NEWSWORTHY“¦.Since its near demise a year ago, Pasadena Playhouse appears to be moving full throttle into the future. Artistic Director Sheldon Epps announced Jennifer Berger is joining the staff as Director of Development for the theater, “responsible for overseeing, strategizing and implementing all Playhouse fundraising activities.” Berger recently held a similar position at Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale”¦The American premiere of the stage comedy The Beverly Hills Psychiatrist, scripted by Cornelius Schnauber, helmed by Louis Fantasia, is being presented by The Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German- Swiss Studies at USC in co-operation with The German-American Cultural Society. The production opens Jan. 29 at the Lounge Theatre in Hollywood”¦In conjunction with Black History Month, Upland-based Grove Theatre is presenting the one-person tuner Sweet Mama String Bean, scripted by ValLimar Jansen and William L. Stout, chronicling the life and career of singer/actress Ethel Waters, Feb. 25-27 (three perfs only), following its recent run at the Fremont Centre. Jansen is accompanied by her husband, pianist/music director Frank Jansen, produced and directed by Barbara Goodwin Masters and Kim O’Rourke“¦Phantom Projects Theatre Group, founded in 1996 by then-17-year-old Steve Cisneros and previously a group that concentrated on matinees for school audiences, now offers regular public performances of its teen-oriented fare — beginning with the stage adaptation of Lois Lowry’s 1994 Newbery Medal winning science-fiction novel The Giver, adapted for the stage by Eric Coble, helmed by Ovation Award winner Janet Miller, Feb. 23-24 at La Mirada Theatre. Miller is also staging Phantom’s next project, The Bluest Eye, adapted from the 1970 novel by Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison, in April at Miles Playhouse in Santa Monica”¦
FEB PREMIERES”¦Scripter Nick Salamone’s The Sonneteer, “traversing five decades, exploring fratricide, homophobia, thwarted love and the restorative nature of art in the lives of a first generation Italian-American family,” is having its world premiere at the LA Gay & Lesbian Center’s Davidson/Valentini Theatre, helmed by Jon Lawrence Rivera, produced by Jon Imparato, opening Feb. 11″¦Thesp Laura Coker is producing the world premiere of Firehouse by Pedro Antonio Garcia, helmed by Bryan Rasmussen, focusing on the community tensions that arise when a fireman decides to save a fellow firefighter rather than an endangered child. Consulting producer is Robert “˜Bobby’ Moresco (Oscar-winning co-scripter of Crash). Production opens Feb. 4 at Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks”¦Debutingon the same day is Eric Czuleger’s black comedy No. Saints Lane, a Coeurage Theatre Co. production at Actors Circle Theatre in Hollywood. Steve Julian, the morning voice of local NPR outlet KPCC and a frequent contributor to LASTAGETimes.com, is helming”¦ The West Coast premiere of Jump/Cut by Neena Beber, incorporating both live stage and filmed segments, helmed by Paul Millet, produced by Michael Perl and Melissa Lugo, opens at The Arena Stage at Theatre of Arts in Hollywood, Feb. 19″¦Little Tokyo-based LOFT Ensemble is presenting the world premiere of 100 Days by Weiko Lin, inspired by the Taiwanese tradition that if a parent passes away before his or her child is wed, the child has 100 days to get married in order to ensure the parent’s spirit transitions peacefully to the afterlife. Helmed by Brett Erickson, it opens Feb. 12″¦ Groundlings Singles Cruise, the latest outing by the sketch-driven Melrose Ave. yock-meister, sets sail on Feb. 11, helmed by Mikey Day“¦
THE GROUP ETHIC”¦Famed standup comic launching pad The Improv, co-owned by Budd Friedman and Mark Lanow, is now starting the Improv’s Theatrical Division with Love Sucks, a “not so romantic comedy of bad manners,” opening Feb. 25 at Coast Playhouse in West Hollywood. Although billed as a “world premiere,” it’s also a new version of Rob Mersola‘s Backseats & Bathroom Stalls, which played in Silver Lake in 2008-2009. The production features a notable group of working thesps, including Joshua Bitton, Anil Kumar, Sadie Alexandru, Daniel Ponickly, Michael Alperin and Jeni Verdon (granddaughter of Broadway legend Gwen Verdon)”¦A whole lot of distaff talent and a couple of guys combine forces for In Mother Words, “giving voice to mothers and children of all ages, races and even sexes,” opening Feb. 23, in the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse, conceived by Susan Rose and Joan Stein, helmed by Lisa Peterson. Thesps Jane Kaczmarek, Mary Birdsong, Saidah Arrika Ekulona and James Lecesne give voice to acclaimed scripters Beth Henley, Lisa Loomer, Michele Lowe, Theresa Rebeck, author Luanne Rice as well as Leslie Ayvazian, David Cale, Jessica Goldberg, Lameece Isaaq, Marco Pennette, Lisa Ramirez, Annie Weisman and Cheryl L. West”¦Ten Tops! An Eclectic Open Mic Night, hosted by Carla Jo Bailey, features 10 performers who get seven minutes each to do anything they want onstage, presented by Sacred Fools Theater Co. in Hollywood, Feb. 7. Signups at 7:30, performances begin at 8. There is even an optional theme: Shot in the Heart ““ Love Stories, Good and Bad“¦
THE THING IS”¦ “I had two other pieces I created this way, by writing and performing in a big epic fashion, creating something in front of an audience, taking the time to lounge around in whatever my psychic, political pulse was at the moment and sharing it with the audience, sort of creating theater in a performance art mode. That’s how I created my eight-part solo play, Whatever, and the performance novel/epic play, A Tale of 2 Cities. Since then, I’ve become really intrigued by what is going on in the Internet, people making their own self-entertainment on YouTube. It is as much “˜gladiatorial’ as it is art. I became interested in taking that sense of performance immediacy and making the content literary, poetic and dramatic. As you can tell from the title, I also wanted to do a piece of artistic activism about global warming. I write my episodes from week to week. I memorize as best I can, then do it in front of an audience, at times working improvisationally. The performance is filmed. I then spend a whole day editing and posting it online. It is “˜maximalist’ storytelling with absolute minimal means””¦Heather Woodbury’s dramatic serial As the Globe Warms, begins its final season (10 episodes of a 34-episode drama) at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles, Feb. 1. Online, her work can be seen at heatherwoodbury.com
THIS AND THAT”¦ Multi-LADCC Award-winner Art Manke is both helming and choreographing the Theatre for Young Audiences tuner Lucky Duck, described as “Ugly Duckling meets American Idol,” book by Bill Russell and Jeffrey Hatcher, music by Henry Krieger, lyrics by Russell, opening Feb. 11 at South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa”¦The Relevant Stage, San Pedro’s musical theater company, presents Cole Porter’s ever-tuneful adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, book by Sam and Bella Spewack. Helmed by Ray Buffer, Kiss Me, Kate opens Feb. 17 at the Warner Grand Theatre…The latest incarnation of Casey Smith’s award-winning one-hander, Violators Will be Violated, helmed by Jennifer A. Skinner, anchors the late night programming from Circle X at the Atwater Village Theatre, opening Feb. 18″¦ Venice-based Pacific Resident Theatre is extending its world premiere run of Julia by Vince Melocchi, helmed by Guillermo Cienfuegos, through Feb. 27″¦Reprise Theatre Company takes a departure from its retro musical theater revival ethic by presenting Barry Manilow in Concert, one perf only, Mar. 22 at UCLA’s Royce Hall”¦Finally, the world premiere of Blind Spots, “a black comedy about a gay journalist who battles her homophobic sister… to the death,” scripted by Colette Freedman, debuts at the Sherry Theatre in North Hollywood, opening Mar. 26, staged by Elise Robertson, produced by Kurt Swanson…
INSIDE LA STAGE HISTORY”¦In the long history of Los Angeles stage works, there have been oh-so-many theater companies, producing oh-so-many worthy and not-so-worthy seasons. I saw my first professional play when I was nine, Bertolt Brecht’s Galileo starring Charles Laughton at the Coronet on La Cienega. My most recent outing was Ballroom with a Twist at El Portal in NoHo. There is obviously a wide aesthetic range out there. Culling through my 60-plus years as an audience member, my most enjoyable single season of theatergoing was the 1982-83 Odyssey Theatre Ensemble output which produced 14 plays, spread over three performance spaces, creatively labeled Odyssey I, II and III, housed on Ohio Ave. in West LA. My most vivid memory was the season opener, inhaling the performance of LA newcomer Laurie O’Brien as she inhabited the soul of schizophrenic Mary Barnes in the play of the same name by Brit scripter David Edgar (adapter of Nicholas Nickleby for the stage), helmed by Odyssey artistic director Ron Sossi. A rundown of season highlights included the ambitious West Coast premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s tuner adaptation of Aristophanes’ The Frogs, starring the late Franklyn Seales; Wallace Shawn’s excruciating but captivating perusal of a bad, bad marriage, Marie and Bruce, starring Sam Anderson and Anne Bronston; and Frank Condon’s staging of Heinar Kipphardt’s In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer starring Allan Arbus; plus an extension of a hit from the 1981-82 season, the one-person Confessions of an Irish Rebel, Shay Duffin‘s rollicking turn as Brendan Behan. Even the rentals were notable, particularly Lotus Productions’ staging of D.B. Gilles’s The Legendary Stardust Boys; and Phillip Hayes Dean’s Robeson, which introduced a stellar Bay Area transplant, Ben Guillory (co-founder of Robey Theatre Co.), as Paul Robeson. This was now-extinct Equity Waiver Theater at its best”¦
The Julio Martinez-hosted ARTS IN REVIEW, broadcast Wednesdays (2 to 2:30 pm) on KPFK (90.7FM), spotlights the best in live theater and cabaret in the Greater LA Area. On Feb. 2 is an interview with retiring and incoming International City Theatre Artistic Directors Shashin Desai and caryn desai, respectively”¦
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