a dynamic, impassioned portrayal' - Buzzine) and director Deborah LaVine at the helm ('Lavine skillfully melds a fine cast into a gripping production' - LA Weekly).