Thomas Piper News

Braun’s script is never stagnant, the characters always in action, whether in a delightful literal dance party or a metaphorical pas de deux, always getting close to connecting before pulling away — or being pulled away by outside forces.

CIL Productions has released first look photos of the world premiere of Coney Island Land or The Great Existential Actuality at The End of The Universe, a new play by Timothy Braun, at the Theatre 68 Arts Complex (The Emerson) in North Hollywood.

Ballet Hispánico will present Diálogos: Black Leadership - Post-Pandemic Reconstruction, in honor of Black History Month, on Thursday, February 29, 2024 at 6:00pm at Ballet Hispánico's Penthouse Studio.

CIL Productions has announced the world premiere of Coney Island Land or The Great Existential Actuality at The End of The Universe, a new play by Timothy Braun, at the Theatre 68 Arts Complex.

Lucas Hnath is an ambitious playwright. He turned his mother's harrowing recollections of being abducted in the '90s into a riveting, intimate one-woman tale, Dana H, where the actress lip-syncs to the recording that his mother had made. Despite such legends as Harold Prince, Betty Comden and Adolph Green flopping with a sequel to Ibsen's A Doll's House, he soldiered on with A Doll's House, Part 2, creating a funny and absorbing examination of 19th Century gender wars. Now, he examines the life of Walt Disney in A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney. And though Hnath appears to have a focused vision, this time his deliberate touch distances the character from the audience and leaves this reviewer nonplussed.

Today's top stories include a new interview with Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin, and James Lapine on CBS Sunday Morning! Plus, watch the latest episode of The Aging Ingenue, meet the new star of Moulin Rouge!, and more!

West Coast premiere of Lucas Hnath’s A Public Reading of An Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney opens March 26, 2022 at the Odyssey Theatre. Peter Richards directs the cast of Kevin Ashworth, Brittney Bertier, Thomas Piper and Cory Washington. Peter allowed me to probe into the interworking of A Public Read…, as well as his acting/directing career trajectory.

Working Barn Productions presents the West Coast premiere of what The New York Times calls “a blackly comic inversion of the public Disney persona” — the ambitiously titled A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney by Lucas Hnath (Broadway's A Doll's House, Part 2; Hillary and Clinton; Dana H).

Glimmerglass Film Days will explore the theme “Passages” in Cooperstown November 8-12.  A program of Otsego 2000, Film Days features 32 films, 26 filmmakers and special guests, panels, receptions with local food and drink, a companion art exhibit, a pop-up bookstore, a free film for kids, and guided hikes.   

Perhaps, as suggested by playwright Peter Lefcourt in his world premiere play THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARY JO KOPECHNE, she had also been drinking and could not say no to a man of considerable power and influence, a man who could help advance her career, a man she also may have admired after the death of his brother Robert the previous year. Certainly, this dilemma has become particularly prominent in the #MeToo era in which we are now living where men of power are being taken to task for making unwanted sexual advances on those working for them who go along with it for career gain. What we do know is that Kennedy survived and she did not. But who was Mary Jo Kopechne?

This October, through themed tours, a time-lapse projection, Facebook Live videos, and even food, Friends of the High Line will celebrate moments of transformation in the Woodland Edge an area on the High Line between Gansevoort and 14th Streets that reflects the culmination of the horticulture team's years of observation, planning, and collaboration with planting designer Piet Oudolf. This month-long series of programming will showcase the heritage, design, plant ecology, and cultural history of the Woodland Edge on the High Line.

The highly original coming of age story PLEASE EXCUSE MY DEAR AUNT SALLY from emerging playwright Kevin Armento features an unconventional narrator: the cell phone belonging to a 15-year-old Red McCray, a troubled teen enduring the break-up of his parents and moving to a new town. Audience members might recognize the play's title from their high school days a mnemonic, or memory aid, for the order of operations needed to solve an algebraic equation (parentheses, exponents, multiply, divide, add, subtract), which comes into play in Red's algebra class when his clowning antics cause his teacher to take his cell phone away and throw it into her desk drawer.

A funny, sad, lyrical and highly original coming of age story from emerging playwright Kevin Armento features an unconventional narrator: the phone belonging to a troubled teen. Working Barn Productions presents the West Coast premiere of New York Times 'Critic's Pick' Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally, directed by Peter Richards. The visiting production runs at the Odyssey Theatre, tonight, Sept. 22, through Oct. 8. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

A funny, sad, lyrical and highly original coming of age story from emerging playwright Kevin Armento features an unconventional narrator: the phone belonging to a troubled teen. Working Barn Productions presents the West Coast premiere of New York Times "Critic's Pick" Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally, directed by Peter Richards. The visiting production opens at the Odyssey Theatre on Sept. 16.

Working Barn Productions and Bontela Productions will present a six-actor, multimedia look at William Shakespeare's classic tragedy, MACBETH, directed by Peter Richards. MACBETH will preview tonight, October 9 & Friday, October 10 at 8pm and will open on Saturday, October 11 at 8pm and will run through Sunday, November 2 at Edgemar Center for the Arts, 2437 Main Street in Santa Monica.

Working Barn Productions and Bontela Productions will present a six-actor, multimedia look at William Shakespeare's classic tragedy, MACBETH, directed by Peter Richards. MACBETHwill preview on Thursday, October 9 & Friday, October 10 at 8pm and will open on Saturday, October 11 at 8pm and will run through Sunday, November 2 at Edgemar Center for the Arts, 2437 Main Street in Santa Monica.

New Repertory Theatre, in residence at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, is excited to be a part of the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of afterlife: a ghost story. Steve Yockey's poetic play follows a young couple in the process of grieving, who tumble into an alternate reality, are forced to confront the ghosts that haunt them, and ultimately must decide what their afterlife will be. Directed by Kate Warner, afterlife: a ghost story will open for the press on Monday, January 17, 2011 and run through Sunday, February 6, 2011 in the Charles Mosesian Theater.

New Repertory Theatre, in residence at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, is excited to be a part of the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of afterlife: a ghost story.

New Repertory Theatre, in residence at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, is excited to be a part of the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of afterlife: a ghost story. Steve Yockey's poetic play follows a young couple in the process of grieving, who tumble into an alternate reality, are forced to confront the ghosts that haunt them, and ultimately must decide what their afterlife will be. Directed by Kate Warner, afterlife: a ghost story will open for the press on Monday, January 17, 2011 and run through Sunday, February 6, 2011 in the Charles Mosesian Theater.

New Repertory Theatre, in residence at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, is excited to be a part of the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of afterlife: a ghost story.