Kelvin Morales News

Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum will open its 2024 summer repertory season with two productions by the Bard. Learn how to purchase tickets.

Atmosphere, this CAESAR has aplenty. What David Melville’s production does not have this time is particularly strong acting. Players in several key roles felt miscast, out of synch with their own characters, with fellow players or, in some cases, both. As a result, the production is not great at making us emotionally invest.

Given recent events and political drama, including propaganda used to sway the public, nothing should surprise modern audiences when it comes to politics. But perhaps the most well-known dramatic representation of political intrigue takes place in Shakespeare’s classic play Julius Caesar, which centers around the events that led to his assassination by Roman senators on the 'Ides of March' (March 15) 44 B.C.E.  I decided to speak with David Melville about how the production will differ from more traditional staging and why he decided it would be a good fit for audiences.

A Noise Within presents THE BOOK OF WILL by Lauren Gunderson this weekend. See first look photos of the production!

A Noise Within's 'Daring to Love' season fittingly closes with a love letter - to William Shakespeare and a life in the theater. Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott co-direct The Book of Will, a comically outlandish but true story of love, loss and laughter by Lauren Gunderson.

The Ghost Road Company will present the World premiere of The Dry Years, our first full production since 2019. Conceived by Ghost Road ensemble members John Guerra and Christine Breihan, the show is set to open on Saturday, February 4, 2023, 8PM at the Broadwater Main Stage in Hollywood, CA.

ISC’s unique brand of Shakespeare in the park has long been a summertime favorite for Angelenos of all ages. PESTLE is a work of Francis Beaumont, not the Bard, but as adapted and staged by director Melissa Chalsma, this loopy bit of play-within-a-play meta is every bit a comic winner.

GRoW @ The Wallis presents The Wallis Studio Ensemble production of RECKONING – A Short Play Festival, featuring the work of ten emerging and established writers, with three World Premieres and seven L.A. Premieres of unique, witty and daring stories on contemporary life.

John Guerra's new play brings Thornton Wilder's 'Our Town' up to date with its sensitive portrayal of two families - one white and one Latino - in modern-day Fillmore, California.

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum presents the world premiere of The Last, Best Small Town, a modern-day “Our Town” by L.A.-based Latinx playwright John Guerra. Performances begin Saturday, July 31 on Theatricum's beautiful outdoor stage in Topanga, where they continue through Nov. 7.

GRoW @ The Wallis will present The Wallis Studio Ensemble's production of Fairyland Foibles, a free eight-episode digital show with an audience participation element that is part radio play and part soap opera, with the first episode streaming on Saturday, June 27, 7 pm (PDT).

The Wallis Studio Ensemble presents LUCID, an original physical theatre work inspired by August Strindberg's A Dream Play, Carol Churchill's adaptation and the poems of Anne Sexton, from February 20 to 23 and February 28 to March 1, 2020 at the Hudson Theatre a?" Mainstage in Los Angeles.

Love is lost and found again in PERICLES, one of Shakespeare's most spellbinding plays. The young Pericles sets out for adventure, but gets more than he bargains for. Twenty-five years later, it's his daughter's turn to sail the high seas as she seeks to unravel the mystery of her birth. 

This summer Independent Shakespeare Co. (ISC) presents the rarely-performed epic Pericles at the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival, directed by ISC Co-Founder and Artistic Director, Melissa Chalsma. Pericles will begin previews on Saturday, July 27 at 7pm, will open on Saturday, August 3 at 7pm and perform through Friday, August 30 at the Old Zoo in Griffith Park.  All ISC summer Shakespeare productions are FREE to the public! Pericles is the second of two productions being presented at this year's Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival. Twelfth Night is currently playing and will run in repertory through September 1.

This summer Independent Shakespeare Co. (ISC) presents the romantic comedy Twelfth Night at the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival, directed by ISC Co-Founder and Managing Director, David Melville. Twelfth Night will begin previews on Saturday, June 29 at 7pm, will open on Saturday, July 6 at 7pm and perform through Sunday, September 1 at the Old Zoo in Griffith Park.  All ISC summer Shakespeare productions are FREE to the public!  Twelfth Night is the first of two productions being presented at this year's Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival. Pericles begins Saturday, July 27 and will run in repertory with Twelfth Night.

Shake out your picnic blankets and start planning your picnics! We are back for our 16th season of Free Shakespeare in the Park, a summer-long event for all of Los Angeles to play with theater, family workshops, opening acts and special events.

The Wallis Studio Ensemble's The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams' much loved, absurdist and subversive satire, is back at the Wallis by popular demand from Thursday, June 6 through Sunday, June 9, 2019, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in the Lovelace Studio Theater. First presented in 2018, this hilarious, vibrant, fast-paced, gender-bending romp, directed by Madeleine Dahm, was a Los Angeles Times "Pick of the Week" and described by ArtsNowLA as 'unmitigated lunacy with Ferrari-like pacing, a deep dive into hallucinogenic territory.' Lighting design is by Ovation Award-winning Bosco Flanagan, and puppets and masks are by Alexander Sheldon.

Taking its cue from Orson Welles' 1937 Mercury Theatre production of JULIUS CAESAR, Independent Shakespeare Co. exercises its exceptional ability to adapt one of Shakespeare's massive works for an intimate indoor setting without giving up any of the play's scope or impact. 

The Wallis Studio Ensemble presents S.O.S.,  an original multi-media physical theatre work about love and resilience in times of crisis, directed by Madeleine Dahm, from Thursday, January 31 through Sunday, February 10, 2019 at the Circle X Theatre (Please note: S.O.S.is not  being performed at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, but at the Circle X Theatre in Atwater Village). The production uses little known love letters by great writers and activists such as Vita Sackville West, Frederick Douglas, Maya Angelou, Tchaikovsky, Frida Kahlo, Virginia Woolf, Rainer Maria Rilke and others, along with original text, movement, film and photography.

From the team that brought you last year's chilling and poignant production of RICHARD THE SECOND comes a hilarious and heartwarming new venture: William Shakespeare's LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. LA classical theatre ensemble Chase What Flies welcomes you to the court of Navarre, where love is forbidden (and all but inevitable). Come join some of Shakespeare's most lovable oddballs as they navigate big feelings, big plans, and the uncertainty of life.