Casting is complete and rehearsals begin this week for the Los Angeles premiere of a radical, incendiary and subversively funny Obie award-winning play by MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” recipient Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.
Antaeus Theatre Company highlights the culture and history of six additional Los Angeles neighborhoods with Season Two of its popular 'The Zip Code Plays: Los Angeles' podcast series, set to launch May 20. Here are my interviews with the four female directors who discuss their own personal histories within the Zip Code Plays they direct. (Gigi Bermingham, Jennifer Chang, Saundra McClain, and Bernadette Speakes)
Global Brain Health Institute, based at the University of California, San Francisco and Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, has announced a second extension of the currently streaming virtual premiere of “UnRavelled” through June 30.
Jake Broder's UNRAVELLED virtually premieres February 25, 2021. Jake explores the not-oft-told, surprising, complicated connection between genius, art and medical science, told via the correlation between modern Canadian artist Dr. Anne Adams (1940–2007) and French composer Maurice Ravel (1875–1937). Jake found some time between his multitasking of juggling his multiple writing projects to answer a few of my queries.
The Blank Theatre's Living Room Series has announced a reading of Hard on Love by Scott Barry on Monday, January 25, at 8pm. Directed by Jonathan Cerullo, the cast will feature (in alphabetical order) Jesse Havea/Brita Filter (RuPaul's Drag Race) and Rob Nagle.
Art, music and science intersect in UnRavelled, a new drama by award-winning, Los Angeles-based playwright Jake Broder (Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara), set to receive its virtual premiere. UnRavelled is set to begin streaming on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 4 p.m. PT / 7 p.m. ET
Los Angeles-based theatre company Lower Depth Theatre has announced dates and artists for their upcoming virtual festival, 'The BIPOC Voting Plays: A Second Wave 'Pandemic Plays' Shorts Festival.' The festival will feature six short plays by LA-based playwrights that merge the genre of science fiction with the imminence of the November 2020 election.
The third annual SheLA Arts' Summer Theater Festival has gone completely digital this year, running July 13 through July 19, 2020. I had the socially distant chance to pose a few questions to one of the five elected playwrights chosen for this year's festival, Ali MacLean, whose THIS WILL BE OUR YEAR will world premiere July 17th via Zoom.
The Blank Theatre's critically acclaimed streaming productions of Nixon on Nixon, a new play by Sean Waldron featuring Rob Nagle and directed by Bree Pavey (with dramaturgy by Shelagh McFadden) and Nathan C. Jones: A Love Story?, a world premiere musical with book by Vanessa Claire Stewart, music by Brendan Milburn, and lyrics by Milburn and Stewart, featuring Amir Levi and directed by Daniel Henning, have now been extended through July 4 for free viewing on YouTube. Both will then move to The Blank's Third Stage on Patreon.
On the surface, NATHAN C. JONES appears to be an unassuming little show about a young man and his new romance. But, as the audience is drawn further and further into the story, it becomes clear that the writers are exploring much deeper questions about loneliness, the desire to be loved, and what happens when reality sits on shifting sands.
This one-man show would work just as amazingly live and onstage as it does viewed online with the incredible, incredible Rob Nagle as Richard Nixon. Shot and staged in a small office (as a stand-in for Steve McQueen's beach house), Bree Pavey deftly directs Nagle as Nixon on the evening after he announces his resignation. Nagle, with this Nixon vocal mannerisms down pat, seamlessly limns Sean Waldron's fictionalized drunken evening as Nixon.
Kicking off its 30th anniversary season, The Blank Theatre in Hollywood has announced two live-stream shows.
The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle announced the recipients of its 51st annual awards for distinguished achievement in theatre today, Tuesday, April 28, 2020.
This Spotlight focuses on Simon Levy who began his directing career in San Francisco, then moved to Los Angeles in 1990 where he has been the Producing Director for the Fountain Theatre since 1993. His directing and producing credits are numerous, with over 100 productions in Los Angeles and San Francisco that have won more than 200 awards. His journey has been blessed with having wonderful mentors along the way, which has enabled the talented director to earn his living doing theatre and earned him great respect from the entire L.A. Theatre community.
With the current theatre world on hiatus, I have created a Spotlight Series on Broadway World Los Angeles which features interviews with some of the many talented artists who make our Los Angeles theatre community so exciting and vibrant thanks to their ongoing contribution to keeping the arts alive in the City of the Angels. And like all of us, how are they dealing with the abrupt end of productions in which they were involved? This Spotlight focuses on Rob Nagle, a proud member of the Antaeus Theatre Company and the Troubadour Theater Company, who was in the fourth week of performances of the world premiere of Human Interest Story at the Fountain Theatre when the production was forced to postpone the run.
The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle has announced the nominees for theatrical excellence for the year 2019. This year they are forgoing their annual event ceremony and will instead post the award recipients online in the upcoming weeks:
This thought-provoking testament to the universal struggle of living day-to-day in a society whose apathy seems to know no bounds for the down-and-out will grab your attention and keep you at the edge of your seat as Jane Doe's story unfolds. Tanya Alexander's magnificent ability to morph herself from a homeless woman in dirty clothing, sitting on a park bench holding a sign stating a?oeI am NOT Invisiblea?? allows us to see where she has been and how much she really desires to pick herself up by her bootstraps and do whatever is necessary to survive. As she achieves celebrity status, Alexander opens to heart and soul and lets us see into Jane Doe's guilt of having survived when others have not. And as Jane Doe's fortunes rise, Alexander is costumed to perfection in lovely, form-fitting dresses designed by Shon LeBlanc that would allow Jane Doe to shine anywhere.
The Fountain Theatre presents the world premiere of a timely new play, written and directed by Stephen Sachs (Arrival & Departure, Citizen: An American Lyric, Bakersfield Mist), about homelessness, celebrity worship and truth in American journalism. Human Interest Story opens at the Fountain on Feb. 15, where performances continue through April 5.
Deborah Culver and Stephen Sachs founded the Fountain Theatre in an intimate, Spanish-style, East Hollywood building that belies the sizable local impact and international reach of the company's acclaimed and award-winning productions. Now entering its 30th year as one of the most highly regarded theaters in Los Angeles, the Fountain is announcing a celebratory 2020 season of dynamic premieres and events.
A stalwart member of the Los Angeles Theatre community, the multi-award-winning Rob Nagle will next be appearing on the Fountain Theatre stage in the world premiere of Stephen Sachs' HUMAN INTEREST STORY, opening February 15, 2020. Rob essays Andy Kramer, who just having been laid off, fabricates a letter to the editor; then, has to mastermind an elaborate charade to justify it. Rob's HUMAN INTEREST STORY onstage accomplices include: Tanya Alexander, Richard Azurdia, Aleisha Force, James Harper, Matt Kirkwood and Tarina Pouncy. The ever-busy Rob managed to find some time to answer a few of my queries.
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