Play Time

A Common Vision

by Neena Beber

3m, 3f

Six lives collide around a transcendent vision in a night sky.  Dolores' private anguish becomes a matter of public debate when a respected psychologist convinces her she was abducted by aliens.  And to think she got dumped by some guy.  A Common Vision chronicles Dolores' journey when her personal crisis of faith and dovetails with a larger cultural phenomenon.

This play does a fine job of depicting ones perception of the same event.  Just when we think life couldn't be more complex, throw a possible alien abduction in the mix and your sure to need on-going therapy.  The characters in this play are driven by the need for love, and who can't relate that.  Love lost, and in desperation Dolores will cling on to anything to explain her feelings of disorder.

Neena Beber leaves a lot of room for the directors individual vision.  Her transitions of dialogue between characters had my mind in over-drive fantasizing lighting and set.  An enjoyable challenge for any director and a splendid simple, truthful give and take amongst the characters.

"The common vision Dolores, her therapist and witnesses share turns out to be as provocative as it is unreliable.  And that's what makes part of Beber's vision so uncommonly rewarding."

-Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Examiner

Show Info

LOS ANGELES

The Break of Noon
Geffen Playhouse
10886 Le Conte Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90024


Show Opens:

January 25, 2011

Show Closes:

March 6, 2011

Tickets by Phone 310-208-8383

www.geffenplayhouse.com


Synopsis

Playwright and provocateur Neil LaBute's newest play takes off from George Bernard Shaw's quote: "All truths begin as blasphemies." And then we meet John Smith. He's a selfish, philandering liar - or at least he was. After hearing the voice of God during a tragic office shooting, this imperfect man reforms himself and goes on a mission to spread the word about a better way of life. But is Joe's divine encounter merely a ploy for celebrity, a chance to escape his rocky past, or is it part of an infinite and almighty plan? In The Break of Noon, LaBute explores the trials and tribulations of a modern day prophet - and what he signifies in a jaded world that is thousands of years removed from burning bushes and stone tablets.

 Love, Sex, and the I.R.S.

Complex-Dorie Theatre

6476 Santa Monica Boulevard

Santa Monica, CA 90038

Ticket Price: $15.00 - $20.00 

 www.thetribeproductions.org

Currently running!

Closes on January 30, 2011

Synopsis

Jon and Leslie (both men) have been roommates for years. To save money, Jon has filed tax returns listing the pair as married, with Leslie as his wife. Too bad the I.R.S. informs the "couple" they're going to be investigated by their agent, Mr. Spinner!

Jon convinces his fiance Kate to help Leslie play along as his wife, and things unravel from there...

Kate is a little too close to Leslie, the landlord doesn't approve of unwed couples living together, Jon's mother drops in to meet his fiance, and Leslie's ex-girlfriend demands to know why he won't see her!

The School for Scandal

Skirball Cultural Center

2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90049

Currently running!

Closes on January 16, 2011

Opened on January 12, 2011

Tickets by Phone: 310-827-0889

http://www.latw.org/live/boxoffice/boxofficehomeindex.html

Synopsis

Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 18th Century masterpiece is a sparkling comedy of manners that made its debut in 1777 - but its comic look at human frailty and hypocrisy is as relevant today as it was then. Brimming with witty dialogue, mistaken identities, supposed infidelity, eavesdropping and scandal, both real and invented, The School For Scandal is a delightful, madcap and maliciously catty romp. After all, slander and gossip never go out of style.

Actor Highlights

Brian Bedford in The Importance of Being Earnest

"Within seconds of sweeping onstage, and with a wordless gesture as funny as it is subtle, the great actor Brian Bedford proves beyond question that gender is of no importance whatsoever in portraying the imposing Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde’s greatest comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest.  Mr. Bedford is aware that when portrayed with the seriousness of purpose that she deserves — or should I say demands? — Lady Bracknell is more than capable of keeping an audience breathless with laughter."   Charles Isherwood, NY Times

It is not necessarily rare for actors — male actors, that is — to take on the role of Wilde’s arch parody of a paragon of high Victorian propriety.   But Mr. Bedford is truly playing the role, not working a gimmick.

A classical actor particularly celebrated for his performances of Shakespeare and Molière, he is a versatile, conscientious stylist who has no interest in winning laughs by winking references to the gender switch.  Bedford attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London from 1952–1954 and was in the same class as Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Peter O'Toole.

Primarily a stage actor, he is known for his English-speaking interpretations of the French playwright Molière, (one of my all time favorite playwrites!) including Tony Award nominated performances in Tartuffe, The Molière Comedies (a double bill of the short plays The School for Husbands and The Imaginary Cuckold) and The School for Wives, for which he received the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play. He has done a great deal of Shakespearean work, notably as Ariel in The Tempest opposite John Gielgud'sProspero in 1958, Angelo in Measure for Measure at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 1975 and 1976, and The Public Theater's New York Shakespeare Festival Shakespeare in the Park productions of As You Like It (as Orlando), and Timon of Athens (as Timon), the latter based on a production he originated with the National Actors Theatre in 1993 and which he eventually played on Broadway.

To impersonate a member of the opposite sex, Bedford took his cue from one of the all-time great drag performers – Barry Humphries, a.k.a. Dame Edna Everage. "I realized I had to be as utterly convincing as Lady Bracknell as Barry Humphries is with Dame Edna," he says. "Of course, you know it's Humphries you're watching, but you don't think about that – you're just absolutely flabbergasted and absorbed by this crazy woman that he's giving you. I thought how important that was: there mustn't be any hint of a man playing a woman."

Bedford says, of all Wilde's writings, he likes the letters best. He finds them more revealing of the man than his literary endeavours. "Oscar did say, 'I put my genius into my life and my talent into my work.'"
The exception, perhaps, is The Importance of Being Earnest. "Somehow we're getting the genius that he put into his life, in this play," he says. "It's Oscar himself."
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/theatre/story/2009/06/01/f-brian-bedford-stratford-importance-of-being-earnest.html#ixzz1B1gNr8RC

The Importance of Being Earnest runs to Oct. 30; Ever Yours, Oscar runs June 19-Aug. 29, at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario.

A Pioneer will be Missed

Ellen Stewart

In the 1950's she began her career in New York as a fashion designer and started La MaMa in 1961, an experimental theatre specializing in total integration of music, dance, and drama.  She rented a tiny basement in lower Manhattan for $55 a month to provide her brother and his playwright friends with a space to showcase their plays. Already nicknamed "Mama," one of her actors suggested La MaMa as the name for her theater.  La MaMa moved several more times and took up residence in its original and current space on East 4th Street in 1969. In 1974, the company acquired a second space, The Annex, down the street. In November 2009, on the occasion of Stewart's 90th birthday, The Annex was officially renamed the Ellen Stewart Theatre.  Theater spokesman Sam Rudy said Stewart was instrumental in introducing to American audiences some of the world's most influential artists, including Bette Midler, Andrei Serban, Tom O'Horgan, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Harvey Fierstein, Maria Irene Fornes, Tom Eyen, Jean Claude van Itallie and countless others.

Stewart became known as the mother of Off-Off-Broadway theatre.

"She had a profound impact on the lives of countless artists, and she left a mark on the city of New York that will never be erased," Oskar Eustis, artistic director of The Public Theater, said in a statement.

The company's resident theater troupes have performed throughout the world including Columbia, Venezuela, Lebanon, Iran, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Scotland, England, Sweden, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Croatia, Korea, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Australia, Greece, Ukraine, Siberia, The Netherlands and Macedonia.  In 2006 she did 5 different plays in 5 different countries, in 5 different languages in 5 months....whew!

Stewart received the Human Rights Award of the Philippines from President Corazon Aquino and awards from the Emperor of Japan and from France. In the late 1980's, Stewart established La MaMa Umbria International, an artist residence in Spoleto, Italy.  Her theater's  frequently distinguished productions have made La Mama a venerated institution and have won more than 50 Obie Awards.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated on Monday at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

"I can see Ms. Stewart quite vividly still. (Once seen, she was not forgotten.) That vision will remain for me as an emblem of the importance of staying raw, open and engaged in an increasingly synthetic city. "

Ben Brantley, NY Times

New Year, New Look

THEATER NEWS
And so it begins.  Another year.  We are officially IN this decade.  It has to be better than the last, but when it comes to theater, 2010 showed some promise.  New York Times columnist Ben Brantly busted out with his top 10 in 2010 with plays like The Merchant of Venice at the Broadhurst Theater, A View from the Bridge at the Cort Theater and one of my all time Favs, A Lie of the Mind at the Acorn Theater.

You can check out his full list here...
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/12/15/theater/20101219-brantley.html 

Other bloggers are looking ahead to 2011. Don Shirley, blogger for LA Times, has a wish list.  Pasadena Playhouses triumph over bankruptcy, South Coast Reps new artistic director, and that the RADAR LA festival of new cutting-edge theater in June might be what the LA "low profile" theater scene needs to prove to the nation their worth.
http://www.lastagetimes.com/2010/12/ten-hopes-for-2011

COMING TO L.A.

God of Carnage
The original Broadway cast is bringing this Tony Award winning play to Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre.  The production will run April 5 through May 15.  God of Carnage follows two pairs of upper class parents who try to have a civilized discussion after their young sons get into a schoolyard fight. Their attempts at socializing soon falls apart as they end up at each other's throats.

The show's lead Broadway producers Stuart Thompson and Robert Fox will again oversee the production, along with producers David Pugh & Dafydd Rogers, Scott Rudin, Jon B. Platt, the Weinstein Company and the Shubert Organization.

Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis, Jeff Daniels & James Gandolfini in "God of Carnage"

  

Fela! on Broadway

While watching one of my favorite shows, The Colbert Report, he ended his show with a performance by the new Broadway musical Fela!.  With producers like Jay-Z and Will and Jada Smith, not to mention Tony Award winner, director/choreographer Bill T. Jones, this musical features the Afrobeat music of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti to tell the story of his controversial life as artist, political activist and revolutionary musician.  From what I saw on the show, the music was captivating and the hybrid of dance and Broadway musical was refreshing.

Check out the video clips!  And if you are in New York, go see the show now playing at the Eugene O'Neill Theater located at 230 W 49th St!

Cuba and His Teddy Bear

I saw a relatively unknown, well played production of Reinaldo Pavod's Cuba and His Teddy Bear.  Performed at the Underground Theater off Wilton and Sunset by The Actors Collective as their first company production.  If you are unfamiliar with The Actors Collective, they are a group who connect actors directly with agents and some of Hollywood's top casting directors, producers and filmmakers.  Through workshops, the actor can present a scene and pass reels, postcards. ect... directly to established industry folks.  Establishing a relationship with the people who can ultimately get you work, will save you money in mass mailings and start a one on one relationship with them.

The play was explosive and one I still think about. Set in New York's Lower East Side in the 80's with typical father son themes in a not so typical situation.  Diving into the life of a small time drug dealer, his creative son and the battles they have with one other and their own selves.  Cuba played by Brian Burke counters his threatening aggressive tactics with a sincere tenderness toward the well being of his son, played by Dave Alfano.  The intensity of the play was relieved by Cuba's sidekick Jackie. Kyle T. Heffner as Jackie was superb, with all of his one liners repeated throughout the play, we would all have been on the floor crying if we didn't have his comedy.  With 2 pounds of pot on the line, Teddy joins the family business by wanting to distribute the pot through his new friend a Tony award winning playwright and well known heroin junkie.  The idea does not sit well with Cuba and through the transaction secrets are reviled and so is the shame.  Love for his son prevails and you are left with a feeling of compassion for this family.  It reminds us that we are all only human, but when you really love, it can do no wrong.

The play ran one weekend as a preview, but look forward to a five week run after the New Year.  I will keep you all posted, it is a must see.  Plus check out The Actors Collective if you want to get connected.

www.actorscollective.com