L.A. Stage Insider
Celerating the Best in Los Angeles Area Live Theater and Cabaret
October 12, 2022
Written by Julio Martinez
MICHAEL BATEMAN LEAVING A NOISE WITHIN AS MANAGING DIRECTOR…LOS ANGELES NEW PLAY PROJECT GIVES FOUR GRANTS TO THREE PLAYWRIGHTS…ROAD THEATRE ANNOUNCES FIRST SHOW OF 2022-2023 SEASON…IAMA THEATRE CELEBRATES 15H ANNIVERSARY WITH PREMIERE OF ‘SMILE’…INSIDE L.A. STAGE HISTORY LOOKS BACK AT ‘THE MEXICAN PLAYERS’ OF PADUA HILLS…AND MORE
NEWS
A Noise Within announced today that managing director Michael Bateman will be departing the theater after a nine-year tenure. Maryellen Gleason, who previously worked with A Noise Within as the interim director of development, will serve as the interim managing director while a national search is conducted for Bateman’s successor. The details of the search will be announced in the coming weeks. For more information, go to www.anoisewithin.org
Marlow Wyatt, David Johann Kim, Rosie Naraski
The Los Angeles New Play Project, founded to support original works presented on the Los Angeles stage, awards each of the selected playwrights $20,000, with an additional $20,000 going to each of the four producing entities that have agreed to produce the winning plays. This year, two of the four plays selected were authored by one playwright, David Johann Kim, whose “Pang Spa” will be premiered by Chalk Repertory Theatre, while his “Two Stop” will be staged by the Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA. Both plays are set in the Los Angeles Korean community in the aftermath of the Rodney King verdict and are related in character and theme. Rosie Narasaki’s “Unrivaled” is slated to be produced by Playwrights’ Arena, and Marlow Wyatt’s “SHE,” by Antaeus Theatre Company. All productions must take place within 18 months of the announcement of the grant award. For more information regarding the Los Angeles New Play Project please consult the website: http://lanpp.org/
Michael Korie Scott Frankel
Musical Theatre Guild announces the final two shows in its two-decade-long residency at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. The company will be returning to Monday evening performances with in-concert productions of Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon (Nov 14), And Grey Gardens by composer Scott Frankel and lyricist Michael Korie (Feb 27, 2023). Both performances will be at the Alex Theatre, 216 North Brand Boulevard, Glendale.
PREMIERES
Arlene Hutton
The Road Theatre Company announces the first show of its 2022-2023 Season, a world premiere comedy, “According to the Chorus,” a nostalgic behind-the-scenes look at a pivotal period in the history of Broadway where women’s issues and the AIDS crisis play out through the everyday lives of Equity performers and union dressers. Written by Arlene Hutton (The Nibroc Trilogy). The Cast will feature: Samantha Tan, Avery Clyde, Amy Tolsky, Juan Pope,” Meeghan Holloway, Jacqueline Mesayei, Julia Manis, Gloria Ines, Kristyn Evelyn, Sorel Carradine, Mara Klein, Danny Lee Gomez and Fox (“Olivia the Dog”), directed by Emily Chase. Original music by Arian Saleh. Opens Oct 21 at 8pm, running through Dec 11 at the Road Theatre, located in The NoHo Senior Arts Colony, 10747 Magnolia Blvd. in North Hollywood. For tickets, please call 818-761-8838 or visit www.RoadTheatre.org to purchase tickets online or to view complete schedule.
Melissa Jane Osborne
IAMA Theatre Company’s 15th anniversary season opens with the Premiere of “Smile,” a cathartic story about two very different women who come to lean on each other, by playwright Melissa Jane Osborne, directed by Michelle Bossy, both IAMA ensemble members. The production stars Isabella Feliciana, Andria Kozica, John Lavelle and Ronit Kathuria, opening Nov 12 at Atwater Village Theatre, continuing through Dec 5. Atwater Village Theatre is located at 3269 Casitas Ave., L.A. 90039. For reservations and information, Call 323-380-8843 or go to iamatheatre.com.
Kristoffer Diaz
Chance Theater’s is presenting the Orange County Premiere of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, following the travails of a pro wrestling “jobber,” one who is paid to lose to bigger-name stars in the ring, written by Kristoffer Diaz, directed by Jeremy Aluma, the production, now open, runs through Oct 23 on the Cripe Stage at the Bette Aitken theater arts Center. Chance Theater @ Bette Aitken theater arts Center on the Cripe Stage 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim, CA 92807. For tickets and more information: www.ChanceTheater.com or call (888) 455-421
AROUND TOWN
Teri Hatcher
5-Star Theatricals announces the cast and creative team for its upcoming production of The Addams Family, starring Teri Hatcher as “Morticia Addams” Book is by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, Music & Lyrics by Andrew Lippa, Musical Direction & Conductor: Ryan O’Connell, Choreography by Darby Epperson, Musical Staging & Directed by Kirsten Chandler. Joining Hatcher onstage will be Ed Staudenmayer, Janelle Villas, Leander Lewis, Andrew Metzger, Aaron Laplante, Samantha Wynn-Greenston, Tristan Turner, Benjamin Perez and Trisha Rapier. Opens Oct 14, running through Oct 23 at the Kavli Theatre at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center, 2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks. Tickets are on sale now and may be purchased through www.5startheatricals.com, or by phone at (800) 745-3000.
SOLO MOJO
Odyssey Theatre is offering Galiana (Spain) & Nikolchev’s (USA) The Useless Room, a performance laboratory, which returns to the theatre with “Ínsula,” a breakout success at the 5th annual Dance at the Odyssey festival last July. Ínsula will receive four additional performances Nov 11-19. Choreographed and directed by Gema Galiana and featuring text by Anthony Nikolchev, Ínsula stars dancer Gabriel Eduardo Jimenez Montes. The Odyssey Theatre is located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles,90025. For reservations and information, call (310) 477-2055 or go to OdysseyTheatre.com.
INSIDE L.A. STAGE HISTORY:
Manuel Vera Family and Padua Hills
Manuel Vera and The Mexican Players at Padua Hills Theater
Manuel Vera, born in La Canada de Caracheo, Guanajuato, Mexico, migrated to Chicago, working for the Railroad. His work led him to Claremont, California in the late 1920s. He helped in the construction of a theater in the Padua hills overlooking the town, which became the home of the Claremont Community Players. Manuel and his cousin Flavio, who was a chef, worked at the theater as loborers but often displayed their talent for music for audience members, becoming quite popular in the community. In 1932-33 Claremont disbanded and Vera’s compnay, The Mexican Players, was born with Manuel as its leader. He traveled extensively in Mexico to document authentic music, traditional danse folk plays and costumes. The Padua theater space became his life. In 1932, he met Sara, with whom he was married for over 50 years, raised five children who became active on stage in and in film—Manuel Jr. (1934), Alfredo (1937, danced in Los Tres Caballeros), Jose Guadalupe (1941), Rodolfo (1948) and Teresa Maria (1951). Manual and Sara taught all their children to have pride in the theater.
The space became the official home of the Mexican Players (Paduanos), guided by Manuel Vera, his wife Sara and their succeeding generations of children, a theatrical dynasty that stretched 41 years. In the mid-30s, Manuel expanded a five-minute Mexican folk tale of the birth of Christ into Las Posadas, incorporating the music and dances of the original Mexican settlers of California. These efforts were consistent with a larger Southern California movement in the 1930s towards what was called the Spanish Fantasy Past, a nostalgic remembering of a bygone pre-Anglo history.
Despite some political criticisms of Mexican American folk theater, the original 1930s players found opportunities for self-discovery, to forge strong relationships, and to achieve successful careers in theatre and beyond. Participation in Las Pasados and other plays allowed the players to share their artistic talents where elsewhere there were few opportunities for Latino/a actors. For the larger community, it created an atmosphere in which negative attitudes towards Mexican Americans were temporarily averted. And it created a space where Mexican American youth received training in song and dance and utilize these skills in the burgeoning Los Angeles film industry.
There was resistance to this. Bess Garner was primarily responsible for working with the players, who were recruited from the nearby Claremont barrio. Although their most visible task was to provide entertainment, they were also responsible for cooking, maintaining the property, and waiting on tables. Garner was remembered as a well-intentioned woman who could be condescending, actively discouraging their seeking work in Hollywood.
But many of the players did move on. Within a few years, Paduanos were responsible for creating Las Posadas on Olvera Street in Downtown LA, now one of Los Angeles’ oldest Christmas events. Seasonal entertainment commences nightly at 5:30pm, played out for nine nights by the Olvera Street Merchants, from December 16 through Christmas Eve. The event features a candlelight procession starting at the historic Avila Adobe. The leaders of the march, usually children, dress as shepherds, angels, and Mary and Joseph. They are followed by dozens of other worshipers. The public is invited to join in or merely observe. The Padua Hills Theatre, was declared an historic site in the 1970s and was renovated in the 1980 to become a favored site for weddings. For more information about Los Pasados on Olvera Street, go here.