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
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
No matter what one thinks of the art of Andy Warhol, like for instance…”A tomato soup can? I could do that,” the fact is that, in his all too short existence, he upended conventional notions of what constitutes art, as so many artists did in the Twentieth Century—Picasso, Dali, Pollak, Rothko, and more. His … Continue reading “Andy Warhol’s Tomato” at Pacific Resident Theatre
After a restless period of uncertainty, Open Fist Theatre Company is on a roll, clearly hitting its stride with a recent series of smashing shows—Under Milk Wood, Anna in the Tropics, and now Dancing at Lughnasa. Brian Friel’s award winning play is set in Ireland, County Donegal, in the small rural village of Ballybeg around … Continue reading “Dancing at Lughnasa” at Open First Theatre
It was decades ago as a student in the drama department of my college that I first heard the name Bertolt Brecht. The great German playwright and his works have been in my theatrical lexicon ever since. He was amazingly productive, writing no less than fifty plays between 1918 and 1955, many of which are … Continue reading “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” at Antaeus Theatre Company
Playwright Larry Shue’s fame rests on the success of his two over-the-top comedies, The Nerd and The Foreigner, two hit shows that are perennially revived all over the country and probably overseas as well. Little Fish Theatre mounted a smashing production of The Foreigner around this time last year. The company’s current production is The … Continue reading “The Nerd” at Little Fish Theatre
One of the most absorbing, original, and inventive shows now playing in the Hollywood Fringe Festival must be The Puckwit Gang’s In Conclusion, which is so much more than the conventional courtroom drama hinted at in the title. Those aware of early Twentieth Century crime will suss out a connection to a famous murder and … Continue reading “In Conclusion” at Hollywood Fringe
Paul Myrvold's Theatre Notes 