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The performances of the Latino comedy troupe Culture Clash range from sketches to full-length plays, charged with political and social satire. The company is known for its irreverent approach to topics ranging from social justice to Greek playwright Aristophanes’ The Birds. Culture Clash was founded in 1984 in San Francisco. The ensemble, now based in [...]
You know that dream where you’re standing naked in front of an audience? For author/actor Summer “Rain” Sinclair, it’s a reality that’s happened three times this week. Sinclair strips herself bare in her one-woman show, Born Again Bohemian, part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival. OK, she’s not physically naked. But emotionally, Sinclair hides little as [...]
On every significant front — writers, directors, artistic directors, leading roles — the status of women in today’s theater is in dire straits. What is to be done to redress the situation? I posed this question to three women this week at TCG’s 50th anniversary annual conference. Here are their answers: MARSHA NORMAN, Pulitzer-Prize-winning [...]
Ever wish there were more (well, any) TV shows about theater? Engine 28 is here with that answer — except it’s on the Web! In this premiere episode of Off Stage W ith Engine 28, Jesse North sits down with Pasadena Playhouse’s artistic director (and Broadway’s Baby It’s You! director), Sheldon Epps, to discuss his [...]
About a dozen people learned more about sleep apnea, narcolepsy and cataplexy than they might have reasonably expected on a Friday night at a Hollywood Boulevard bar/improv comedy club. They also gleaned insights into the joys and sorrows of American health care, the Los Angeles metro bus system and the precariousness of low-wage jobs. All [...]
Orson Welles in 1937. Photo: Carl Van Vechten, courtesy Library of Congress How do you make Shakespeare edgy enough for the Hollywood Fringe? You resurrect a 75-year-old script edited by a brash, young Orson Welles. Listen to the review here: JuliuscastFinalCloud by Engine28 Julius Caesar: The Death of a Dictator, through Sunday, June 26, [...]
Jon Armstrong, a fixture at Hollywood Fringe headquarters, was getting some lip from a fellow magician. “All he could do was prattle on about everything he was a master of. About how he could do this, he could read minds, he was a great stage magician, he was the most incredible thing since sliced bread.” [...]
A friend was recently at the playground with her children when a stranger began to explain in detail about how the end of the world was fast approaching. Talk about an uncomfortable conversation to have in front of your children: “Mommy, does the Mayan calendar include my birthday? Or just the end of the world [...]
Just when you thought Los Angeles’ June theater festivals were wrapping up, it turns out the fat lady has a lot more to see before she sings. As RADAR L.A. and the Theatre Communications Group begin to close their curtains, and Hollywood Fringe festival heads into its second week, the National Asian American Theater Conference [...]
If you’ve never hated the family that you also love, stand up. Now sit down, preferably in some water, because your pants are probably on fire. Almost all of us have, well, complicated relationships with our families. And ever since Shakespeare wrote Hamlet’s bloody tale of extreme familial dysfunction, playwrights have counted on family drama [...]
Hallie Gordon, a Chicago theater professional who helped found and now oversees Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s program promoting theater among youth, delivered what might become the most urgent message to emerge from Theatre Communication Group‘s 50th annual conference, which ended Saturday, June 18, in Los Angeles. “We hear a lot of talk about attracting ‘the [...]
The tired question “Is L.A. a theater town?” was quickly dismissed at a panel discussion hosted by the L.A. Times’ Culture Monster last week. (Of course it is.) The harder question was about theater actors in Los Angeles. After all, the conventional thinking goes, don’t West Coast theaters benefit from having a huge pool of local [...]
Ninety minutes until curtain. The queue of ticketholders extends halfway down the block, three-deep. Most shows at the Hollywood Fringe performance festival just up the street would kill for a line like this. They’re here for a premiere that’s had buzz all over the blogs, but has yet to reach the mainstream media. For most [...]
The tired question "Is L.A. a theater town?" was quickly dismissed at a panel discussion hosted by the L.A. Times' Culture Monster last week. (Of course it is.) The harder question was about … [Read More...]
Ninety minutes until curtain. The queue of ticketholders extends halfway down the block, three-deep. Most shows at the Hollywood Fringe performance festival just up the street would kill for a line … [Read More...]
If you’ve never hated the family that you also love, stand up. Now sit down, preferably in some water, because your pants are probably on fire. Almost all of us have, well, complicated … [Read More...]
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