Elizabeth Harper News

Solo shows written and performed by their authors need to be told with enough personal stage presence to be truly interesting to the audience. Such is the case in Lucy Alibar's world premiere THROW ME ON THE BURNPILE AND LIGHT ME UP in which she enthusiastically and humorously shares journal entries blending scenes of a lecherous goat, Pentecostals on the radio, disputes with a childhood freinemy, a clutter of inbred cats, phone calls from death row, Daddy's burnpile, and countless other rich ingredients into a delicious and magical stew of stories about her singular childhood in Grady County, Florida. The play is currently onstage through October 2, 2016,.at the Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre in downtown Culver City, directed by Center Theatre Group Associate Artistic Director Neel Keller.

August Wilson's hard-hitting 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' opened September 11 and continues through October 16, 2016, at the Center Theatre Group/ Mark Taper Forum. 'Ma Rainey...' is part of Wilson's American Century Cycle of 10 plays chronicling African American experience in 20th Century USA. BroadwayWorld has a first look at highlights of the show below, along with behind the scenes with the cast and celebrities!

The world premiere of 'Throw Me on the Burnpile and Light Me Up,' written and performed by the Oscar-nominated Lucy Alibar (Best Adapted Screenplay for 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'), will open this Today, September 16 at 8 p.m. Currently in previews, 'Throw Me on the Burnpile...' will continue through October 2, 2016, at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre. BroadwayWorld has a first look at Alibar in action below!

Rehearsals have begun for the world premiere of 'Throw Me on the Burnpile and Light Me Up,' written and performed by the Oscar-nominated Lucy Alibar (Best Adapted Screenplay for 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'). 'Throw Me on the Burnpile...' begins previews September 10, opens September 16 and continues through October 2, 2016, at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre.

The world premiere of 'Throw Me on the Burnpile and Light Me Up,' written and performed by the Oscar-nominated Lucy Alibar (Best Adapted Screenplay for 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'), will open this Friday, September 16 at 8 p.m. Currently in previews, 'Throw Me on the Burnpile...' will continue through October 2, 2016, at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre. BroadwayWorld has a first look at Alibar in action below!

August Wilson's hard-hitting 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' opened September 11 and continues through October 16, 2016, at the Center Theatre Group/ Mark Taper Forum. 'Ma Rainey...' is part of Wilson's American Century Cycle of 10 plays chronicling African American experience in 20th Century USA. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivities below!

Rehearsals have begun for the world premiere of 'Throw Me on the Burnpile and Light Me Up,' written and performed by the Oscar-nominated Lucy Alibar (Best Adapted Screenplay for 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'). 'Throw Me on the Burnpile...' begins previews September 10, opens September 16 and continues through October 2, 2016, at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre.

Now in previews, August Wilson's hard-hitting 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' opens September 11 and continues through October 16, 2016, at the Center Theatre Group/ Mark Taper Forum. 'Ma Rainey...' is part of Wilson's American Century Cycle of 10 plays chronicling African American experience in 20th Century USA. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Center Theatre Group presents August Wilson's 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' which begins previews tonight, August 31, opens September 11 and continues through October 16, 2016, at the Mark Taper Forum.

Rehearsals have begun for the world premiere of 'Throw Me on the Burnpile and Light Me Up,' written and performed by the Oscar-nominated Lucy Alibar (Best Adapted Screenplay for 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'). 'Throw Me on the Burnpile...' begins previews September 10, opens September 16 and continues through October 2, 2016, at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre.

Rehearsals have begun for August Wilson's blazing masterpiece 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' which begins previews September 1, opens September 11 and continues through October 16, 2016, at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. BroadwayWorld has a peek at the company in rehearsal below!

Center Theatre Group has announced the casting for August Wilson's 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' which begins previews August 31, opens September 11 and continues through October 16, 2016, at the Mark Taper Forum.

The Southern California premiere of playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig's THE GOLDEN DRAGON  benefits from the sturdy, first-rate technical production values The Theatre @ Boston Court has earned their deserved reputation for. Kudos to GOLDEN DRAGON's color-blind, gender-blind, ageist-blind casting. But with all this color/gender/ageist-blind casting comes the pitfall of equal opportunity offending.

What starts out as a simple toothache evolves into a dizzying chain of events as a group of disparate people, played by a cast of five who assume many roles indiscriminate of age, gender, and race, struggle to make connections in an increasingly isolated world. At the center of the story is a Thai/Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant, The Golden Dragon, where a young Chinese man suffering from an oversensitive incisor sparks a whacked and weird series of interconnected stories. A delicious mixture of epic theatre, bizarre comedy, poetry, and fable combine to create this fabulous pho.

More than ever, Americans are living in a state of fear. Such is the subject searingly explored in playwright Julia Cho's intensely jarring new play OFFICE HOUR which continues its exceptional world premiere performances at Orange County's Tony Award winning regional theater South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through April 30, 2016. For almost 80 gripping, heart-pounding minutes without an intermission, Cho and director Neel Keller tap into this fearful 'new normal' in the form of Gina, a divorced adjunct university professor brilliantly played with quiet yet powerful grace by Sandra Oh (of TV's Grey's Anatomy, making her SCR debut). In the play, Gina makes it her goal to get through to a young creative writing student, Dennis (Raymond Lee), whose disturbing, excessively ultra-violent writing submissions have caused some concerns with both students and teachers.

The Theatre @ Boston Court presents The Golden Dragon, by Roland Schimmelpfennig, translated by David Tushingham, directed by Boston Court Co-Artistic Director Michael Michetti. This world premiere production opens Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 5pm on the Main Stage at Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue in Pasadena.

The cast is set and rehearsals are underway for the West Coast premiere of Sheila Callaghan's madcap new play WOMEN LAUGHING ALONE WITH SALAD, opening March 13, 2016, at the Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre. Directed by Neel Keller and choreographed by Ken Roht, previews for WOMEN LAUGHING ALONE WITH SALAD begin March 6 and performances continue through April 3, 2016. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the company in rehearsal below!

Geffen Playhouse has exciting news to announce. The critically acclaimed and popular production Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon and directed by Matt Shakman extends by one week through July 26.

Geffen Playhouse welcomes Ari Brand (Broadway The Neil Simon Plays; Off-Broadway My Name is Asher Lev), Molly Ephraim (ABC's Last Man Standing, Broadway Into the Woods, Fiddler on the Roof; film Paranormal Activity), Lili Fuller (Hulu's Complete Works) and Raviv Ullman (Off-Broadway Sticks and Bones, title character in Disney's Phil of the Future) as the cast for its West Coast premiere production of Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon, directed by Matt Shakman, who is the artistic director of the Black Dahlia Theatre, a Geffen playhouse alumni (Good People, Wait Until Dark) and a noted television director (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Mad Men).