Gil Kaan - Page 38

Rogue Artists Ensemble's 2015 world premiere of WOOD BOY DOG FISH, their unique retelling of The Adventures of Pinocchio, will be receiving a spiffy remounting at the Garry Marshall Theatre beginning May 12, 2018. We had the most opportune opportunity to talk some serious talk with the co-writer of both WOOD BOY DOG FISH editions - Chelsea Sutton, as she shared her histories with the Falcon Theatre, Rogue Artists Ensemble and the late Garry Marshall.

The smart and witty script by Stan Zimmerman & Christian McLaughlin keeping the one-liners and puns steadily coming make for a fast-paced one-act. Easy to tell the writers really know their way around gay and Jewish life. Zimmerman most assuredly directs his talented cast of four in a quick stride, with real-time, heart-felt dramatic situations emerging out of the more comic set-ups.

Stidley Theatrical's world premiere of SOLO MUST DIE: A MUSICAL PARODY succeeds in presenting an intentionally cheesy production of a fan fiction written by Hugh, a nerdy Star Wars aficionado. All performers fully commit to their individual and collective antics as various Star Wars characters, as seen through the pen of geeky Hugh. The story plays out on stage as Hugh convinces his fellow fanboy and friend Colm to read his creation.

A Noise Within most successfully revives their 2011 audience favorite, Michael Frayn's 1982 NOISES OFF. Co-directors Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliott sure-handedly lead their comically gifted cast through a fast moving two-hour-forty-minute romp of the most expert props handling, laser sharp comic timing and funny, naturalistic, three-dimensional characters. Time just whizzes up with this guffaw-inducing cast oft times making their entrances and exits through the seated audience.

With their latest Friday and Saturday night show GROUNDLINGS ROYAL WEDDING, the vastly talented Groundlings troupe has done it again with much responding side-splitting laughter to their funny, funny in-house scripts, their comic timing and expert delivery. The comedically gifted cast of ten whip through a program of fifteen entertaining skits sharply directed by Deanna Oliver.

Critical Mass Performance Group's AMERYKA has been chosen as the next production of this year's Center Theatre Group's second annual BLOCK PARTY running April 19 through April 29, 2018 at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. We had the opportunity to talk to Nancy Keystone, CMPG's founding artistic director, and director and co-writer of AMERYKA, as she rhapsodizes on all things cultural, critical and collaborative.

Thomas Sadoski will be starring in BELLEVILLE with Anna Camp at The Pasadena Playhouse starting April 18, 2018. Theatre aficionados will know Thomas for his acclaimed roles in reasons to be pretty, SANTALAND DIARIES, THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES, Sam Mendes' THE TEMPEST and AS YOU LIKE IT, and OTHER DESERT CITIES for which he won an Obie Award.

Playwright Ayad Akhtar's Pulitzer Prize-winning DISGRACED will be preserved for wide audience accessibility in a series of live performance recordings by Susan Albert Loewenberg's L.A. Theatre Works April 19 through April 22, 2018. We had the chance to pick the mind of a very frequent collaborator of Ayad Akhtar, actor/producer/activist Behzad Dabu who will be reprising 'Abe' at the L.A. Theatre Works production, in the role he originated.

JTK Productions mounts a strong, involving production of the west coast premiere of playwright Jeff Tabnick's THE INTIMACY EFFECT. Director Eric Hunicutt tightly reins his talented cast of five in a very quick-paced 75 minutes. Smart and timely dialogue flows out of the impassioned actors all.  These four characters, totally inhabited by the skilled artists playing them, volley and return sharp barbs and stinging taunts like a well-oiled tennis match of top pros.

Playwright Joshua Harmon is finally returning to the Geffen Playhouse, the scene of his 2015 runaway hit BAD JEWS. This time he's bringing his SIGNIFICANT OTHER, after having finished successful runs both on Broadway and Off. We got the chance to catch cast members Will Von Vogt and Melanie Field during their final rehearsals.

Bedlam, a New York City audience-favorite and award-winning theatre group has been touring select cities across the nation bringing their unique brand of minimalism for distinctly innovative interpretations of selected theatre classics. Bedlam's co-founder and current artistic director Eric Tucker spared a few minutes of his multi, multi-tasking schedule for some insights into his juggling of directorial projects with his families, theatrical and personal.

Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA's world premiere of playwright Marek Glinski's PIGS AND CHICKENS presents a vivid send-up of exaggerated composites of co-workers Glinski at one time had to work with (as he writes in the program notes). Hard to imagine having to spend forty hours a week working with these unlikeable people, after the two hours in the theatre watching Glinski's PIGS AND CHICKENS.

The world premiere of playwright Yusuf Toropov's AN UNDIVIDED HEART receives a stunning mounting by The Echo Theater Company and Circle X Theatre Co. Director Chris Fields sure-handedly guides his talented cast through the involving story of a passionate young priest striving to do the right thing. In this case, publish an expose on the pedophilia prevalent in the Catholic church.

Actress/playwright Lois Robbins will be world premiering her candid one-woman show L.O.V.E.R. April 15, 2018 at the Zephyr on Melrose. We grabbed a chance to chat with Lois on the topics she'll be covering and how her family reacted to her racy subject. 

The latest artful collaboration of Stewart Copeland and Jonathan Moore, the co-world premiere of THE INVENTION OF MOREL, will be presented by the Long Beach Opera at the Beverly O'Neill Theater for three performances beginning March 17, 2018. Actor/director/playwright Jonathan Moore took a few moments of his busy schedule to provide us with a few details on teaming up with the co-founder of The Police.

The Skylight Theatre Company's National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of THE MADRES most effectively succeeds in personalizing the plight of Argentinean mothers of 'disappeared' children during the height of La Guerra Sucia (The Dirty War) in 1978. Anchored by the two incredibly strong performances of Margarita Lamas as Josefina and Arianna Ortiz as her daughter Carolina, THE MADRES involves and mesmerizes whenever these two interact.

The Groundlings is bringing back THE GALE, their sold-out LGBTQ-focused improv from last year, scheduling at least five evenings of gay gaiety for 2018. THE GALE, 90-minute improvisations of much hilarity by the troupe The Gale, created by Chris Eckert, feature gay and lesbian Groundlings members, as well as, special funny guests from other improv communities.

The SRS Production Wing is currently reviving playwright Noah Haidle's 2005 hit MR.MARMALADE. Wondering what changed from that hit production to this current most nonsensical, two-hour puzzlement. Wanted so much to buy into the conceit that Lucy, a four-year-old (played with much commitment by the pig-tailed, adult Kaitlin Sullivan), would have such a vivid imagination, with such dire consequences as making herself miserable, unhappy, abused and with child.

The combined creative genius of director Michael Michetti and dramaturg Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni have re-imagined the Tennessee Williams' classic A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE into a stunning, relevant update to present time. With a very talented cast of many racial backgrounds, Williams' words of insult and prejudice take on new significance to our present culture.

World premiere of playwright Jeff Dinnell's WICKED PAGAN GAYS showcases Dinnell's clever quips, as well as, his natural acting style portraying the main character Jeff, an atheist. Kiff Scholl ably directs his accommodating cast at a smartly quick clip with punchlines and disses coming fast and furious on such targets as religion, using people and gay culture.