Derrick McDaniel News

Crimson Square's 2022-2023 Season opens with LOST LAKE by David Auburn, award winning playwright of PROOF.

Norm Foster has been called 'the Neil Simon of Canada.' The remarkably prolific author of 54 plays (with more on the way) is Canada's most popular and successful playwright. He's Theatre 40's favorite playwright, too. His new play will be the sixth that we've produced. The king of Canadian comedy is letting us produce the World Premiere engagement of A Clean Brush.

Theatre 40 will present the world remiere engagement of a new comedy, Basement Folly. Written by David Datz. Directed by Carol M. Becker. Produced by David Hunt Stafford. Presented by Theatre 40.

THE ROAD THEATRE COMPANY will celebrate the LGBTQ+ community with a special one-night only performance of BRIGHT HALF LIFE starring Kacie Rogers and Tiffany Wolff.  If you missed seeing this exquisitely staged production, then mark your calendar for Wednesday, June 22 at 8:00pm.

THE ROAD THEATRE COMPANY and Taylor Gilbert, Founder/Artistic Director together with Sam Anderson, Artistic Director, announce the third and final show of its 30th Anniversary Repertory Season, Sam Anderson & Taylor Gilbert starring in the world premiere of BELOVED, written by Arthur Holden and directed by Cameron Watson.  BELOVED will begin previews on Tuesday, May 10; will open on Friday, May 20 at 8pm and run through Saturday, June 25 at the Road Theatre, located in The NoHo Senior Arts Colony, 10747 Magnolia Blvd. in North Hollywood.

THE ROAD THEATRE COMPANY and Taylor Gilbert, Founder/Artistic Director together with Sam Anderson, Artistic Director, are thrilled to announce that the critically acclaimed, world premiere production of THE PLAY YOU WANT, written by Bernardo Cubría and directed by Michael John Garcés will have a three-week extension following its announced closing on April 24.

THE ROAD THEATRE COMPANY and Taylor Gilbert, Founder/Artistic Director together with Sam Anderson, Artistic Director, announce the third and final show of its 30th Anniversary Repertory Season, Sam Anderson & Taylor Gilbert starring in the world premiere of BELOVED, written by Arthur Holden and directed by Cameron Watson.  

Pulitzer Prize nominee Tanya Barfield’s brilliant BRIGHT HALF LIFE is smartly and artfully realized by director Amy K. Harmon, adding up to another solid project from The Road Theatre, which consistently stages challenging and rewarding productions.

THE ROAD THEATRE COMPANY and Taylor Gilbert, Founder/Artistic Director together with Sam Anderson, Artistic Director, announce the second show of its 30th Anniversary Repertory Season, the Los Angeles premiere of BRIGHT HALF LIFE, written by Pulitzer Prize nominee Tanya Barfield and directed by Amy K. Harmon.  BRIGHT HALF LIFE will begin previews on Monday, April 4; will open on Friday, April 8 at 8pm and run through Sunday, May 22 at the Road Theatre, located in The NoHo Senior Arts Colony, 10747 Magnolia Blvd. in North Hollywood.

Every Brilliant Thing was a short story written by Duncan MacMillan. Actor and comedian Jonny Donahoe work-shopped it into a play with MacMillan before they took it off-Broadway. It is about suicide, and, surprisingly, it is not dark nor morose. It is, in fact, funny, touching and, in the broadest sense of the word, joyful.

The satirical juices flow through Michael John Garces’ production of THE PLAY YOU WANT. Set in the present day, the play offers a bunch of well-known, real-life figures who are sent up and ultimately knocked down to make Cubria’s point.

On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a march on Washington and gave a speech: 'I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.'

THE ROAD THEATRE COMPANY and Taylor Gilbert, Founder/Artistic Director together with Sam Anderson, Artistic Director, will celebrate Black History Month with an encore stream presentation of THIS BITTER EARTH, written by Harrison David Rivers and directed by Gregg T. Daniel.

Silent Sky, a play by Lauren Gunderson, will run at Theatre 40 from March 17th through April 17th, 2022. The show will play Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m, with Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m. The production is directed by Ann Hearn Tobolowsky and produced for Theatre 40 by David Hunt Stafford. Silent Sky is the story of a real woman whose life and discoveries were significant in their impact on Man's (and Woman's) next steps into the universe at large.

Theatre 40 world premieres John Strysik’s DEATH, WITH BENEFITS January 27, 2022. Jeff G. Rack directs this dark comedy cast of Susan Damante, Cheryl David, Kevin Dulude, Larry Eisenberg and Philip Sokoloff. I had the opportunity to interrogate John on the reasons behind his DEATH.

Theatre 40 presents Death, with Benefits. This world premiere engagement of a dark comedy, by John Strysik is directed by Jeff G. Rack. 

The Fountain Theatre will inaugurate their new outdoor stage with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ 2014 Obie Award-winning AN OCTOROON, with previews beginning June 11, 2021. Judith Moreland directs the cast of Leea Ayers, Matthew Hancock, Mara Klein, Hazel Lozano, Rob Nagle, Kacie Rogers, Vanessa Claire Stewart and Pam Trotter. Between final rehearsals, Matthew, who plays the playwright’s alter-ego among other characters, made some time to answer a few of my inquiries.

The Road Theatre Company has begun streaming playwright Steve Yockey’s REYKJAVÍK, their second show of their 2021 virtual season. Set in Reykjavík, Iceland, Ann Hearn Tobolowsky directs the REYKJAVÍK cast of Stephen Tyler Howell, Alaska Jackson, Carlos Lacamara, Brian Ibsen, Danny Lee Gomez and Jacqueline Misaye. Ann managed to find some time between REYKJAVÍK rehearsals, and being half of a beloved Los Angeles theatre acting/directing couple, to answer a few of my enquiries.

Casting is complete and rehearsals begin this week for the Los Angeles premiere of a radical, incendiary and subversively funny Obie award-winning play by MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” recipient Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

At the crossroads of cutting-edge digital technology and kinetic live theatre, this season will be presented as fully staged theatre productions recorded on a COVID-guideline compliant set, and then streamed — guaranteeing everyone who buys a ticket the best seat in the house!