Diane Rodriguez
LA’s Diane Rodriguez — associate producer/director of new play production at Center Theatre Group — has been appointed to head the board of directors of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the primary national organization for nonprofit theater. Rodriguez succeeds Philip Himberg — producing artistic director of the Sundance Institute Theatre Program — as board president. Robert Hupp, producing artistic director of Arkansas Repertory Theatre, joins playwright Lydia R. Diamond as joint vice presidents. Tim Jennings, managing director of Children’s Theatre Company, succeeds Roche Schulfer, executive director of Goodman Theatre, as treasurer. Ralph Bryan, managing director-investments of Wells Fargo Advisors, remains as secretary. Rodriguez began her career in theater with Luis Valdez’s El Teatro Campesino in the mid-1970s…A quartet of acclaimed British thesps — Frances Barber, Steven Berkoff, Tim Roth and LA-based Nick Ullett — join the cast of Geffen Playhouse’s revival of Harold Pinter’s 1957 “comedy of menace,” The Birthday Party, helmed by William Friedkin, opening Feb 12 in the Gil Cates Theater at the Geffen Playhouse. Friedkin directed the 1968 screenplay, starring Robert Shaw…
The cast of “50 Shades.” Photo by Clifford Roles.
OPENING THE SHADES… Following sojourns in Chicago, New York and a run at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a tour of 50 Shades! The Musical – The Original Parody will arrive at Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City — based on the novel trilogy, Fifty Shades of Grey, “but not associated with, endorsed or authorized by author E.L. James or publisher Vintage Books.” Produced by Marshall Cordell, Albert Samuels and Emily Dorezas and written by a team of six led by Samuels, the production opens Feb 26. It’s renting the Douglas and using its box office operation but isn’t otherwise affiliated with the resident company, CTG…As its second production of the 2013-14 season, Road Theatre Company in NoHo is offering the premiere of The Different Shades of Hugh, exploring “the very personal world of an artist’s creative process,” scripted by Clete Keith, helmed by Road Company co-artistic director Sam Anderson, opening Jan 24 at Road at Magnolia…
Brendan Hunt
SCR STUDIO SERIES…South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa has announced the five stage works that comprise its 2014 Studio SCR series — offering “a mix of ambitious, provocative and experimental theatrical works in partnership with some of southern California’s most innovative companies,” presented in SCR’s intimate 94-seat Nicholas Studio. The works include Dreamscape (Jan 16-19), depicting the inner life and death of a murdered teenage girl in Riverside, scripted and helmed by Rickerby Hinds, presented by Hindsight Studio Productions; St. Jude (Feb 13-16), Luis Alfaro‘s autobiographical solo that played CTG’s Kirk Douglas Theatre in September as part of Radar L.A.; Impro Theatre‘s often-produced Tennessee Williams UnScripted (Feb 27-Mar 2), by Dan O’Connor; Sacred Fools Theater‘s production of Brendan Hunt‘s Absolutely Filthy (June 5-8), his takeoff on the Peanuts characters as adults, performed earlier this year at Sacred Fools and at another venue during the Hollywood Fringe Festival, helmed by Jeremy Aldridge; and Ghost Road Company‘s The Bargain & The Butterfly (June 12-15)– inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, The Artist of the Beautiful and first presented by Ghost Road last spring at Artworks Theatre in Hollywood, helmed by Katharine Noon …
Sarah Ruhl
PREMIERES…Launching its 45th season, Odyssey Theatre in West LA unites with Evidence Room
to present the LA premiere of Passion Play — Sarah Ruhl’s “lively excursion through centuries of religious pomp
and pageantry,”
helmed by Bart DeLorenzo, opening Jan 25. Begun in 2003, completed in 2005, this lengthy work finally made its Broadway debut in 2010. Odyssey and Evidence Room last co-mingled in the April 2013 LA premiere of Sharr White’s Annapurna — starring Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman – also helmed by DeLorenzo…Lindsey Alley, Marc Ginsburg and Jennifer Shelton star in the California premiere of a three-handed tuner, Let’s Misbehave: The Music and Lyrics of Cole Porter — with more than 30 classic songs by Cole Porter and a story of three single friends in 1930s New York who make a pact to find true love, conceived by Karin Bowersock (book) and Patrick Young (musical arrangements), helmed and choreographed by Todd Nielsen, musical direction by Darryl Archibald, continuing International City Theatre’s (ICT) 2013-14 season, opening Jan 24 at ICT in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center…Human Identity, created and performed by Christopher Vened – former lead actor/mime with Wroclaw Pantomime Theater of Henryk Tomaszewski in Poland — has its LA premiere at the Lounge Theatre in Hollywood, opening Jan 5…Lost Studio on La Brea is hosting the LA premiere of Rx by Kate Fodor, spotlighting “our overmedicated society, which has a pill to alleviate every uncomfortable emotion,” helmed by John Pleshette, opening Jan 11…
“Lost Girls”
AROUND TOWN…Spring 2014 is going to spotlight two Paul Robeson solo turns in LA. Ebony Repertory Theatre is offering a revival of Philip Hayes Dean’s 1978 Paul Robeson, starring Keith David (Fox TV’s Enlisted), opening Mar 12 at Nate Holden Performing Arts Center. This bio drama originally made its local debut in 1983, starring San Francisco transplant Ben Guillory at the Odyssey Theatre in West LA. Ebony Rep is edging its Robeson in ahead of Center Theatre Group’s previously announced The Tallest Tree in the Forest, scripted and performed by solo play specialist Daniel Beaty, with an onstage three-piece band, directed by Moisés Kaufman at Mark Taper Forum, opening Apr 15… For the fourth production of Falcon Theatre’s 2013-14 season, Brendan Hunt (Alan) Erin Pineda (Gilda) and Tom Fonss (Everyone Else) have been tabbed to star in Bunny Bunny – Gilda Radner: A Sort of Romantic Comedy, scripted by Alan Zweibel, directed by Dimitri Toscas – chronicling the 14-year friendship of comedy writer Zweibel and Saturday Night Live star Gilda Radner, opening Feb 7…In West Hollywood, Macha Theatre is extending its Marilyn Monroe bio drama, Marilyn-My Secret, scripted by Willard Manus and Macha artistic director Odalys Nanin, helmed by Nanin, now running through Jan 18…And Rogue Machine on Pico Blvd is extending its premiere of John Pollono’s Lost Girls, helmed by artistic director John Perrin Flynn, through Jan 27…
George Reeves
INSIDE LA STAGE HISTORY…In the spring of 1937, Pasadena Playhouse is designated by the California State Legislature as the Official State Theatre of California, due mainly to the national attention it has received for being the first resident theater in the US to perform the complete canon of William Shakespeare. When the Legislature’s proclamation reads that this honor is for “the 19 years of work done by the world-famous Pasadena institution in advancing the dramatic arts and for bringing international attention to the cultural activities of California,” founder/artistic director Gilmor Brown is expecting a significant endowment from the legislature will be forthcoming. It doesn’t come forth. Brown discovers that most California legislators do not attend live theater. One legislative assistant informs him that a significant number of the legislators are dedicated California history buffs. On the day of the official designation ceremony, Brown addresses the legislature, informing them he plans to dedicate the Playhouse’s upcoming third annual Midsummer Drama Festival to plays that tell “The Story of the Great Southwest.” He blatantly requests funds in order to help underwrite the project. He gets the money, but now he has to come up with the product. The festival, scheduled June 28 to Aug. 14, is hyped to “paint in footlight pageantry the glamorous and thrilling march of Southwestern history from 1470 through 1900.” Seven plays, marking seven important stops in the history-making trek, are chosen, beginning with Montezuma by Gerhart Hauptmann. Following in historical order are the San Juan Capistrano Mission play, Miracle of the Swallows by Ramon Romero; Night Over Taos by Maxwell Anderson; Franz Werfel’s Juarez and Maximilian; Rose of the Rancho by Richard Walton Tully and David Belasco; Girl of the Golden West by Belasco; and Miner’s Gold, Agnes Peterson‘s saga of three generations of San Franciscans. Of great assistance on this project is a 22-year-old Playhouse academy student, George Reeves. Fluent in Spanish, Reeves serves as a dialect coach, as well as performing in four of the plays. In 1939, Reeves makes his mark in film as one of the suitors to Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind. Later he is cast in the title role in the 1951 TV series, The Adventures of Superman. In 1938, Gilmor Brown goes back to his favored Midsummer Drama Festival bill o’ fare – generous helpings of the Bard and Shaw….
Julio Martinez-produced and hosted Arts in Review (AIR) celebrates the best in LA-area theater and cabaret on KPFK Radio (90.7FM), Fridays (2-2:30 pm). Holiday Special, featuring the broadcast premiere of The Christmas Truce, performed by AIR Repertory Players, and the 10th annual presentation of Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales, read by Al Alu…