Dear Readers:
LA Stage Insider is a new weekly column by long-time writer Julio Martinez which we feel will add to your reading enjoyment.
It will feature news on upcoming theatre productions in the Los Angeles and surrounding areas. It is another LA Stage outlet to inform theatergoers about noteworthy items that may not be available elsewhere. Readers can assist Julio by letting him know about events they are associated with or to which they have “inside” information before becoming public knowledge.
You may email Julio at [email protected] with comments or news tidbits.
Lee Melville
Editor-in-Chief
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Stephen Rider and Jed Reynolds. Photo by Carla Larissa Fallberg.
SHIPS PASSING…South Pasadena-based Fremont Centre Theatre is launching Suzan-Lori Parks‘ Pulitzer winning Topdog/Underdog on Aug. 21, directed by James Reynolds, featuring son Jed Reynolds and Stephen Rider. The production overlaps the Lillian Theatre’s current staging of the same play, running through Sept. 12…Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House (directed by caryn desai) sails into Long Beach’s International City Theatre on Aug. 27, following the recently docked, highly successful Odyssey Theatre Ensemble staging (closed July 22)…And Arthur Miller’s ever popular Tony winner, All My Sons, speeds into Santa Monica’s Ruskin Group Theatre on Aug. 14, helmed by Edward Edwards, starring Paul Linke, Austin Highsmith and Dominic Comperatore, following the critically lauded NoHo-based Raven Playhouse production (closed July 25)…
Brenda Strong.
A CLASSICAL SUMMER…That relentless purveyor of Shakespearean rock n’ roll Matt Walker is once more guiding his Troubadour Theater Company through a union of the Bard and a rock icon, this time infusing A Winter’s Tale with the soulful sounds of Bill Withers. A Wither’s Tale opens Aug. 11 at Garry Marshall’s Toluca Lake- based Falcon Theatre…Over in Culver City, John Farmanesh-Bocca, still glowing from last summer’s critically triumphant “physical theatre” staging of Pericles Redux at the Kirk Douglas Theater, is muscling up another work of the Bard under the producing auspices of Circus Theatricals (CT). Titus Redux opens Aug. 29 at the Douglas featuring CT founder Jack Stehlin in the title role. SAG Award-winner Brenda Strong (series regular narrator voice of ABC’s Desperate Housewives), along with three-time daytime Emmy winner Margeaux J. London (formerly Jennifer Landon, daughter of Michael Landon) also star. Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin is producing…On a Hellenic note, J. Paul Getty Museum is presenting its fifth annual outdoor stage rendering at the Getty Villa’s acoustically delicious Barbara and Lawrence Fleishman Theater. Carey Perloff, artistic director of San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater (ACT) is helming Sophocles’ Electra (opening Sept. 9), featuring Annie Purcell in the title role, Olympia Dukakis as the Chorus with Pamela Reed as Clytemnestra and newcomer Manoel Felciano as Orestes…
PREMIERES… Mark Roberts (Rantoul or Die) offers the West Coast premiere of his new play Parasite Drag at Elephant Stage, opening Aug. 13 with Elephant Stageworks Artistic Director David Fofi at the helm and Lindsay Allbaugh producing… Hollywood-based Eclectic Theatre Company is launching Martyrdumb (opening Sept. 10), “a new dark comedy about terrorism,” by the writing/ producing team of Jason Britt and Kerr Seth Lordygun. Maria Markosov is directing…CTG Artistic Director Michael Ritchie has announced the 2010-2011 Kirk Douglas Theatre season, beginning with Venice (opening Oct. 7), a futuristic musically eclectic perusal of the aftermath of a 20-year war. This adventurous tuner is wrought by Eric Rosen (book & lyrics) and Matt Sax (music & lyrics). Rosen also directs. Additional music is provided by Curtis Moore…
Justin Okin and Andy Hirsch. Photo by John Flynn.
THE LATE SHOW…Rogue Machine’s Off the Clock late night series returns with its mandate to cater to the edgier, more artistically daring theatre crowd. Joshua Conkel’s Milk Milk Lemonade (for adults only) with Andy Hirsch and Justin Okin is running Fri. & Sat. at 10 pm (extending until Aug. 28)…Not to be outdone, Celebration Theatre’s Late Night Program continues LA Tool & Die by film writer/director Sean Abley (Socket), a full frontal spin on ’70s gay porn film, running Fri. & Sat. at 10:30 pm, until Sept. 11…
LA STAGE INSIDER HISTORY…Sixty-three years ago this month, German expatriate Bertolt Brecht teamed with American actor Charles Laughton to premiere Galileo at the Coronet Theatre in Hollywood, directed by Joseph Losey. Also starring were Hugo Haas and Frances Heflin. On October 30 of that year, Brecht was called before the HUAC. He left the U.S. the next day…
