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Quick Notes Around Downtown's Live Theater

Poor Behavior is a new dark adult comedy that looks at four lives and two marriages tested by a late night alcohol-fused argument over morality, history and personal ethics, says the press notes.  Set in a seemingly sedate and peaceful country home, the question “Is it adultery if they already think you've done it?” becomes the subtext of Theresa Rebeck's new play. Cast includes JohAnna Day, Sharon Lawrence, Reg Rogers and Christopher Evan Welch. Directed by Doug Hughes. Previews for Poor Behavior begins Sept. 7, opening night is set for Sept. 18, and runs through Oct. 16. Use the code COUNTRY online or by phone to get $10 off $35 tickets for the Wednesday and Thursday evening performances on Sept 7, 8 and Sept 14, 15. Mark Taper Forum / 135 North Grand

One Night Only: On Broadway: East West Players opens its 46^th season with One Night Only: On Broadway, a benefit with an impressive list of performers supporting the Little Tokyo theater gem. Not on the list of hoofers and warblers is the late add Telly Leung, know for TV's Glee. Leung has appeared on Broadway in Rent, Pacific Overtures and Flower Drum Song, and was just signed to join the Broadway revival of Godspell. “The evening promises to be a spectacular night of singing, a dash of dancing, and storytelling,” says Producing Artistic Director Tim Dang.  “This will be a great experience for fans of musical theatre.” Saturday, Aug., 20 I East West Players I 120 Judge John Aiso

The Guru of Chai: Tonight and tomorrow night, Indian Ink Theatre Company will offer their tale of a tea seller, "a young girl, a policeman in love and a disreputable poet" set against a backdrop of conflicting modern day India sources of spirtuality; technology and ancient gods. Aug. 18 and 19 (8pm) I Grand Performances. I California Plaza I (Free)

Arts District-based Cornerstone Theatre Company just ended its production in, and about, Fowler California.

Sun Sisters: Company of Angels continues “Sun Sisters” by Vasanti Saxena. A traditional Chinese mother, stricken with cancer, struggles as she come to terms with her lesbian daughter who comes home to nurse her through the last days. Closes Aug. 28 I Company of Angels I The Alexandria  I 501 S. Spring

Sandra Bernhard: I Love Being Me, Don't You?: It is the 2nd and final week for the hottest ticket in town. It is sold out, but some tickets turned back to the box office have been appearing as standby at the last minute. "A walking-talking blogger before blogs were invented, Bernhard doesn’t tell jokes so much as humorously riff, a style that helped pave the way for the rambling hilarity of Kathy Griffin," says the Los Angeles Times. ADD: As we wait for REDCAT's Fall schedule, you can note the annual three-week NOW Festival will begin Sept. 8, launching eight new works by Los Angeles dance, theater, music and multimedia performance artists. Plus Robert Wilson will revisit his 1977 L.A. performance piece at REDCAT on Jan. 28. REDCAT I 631 W 2nd

Stage Fest: LATC will host The California International Theatre Festival, a collective of international ensembles bringing works to the stages on Spring. The schedule of performances will include "Theatre & Society in a Post 9/11 World," a free panel discussion held on the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 Sep. 8 to Sep. 11 I  Los Angeles Theater Center I 514 S Spring

A Peek At Theater in Downtown L.A.

"As you are now so once were we" by Chilean director Jose Miguel Jimenez and his Dublin-based theater company will be presented at RADAR L.A.

Los Angeles is scoffed at when introduced as a theater town. Not this month. A barrage of theater festivals are underway, and Downtown has a role in it.  The Los Angeles Times hints the busy month could be titled "Theaterpalooza," which is more optimistic naming a throng of experimental ensembles assembled in one city as "Burning Ham. Here is some of the theater happenings in Downtown:

Grand Performances Schedule Announced

Finding room to dance at Grand Performances / VFaL

Grand Performances, the summer concert series that reconnects Los Angeles to its own homegrown culture, and made downtown a stage for World Music, will open its 25th season this weekend with a one-man play, a work-in-progress, and spoken word from East Los Angeles.

On Friday, Cultural Affairs Artists Project offers Ian Ruskin portraying Thomas Pain in a one-man play, "To Begin the World Over Again." Also that evening is a multi-media dance piece-in-progress by Sheetal Gandhi based on "The Giving Tree," a children's book by Shel Silverstein (June 17, 8:30 pm).

Saturday has the first installment of Boyle Heights Project, a series that speaks of the neighborhood's multiethnic fabric through poetry, short fiction, essays, and music (June 18, 8pm).

Sunday brings librettist Terry Wolverton and composer David Ornette Cherry to Watercourt for a concert reading of "Embers," a jazz opera with some part world music and other part hip hop. Michael John Garces directs (June 19, 8pm).

The mix of local and world artists performing in the corporate highlands of California Plaza can be found by date in the Grand Performances brochure (PDF).  You can even select which performer to see under themes like Global Block Party, Las Artes en la Ciudad.  Boyle Heights The Other L.A.; Woman in the Mix; Celebrating All Things Jewish From Goy to Oy; and City of Angels City of Artists.

And really, where else but at Grand Performances will offer selections like Charles Phoenix guiding you through L.A. with a special show, punk Exene team up with folk Phranc, Yemen Blues, or the athletlic narrative of modern dance company, Diavolo?

While 27 acts are scheduled, you may still want to follow Grand Performances on twitter. They have been known to book a special guest or two during the season. Also, GP veterans recommend that you pack a picnic and enjoy the outdoors before the show to make sure you get good seating, and to take a sweater.

After the video and jump, a look at the season by theme.

Grand Performances  I FREE I Opens June 17 I California Plaza I 350 S. Grand I Downtown Los Angeles

 

 

Mariachi Mystery Tour will performs with Mariachi Rock-O Fri., Aug 12, at 8pm.

 

Cornerstone Theatre Influence Moved North

The NY Times Theater section features Bill Rauch, who has been at the helm of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival since leaving Cornerstone Theater Company.

Rauch founded Cornerstone shorty after graduating from Harvard in 1984, and developed a process of theater reflecting a diverse audience with community based works.

That's a new direction for the Pacific Northwest's festival that was founded in 1935, and revels in seeing classic theater.

The NYT reports on the changes he has made, increasing non-Western plays, bringing in directors that understand nontraditional casting and staging Shakespeare with contemporary theatrical forms, "including hip-hop and spoken-word poetry."

"To me, a lot of Cornerstone’s founding impulse was, ‘Let’s go out and meet the other 98 percent of our fellow citizens and do plays with and for them, to find out if theater can be relevant to their lives.’ ”

The company goes into small communities and puts on plays — often classics adapted to address local issues — with a mix of professional and amateur actors. 

Last season, an Indian-born actress was cast in the role of Emily Webb for “Our Town," and this year anAfrican-American actress played Marian the Librarian for “The Music Man.” 

view [Taking Multicultural Stages to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival]

Pictured: Bill Rauch, OSF Artistic Director OSF.  Photo: Jenny Graham/OSF

Quick Stage Notes

WIZARDS OF ODD: The burning mannish puesdo victorian industrial cabaret world of Cirque Berzerk closes Sunday, August 9th, according to a Wednesday night release. view  [LAT]  + Cirque Berzerk [twitter] +[website]

DRAMA ON AND OFF STAGE:  Los Angeles Opera’s Ring Festival survives County Supervisor Mike Antonovich call to action to ban Wagner for inspiring anti-Semitism.

'NI': Don't tell Antonovich about that musical on county land with a second act song with the line "We won't succeed on Broadway, If you don't have any Jews."

MORE RELIGION: Downtown Rep's "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" is the philosophical meditation on the conflict between divine mercy and human free will. Only two weeks left to reflect on eternal damnation. Ends August 1st. view [DowntownRep]

AT THE ALEX: Company of Angels premieres Jonathan Ceniceroz's drama/comedy about trio of gay men struggling to find intimacy. BIGBRO/LilBro runs until August 2. [Company of Angels]

REDCAT: LAT looks at original performance art at RedCat. "Women created or perform in seven of the event’s eight pieces, exploring topics such as sexual politics, self-identity and the vagaries of life and love."

ARTS DISTRICT:  "Debate of Over Courtney O' Connell of Columbus, Nebraska" is Chalk Repertory Theatre's new comedy by Mat Smart. Jennifer Chang direct the story of one woman's love life turned into open debate. Runs until August 2 at Cafe Metropol (923 E Third Street). [view]

'Bring Out Your Dead' and other theater moments

SPAM: With great haste, the Center Theater Group dispatched a merry band of fools to send word on the festivities marking the April 1st noon Box Office opening for “Monty Python's Spamalot." The day will be highlighted by an April Fool’s Day Faire on the Music Center Plaza and a special April Fool's Day price of $45 for selected seating will be offered.

Revivals on the Hill

After thought: In 2001, Trevor Dunn directed the revival of My Fair Lady––now currently playing at the Ahmanson Theatre –– to be set in 1910 rather than 1914. At first it may seem superfluous. However, it was the year that Edward VII died while leading a British nation into industry, while attempting to reform poverty, as well as forging European allies.  With his passing, the mood of his country may have been the U.S. in 1963; both were times that saw a nation stepped carefully forward during a forced transition. It adds a subtle shade of subtext in the Cameron Mackintosh/National Theatre version of  “My Fair Lady.”   

Too heavy for this morning? "Step, kick, kick, leap, kick, touch...Again!"  The Center Theatre Group announced casting is completed for “A Chorus Line”  that arrives at the Ahmanson Theatre for a seven-week run beginning May 21, 2008.  The official opening is Thursday, May 22 at 8 p.m. and the ends July 6.  Tickets for “A Chorus Line” are available by calling (213) 628-2772 or online or at the Center Theatre Group box office at the Music Center.

Pictured: Lisa O-Hare as Eliza Doolittle, Walter Charles as Colonel Pickering and Marni Nixon as Mrs. Higgins. Courtesy of Center Theatre Group

" The Bard or 'The Yard' "

The London Shakespeare Workout Prison Project is working with the California Men's Colony's Arts in Corrections program to produce "Rounding Shakespeare: In a Kingdom of One's Own" with a cast that includes former members of the Rollin' 60s Crips gang, says the LAT's Calendarlive.

For one inmate actor, Najee Bright, a full scholarship to study at Oxford University is waiting after he serves a shortened sentence.

Then there's the details others offer from their unique life experiences, something not often recalled in Constantin Stanislavski’s believable truth and emotional memory method acting theories.

Spotlights on Main St.

The ImaginAsian Center,  just before its grand opening, is a contrast to the punk rock club next door known as "the Smell" that still has the false front used for  'No Age' recent cover art. More on the theater's debut at blogdowntown.

See every play in a year- get written in.

Roe Gets Role: Downtown law librarian Galeen Roe was at opening night of "365 Plays/365 Days" on November 15, 2006. LAT reports "Roe is likely the only person in the country possessed of enough cosmic juju to follow the shows individually, week after week, through one area festival."  The yearlong festival ends Tuesday November 6 at the Marina Pavilion at California Plaza with Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks writing a play with Roe as a character. [A play a day gets Roe in play]