The rich like owning stuff. Islands, paintings, many, many homes, precious works of art, vintage automobiles; the list of acquisitions is endless and growing. Should such treasure be owned at all? In truth, all ownership is temporary. Ownership is custodianship. News flash! Everyone dies! But who owns antiquities? Should they be owned at all? Should … Continue reading “The Spanish Prayer Book” at The Road Theatre Company
Set in the 1970s, a time when women’s lib became an actuality, mariachi music was the sole domain of men. For women to play and sing the music was an abomination. Lucha (Gabriela Carrillo), an ambitious college student on the cusp of graduation, is burdened with the home care of her mother, Amalia (Diana Burbano), … Continue reading “American Mariachi” at South Coast Repertory
You have to admire the boldness of Sacred Fools Theater Company. As I have been covering their productions over the past four years, I have come to relish the company’s audacity, their damn-the-torpedoes-full-steam-ahead bravado. Often their projects are flat out brilliant, as, for example, The Art Couple and A Gulag Mouse testify. Others might just … Continue reading “Deadly” at Sacred Fools
Already the fall theatre season is opening with a bang. This week, it is Deaf West’s extraordinary production of Tony Award-winning playwright Jack Thorne’s, The Solid Life of Sugar Water. The title is left to the audience to ken, as is the searing, vibrant performance by the actors. Deaf actors Tad Cooley as Phil and … Continue reading “The Solid Life of Sugar Water” at Deaf West Theatre
I must be leading a sheltered life here in my apartment in the greater Los Angeles megalopolis. I thought I was pretty much up on things. I read the Times and the New Yorker. I watch the ever-saddening news. I talk to lots of people. I see lots of plays. But until I signed up … Continue reading “Handjob” at Echo Theatre
The tale told in Richard Kalinoski’s 1995 play, Beast on the Moon, is set against the background of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, primarily in 1915, and with lesser atrocities and massacres that extended back into the 19th Century. Armenians, a Christian people, were at the mercy of the Muslim Empire, and … Continue reading “Beast on the Moon” at International City Theatre
Jiehae Park’s play, Hannah and the Dread Gazebo, premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2017, where it was seen by Fountain Theatre Artistic Director Stephen Sachs, who found a way to bring to it to Los Angeles. The play, co-produced by Fountain Theatre in partnership with East West Players, is set in 2011 shortly … Continue reading “Hannah and the Dread Gazebo” at The Fountan Theatre
