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.
I'm perfectly fine when a play chooses to break the fourth wall and become self-referential. The ability for anything to be able to point out its own shortcomings is a sign of self-actualization. But when a play repeatedly does so and then pats itself on the back for its cleverness of doing so as does Aaron Posner's "Stupid F**king Bird", currently playing at ACT, then it becomes wearing almost to the point of insulting. And while Posner's play certainly has its funny moments, those repeated exposes onto itself started to feel like the play was flipping the audience the bird (and I don't mean a Seagull).
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.
ACT - A Contemporary Theatre presents Stupid f**king Bird by Aaron Posner, where Chekhov's story of love, art, and a hapless bird gets a remarkably contemporary face. On the grounds of a country estate, a battle between young and old ensues in this heartbreaking, hilarious, sort-of-adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. Winner of the 2014 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play, Stupid f**king Bird is about our longing to love and be loved.
The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle named the multi-nominated Hit the Wall and Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles as 2015's Outstanding Productions at the organization's 47th annual awards event, held on Monday evening, March 14 at the Moss Theatre of New Roads School in Santa Monica.
The world premiere of playwright Stefanie Zadravec's entrancing COLONY COLLAPSE receives an ingenious audience-immersive staging as the 50th mainstage production of The Theatre @ Boston Court. Jessica Kubzansky firm-handedly directs her cast of ten stellar acting talents in the hold-your-breath interlinking stories of the surviving parents of children gone missing.
The Theatre @ Boston Court presents Colony Collapse, by Stefanie Zadravec, directed by Jessica Kubzansky. This world premiere production opens Saturday, February 20, 2016 at 8pm on the Main Stage at Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue in Pasadena.
The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC) has announced its nominations and special awards for excellence in Los Angeles and Orange County theatre for the year 2015 (Dec. 1, 2014 - Nov. 30, 2015).
ACT - A Contemporary Theatre presents Stupid f**king Bird by Aaron Posner, where Chekhov's story of love, art, and a hapless bird gets a remarkable contemporary face lift.
The Theatre @ Boston Court presents Colony Collapse, by Stefanie Zadravec, directed by Jessica Kubzansky. This world premiere production opens Saturday, February 20, 2016 at 8pm on the Main Stage at Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue in Pasadena.
The Theatre @ Boston Court announces its 2016 Main Stage Season. The season begins February 20, 2016 with the World Premiere of Colony Collapse by Stefanie Zadravek, directed by Jessica Kubzansky. The spring production is the Southern California Premiere of The Golden Dragon by Roland Schimmelpfennig, translated by David Tushingham, directed by Michael Michetti. The Main Stage season closes in the fall with a National New Play Network rolling world premiere of Bars and Measures, by Idris Goodwin, directed by Weyni Mengesha. All Main Stage productions will appear at Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue.
The Theatre @ Boston Court presents Seven Spots on the Sun, by Martin Zimmerman, directed by Michael John Garces. This co-production with Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre opens Sunday, October 4, 2015 at 5pm on the Main Stage at Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue in Pasadena.
The trouble with one man shows is that it's difficult to make them engaging no matter the subject. Such is the pitfall that Jeanne Sakata's "Hold These Truths", currently playing at ACT Theatre, falls into. This may be an incredibly horrifying thing that happened to this man but unless you have an engaging way to tell it you might as well be trapped with someone at a party as they recount (in detail) their life story. And while that conversation might be ok for a little while, after 90 minutes it becomes wearing.
Inspired by the true story of University of Washington student Gordon Hirabayashi, Hold These Truths follows Gordon during the U.S. Government's decision to forcibly remove and incarcerate people of Japanese ancestry during World War II.
The Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival (perry-mansfield.org/events/3/new-works-festival) now in its 18th year, brings performing arts professionals together in the Rocky Mountains to continue Perry-Mansfield's founding principle of nurturing new talent through new work. This year's festival, taking place this weekend, June 12-13 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, will feature new works from some of America's most prestigious theater companies: Atlantic Theater Company, Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company, Primary Stages, andSouth Coast Repertory. The companies will showcase four different new works in partnership with Perry-Mansfield.
The Theatre @ Boston Court presents Shiv, by Aditi Brennan Kapil, directed by Emilie Beck. Opening night is Saturday, July 11, 2015 on the Main Stage at Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue in Pasadena.
The Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival (perry-mansfield.org/events/3/new-works-festival) now in its 18th year, brings performing arts professionals together in the Rocky Mountains to continue Perry-Mansfield's founding principle of nurturing new talent through new work. This year's festival, taking place on June 12-13 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, will feature new works from some of America's most prestigious theater companies: Atlantic Theater Company, Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company, Primary Stages, andSouth Coast Repertory. The companies will showcase four different new works in partnership with Perry-Mansfield.
The Twentieth-Century Way, Tom Jacobson's acclaimed two- person play about homosexual entrapment in Los Angeles at the turn of the 20th century, premieres off-Broadway this spring. Directed by The Theatre @ Boston Court's Michael Michetti, and starring Will Bradley and Robert Mammana, the play begins previews tonight, May 28, 2015, with opening night set for June 3, 2015 at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre (224 Waverly Place, NYC). The limited engagement will run through July 19, 2015.
The Flea Theater has announced the New York premiere of The Theatre @ Boston Court's production of HAPPY DAYS by Samuel Beckett, directed by Andrei Belgrader. After critically acclaimed runs in Boston and LA, The Flea welcomes theater veterans Brooke Adams and Tony Award nominee Tony Shalhoub to Tribeca. Previews begin June 20 with opening night slated for June 29.
