Ahkei Togun, Monti Washington, Symphony Canady and Rosemary Thomas. Photo by Jenny Graham. William Inge’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, Picnic, opened on Broadway on February 19, 1953. It was a hit that ran for 477 performances. The play has a place in my heart. In 1967, I was the lighting designer for the San Jose … Continue reading “Picnic” at Odyssey Theatre Ensemble
Caitlin Zambito. Photo by OddDog Pictures I first discovered playwright Lucas Hnath back in April of 2017 at a production of his broadway hit, A Dolls House, Part 2, produced at South Coast Rep. The show knocked me out. I attended his totally unique play, Dana H., at The Kirk Douglas in 2019, (see https://paulmyrvoldstheatrenotes.wordpress.com/2019/06/05/dana-h-at-kirk-douglas-theatre/). … Continue reading “The Thin Place” at The Echo Theater Company
Beau Willimon’s play Farragut North, now playing at Theatre 68 in North Hollywood, couldn’t be more appropriate in this awful political season, with its mixed bag of honorable politicians and scurrilous liars spewing from the television screens of the citizenry. The play, set in Iowa in the early days of a presidential campaign, features political … Continue reading “Farragut North” at Theatre 68
All the world knows how tough it is to be an immigrant, especially an undocumented immigrant. With his play (Un) Documents, playwright/performer Jesús I. Valles shows an intimate knowledge of the uncertain life that can haunt a family every day when some members have their “papers” while others don’t. And what it means to cross … Continue reading “(Un) Documents” at Latino Theater Company
Bill Chott. Photo by Bill Dow. I imagine that modern up-to-the minute people have no idea about Archy and Mehitabel, a creation of Don Marquis, a columnist for The Evening Sun newspaper in New York City back in 1916. I seem to have some notion that I may have come across the characters decades ago. … Continue reading “The Secret World of Archy and Mehitabel”
Michael A. Shepperd. Photo by Kayte Deioma When I was living the life of a working Broadway actor back 1974, I had the benefit of seeing shows on Mondays when theatres are usually dark, a perk of being an Actors Equity member. Among other shows, my wife and I got to see was the glorious … Continue reading Valley Song at International City Theatre
Gerald C. Rivers. Photo by Ian Flanders. Among other interests as a teenager, I was something of a book worm who loved history. I ordered Winston Churchill’s six volume history of the Second World War and plowed through quite a bit of it, and I loved William L. Shirer’s “Rise and Fall of the Third … Continue reading “Trouble the Water” at Theatricum Botanicum
What could more appropriate for theatre lovers on Fourth of July weekend then a smashing new production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream? Director/choreographer James Fowler has a new twist on the venerable old show. Forget about Queen Elizabeth’s court and other iterations of the old play. We still will be in Athens, but … Continue reading “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Open Fist Theatre Company
Ellen Geer and Melora Marshall. Photo by Ian Flanders. I am a little chagrinned that Ernest Thompson’s The West Side Waltz flew by me not once, but twice some years ago. My wife and I were living in that self-same West Side of Manhattan where we were struggling in our careers, me as an actor … Continue reading “The West Side Waltz” at Theatricum Botanicum
When I entered the steep bowl of the Los Angeles Theatre Center’s Auditorium 3, I was impressed by the set and the lighting designs of Emily MacDonald and Cameron Mock. A circular, two-steps up platform with a plush bed and a nightstand dominates up stage. A translucent circular curtain soars upward with a circular window … Continue reading “Sleep with the Angels” at Latino Theater Company
Paul Myrvold's Theatre Notes 