Zina Bethune and pas de deux partner

A SAD FAREWELL”¦ Dancer/actress/choreographer Zina Bethune, a longtime member of  Colony Theatre, was killed by a hit-and-run driver when she stopped to assist an injured animal in Griffith Park on Sunday morning, Feb 12. I recall a Saturday morning in 1985, observing this hauntingly patient and supportive lady, a former dance soloist with New York City Ballet, instructing a small group of physically impaired children while I accompanied them on guitar. At the conclusion, she hugged each of the children, turned to me and said, “That was lovely.” Yes, she was”¦

Oksana Dyka in "Madame Butterfly"

MORE 2012 SEASONS”¦ Burbank-based Colony has unveiled its 2012/13 season, which includes an impressive number of premieres, beginning with the West Coast debut of the 2007 Catholic-Pentecostal comedy The Savannah Disputation, by Evan Smith (June 16). Next up are the West Coast premiere of Blame It on Beckett, a behind-the-scenes comedy about a nonprofit theater, scripted by John Morogiello (Aug 11); the LA debut of Stephen Tomlinson’s 2007 one-person play American Fiesta (Sep 29); the West Coast premiere of  the 2010 one-act, two-hander The Morini Strad by Willy Holtzman (Nov 17); the LA premiere of Canadian playwright Peter Colley’s psychological thriller I’ll Be Back Before Midnight (Feb 9, 2013); and the premiere of Falling for Make Believe, a musical scripted by Mark Saltzman, chronicling the career and troubled life of Lorenz Hart and using the songbook that the lyricist wrote with Richard Rodgers (Apr 27, 2013)”¦Dorothy Chandler Pavilion-based LA Opera also reveals its 2012/13 season, beginning with the company premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s The Two Foscari, opening Sep 15, conducted by James Conlon, helmed by Thaddeus Strassberger, starring LA Opera general director Plácido Domingo. The season continues with: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Sept 22), co-conducted by Conlon and Domingo, helmed by German director Peter Stein, starring Italian bass-baritone Ildebrando D’Arcangelo; Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly (Nov 17), starring soprano Oksana Dyka, conducted by LA Opera resident Grant Gershon, helmed by Ron Daniels; LA Opera debut of Icelandic baritone Tómas Tómasson in the title role of Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman (Mar 9, 2013), conducted by Conlon, helmed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff; Gioachino Rossini’s Cinderella (Mar 23), conducted by Conlon, helmed by Spanish director Joan Font; and Puccini’s Tosca (June 8), starring soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, conducted by Domingo, helmed by Broadway pro John Caird”¦Long Beach’s Carpenter PAC-based Musical Theatre West is celebrating its 60^th Anniversary season with a lineup that includes: 42^nd Street (Oct 26),  Oklahoma! (Feb.15, 2013), A Chorus Line (Apr 12, 2013) and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1994 adaptation of Billy Wilder’s classic 1950 tinseltown film saga, Sunset Boulevard (July 12, 2013)”¦

PREMIERES“¦ After a year in development, Evangeline, the Queen of Make-Believe, “a  premiere multimedia theatrical event,” featuring the songbook of “¨Louie Pérez and David Hidalgo of multi-Grammy-winning band Los Lobos, is debuting May 12 at Bootleg Theater in downtown LA, scripted by Theresa Chavez, Louie Pérez and Rose Portillo, helmed by About Productions’ Portillo and Chavez. Musical direction is by Scott Radarte from the East LA band Ollin.  Set during the 1968 East LA student walkouts, the production focuses on a young Chicana’s journey of self-discovery within and outside her neighborhood”¦And Padua Hills Playwrights founder Murray Mednick is premiering his latest work, The Fool and the Red Queen, experimenting “with archetypes to explore human nature and the processes of theater;” but the action still focuses on Mednick’s perennial down-on-his-luck actor Gary, who has permeated a slew of Mednick works. Helmed by the scripter and Guy Zimmerman, it opens May 19 at Lounge 2 Theatre in Hollywood”¦Closer at hand, Ovation-winning Troubadour Theater Company is debuting another mash-up of the Bard and an iconic ’60s rock band.  Two Gentlemen of Chicago, helmed by AD Matt Walker, opens Mar 23 at Falcon Theatre in Toluca Lake, chronicling the misadventures of pals Proteus and Valentine as they give up a “Saturday in the Park” and head for the big city”¦

Leslie Jordan

AROUND TOWN”¦ Founded in 1974 by producing director Susan Albert Loewenberg, LA Theatre Works (LATW) has offered its virtual theater radio broadcasts nationally and locally since 1985.  LA area broadcasts, which originally aired on Santa Monica-based NPR outlet KCRW, before moving to Pasadena’s KPCC, have now found a home at KPFK (90.7FM), Pacifica Radio outlet for the Greater LA area, beginning in mid-March (date & time TBA), according to KPFK.  LATW continues its theater-for-the-air recording series with Michael Hollinger’s Opus, the string quartet play that the Fountain introduced to LA in 2010, this time featuring Adam Arkin, Sarah Drew and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Recorded before a live audience, it opens May 17 at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater.  The director and remaining ensemble member are TBA…Leslie Jordan is giving a special Feb 19, 2 pm matinee performance of his currently running solo Fruit Fly, in support of Celebration Theatre’s ambitious production of the 2005 Tony”“nominated tuner The Color Purple, which opens Mar 9″¦Impro Theatre is bringing its improvised on-the-spot Jane Austin Unscripted to Carrie Hamilton Theatre at the Pasadena Playhouse, Mar 3, helmed by company AD Dan O’Connor and Paul Rogan. Based on audience suggestions, Impro ensemble “creates and performs a never before seen, all-new Jane Austen story right before your eyes.”…LA-based Festival of New American Musicals (FNAM) is launching 2012 Show Search, looking for the next generation of musical theater composers, the first national competition for high school and college-age new musical writers.  Complete submission info can be found at www.lafestival.org“¦On the extension front, the premiere of Michael Hyman’s two-handed Expecting To Fly, helmed by Kiff Scholl, starring Casey Kringlen and Justin Mortelliti, is reaching out through Mar 25 at Elephant Space in Hollywood”¦And in NoHo, Road Theatre Company is extending the LA premiere run of The Water’s Edge, scripted by Theresa Rebeck, helmed by Road AD Sam Anderson, through Mar 24″¦

Richard Chamberlain

PLAYHOUSE NEWS… Richard Chamberlain will play the father of The Heiress in the Pasadena Playhouse production of Ruth and Augustus Goetz‘s adaptation of the Henry James novel Washington Square, opening April 29. Heather Tom will play the title role and Julia Duffy will play her sister. Damaso Rodriguez will direct…Two weeks after Pasadena Playhouse’s announcement of the departure of executive director Stephen Eich, Charles Dillingham has been announced as interim executive director during the transition period following Eich’s departure, while the national search continues for a new executive director. Dillingham’s services are being underwritten by Arts Consulting Group (ACG), a national consulting firm where he serves as vice president. Until he joined ACG in June 2011, he had been managing director of Center Theatre Group in LA for 20 years… Long Beach Playhouse (LBP) is forgoing its previously announced search for a new executive director, instead creating a new structure administered by a producing artistic director in the leadership role and a business and operations manager position responsible for the administrative duties. Andrew Vonderschmitt, who has been with the Playhouse for four years as technical director and technical/artistic director, has accepted the producing artistic director position. Liz Lydic, who served as interim executive director, is staying on as business and operations manager through the end of March. A search is underway for someone to permanently fill the position. And in an effort to “return to staffing levels more in keeping with the needs of a community theater,” LBP is reducing its 12-member staff to six full-time and two contract positions. “This doesn’t affect the timetable for our production season at all,” promises Vonderschmitt. “We are still presenting The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane in April in the Studio Theater and we’re on schedule for the 2012/13 mainstage season which will debut in mid-October (TBA).”

Gary Grossman

THE THING IS”¦ “I always think I want to come up with a set season, but it never happens. Our schedule always centers around the plays themselves and what they need.  We’re more about developing and workshopping. If a play is not ready, we’re not going to produce it. But we are productive. Last year we did 15, a mix of one-person shows and full-length plays.  At the moment, we are scheduled to do at least six solo performance works this year and at least three mainstage shows over at our Skylight space in Hollywood. And at the Beverly Hills Playhouse (BHP) we are looking to do our playwrights festival, which is seven full-length plays that were written within our play lab (TBA). And we’re looking to do two workshops at BHP in the Research Space.  Altogether we have four performances outlets, including the Skylight Mainstage and the smaller Skylab. In fact, in May and June we will actually have four productions going on at the same time. We are also open to partnerships and co-productions with other companies.  Last year we offered BHP to extend the run of Rogue Machine’s Small Engine Repair.  Upcoming, we are hosting the extended run of Inkwell Productions’ Fairy Tale Theatre, 18 and Over, which will be moving from the Matrix Theatre to the Skylight in March. We could never just be a straight rental [venue]. I want to work with the people I want to work with.” ““ Gary Grossman, producer/artistic director of Katselas Theatre Company, is currently overseeing the premieres of two one-person plays opening at the Skylight Theatre on Feb 24: The Yellow House, written and performed by Burke Byrnes, helmed by Michael Kearns (8 pm); and Special Delivery, written and performed by Harry Hart-Browne, helmed by Mark Bringelson (9:15 pm)”¦

Conor Walshe

I WAS ON STAGE WHEN”¦ “I was appearing in Conor MacPherson’s The Seafarer a few years back in Australia. I was in this scene with an actor playing my brother, and he’s complaining that there is no toilet roll. So, in the next scene, as part of a comedy setup, I come back carrying about 40 roles of toilet paper tucked into every part of me including under my chin. In the process of trying to enter the scene, I hit one of the boards that supports the walls of the set. It starts to collapse onto the stage. In trying to recover, I drop some of the rolls onto the floor which I proceed to kick across the stage, causing them to unravel, making even more of a mess. I knew the actor playing my brother was about to enter right into the middle of this.  Fortunately, a couple of the stagehands where able to re-set the wall and we just muddled through it. ““ Conor Walshe is currently appearing in Martin McDonagh’s The Lonesome West at Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica

Tyrone Power, Sr.

INSIDE LA STAGE HISTORY”¦ By the year 1916, the population of the city of Los Angeles has grown to approximately 450,000.  Despite being dwarfed by New York City’s 5.6 million, Angelenos consider their town to be a metropolis. A steady infusion of top-level international artists and touring companies give upwardly mobile local citizenry the desire to make the town a center for the arts that will transcend their snobbish neighbors to the north in San Francisco. The artsy folks living around the Beachwood Canyon area in the Hollywood Hills decide to make a real statement. After five months of preparation and rehearsals, Beachwood Canyon hosts an epic staging of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar for one night only on May 21. Beachwood, a natural amphitheater where every sound is amplified exponentially, is an ideal location. The bowl shape of the future Beachwood Village provides the perfect contours of a theater. Conceived as a tercentennial commemoration of the Bard’s death, the production involves 5,000 players, including the student bodies of Hollywood and Fairfax High Schools. It features Tyrone Power Sr. as Marcus Brutus and Douglas Fairbanks as Young Cato. Other notables in the cast are William Farnum (Cassius), DeWolf Hopper (Casca) and silent film ingénue Mae Murray, who gives her all as a barbaric dancer. The Battle of Philippi is re-created by sword-wielding actors who fight their way up Beachwood Drive onto a vast stage constructed on the future site of Beachwood Village. The burgeoning Hollywood film industry lends its support. The lavish sets come courtesy of D.W. Griffith, Jesse Lasky, Thomas Ince, Mack Sennett and Universal Film Corporation. Easily accessible via the Franklin Ave. Streetcar, the play attracts an audience of 40,000 and is a huge success, with $2,500 profit from ticket sales donated to the young Actors’ Equity. An encore performance, produced by Griffith and Sennett, is held a few weeks later at the Majestic Theater downtown.  The success of the 1916 Julius Caesar leads directly to the Theosophical Society’s 1918 production of The Light of Asia, a pageant based on Edwin Arnold’s epic poem on the life of Buddha which is also a hit.  The Theosophist folks search for a permanent amphitheater for large-scale pageants. Renaming themselves the Theatre Arts Alliance, they come upon an acoustically perfect natural glen in an area along Highland Avenue known as Daisy Dell. At a cost of  $47,500, the Alliance buys 59 acres of what becomes the site of Hollywood Bowl in 1919″¦

“¦The Julio Martinez-hosted ARTS IN REVIEW, broadcast Thursday (2:30  to 3 pm) on KPFK (90.7FM), spotlights the best in live theater and cabaret in the Greater LA area. Upcoming on Feb 23, ARTS IN REVIEW hosts KPFK’s winter membership drive“¦