Katselas Theatre Launches INKubator Artists' Development Series

Nurturance of the artist has been the engine that ignites the Katselas Theatre Company since its founding by acclaimed director/acting teacher Milton Katselas in 1983. Believing that a symbiotic relationship can exist between artist and community, KTC has birthed INKubator, a protective harbor for artists to give context to the times and places that make us human, individually and collectively. Exemplifying the heartbeat of Los Feliz-its inherent sensuality and hardwired intellect-INKubator at the Skylight Theatre will dare to entertain, provoke, enlighten, and vitalize audiences with art that reverberates with immediacy and intimacy.
 
Presented on the last weekend of every month, audiences will be given a first glimpse into projects they might not otherwise see with artists they may have not heard of yet. On any given weekend you might see a one-person solo performance, a staged reading of a full length play, poetry, dance, or music -  all in various stages of development, all with something to say. After each performance a 'TALK ABOUT' where audience and artist get to exchange views. 
 
INKubator is parented by a quartet of Los Angeles heavyweights with more than a hundred combined years of art credibility: theatre maestros Tony Abatemarco and Michael Kearns, improvisational vocalist wizard Susan Krebs and seasoned Katselas' Producing Artistic Director, Gary Grossman. 
 
On Friday, January 28, at 8:00pm, two solo performances-in-progress will be presented, reader's theatre style: In their intensely personal pieces-two  women, Minerva Benedicto Vier and Cathy Lind Hayes-explore  the complications that arise from being a daughter with more than one mother. As issues of nurture versus nature continue to grab the headlines, the two pieces that comprise Two Women/Five Mothers (Vier's Lucky and Lind Hayes' Non-Identifying Information: Adventures of a New York City Foundling) take a profoundly personal look at what it's like to juggle multiple moms. As each woman searches for answers in their own unique ways, they reveal what it's like to be in a glorious state of reinvention.
 
On Saturday, January 29, at 8:00pm, INKubator presents The Crossing, written by Shem Bitterman, directed by Howie Deutch, and starring Leah Thompson and her real life daughter Zoey Deutch. In an upscale suburban enclave, at a commuter rail line crossing, a dangerous game is being played. Inspired by a recent cluster of teen suicides that occurred there, two best friends tempt fate, ultimately learning the meaning of guilt, survival and moving on.  Set in the past and present, and inspired by real events, The Crossing uncovers the American zeitgeist, mixing themes of angst, self-consciousness and conscious forgetting.
 
On Sunday afternoon, January 30 at 4:00pm INKubator stretches its artistic palette to encompass a live jazz salon, The Theme Scene. According to creator Krebs, a longtime improviser and jazz vocalist as well as a familiar television/film actress, the salon setting promises to develop an immediate theatrical form exploring themes which resonate in today's world. The inaugural backdrop-"What Is The Question?"-will be illuminated by music, song, poetry, spoken word and visual projections, engaging audiences in a playful and shared experience of discovery.
The Katselas Theatre Company's INKubator series is presented at the Skylight Theatre, located at 1816 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA. 90027.  The schedule is as follows: Two Women/Five Mothers performs on Friday, January 28 at 8pm; The Crossing plays Saturday, January 28 at 8pm; The Theme Scene plays Sunday, January 30 at 4pm. Tickets are $10.00 for Fridays and Saurday and $15.00 for Sunday afternoon. Reservations and information, call 702-KTC-TKTS (702-582-8587) or visit www.katselastheatre.org