Melora Marshall

Review: TARTUFFE: BORN AGAIN at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum

Tartuffe: Born Again is an imaginative, hilarious, delightful adaptation of the classic Molière play running at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum through October 13th. Tartuffe: Born Again is an absolute gem, a sheer, show-stopping delight, and you do not want to miss it.

Review: THE WINTER'S TALE at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum

The Winter’s Tale at Will Geer Theatricum Botanical is a true joy of a production. There is a terrific cast of lively, powerhouse performers and many irresistible moments of magic, delight, drama, and fall-out-your-chair-laughing hilarity.  I absolutely loved it.

TARTUFFE: BORN AGAIN Comes to Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum Next Month

Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum will present a hilarious satire about greed, corruption and hypocrisy. In Tartuffe:Born Again, translator and adaptor Freyda Thomas puts a contemporary spin on the original French play, recasting Molière’s Tartuffe as a deposed televangelist who takes advantage of his naïve and gullible host to rook him and his family of their money.

Photos: THE WINTER'S TALE Opens Outdoor Summer Season At Theatricum This Weekend

Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum opens its 2024 summer repertory season in rustic Topanga Canyon this weekend with “The Winter’s Tale,” William Shakespeare’s sweeping romance of passion and forgiveness. Check out the photos, below.

THE WINTER'S TALE & A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM to Kick Off Theatricum's Outdoor Summer Season

Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum will open its 2024 summer repertory season with two productions by the Bard. Learn how to purchase tickets.

Review: QUEEN MARGARET'S VERSION OF SHAKESPEARE'S WAR OF THE ROSES at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum

Ellen Geer’s new compilation of Shakespeare's best-known history plays does nothing to address the misogynistic, xenophobic views that have led to Margaret of Anjou’s historical presentation (or any other woman’s) as a stereotypical villain. But in other ways, it succeeds in illuminating Margaret as what she actually was - a force to be reckoned with.

A PERFECT GANESH Comes to Theatricum in July

Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum continues its 50th anniversary repertory season with A Perfect Ganesh, the magical, poetic, Pulitzer Prize nominated play by Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally. Mary Jo DuPrey directs for a Saturday, July 15 opening on Theatricum’s beautiful outdoor stage in Topanga, where performances continue through October 7.

Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum to Present QUEEN MARGARET'S VERSION OF SHAKESPEARE'S WAR OF THE ROSES

Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum will continue its 50th Anniversary Summer Season with Queen Margaret’s Version of Shakespeare’s War of the Roses, a new edit of Shakespeare’s best-known history plays — Henry VI Parts I, II and III and Richard III — compiled by artistic director Ellen Geer.

MACBETH and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM to Kick Off Theatricum's 50th Anniversary Season

Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum will open its 50th Anniversary Summer Season with two of William Shakespeare’s most mystical offerings: the thrilling supernatural tragedy, Macbeth, and that most magical of romantic comedies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum Announces 50th Anniversary Summer Season In 2023

Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum will celebrate its 50th Anniversary in high style with a summer-long season of theater, music, performance and other festivities at its spectacular, one-of-a-kind outdoor venue in Topanga.

New Musical DEAR MARGARET SANGER to Get Staged Reading in Fundraiser for Theatricum

Dear Margaret Sanger, a new musical in development exploring the history of birth control and women’s continued struggle for reproductive freedom, will receive two staged readings in a fundraising event for Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum.

BWW Interview: Ernest Thompson On The Leading Ladies He's Worked With & Reviving His THE WEST SIDE WALTZ

Will Geer’s Theatricum presents the world premiere of the “all new” revival of Oscar-winning playwright Ernest Thompson’s The West Side Waltz beginning June 25, 2022. Mary Jo DuPrey directs the cast of Ellen Geer, Melora Marshall, Willow Geer, Miguel Pérez and Charles Lin. I was most fortunate to have the playwright make some time to answer my queries.

Theatricum Botanicum to Present New Revival of THE WEST SIDE WALTZ

Forty-one years after its premiere at the Ahmanson Theatre, Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum will present the world premiere of an “all new” revival of The West Side Waltz by Academy Award-winning writer Ernest Thompson (On Golden Pond).

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR & A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM to Kick Off Outdoor Season at Theatricum

Fans of Shakespeare, alfresco theater, old time rock’n roll and just plain fun— pack a picnic and head up to the spectacular, one-of-a-kind outdoor venue at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum, where the 2022 repertory season, sponsored by the S. Mark Taper Foundation, opens with two buoyant comedies.

Theatricum Announces 2022 Outdoor Summer Season in Topanga

Summer is on the horizon, and Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum is ready to announce a mix of classical theater, new work and music set to take place at its spectacular, one-of-a-kind outdoor amphitheatre in Topanga.

Theatricum's UNDER THE OAKS Salon Series Brings Performance and Song To The Topanga Woods

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum presents Under the Oaks, four evenings of performance and song on Theatricum's spectacular outdoor stage in Topanga.

BWW Review: Compact JULIUS CAESAR Comes Up Short at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum

'A lean an hungry look,' Julius Caesar’s oft-quoted descriptor for Cassius, is an apt metaphor for the season-opening production of JULIUS CAESAR at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, and not always in a good way. The leanness box is dutifully checked, but director Ellen Geer’s production could certainly be hungrier and more thought out.

Theatricum Returns with Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

Two beloved plays by William Shakespeare are set to welcome audiences back to the spectacular outdoor venue at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum this summer.

Review: Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT Offers Songs of Love and Laughter in the Beautiful Woods at Theatricum Botanicum

William Shakespeare's rollicking and ever-popular comedy of mistaken identity, TWELFTH NIGHT, brings its magical combination of mischief, madness and romance into the outdoor amphitheater at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum this summer where it plays in rep through September 28. Written in 1601 and first seen in the Inns of Court shortly after Christmas (hence, the title), the holiday was celebrated as a festival during which everything was made delightfully topsy-turvy, much like the world of the play's Illyria. And you could not ask for a more ideal cast of characters to bring The Bard's non-stop, high energy hijinks to life.

BWW Review: THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH Is A Ripe Revival at Theatricum Botanicum

I am a huge fan of Our Town by Thornton Wilder. It is literary genius in its storytelling of the lifespan of two families in Grovers Corners, New Hampshire It's almost as if Wilder turned Our Town upside down, shook it a few times in snowglobe fashion and created The Skin of Our Teeth. It's also a family drama but it covers more than one lifespan, as it combs a five thousand year period from the Ice Age to the 20th century in Excelsior and Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Antrobus family is bound throughout: the father (Mark Lewis), the mother (Melora Marshall) and their two children Gladys (Gabrielle Beauvais) and Henry (William Holbrook) and their maid Sabina (Willow Geer). Their lives change through time, and plotwise, there is always a crisis they are exposed to. What is mos effective to witness is how they manage to pull through each obstacle...and survive.