Rubicon Theatre Company (RTC) is pleased to announce the cast for the West Coast premiere of NICK PAYNE'S profoundly moving play INCOGNITO, directed by Ovation nominee and Indy Award-winner KATHARINE FARMER. This dazzling new drama explores what it means to be human and how memory and imagination shape our identities. Four actors play 21 characters in interwoven stories (some based on true events) about our desire to know ourselves and our yearning to be known and understood by others.
Rubicon Theatre Company (RTC) is pleased to announce the cast for the West Coast premiere of NICK PAYNE'S profoundly moving play INCOGNITO, directed by Ovation nominee and Indy Award-winner KATHARINE FARMER. This dazzling new drama explores what it means to be human and how memory and imagination shape our identities.
The dog days of summer arrive early this year, as Rubicon Theatre Company presents a spring production of A.R. Gurney's howlingly funny canine comedy SYLVIA, a love story about empty nesters Greg and Kate, and an irrepressible mutt named Sylvia. Written by Drama Desk, Obie and Lortel Award-winning playwright A.R. Gurney (also known for Love Letters and The Dining Room), the plot follows what happens after a man going through a midlife crisis finds a dog in Central Park and brings her home without consulting his wife.
The 2015-16 Janet and Mark L. Goldenson Broadway Musical Concert Series at Rubicon Theatre Company concludes with a concert presentation of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG.
The 2015-16 Janet and Mark L. Goldenson Broadway Musical Concert Series at Rubicon Theatre Company concludes with a concert presentation of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG.
Rubicon Theatre Company's 2016-2017 Season was publicly announced today at a special event hosted by Joe Spano(Emmy Award and L.A. Drama Critics' Circle Award-winning veteran of stage and screen) and Peter Van Norden (whose numerous credits include five Broadway shows, regional theatre, film and television). The two actors star as Marley and Scrooge, respectively, in the company's adaptation of A Christmas Carol, which was a Critic's Choice in the L.A. Times and will be reprised this December under the direction of Brian McDonald. The season also features the third play in Arlene Hutton's celebrated Nibroc Trilogy, Gulf View Drive, helmed by London-based director Katharine Farmer; Miche Braden reprising her Off-Broadway performance in The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith written by Angelo Parra and directed by Joe Brancato of Penguin Rep; the return of the most popular comedy in Rubicon history, A.R. Gurney's Sylvia, directed by Stephanie A. Coltrin; direct from Off-Broadway, The Other Mozart written by and starring Silvia Milo and directed by Isaac Byrne, about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's equally remarkable sister Nannerl; Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, Frank McGuinness' riveting tale based on a true story about three hostages held in Beirut in1986, directed by Katharine Farmer; and King Lear by William Shakespeare, directed by James O'Neil.
Last week we spoke with Fearless Shakespeare director Joseph Fuqua, dramaturg Jonathan Drahos, and Musical Theatre Intensive director Brian McDonald about their production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Today we continue our interview with Brian and Joseph about the forthcoming production of In the Heights, which opens this Sunday, August 5 at the Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura.
Rubicon Theatre Company presents the gender-bending romantic comedy Twelfth Night, or What You Will, performed by the students of the Education Department's Fearless Shakespeare Intensive, adapted and directed by Rubicon's first company member and critically acclaimed actor Joseph Fuqua. This hilarious tale of role reversal, unrequited love and mistaken identity receives a darkly romantic, goth-inspired reimagining by Fuqua and Dramaturg Dr. Jonathan Drahos. Twelfth Night or What You Will plays for only four performances when it opens on July 29.
While indecent in the twenties, Coward's absurd situation comedy delivers potency in the twenty-first century, now that common social opinion of pre-marital relations isn't nearly so damning.
Rubicon Theatre Company is thrilled to announce that its critically acclaimed American premiere of THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE by Jethro Compton, adapted from the short story by Dorothy M. Johnson that also inspired the legendary John Ford 1962 film, will extend through Saturday, March 26 at the Rubicon Theatre, 1006 E. Main Street in Ventura. THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE is a classic tale of love, honor, ambition and revenge set against the backdrop of the American West.
How often do you see an American western onstage? Especially one that was a famous John Ford film in 1952 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Both the film and the stage play are adapted from a short story by Dorothy Johnson about the American west in 1890-1910. The names of the characters in the film are slightly different from those in the play, but the plot is basically the same. What seem to matter more than plot are the historical, cultural, political themes that the story exudes. Now onstage at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura, in its American premiere, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is helmed by uber skilled director Jenny Sullivan and boasts a stellar cast, but you only have one more week to catch it, through March 20.
Celebrities dressed in Western attire walked the red carpet last Saturday as Rubicon Theatre Company of Ventura presented the American Premiere of the stage play THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE by Jethro Compton. Attendees included musician Jim Messina of Loggins & Messina, Poco and Buffalo Springfield and his beautiful wife Michaela; Golden Globe nominated actor Ted Neeley with his wife Leeyan and daughter Tessa; and Emmy Award-winning actor Joe Spano with his daughters Liana and Meili. Scroll down for photos from the opening night festivities!
John Ford's 1962 film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, is one of motion picture's all-time classic westerns. So when I heard that a play version was making its American premiere at the Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura, I got more than just a little excited. Envisioning the tensions seen on the screen in epic portrayals by Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, and Lee Marvin promised to be riveting theater. Unfortunately, the play version was taken not from the screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck (it was unavailable) but an adaptation by British playwright Joshua Compton from Dorothy M. Johnson's original short story, and although the Rubicon has created a fabulous setting, marvelous performances from all of the actors, and an atmospheric, on-stage musical tableau by Trevor Wheetman, the result is simply not as compelling as the movie.
Rubicon Theatre Company's 2015-2016 season continues with the American premiere of THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE by Jethro Compton. Adapted from the short story by Dorothy M. Johnson that also inspired the legendary John Ford 1962 film, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE is a classic tale of love, honor, ambition and revenge set against the backdrop of the American West.
Rubicon Theatre Company's 2015-2016 season continues with the American premiere of THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE by Jethro Compton. Adapted from the short story by Dorothy M. Johnson that also inspired the legendary John Ford 1962 film, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE is a classic tale of love, honor, ambition and revenge set against the backdrop of the American West.
For one 'wonderfully entertaining' night only, Coyote Stageworks brought to the stage an all-star cast in a tremendously engaging staged-reading of Oscar Wilde's THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST -- with a twist! Helmed, and created, by Tony Winner David Zippel, this EARNEST was set in modern day Manhattan and The Hamptons and was a (mostly) very satisfying adaptation. This special benefit performance marked the start of Coyote Stageworks' seventh season in the desert and their highly anticipated return to their home at The Annemberg Theatre in Palm Springs. As my readers know, I have long hailed Coyote Stageworks as the benchmark for professional theatre in the Coachella Valley and this stellar production gave no exception to that rule.
This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in Connecticut, Omaha, South Africa, and more. Check out our top 10 spooky stories around our Broadway World below, which include DISGRADED in Connecticut, SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE in Omaha, and SWEENEY TOOD in South Africa, just to name a few.
In the opening scene of the Rubicon Theatre Company's production of My Fair Lady, buskers in London's Covent Garden, where Cockney Eliza Doolittle works as a flower girl, are rewarded with tuppence given to them by members of the audience. It is this kind of intimacy, an initial breaking of the fourth wall, that helps make Rubicon's current production an enchanting, warm-hearted interpretation of one of Broadway's most beloved musicals.
The director and designers behind Rubicon Theatre Company's acclaimed environmental productions ofFiddler on the Roof and Man of La Mancha have reunited on the two-piano chamber version of the legendary Lerner and Loewe's classic My Fair Lady. Based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, the musical tells the story of Professor Henry Higgins, an arrogant and attractive phonetician who makes a wager that he can transform a 'deliciously low' Cockney flower-seller (Eliza Doolittle) into an elegant lady by teaching her to speak more beautifully. The magnificent score includes 'I Could Have Danced All Night,' 'On the Street Where You Live,' 'Wouldn't It Be Loverly,' and 'I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face.' For Rubicon's production, Director James O'Neil returns to the source material to explore the Shavian themes of class struggle, social reform and women's rights.
