The 1/52 Project, the new financial grant program founded by Tony Award-winning set designer Beowulf Boritt, has selected the first seven early-career designer recipients to benefit from $100,000 in grants.
I was fortune to be able to see the last production Ron Celona will direct in his role as artistic director at CVRep. He's once again delivered top-notch entertainment in the form of Closer Than Ever.
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.'
For those who are unfamiliar with A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen that's perfectly fine. All you need to know is that Nora Helmer walked out on her husband Torvald and their three children with a slamming of the front door.
Desert Ensemble Theatre (DETC) has a must-see winner in its world premiere production of ADOPTION ROULETTE, by Elizabeth Fuller and Joel Vig. The play tells the true story of the horrifying experiences that Ms. Fuller and her husband, Reuel Dorman, went through in 2004 in picking their way through the minefield of Russian adoption.
Post-world-war-two America somehow managed to erase what 1920s women had fought so hard to create, and what the war effort at home had literally proved, that women could just as easily do a man's job. During the war, women were working in factories, becoming mechanics, if it was a 'man's job' women were out there doing it while the men fought the war. When the men came home, somehow women said hurrah! and happily became housewives and mothers. 'Whew! So glad to be back where I belong!' every magazine, billboard, and family-centric television show seemed to say, characterizing women as happy homemakers whose identity was determined by her biology aka her ability to keep a man happy in bed while producing babies, and all of the domesticity that implies.
Following a record number of nominations and votes, winners have been announced for the 2019 BroadwayWorld Palm Springs Awards, brought to you by TodayTix!! The nominees were set, audiences voted, and now we get to recognize local theatres and performers for their outstanding achievement!
There's just one final week to submit votes for the 2019 BroadwayWorld Palm Springs Awards, brought to you by TodayTix! Vote today to make sure your favorite local theatre's achievements and performers are recognized!
We're heading into the final week of voting for the 2019 BroadwayWorld Palm Springs Awards, brought to you by TodayTix! Vote today to make sure your favorite local theatre's achievements and performers are recognized!
There's just two weeks left to vote for the 2019 BroadwayWorld Palm Springs Awards, brought to you by TodayTix! The people have spoken nominations are set, and now you can vote to make sure your favorite local theatre's achievements and performers are recognized!
There's just a few weeks left to make your voice heard and submit your votes for the 2019 BroadwayWorld Palm Springs Awards, brought to you by TodayTix! The people have spoken nominations are set, and now you can vote to make sure your favorite local theatre's achievements and performers are recognized!
It's December! Voting is now underway for the 2019 BroadwayWorld Palm Springs Awards, brought to you by TodayTix! Now you can vote to make sure your favorite local theatres and performers are recognized. Check out the first set of stats below.
Many years ago, I was having drinks with a married couple who were my two best friends. They both greeted me with warm hugs, and then he ran out to the store for cigarettes. She had a pitcher of homemade margaritas, and suggested we enjoy them on the back patio. We'd just settled in, and were looking out on her beautiful garden when she quietly said, 'He wants a divorce.' I was shocked and confused, and my reaction surprised even me. I threw up. My mind was trying to figure out how this had happened - they'd worked so hard to be together, he'd talked her into marriage just a few years prior after being together for over ten years; I just didn't see this coming, and neither did she. In the end, she fared much better than I did; she went on a couple of dating sites, met a new guy and they're crazy in love. I don't think I ever got over it. And that's pretty much what Donald Margulies Pulitzer Prize-winning Dinner With Friends explores.
Greater Tuna is a strange little play that was written in 1982 and was a huge hit in middle America before it made its way Off-Broadway, and eventually to HBO. There are three plays in the series, and Coyote Stageworks has mounted the first one as their final production in their 2018/2019 schedule as a nod to their first season.
In 2001, David Auburn wrote a Tony and Pulitzer prize winning comedic drama, PROOF, that explores the fine line between genius and madness. Now, Desert Ensemble Theatre Company (DETC) has mounted a fine production, well directed and well-acted by its ensemble cast.
The dramatist.com website describes White Guy on the Bus thusly: Week after week a wealthy white businessman rides the same bus, befriending a single black mom. As they get to know each other, their pasts unfold and tensions rise, igniting a disturbing and crucial exploration of race.' While that is true, it doesn't even come close to describing what a powerhouse of a play Bruce Graham has written, and in the case of DezArt Performs, what a powerful and humorous production in the hands of Director, Michael Shaw and his brilliant cast of actors. So, yes, it's about a white guy on a bus, yes it is about racism, but it is not heavy (okay, some of it is heavy, but it's steeped in story). The play deftly grabs your psyche, twists it, turns it and then messes with your perceptions on race - no matter how evolved you think you are - and smacks you full-on in the face, sometimes light-heartedly, and sometimes with a vengeance. Even if you think you're woke, you might find out that you're not. We'll get into that in a moment, but first, let's discuss Thomas Valach's set.
Desert Ensemble Theatre's (DETC's) world premiere production of FOR A REASON, by DETC's playwright-in-residence and founding artistic director, Tony Padilla, is an uplifting comedy with witty repartee and fine acting by the whole cast. It is well worth seeing.
CHURCH AND STATE by DezArts Performs' opening night brings the audience to their feet with a well-deserved standing ovation.
Award-winning Dezart Performs opens it's eleventh season in the desert with the 'serious comedy' CHURCH AND STATE on November 9 at The Pearl McManus Theatre in donwtown Palm Springs. Production notes state: 'Three days before his bid for reelection, a Republican U.S. senator makes an off-the-cuff comment to a blogger that gets leaked on 'the Twitter,' calling into question the senator's stance on guns and God. As his devoutly Christian wife and liberal Jewish campaign manager try to contain the damage, this look at how religion influences politics and how politics has become a religion is simultaneously funny, heartbreaking, and uplifting.' I had the opportunity to catch up with Artistic Director, Michael Shaw, to talk about this production and all things 'Dezart'. Here are some excerpts from that conversation:
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