The original director and cast of the Fountain Theatre's 2010, multiple award-winning production of The Ballad of Emmett Till by Ifa Bayeza will reunite for a live-streamed reading of the play on Friday, Aug. 28, which marks the 65th anniversary of Till's murder.
Disney+ has ordered the long-anticipated revival of the groundbreaking animated series 'The Proud Family' which, 18 years after its Disney Channel premiere, is still beloved for its characters, stories and multilayered humor and for its messages about inclusion and cultural diversity in a smart, modern way. The new animated family sitcom 'The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder' is currently in production at Disney Television Animation with Academy Award-winning creator/executive producer Bruce W. Smith and executive producer Ralph Farquhar, who led the original series, at the helm, reuniting them with Calvin Brown, Jr. who is co-executive producer and story editor.
LAB RESULTS: The Antaeus Playwrights Lab Festival a?" Six new plays by award-winning, mid-career writers get developmental readings over the course of two weekends as part of Antaeus Theatre Company's second annual LAB RESULTS series. Each of the plays was developed in the Antaeus Playwrights Lab, an ongoing program that incubates new works that provide compelling roles for actors and creates a nurturing and supportive artistic community. Last fall, two plays from the 2018 LAB RESULTS festival, The Abuelas by Stephanie Alison Walker and Eight Nights by Jennifer Maisel, were given critically acclaimed full productions as part of Antaeus' 2019-20 season.
Antaeus Theatre Company's stunning world premiere of Jennifer Maisel's EIGHT NIGHTS vividly details the life of Holocaust survivor Rebecca Blum from the day she arrives to New York City at age 19, through significant life milestones, to becoming a great-grandmother at age 86. And all this accomplished rather smoothly with increasing intensity and gravitas in less than two hours without an intermission! Developed in Antaeus Playwrights Lab, the play's title EIGHT NIGHTS, I believe, refers to the eight individual nights/scenes during Chanukah over a period of 67 years, spanning four generations. Or, more literally, the eight-day, Jewish wintertime festival of lights.
A German Jewish refugee is haunted by her past, but resiliently moves toward the future. Antaeus Theatre Company presents the world premiere of Eight Nights, a story developed in the Antaeus Playwrights Lab that honors the global refugee experience. Written by Jennifer Maisel and directed by Emily Chase, Eight Nights opens at the Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center in Glendale on Nov. 8, where performances continue through Dec. 16. Low-priced previews begin Oct. 31.
Hedda Gabler - Henrik Ibsen created one of literature's most compelling characters in the beautiful and enigmatic Hedda, a woman who feels trapped and suffocated in her marriage. Hedda has just returned from her honeymoon with George, but finds herself ill-suited to the role of a housewife. Her desperate dissatisfaction leads to dangerous choices in this exhilarating contemporary adaptation by Doug Hughes.
Imagine Project introduces its new Advisory Board. The board was created to provide strategic input and support. It includes a dynamic group of accomplished individuals with expertise in a variety of industries. IP will look to their advisory board members to provide organizational expertise as IP grows, launches its inaugural season, and beyond.
Once again, the NAACP Beverly Hills/Hollywood Branch's Theatre Viewing Committee has spoken, and the nominations are in for the 28th Annual NAACP Theatre Awards. This year's pedigreed list of nominees collectively represents a rich, extensive dossier of legacies and accolades for both stage and screen. These nominees include members of a legendary 'gospel royal family' as well as a Legend whose part of an elite group of artists in the EGOT winners circle. These, along with all their fellow nominees, will be honored for their excellence on the small and large stages during our annual awards dinner, slated to be held on Monday, June 17, 2019, 6:00 p.m.at the prestigious Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California.
The 2018 Stage Raw Theater Awards celebrate excellence on the Los Angeles stages in venues of 99-seats or under. This fourth annual edition included productions that opened between January 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018. Stage Raw is a community funded professional journalism website that was created in response to the decline of arts coverage in local mainstream and alternative media.The Awards ceremony was held Monday night, August 20, at Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles, hosted by Coeurage Theatre Company, and co-directed by Jer Adrianne Lelliott, Thaddeus Shafer and Lauren Ludwig. Winners notated in red below.
Martin Luther King, Jr. declared 'I've been to the mountaintop' almost exactly 50 years ago on April 3, 1968. His words, a confident assessment on the future of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, echo with the same power as when he bellowed them all those years ago. Dr. King never made it to the promised land, having been assassinated only one day after his 'Mountaintop' speech. His spirit, however, lives on beautifully in Katori Hall's play The Mountaintop at George Mason University's Center for the Arts on Saturday, April 14 as part of Los Angeles Theatre Works's 38-city touring production.
L.A. Theatre Works has announced the casting of stage, film and television stars Karen Malina White and Gilbert Glenn Brown for their upcoming tour of the Olivier Award-winning hit play, The Mountaintop. As the nation honors the 50th anniversary of his passing, the fictional tale of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last night alive comes to the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts as a part of the Center's P.E.A.K. Series April 20 - 21, 2018.
Marking history with art, Park City Institute presents L.A. Theatre Works' Olivier Award-winning play, The Mountaintop, by Katori Hall. The powerful two-person play imagines the story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's last night on earth. "This year marks the 50th Anniversary of Dr. King's assassination," said PCI Executive Director, Teri Orr. "We wanted to honor his memory, his work, and his life, by presenting The Mountaintop. The play is filled with humor, political jabs, and offers a glimpse at the human side of this larger-than-life figure. And, it carries a message that is still relevant, today."
Mystery is in the air during the 'Whodunit?' weekend event, FRIDAY, JULY 24 - SUNDAY, JULY 26 (8:00 p.m., ET/PT) on Disney Channel.
Four days and eight new episodes of hit comedy series will be presented during the 'Tune In 4 What?!' programming event, TODAY, MARCH 26 through SUNDAY, MARCH 29 on Disney Channel.
Wildly clever and a bit naughty, brimming with wordplay and swordplay, David Ives' English-language adaptation of Pierre Corneille's The Liar is next up at Antaeus.Casey Stangl directs the Los Angeles premiere of this delightfully ingenious and irreverent update of a classic French romp. Previews begin Oct. 3, with two opening nights set for Oct. 10 and Oct. 11 at the Antaeus Theater in NoHo.
Find out who's really crazy when a couple of lovebirds bring their mismatched families together. The Antaeus Company, L.A.'s multiple award-winning classical theater company, presents You Can't Take It With You, the timeless comedy about love, life and living by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Gigi Bermingham directs the fully double cast production Oct. 18 through Dec. 9, with low-priced previews beginning Oct. 11.
The Old Settler - John Henry Redwood's bittersweet comedy is set in Harlem during World War II, when hot music played and swing dancers ruled the floor of legendary nightclubs like the Savoy Ballroom. Middle-aged sisters Elizabeth and Quilly have learned to put past differences behind them. But when a handsome young man named Husband takes a room as a boarder, old hurts and new tensions are brought to the surface.
The 2011 Garland Award recipients were announced today, honoring the best of Los Angeles theatre. Under the voting system each Garland winner was named on at least three critics' 'Best of 2010' lists. Each critic listed up to five nominees for each category except performance, up to 10 nominees for performance in musical productions and 10 for straight plays. Here are the critics' lists, minus the winners. The critics who voted are Jeff Favre, Hoyt Hilsman, Travis Holder, Eric Marchese, Dany Margolies, Dink O'Neal, Melinda Schupmann, Madeleine Shaner, Les Spindle, Neal Weaver, and Jennie Webb. Back Stage thanks them, as we hope you will when you see them this year, for their perpetual devotion to Southland theater large and small.
Those who have been unable to reserve seats to The Fountain Theatre's sold out production of The Ballad of Emmett Till will get another chance. The Fountain Theatre has announced a third extension through May 30.
The Fountain Theatre will close the first production of its 20th Anniversary Season, the West Coast premiere of Ifa Bayeza's daring, folk and gospel-infused The Ballad of Emmett Till, on April 25th. Shirley Jo Finney (Yellowman) directed Bernard K. Addison, Rico E. Anderson, Lorenz Arnell, Adenrele Ojo and Karen Malina White in the five-week run.
