Michael A. Shepperd News

CELEBRATION THEATRE presents, as part of its Celebrating New Works reading series, FOR THE PEOPLE by Carol Mullen, directed by Nathan Frizzell and performing one night only on Tuesday, October 16 at 7:30pm at The West Hollywood City Chambers, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd in West Hollywood.

LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE presents the third show in its 98th season with the perfect show for Halloween, the Tony Nominated Best Play, THE SEAFARER

The Sacred Fools Theater Company is kicking off its 22nd Season with Burglars of Hamm for a remount of the award-winning Resa Fantastiskt Mystisk. Resa was recently produced at this year's Hollywood Fringe Festival where it took home Top of the Fringe honors. The first Mainstage show of the Sacred Fools season, Resa opens Friday, October 5 and runs through Saturday, November 3 with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 7pm. The show will be performed in the Main Stage Theater of the Broadwater Theater Complex.

Celebration, under the artistic direction of Michael Michael A. Shepperd in Association with Beard/Collins/Shores Productions present a special return engagement of Del Shores first new play since his critically acclaimed Yellow, SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF A PLAY, written and performed by Del Shores and directed by Emerson Collins.  SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF A PLAYwill perform Thursday, September 27 through Sunday, September 30 at Celebration Theatre @ the Lex Theatre, 6760 Lexington Ave. in Los Angeles. 

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.

The Sacred Fools Theater Company is excited to announce its upcoming 22nd Season (2018-2019) along with the opener for its 23rd Season in the fall of 2019. The announced shows include three World Premieres and a West Coast Premiere, plus a co-production of a local favorite that took home the Top of Fringe award from the Hollywood Fringe Festival. 

CELEBRATION THEATRE presents, in association with The Aliiance of Los Angeles Playwrights, as part of its New Works Reading Series, The Incredible Life and Wondrous Adventures of the Amazing Fabulous Fredby Dan Berkowitz, directed by Alan Wethern and performing one night only on Tuesday, August 14 at 7:30pm at Celebration Theatre @ The Lex, 6760 Lexington Ave. in Hollywood.   

The 2018 Stage Raw Theater Awards celebrate excellence on the Los Angeles stages in venues of 99-seats or under. This fourth annual edition includes productions that opened between January 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018.

The 2018 Stage Raw Theater Awards celebrate excellence on the Los Angeles stages in venues of 99-seats or under. This fourth annual edition includes productions that opened between January 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018.

Celebration Theatre presents under the artistic direction of Michael Matthews & Michael A. Shepperd, present the third and final show in its 2017-2018 season, CABARET, book by Joe Masteroff  (based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood), music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, choreography by Janet Roston, musical direction by Anthony Zediker and directed by Michael Matthews.  CABARET will begin previews on Friday, May 25 at 8pm; will open on Friday, June 1 at 8pm, with tickets on sale through Sunday, July 15 at Celebration Theatre @ the Lex Theatre, 6760 Lexington Ave. in Los Angeles.

The Celebration Theatre will be presenting their third and final show of their successful 2017-18 season - Kander & Ebb's CABARET, beginning previews on May 25 and opening on June 1. I managed to get Celebration Theatre's co-artistic director and CABARET's director Michael Matthews to take a short break from his uber-busy schedule to answer a few of our inquisitive queries.

Celebration Theatre presents under the artistic direction of Michael Matthews & Michael A. Shepperd, present the third and final show in its 2017-2018 season, CABARET, book by Joe Masteroff (based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood), music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, choreography by Janet Roston, musical direction by Anthony Zediker and directed by Michael Matthews. CABARET will begin previews on Friday, May 25 at 8pm; will open on Friday, June 1 at 8pm, with tickets on sale through Sunday, July 15 at Celebration Theatre @ the Lex Theatre, 6760 Lexington Ave. in Los Angeles.

Garry Marshall Theatre presents the Inaugural New Works Festival featuring readings of eight new plays over four days, May 22, 23, 29 and 30, with readings at 4pm and 8pm.

Now celebrating its 26th Anniversary, The Blank Theatre's Nationwide Young Playwrights Festival has chosen 12 plays by playwrights aged 15-19 from seven different states. These plays will be presented by professional actors and directors in this year's Festival at The Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood May 31-June 24.

Garry Marshall Theatre presents the Inaugural New Works Festival featuring readings of eight new plays over four days, May 22, 23, 29 and 30, with readings at 4pm and 8pm.

Celebration Theatre presents under the artistic direction of Michael Matthews & Michael A. Shepperd, present the third and final show in its 2017 2018 season, CABARET, book by Joe Masteroff (based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood), music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, choreography by Janet Roston, musical direction by Anthony Zediker and directed by Michael Matthews. CABARET will begin previews on Friday, May 25 at 8pm; will open on Friday, June 1 at 8pm, with tickets on sale through Sunday, July 15 at Celebration Theatre @ the Lex Theatre, 6760 Lexington Ave. in Los Angeles.

In 1993 Neil Simon penned his experiences as a young writer for Your Show of Shows on early 50s television in a play entitled Laughter on the 23rd Floor. At that time he was a novice learning from the likes of series star Sid Caesar and fellow-writers Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart, Carl Reiner, and Selma Diamond among others. The seven member team plus Caesar collaborated on sketch comedy that ran live weekly on NBC. Daily work was hellish with the crazies bringing their personal issues and divergent styles of expression every hour of every day to the writers' room. The sketch material was not only affected by their various personalities clouded by bold ethnic traits but also by the world around them that included the infamous attacks of McCarthyism. In the arts actors, writers, directors and other artists were endangered of being branded a communist and fired from their work. NBC found Your Show of Shows to be too sophisticated and thereby made cuts threatening the show's existence. It was cut back to an hour. In the play Sid Caesar is Max Prince (Pat Towne), an alcoholic and drug addicted tyrant who will stop at nothing to prove his point. He fights NBC; of course, to no avail. Laughter... plays the Garry Marshall Theatre through April 22, brilliantly directed b

A reimagined, revitalized production of Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning playwright Neil Simon's classic Laughter on the 23rd Floor marks the final production in the nonprofit's 4-Play Inaugural Season. Featuring John Ross Bowie (Speechless, The Big Bang Theory) and directed by Co-Artistic Director of Los Angeles' award-winning Celebration Theatre Michael A. Shepperd, Laughter on the 23rd Floor will play a limited run, March 23 through April 22, 2018.

Celebration Theatre is a very small venue known for putting on very big musicals and doing them very well. But I have to tell you, seeing Del Shores claim the stage as his own was really a treat as he transformed himself into not only his mother but several other friends and relatives from his childhood in Texas or others he has met over the years in gay bars, banks and convenience stores in SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF A PLAY. The title, of course, riffs on Pirandello's classic title, but in this one, Shores brings to life six one-of-a-kind characters he has met in real life that haven't quite made it into one of his plays, films or TV shows. In 90 minutes, the audience heard the truth behind how he collected these eccentrics and their stories as he portrays his hilarious, off-the-rails encounters with them.

Celebration, under the artistic direction of Michael Matthews & Michael A. Shepperd, and in association with Ryan Allen, Andrew Carlberg and Amy Miller Gross is thrilled to announce that the fastest selling show in its history and the second show in its 2017-2018 season, its critically acclaimed (LA Times CRITIC'S CHOICE, Stage Raw RECOMMENDED), Los Angeles intimate theatre premiere of PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT The Musical, book by Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott, based on the Latent Image/Specific Films Motion Picture Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., presented in special arrangement with Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW) with choreography by Roman Pantoja, musical direction by Jennifer Lin, directed by Jessica Hanna and produced by Stephen Soucy and Jay Marcus is EXTENDING through SUNDAY, MAY 6 at Celebration Theatre @ the Lex Theatre, 6760 Lexington Ave. in Los Angeles.