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
Courtney Sauls, Anna Rose Hopkins, Jenny Soo, Laila Ayad, Sonal Shah, Sarah UtterbackPhoto by Jeff Lorch. The press release for Untitled Baby Play, written by Nina Braddock and now playing by IAMA Theatre Company at Atwater Village Theatre, is a coy title for a blockbuster of a show. Six extraordinary female actors dominate the stage, … Continue reading “Untitled Baby Play”
When entering Odyssey’s initmate theatre for Yasmina Reza’s mad-cap dark comedy, God of Carnage (translated by Christopher Hampton), it is a pleasure to peruse Tyler Scrivner’s ideal scenic design. The set dressings clue one into the kind of people who inhabit the dwelling: modern art on the walls, expensive imported flowers on a low table, … Continue reading “God of Carnage” at Odyssey Theatre
Paul Myrvold's Theatre Notes 