Native Voices Appoints DeLanna Studi As New Leader
The Autry announced today the appointment of DeLanna Studi (Cherokee) as the new Co-Artistic Director of Native Voices. As the only Equity theatre company dedicated exclusively to developing and producing new work by Native American artists, Studi's hiring furthers the theatre company's commitment to developing the next generation of indigenous writers, directors, producers, and performers.
BWW review: Much LAUGHTER ON THE 23rd FLOOR at Garry Marshall
In 1993 Neil Simon penned his experiences as a young writer for Your Show of Shows on early 50s television in a play entitled Laughter on the 23rd Floor. At that time he was a novice learning from the likes of series star Sid Caesar and fellow-writers Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart, Carl Reiner, and Selma Diamond among others. The seven member team plus Caesar collaborated on sketch comedy that ran live weekly on NBC. Daily work was hellish with the crazies bringing their personal issues and divergent styles of expression every hour of every day to the writers' room. The sketch material was not only affected by their various personalities clouded by bold ethnic traits but also by the world around them that included the infamous attacks of McCarthyism. In the arts actors, writers, directors and other artists were endangered of being branded a communist and fired from their work. NBC found Your Show of Shows to be too sophisticated and thereby made cuts threatening the show's existence. It was cut back to an hour. In the play Sid Caesar is Max Prince (Pat Towne), an alcoholic and drug addicted tyrant who will stop at nothing to prove his point. He fights NBC; of course, to no avail. Laughter... plays the Garry Marshall Theatre through April 22, brilliantly directed b
Neil Simon's Love Letter To TV Comedy Writes and Fights at The Garry Marshall Theatre
A reimagined, revitalized production of Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning playwright Neil Simon's classic Laughter on the 23rd Floor marks the final production in the nonprofit's 4-Play Inaugural Season. Featuring John Ross Bowie (Speechless, The Big Bang Theory) and directed by Co-Artistic Director of Los Angeles' award-winning Celebration Theatre Michael A. Shepperd, Laughter on the 23rd Floor will play a limited run, March 23 through April 22, 2018.
Native Voices at the Autry Presents 23rd Festival of New Plays
Native Voices at the Autry, America's leading Native American theatre company, presents its 23rd Annual Festival of New Plays at the Autry Museum of the American West and La Jolla Playhouse. The festival features staged readings of new and in-progress plays by Native writers followed by talkbacks in which each audience member becomes an important part of the collaborative process. These new works explore questions of solidarity and community, spirituality and culture, environment and economic success, and the often contentious relationships that emerge.
Native Voices at the Autry to Present 18th Festival of New Plays
Native Voices at the Autry, America's leading Native American theatre company, presents its 18th Annual Festival of New Plays at the Autry Museum of the American West and La Jolla Playhouse. The festival features staged readings of new and in-progress plays by Native writers followed by audience talkbacks in which each viewer becomes an important part of the collaborative process.
Kate Mulgrew, America Ferrerra Lead Lilly Awards' THE COMPARABLES Reading Tonight
The Lilly Awards Foundation has announced complete casting for the Inaugural (3)Plays from The Kilroys' List: A Reading Series featuring new works by female playwrights Larissa FastHorse, Meg Miroshnik and Laura Schellhardt, with female directors Lear deBessonet, Leigh Silverman and Liesl Tommy. The acting company includes Emily Bergl ('Desperate Housewives'), America Ferrerra ('Ugly Betty'), and Kate Mulgrew ('Orange is the New Black'), with Kally Duling, Alexandra Henriksen, Colbie Minifie, Jesse Perez, Madeline Sayet, and Erin Wilhelmi (Perks of Being a Wallflower).
Kate Mulgrew, America Ferrerra & More Set for Lilly Awards Foundation's Play Reading Series
The Lilly Awards Foundation has announced complete casting for the Inaugural (3)Plays from The Kilroys' List: A Reading Series featuring new works by female playwrights Larissa FastHorse, Meg Miroshnik and Laura Schellhardt, with female directors Lear deBessonet, Leigh Silverman and Liesl Tommy. The acting company includes Emily Bergl ('Desperate Housewives'), America Ferrerra ('Ugly Betty'), and Kate Mulgrew ('Orange is the New Black'), with Kally Duling, Alexandra Henriksen, Colbie Minifie, Jesse Perez, Madeline Sayet, and Erin Wilhelmi (Perks of Being a Wallflower).
BWW Reviews: CHEROKEE Sends Woolly on a Spirit Journey
Woolly Mammoth's beautiful theater in which every seat has an intimate view of the expansive stage and the company's diehard dedication to new plays has found another win in Lisa D'Amour's follow up to 2013's DETROIT. Upon entering audiences are immediately greeted with recordings of tribal music and a stage dense with flat planks giving the illusion of trees stretching far above. This play is all about transformations, sometimes subtle and sometimes ridiculous to the extreme, and it couldn't have found a better home than Woolly, who's aesthetic seems motivated by the constant need to innovate, explore, and reinvent, not only from season to season and production to production, but often from act to act and even scene to scene. All around, the creative, production, and design teams have risen to the challenge of A'Mour's play and together have created an epic highlight in the DC theater scene.
Woolly Mammoth to Present Lisa D'Amour's CHEROKEE, 2/9-3/8
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announces its next production in Season 35: Cherokee, by Obie Award-winning playwright Lisa D'Amour. Enlarging on the themes explored in D'Amour's 2013 Woolly hit Detroit, Cherokee follows a fresh cast of characters pushed to the brink as their escape from the trappings of civilization opens the path to a new life. Woolly Company Member John Vreeke, who also directed Detroit, will direct the new production. Cherokee will run from Monday, February 9 to Sunday, March 8, 2015.
Free Reading of EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT Presented by Native Voices at the Autry Tonight, 10/25
Native Voices at the Autry will present a free staged reading of Emergency Management, a new play by Jason Grasl (Blackfeet*) tonight, October 25, 2012, 7:30 pm, at the Wells Fargo Theater at the Autry National Center in Griffith Park. Packed with intrigue and suspense, Emergency Management chronicles a Cheyenne boy adopted into a non-Native family. Now a rising political star in Arizona, he tries to be everything to everyone. When his sister is kidnapped and held for ransom, he must reassess his life and overcome deep, dark secrets to save his career and his family. The reading is followed by an audience 'Talk-Back' with Grasl and the director.