Gil Kaan - Page 25

The versatile and frequent Los Angeles theatre collaborator, actor/producer Matthew Herrmann will next be virtually seen in ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME KAREN CARPENTER, a benefit for the Cavern Club Celebrity Theatre at Casita del Campo October 1 live at 7pm PST. Joining Matthew will be familiar faces from the L.A. theatre community: Drew Droege, Carey Peters, Jennifer Blake, Amy Procacci, Libby Baker, Frances Chewning, Rae Dawn Hadinger, Joe Donohoe and Brad Griffith.

Javon Johnson, the most winningest poetry slam competitor to-date ('Humble brag,' Javon interjecting), will open the Pasadena Playhouse's new streaming platform PLAYHOUSELIVE September 30, 2020 with his one-man show STILL. Poet/performer/professor Javon shares his most timely take on the complexities of the Black experience in the format he's been most successful - poems.

Emma Rice, the creator and leader of the UK theatre company Wise Children, has remounted the interrupted U.S. tour of her ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS. Wise Children will present a LIVE production of ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS (with dancing and kissing) livestreaming from the Bristol Old Vic stage September 22 through 26, benefiting 30+ theatres worldwide, with each night targeting a different country or region.

Dennis Hensley's long-running THE MISMATCH GAME has reinvented itself to the new normal of ZOOM for two weekend nights, September 26 and 27, 2020. Dennis shared some history of his charitable project, produced pre-pandemic on the stages of the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Dennis dons his hosting polyesters as Gene Rayburn.

Magician extraordinaire (I'm a convinced eyewitness!) Helder Guimarães has been performing his virtual magic show THE PRESENT (a Geffen Playhouse production) since May 7, 2020; when it had an initial run of four weeks, (selling out in under an hour!). With his third (and, sadly, final extension), Helder, with director Frank Marshall, will give his THE PRESENT: A GRAND FINALE on October 17 in a special global livestream via Stellar.

Kritzerland will celebrate their ten years of producing monthly cabarets with their 109th show THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW, livestreaming this Sunday September 13, 2020. I jumped at the chance to pose a few queries to Beth Malone, Tony nominated for her lead role as author Alison Bechdel in FUN HOME, and, as Angel, seen flying over Prior Walter in ANGELS IN AMERICA.

Emma Rice, the creator and leader of the UK theatre company Wise Children, will virtually premiere her ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS months after live theatre was shuttered aborting their U. S. tour. The livestreaming from the Bristol Old Vic stage September 22 through 28 will benefit 30+ theatres worldwide, with each night targeting a different country or region.

Kritzerland will present its 108th show SING HAPPY! THE SONGS OF KANDER & EBB as a benefit for Group Rep this Sunday August 9, 2020 at 5p PST via their Facebook and YouTube pages. This tribute to legendary composers John Kander and Fred Ebb (hosted by its incomparably witty producer Bruce Kimmel and co-produced by Doug Haverty) will feature Brent Barrett, Debbie Gravitte, Peyton Kirkner, Karen Mason, Kerry O'Malley, Hartley Powers, Jennifer Simard, Sami Staitman, Adrienne Stiefel, Robert Yacko and Karen Ziemba. got the chance to ask of few queries of Kerry, who in Kritzerland #107 performed a show-stopping duet with herself in a tongue-twisting, speed-singing 'All For The Best' from GODSPELL. Simply brilliant!

As live theatre remains in lockdown, Independent Shakespeare Company (ISC) is morphing their Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival into a free, livestreaming program of four FESTIVAL EVENTS on Saturdays in August, and a hybrid stage production of ROMEO & JULIET Labor Day weekend. ISC's co-founders David Melville & Melissa Chalsma were most gracious in answering my emailed queries on their twenty-plus-years-old theatre organization.

The Groundlings alumni and Austin Powers fan favorite Mindy Sterling will be special guesting on The Groundlings weekly online Wednesday show THE CRAZY UNCLE JOE SHOW July 29, 2020, zooming at 8p PST. This hour of improv starts with suggestions from the audience and weaves characters through time and hysterical situations. The always funny cast of CRAZY UNCLE JOE includes Stephanie Courtney, Roy Jenkins, Brian Palermo, Leonard Robinson and Christen Sussin.

DIAVOLO/Architecture in Motion's The Veteran Project will premiere its THIS IS ME: LETTERS FROM THE FRONT LINES on The Soraya Facebook page Friday July 31 at 4p PST. Returning to The Soraya for their fourth engagement, DIAVOLO's latest movement piece deals with our current pandemic isolation from the first responders' perspectives. DIAVOLO/Architecture in Motion's founder and artistic director Jacques Heim, who directed and choreographed THIS IS ME: LETTERS FROM THE FRONT LINES, shared some behind-the-scenes of THIS IS ME and background of the performing company he founded in 1992.

Source Material's IN THESE UNCERTAIN TIMES will world premiere via Zoom July 25, 2020 at 4pm PST. Directed by Source Material's artistic director Samantha Shay, IN THESE UNCERTAIN TIMES posits the state of theatre in these COVID-19 times using a mash-up of Chekov monologues, drinking duels and coronavirus memes. Performers, spread out in the U. S. and in Iceland, include company members James Cowan, Miles Hartfelder, Annelise Lawson, Stephanie Regina, Raven Scott, Victoria Sendra, and Grace Tiso. I had the chance to ask Samantha what's currently predominating in her creative mind.

The third annual SheLA Arts' Summer Theater Festival has gone completely digital this year, running July 13 through July 19, 2020. I had the socially distant chance to pose a few questions to one of the five elected playwrights chosen for this year's festival, Ali MacLean, whose THIS WILL BE OUR YEAR will world premiere July 17th via Zoom.

In these pandemic times, The Fountain Theatre has been Zooming their SATURDAY MATINEE series, the latest on June 27 being France-Luce Benson's SHOWTIME BLUES. The cast of this reading includes Cecil Blutcher, Suzette Azariah Gunn and Matt Kirkwood. I had the socially distant opportunity to pose a few questions to this prolific playwright.

The works of the incomparable Martha Graham remain a must-see for modern dance aficionados. The Martha Graham Dance Company's latest work IMMEDIATE TRAGEDY will premiere online Friday, June 19 at 4pm (PDT)/7pm (EDT) on The Soraya Facebook page. In collaboration with composer Christopher Rountree and his musical ensemble Wild Up, Janet Eilber (Martha Graham Dance Company's Artistic Director) has re-choreographed this historical solo into a number for fourteen dancers with the creative help of the fourteen dancers.

To commemorate Juneteenth this Friday June 19th, the Juneteenth Theatre Justice Project will present Vincent Terrell Durham's POLAR BEARS, BLACK BOYS & PRAIRIE FRINGED ORCHIDS as a free, live Zoom reading. Juneteenth Theatre Justice Project has gathered groups of regional theatres in various cities to partner in this production. In the Los Angeles Theatre community, co-presenting POLAR BEARS are: IAMA Theatre Company, Celebration Theatre, DOMA Theatre Company, Echo Theater Company, Highways, The Inkwell Theater, Lower Depth Theatre, Skylight Theatre Company and the L.A. Stage Alliance.

North Coast Rep's west coast premiere of playwright Eric Pfeffinger's HUMAN ERROR will go on as originally planned, only in these times of social distancing, being presented online from June 15 through June 29, 2020. HUMAN ERROR's a comedy of a medical mix-up that brings two couples of opposing life views together. Cast includes: Allison Spratt Pearce, Terrell Donnell Sledge, Max Macke, Jacque Wilke, and Martin Kildare. I had the socially distancing opportunity to pose a few questions to HUMAN ERROR's director Jane Page.

Guitarist Laurence Juber, with a musical resume longer than your arm, will play his first full-length concert since the beginnings of our stay-home orders in AN EVENING WITH LAURENCE JUBER, a virtual benefit for Whitefire Theatre June 13, 2020. LJ graciously took some time for this interview between his prepping a musical Broadway-bound and making musical musings with Hope, his wife and frequent collaborator.

First up in the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's newly revamped 2020 Summer Season - now online, the 30th NATIONAL PUPPETRY CONFERENCE (PUP) running June 8 through June 12, 2020. PUP, with an already sold-out main CONFERENCE, is offering the public a series of five master classes, as well as, two free open mic puppet sessions. I managed to pull the right strings to pose a few questions to PUP's Artistic Director Pam Arcerio.

The Groundlings' weekly Wednesday night show THE CRAZY UNCLE JOE SHOW that's been running for years, halted production like all other live entertainment. Well, Groundlings improv fans can now look forward to the beginning of the online Zoomed editions of THE CRAZY UNCLE JOE SHOW with the first installment this Wednesday May 27 @ 8pm PST. I got to socially-distance interview Stephanie Courtney and Brian Palermo, long time improvisors of THE CRAZY UNCLE JOE SHOW.