You'll find plenty of humor and drama in playwrights Marni Freedman and Phil Johnson's A JEWISH JOKE, which is now playing at the New Jewish Theatre. Set during the McCarthy 'red scare' hearings during the early 1950's, the play offers up an examination of a Jewish comedy writer named Bernie Lutz who, along with his partner Morris, suddenly finds out about his name appearing in Red Channels, which published the names of individuals who had been implicated, or in anyway affiliated, with groups that promoted Socialism and Communism. For most, the results, if true (and even if it wasn't), resulted in an immediate blacklisting. That was it. Your career was over. But some survived, and under other names continued to work on films and TV, while others named names and slipped off the hook to continue working as themselves. This is an excellent examination of how quickly a career could fly off the rails during that period in time, and here, taking place in a single, stressful day. It's powerful and relevant material, laced with great helpings of humor, and it deserves a hearty recommendation.
Starting at New Jewish Theatre, November 29 December 10, is the one man play A Jewish Joke written and performed by Phil Johnson. The play looks at a dark time in US political history. In 1950's Hollywood, at the height of the Communist Blacklist, when careers were ruined by a whisper, we meet irascible comedy screenwriter Bernie Lutz. A Jewish Joke catalogs the most important afternoon in Lutz's life. He's a 50-something half of the comedy screenwriting duo of Lutz and Frumsky. Having worked together since they were both 13, they have moved upward from a Newark Nickelodeon, then on to vaudeville, the Catskills, New York Yiddish theatre and finally sunny LA where they are supplying scripts for the Marx Brothers, Danny Kaye and NBC. The icing on their cake is their big fancy Hollywood premiere that evening for their latest movie, The Big Casbah!
Artists Rep presents the 2016 Tony Award winner for Best New Play The Humans, by Stephen Karam, directed by D maso Rodr guez from November 19 through December 17 on the theatre's intimate Morrison Stage. Artists Rep is one of the first regional theatres in the nation to produce The Humans featuring a local cast and design team.
Artists Rep presents the 2016 Tony Award winner for Best New Play The Humans, by Stephen Karam, directed by D maso Rodr guez from November 19 through December 17 on the theatre's intimate Morrison Stage. Artists Rep is one of the first regional theatres in the nation to produce The Humans featuring a local cast and design team.
Artists Rep presents the 2016 Tony Award winner for Best New Play The Humans, by Stephen Karam, directed by D maso Rodr guez from November 19 through December 17 on the theatre's intimate Morrison Stage.
Artists Repertory Theatre launches its 2017/18 season with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' provocative An Octoroon. An incendiary satire, this bold start to their 35th theatre season is co-directed by Lava Alapai and Artistic Director Damaso Rodriguez.
Artists Repertory Theatre launches its 2017/18 season with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' provocative An Octoroon. An incendiary satire, this bold start to their 35th theatre season is co-directed by Lava Alapai and Artistic Director Damaso Rodriguez. An Octoroon is currently in previews for an opening tomorrow, September 9, and the play runs through October 1 on the Alder Stage. BroadwayWorld has a look behind the scenes in the video below!
Artists Repertory Theatre launches its 2017/18 season with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' provocative An Octoroon. An incendiary satire, this bold start to their 35th theatre season is co-directed by Lava Alapai and Artistic Director Damaso Rodriguez.
On four weekends in June, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, presents the fifth edition of Jazz on Film. Organized by returning guest curator Peter Lucas, this year's Jazz on Film series includes eight films highlighting jazz soundtracks and legendary musicians.
The Roustabouts Theatre Company presents a comic retelling of a classic romance WITHERING HEIGHTS, based on 'Withering Heights' by Emily Bronte, written and performed by Phil Johnson and Omri Schein and directed by David Ellenstein, bringing together two notable local actors and North Coast Rep's Artistic Director to direct the World Premiere at Diversionary Theatre from June 11 to July 9.
Playwrights Project will produce its 32nd annual festival of Plays by Young Writers, sponsored by the Sheila and Jeffrey Lipinsky Family Fund, at The Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre in the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center at The Old Globe on January 19 - January 29, 2017.
Bringing together notable local actors, directors and playwrights, they have formed a new theatre company called THE ROUSTABOUTS. A non-profit San Diego theatre company dedicated to entertaining, educating, and inspiring audiences in southern California by producing fresh visions of classics, well-known contemporary plays and new works.
Are you looking for something different for Christmas this year? Tired of Christmas Carol and Gift of the Magi? True confessions from Santa's eight reindeer come to North Coast Repertory Theatre in the reading of The Eight: Reindeer Monologues by Jeff Goode on December 16-17 2016, at 10:00 pm.
More than one hundred solo performers, festival supporters, special guests, and members of the theatre community took part in the United Solo Closing Gala.
Are you looking for something different for Christmas this year? Tired of Christmas Carol and Gift of the Magi? True confessions from Santa's eight reindeer come to North Coast Repertory Theatre in the reading of The Eight: Reindeer Monologues by Jeff Goode on December 16-17 2016, at 10:00 pm.
Playwrights Project will produce its 32nd annual festival of Plays by Young Writers, sponsored by the Sheila and Jeffrey Lipinsky Family Fund, at The Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre in the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center at The Old Globe on January 19 - January 29, 2017.
North Coast Repertory Theatre, which mounted a monster hit last year with Neil Simon's Chapter Two, is now staging LAUGHTER ON THE 23RD FLOOR, the playwright's love letter to his early career as a writer for Sid Caesar's 'Your Show of Shows.' Described by Variety as 'a battery of yuks that barely lets up,' the play recounts his writing, fighting and wacky antics during the days of live television when he cavorted with such comedy legends as Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks as they tried to please their terrifyingly demanding boss. Tickets are certain to be flying out the window for this wildly hysterically funny romp, so order early to avoid disappointment.
