Jacque-Lynn Colton News

Needless to say, Joanna McClelland Glass' If We Are Women is a stodgy, heady piece of theatre in which very little if anything happens dramatically. It is the type of play that is better to read than watch. Every kind of woman is represented: the prairie woman, with little or no education, the intellectual and the wanna-be intellectual. There are three generations: two grandmothers, a divorced mother and her teenage daughter, all of whom, as different as they are, have in common a batch of insecurities... and they all want what is better for their lives and the lives of those they love. Now onstage at Group rep, Sherry Netherland has directed four actresses, all of whom give excellent performances, but, in spite of the fine work, something is missing.

It is common knowledge that a movie director's vision shapes the outcome of a film, meaning that irregardless of the quality of the actors' performances, film is most assuredly the director's medium. Now in translating Tennessee Williams' screenplay Baby Doll to the stage, Joel Daavid is proof positive that the director is in control. Starting as the one-act 27 Wagons Full of Cotten, when adapted into the film Baby Doll, director Elia Kazan made the atmosphere of place just as important a character as Archie, Flora and Silva. Daavid is determined with his amazingly ample and mood- perfect stage set to transport the audience into the delapidated world of Tiger Tail, Miss. of the late 50s, and cinematically, he does just that. Using an ensemble of actors who play townsfolk to double as ghosts around Archie's run-down homestead is Daavid's original perspective, not a part of Kazan's movie. Some may question the stylized manner in which these characters move around within an otherwise gritty, realistic play, but one thing is for sure: Daavid's re-envisioning does create an undeniably eerie mood that enhances the uncertainty of destiny so apparent at the play's core. The themes of Where to go? and what to do? echo throughout.

The Elephant Theatre Company, David Fofi and Lindsay Allbaugh, Co-Artistic Directors, in association with Double A Productions, has announced its production of Baby Doll by Tennessee Williams, directed and designed by Joel Daavid, at the Lillian Theatre in Hollywood.

1948's Summer and Smoke was rewritten in the 60s by Tennessee Williams and what resulted was a more clearly structured/themed play with the same central characters entitled The Eccentricities of a Nightingale. Music teacher Miss Alma, daughter of an Episcopalean minister, was passionately in love with her neighbor young Dr. John Buchanan and when that love was unrequited rather than become a miserable spinster, she turned to prostitution. Now in a rare and lovely production of the refined play @ A Noise Within, Williams poetic spirit is alive and well in Miss Alma, the Spanish word for soul.

In a year marking the 100th anniversary of Tennessee Williams' birth, A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, presents the celebrated playwright's THE ECCENTRICITIES OF A NIGHTINGALE, an ode to fragile beauty, directed by Damaso Rodriguez, opening Saturday, March 19 and running through Saturday, May 28, 2011 (previews begin Saturday, March 12).

In a year marking the 100th anniversary of Tennessee Williams' birth, A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, presents the celebrated playwright's THE ECCENTRICITIES OF A NIGHTINGALE, an ode to fragile beauty, directed by Damaso Rodriguez, opening Saturday, March 19 and running through Saturday, May 28, 2011 (previews begin Saturday, March 12).

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, presents Noel Coward's timeless comedic gem Blithe Spirit, directed by Damaso Rodriguez, which opens Saturday, October 9 and closes Friday, December 17, 2010 (previews begin Saturday, October 2).

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, presents Noel Coward's timeless comedic gem Blithe Spirit, directed by Damaso Rodriguez, which opens Saturday, October 9 and closes Friday, December 17, 2010 (previews begin Saturday, October 2).

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, presents Noel Coward's timeless comedic gem Blithe Spirit, directed by Damaso Rodriguez, which opens Saturday, October 9 and closes Friday, December 17, 2010 (previews begin Saturday, October 2).

L.A.'s award winning, Gangbusters Theatre Company is pleased to announce, in its eighth season, the critically acclaimed modern day adaptation of Buchner's Woyzeck. Their production of this famous German play has been selected to appear in this year's The New York International Fringe Festival. Gangbusters' hit production transfers from its sold out Los Angeles run for a limited 5 show engagement this August.

L.A.'s award winning Gangbusters Theatre Company is pleased to announce in its eighth season, the critically acclaimed modern day adaptation of George Buchner's Woyzeck. Their production of this famous German play has been selected to appear in this year's New York International Fringe Festival. Gangbusters' hit production transfers from its sold out Los Angeles run for a limited 5 show engagement this August.

L.A.'s award winning, Gangbusters Theatre Company is pleased to announce, in its eighth season, the critically acclaimed modern day adaptation of Buchner's Woyzeck. Their production of this famous German play has been selected to appear in this year's The New York International Fringe Festival. Gangbusters' hit production transfers from its sold out Los Angeles run for a limited 5 show engagement this August.

L.A.'s award winning, Gangbusters Theatre Company is pleased to announce, in its eighth season, the critically acclaimed modern day adaptation of Buchner's Woyzeck. Their production of this famous German play has been selected to appear in this year's The New York International Fringe Festival. Gangbusters' hit production transfers from its sold out Los Angeles run for a limited 5 show engagement this August.