Binge Free Festival Kicks Off This October
Santa Monica Playhouse has been a cultural treasure in the seaside community for 62 years. Now, the Playhouse is giving love back with its Seventh Annual Binge Free Festival, three weeks of free performances, workshops, and music in Santa Monica's ONLY fringe festival. The BFF's primary focus is on Santa Monica and Los Angeles-based artists, but there will be exciting international artists on view as well.
The Group Rep Adds Performance Of FINDING MY LIGHT
The Group Rep is presenting Finding My Light, a new one-woman show written and starring Barbara Brownell, directed and developed by Jessica Lynn Johnson. The fundraiser is produced by Neil Thompson for the Group Rep.
Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival Opens March 25
Last March, the Annual Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival was just two weeks away from opening when we were forced to postpone because of the emerging coronavirus pandemic, which shuttered live performance venues across the country.
VIRTUAL HOT OFF THE PRESS Presents New Works Performed in Staged Readings
Hot Off the Press is a program of new solo writings presented by talented scribes in staged readings. Usually presented in a theatre with a live audience, our newest show will be performed in a virtual presentation live via Zoom, to conform with current considerations of public health and safety.
HOMEWARD Announced For Two Nights Only At Lonny Chapman Theatre
Homeward LA is a 10-day citywide event from April 26 - May 5, where multiple productions of monologues based on stories from people who have experienced homelessness will be performed by actors all around the city. Join The Group Rep for one of over 50 productions happening throughout the Los Angeles area! Together we will experience stories from the lives of those who strive to find their way home, increase awareness around the homeless crisis facing Los Angeles, and raise funds for The Midnight Mission, an amazing nonprofit organization on Skid Row. Some material contains adult themes and language.
BWW Review: Group Rep Goes Deep South with LAUNDRY AND BOURBON and LONE STAR
From the very top of James McClure's one-act Laundry and Bourbon, best friends Elizabeth (Savannah Shoenecker) and Hattie (Kristin Towers-Rowles) gossip in heavy Texas accents and drink bourbon with such fierce intensity that you will end up either loving or hating them; there is no in-between. Midway Amy Lee (Sarah Zuk) makes her entrance. She is quieter but also creates trouble in her own irritating way.What is it about comedies set in the deep South? Steel Magnolias and Crimes of the Heart pull us in the same way. The women put their claws out yet support one another and have hearts of gold ... and their men? We hear about them via their wives. They act like jerks, love to talk sex in raw detail and treat their cars with more love and respect than their spouses. Unlike the other plays, we actually see the men, apart from their wives, for there is a male companion piece to Laundry and Bourbon. It's entitled Lone Star, after the beer, and it presents Elizabeth's husband Roy (Nick Paonessa), maladjusted since his service in Viet Nam, his younger and weaker brother Ray (R.J. DeBard) and like his wife Amy Lee, the outsider in the group, her husband Skeeter (Todd Andrew Ball).
The Group Rep Opens James McLure's LAUNDRY AND BOURBON And LONE STAR
The Group Rep opens its 45th Season with two James McLure one-act comedies, LAUNDRY AND BOURBON and LONE STAR, directed by Barbara Brownell, produced by Lloyd Pedersen. Three young women who are neighbors and friends share drinks and hard truths about life, love, and marriage while doing laundry on a very hot day. In another part of town three men beat-the-heat in the backyard of a bar as the local high school hero, recently returned after a hitch in Vietnam, details his military and amorous exploits. Laughs are shared, souls are bared.
BWW Interview: Barbara Brownell Discusses LAUNDRY AND BOURBON AND LONE STAR at Group Rep
Actress/director Barbara Brownell has numerous credits as an actress. Broadway: Play it Again, Sam and The Ballad of Johnny Pot. King Lear at the Actor's Studio, NY. Touring: Oklahoma, On a Clear Day. Regional: Zing!, Barefoot in the Park, Star Spangled Girl. L.A.: Happy Birthday Wanda June, Dylan, A Case of Libel, Early Cabaret, Chicago, Dull Pain. She won the 2017 Broadway World award for Best Leading Actress in a play, LA . T.V. shows include Mad Men, Big Love, Night Court (3), Grey's Anatomy, Monk, L.A. Law, Bob Newhart, Mary Tyler Moore, and recurring on Webster and MASH. Films include Behind the Candelabra, Going Home, Hearts of the West, Someone to Watch Over Me, Ants, Mark of the Witch, and The Master.
In this interview, Brownell discusses acting and directing Laundry and Bourbon and Lone Star at The Group Rep, set to open this Friday January 25.
The Group Rep At The Lonny Chapman Theatre Announces 45th Season
The Group Rep's Co-Artistic Directors, Larry Eisenberg and Chris Winfield announce the Group Rep's 45th Season (2019) with six eclectic and unique plays: Laundry and Bourbon & Lone Star, two one-act comedies by James McLure, directed by Barbara Brownell (January 25 - March 3), The Secret of Chimneys, a long lost play by Agatha Christie, directed by Jules Aaron (March 29 - May 5), Avenue Q, the wry, Broadway musical written by Jeff Whitty, Music and Lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, directed by Patrick Burke (May 31 - July 7), Loose Knit, a modern comedy by Theresa Rebeck, directed by L. Flint Esquerra (August 2 - September 8), Night of the Living Dead, a gripping terror-filled drama based on the George Romero film, adapted by Gus Krieger directed by Drina Durazo (October 4 - November 10), and the beloved farce The Man Who Came to Dinner by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, directed by Bruce Kimmel (December 6, 2019 - January 12, 2020). The six shows will be performed on the Main Stage, first floor 90 Seat Theatre.