Gil Kaan - Page 39

One must applaud Tim Robbins and his Actors' Gang troupe for their passionate, timely presentation of the immigrant plight in their struggles to reach a better life in America. Currently world premiering at The Actors' Gang, Robbins and his cast of twelve performers have created twelve characters they each have familiarity with in THE NEW COLOSSUS. This production may best be described as a performance art piece with the vital message of inclusion

ALLEGIANCE, George Takei's chronicles of his unimaginable family imprisonment in internment camps, makes its L.A. premiere February 28 at the JACCC's Aratani Theatre. During previews, we managed to grab a chance to talk with George on ALLEGIANCE's too-long, incredible journey from his all-too-vivid childhood memories to its decades-later try-out at San Diego's Old Globe, through its Broadway engagement, to its Los Angeles premiere with the East West Players.

Most people know Del Shores as the creator/writer/director of the play and film SORDID LIVES, which morphed into the TV series Sordid Lives: The Series. Del also has utilized his producing and writing talents on Showtime's Queer As Folk and ABC's Dharma & Greg, among others. Del has been touring his various stand-up acts since 2009. Del's latest theatrical opus SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF A PLAY finds the man himself onstage in his west coast premiere, beginning at the Celebration at the Lex on February 25, 2018.

Kate Pazakis, executive producer of the UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL PARODY OF... series ably does triple duty in her latest wildly entertaining, two-hour production of THE UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL PARODY OF JURASSIC PARK. For UMPO JURASSIC PARK, Pazakis not only produces and cleverly writes this enthralling, very witty musical homage to Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg's 1993 classic film Jurassic Park; Pazakis joins her talented cast onstage singing her ass off as the dinosaur T-Rex.

Martyna Majok wrote IRONBOUND to share the story of the everyday challenges and hurdles of a Polish immigrant surviving in America, basing this theatrical piece on her own mother's experiences. Already in previews, IRONBOUND officially opens February 7, 2018. Martyna took some time out to answer my inquisitive questions in much depth.

In their current side-splitting, pee-in-your-pants, Friday & Saturday night show SWEET VALLEY GROUNDLINGS, the very talented Groundlings troupe just keeps coming up with original, funny skits revolving around the foibles of flawed characters. Director Kevin Kirkpatrick has mined the very best out of his eight-member cast, keeping the lines (and resulting audience laughter) coming at breakneck speed.

WICKED! alumni Shoshana Bean will be celebrating her latest musical project release Spectrum with a one-night concert at The Ace Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles. We had the wonderful opportunity to chat with the powerhouse songstress before prepping for her L.A. engagement.

The world premiere of ALRIGHT THEN presents a sweet stroll down memory lane of married actors Orson Bean and Alley Mills. The two separate childhood stories of Bean and Mills, through their life together to the present, make up the eighty-minute one-act. Quite a lot to cover in just eighty minutes, which inexplicably include moments of TMI. These moments, though adding to the dramatics, aren't totally essential to the drama.

From the moment the amazing James Conlon-conducted orchestra began their crisp, lively 'Overture' to 'Quartet Finale,' the close of Act One; this remarkable production of CANDIDE entranced the Dorothy Chandler audience. Then after a short intermission, these talented performers and musicians had the audience right back in the palms of their skilled hands, beyond the tears-inducing finale 'Make Our Garden Grow,' to the extended and most deserved standing ovation for the cast, orchestra, and creatives.

The west coast premiere of playwright Anna Ziegler's A DELICATE SHIP receives a sturdy launching by The Road Theatre Company. A DELICATE SHIP centers on a romantic Christmas Eve that Sam and Sarah anxiously plan to spend together alone. Right off the bat, Philip Orazio and Paris Perrault smoothly establish the magnetic chemistry between their characters Sam and Sarah. Josh Zuckerman's frenetic energy imbues this interloper with such intensity, one easily gets caught up in his storytelling of his and Sarah's teen years growing up together.

In FREUD'S LAST SESSION, playwright Mark St. Germain has written an intricate, very detailed script of what he imagines as a chance meeting between Dr. Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis. Set in 1939 London the day England entered World War II, the two very well-read men debate on the existence of God. Watching Martin Rayner as Freud and Martyn Stanbridge as Lewis butt heads in their reasonings of the existence/non-existence of God is much like watching a Wimbleton Tennis Final.

It's been too long since Los Angeles has had a world premiere of a Michael Kearns' creation. On January 13, 2018; Michael will open his latest dramatic composition, BLOODBOUND at Highways Performance Center. Michael has since been keeping busy with his theatrical commitments at Skylight Theatre, QueerWise, Michael Kearns & Other Outies, and Housing Works; while always doing what he does best in his HIV/AIDS activism, and raising his grown-up daughter Katherine.

A well-guarded, open secret of cinema aficionados, FilmStruck has been streaming their ever-expanding library of contemporary, art-house, indie, foreign and cult films to their subscribers for over a year now. FilmStruck also has the exclusive streaming service to the Criterion Collection library. We had the chance to interview FilmStruck interviewer Alicia Malone on the particulars of FilmStruck.

Kate Pazakis and her talented creative team once again incorporate their 'secret sauce' in concocting a most delicious holiday treat for Rockwell revelers - THE UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL PARODY OF HOME ALONE. The 1990 John Hughes classic Home Alone receives Pazakis' UMPO treatment, resulting in a most side-splitting production with their clever choice of pop songs, re-worded to 'fit' the Home Alone narrative, and boosted by the always witty (and subtly topical) dialogue of Ray Wetmore and Pazakis.

This new and expanded edition of the 2015 FELIZ NAVIDIVA showcases the hilarious comic stylings and tight-knitted teamwork of Kay Sedia, with her fellow Chico's Angels, Frieda Laye and Chita Parol, as well as, sturdy support from their Boss Man. Director Kurt Koehler spoofs (with co-spoofer Kay Sedia's alter-ego Oscar Quintero) a number of songs, slickly weaving the tunes into a cohesive (and funny) behind-the-scenes, most entertaining battle of a Christmas drag revue.

Anyone who's had the pleasure of experiencing a Groundlings show will not only have tired hands from all the clapping and strained lungs from all the whooping and laughing, but also have worn-out toes from tapping along with the smoking hot Groundlings house band. Musical director Matthew Loren Cohen took a break from his many musical commitments and rehearsals to share some behind-the-scene Groundlings magic with BroadwayWorld.

This Skylight Theatre Company's production of playwright Jon Brittain's west coast premiere of ROTTERDAM receives a stunning mounting with a pitch-perfect aligning of talents supporting and complementing each other. Michael A. Shepperd deftly directs his spot-on cast of four bringing to life Brittain's detailed, sensitive, yet witty script on a person transitioning and its effects on those close to the day-to-day situations.

Conductor extraordinaire John Mauceri, at 72 years young, has the memory of a straight-A college kid vividly recalling detailed facts of incidents long ago right off the top of his head. The go-to expert on all subjects Leonard Bernstein, John will be conducting BERNSTEIN ON STAGE at the Valley Performing Arts Center (The Soraya) November 17, 2017. John most graciously chatted on the phone with me for an hour from his New York home after just returning from Mexico.

For a most wonderfully complete, immersive theatre/gallery experience; get yourself, and anyone you like, to Think Tank Gallery in Downtown L.A. to catch the Los Angeles premiere of Christopher Chen's Obie Award-winning CAUGHT. So easy to see why Chen won his 2016 Obie, with the substantial food for thought underneath all his witty observations.

The Robey Theatre Company has teamed up with East West Players to present an intriguing production of YOHEN directed by Ben Guillory. How generous an actor Danny Glover to cede the East West stage to June Angela's dominating performance of Sumi, the traditional, meek Japanese housewife finally coming into her own after 37 years of marriage to James (Glover's character).