L.A. Stage Insider
Celebrating the best theater and cabaret in the breater Los Angeles Area
October 5, 2022
Written by Julio Martinez
NEWS
Hollywood Fringe Festival
In anticipation of upcoming Hollywood Fringe Festival 2023, pre-festival in-person networking events will welcome both veteran Fringers and new community members alike! Feel free to come and meet HFF personnel during off-Season Office Hours, Oct 5, Nov 9, Dec 7, Jan 11, Feb 8 (7-9pm) at the Broadwater Plunge, 6324 Santa Monica Blvd, L.A. 90038. Also upcoming is Fringe Halloween Party, featuring a DJ, photo booth, and Fringe Runway-inspired costume contest. Join the Fringe at Three Clubs (7pm - 1am), Oct 28. All proceeds from this event will go toward building the 2023 Fringe to be bigger and better than ever. Hollywood Fringe Members will get into the event free, but tickets must be reserved in advance. Email ticketing@hollywoodfringe.org to reserve your member ticket.
PREMIERES
Amina Henry
Hero Theatre is presenting a new stage work by Amina Henry, whose play Troy was commissioned and presented by Hero in 2019. She now returns to riff on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Henry’s Nothing, Nothing explores the experience of Black women, “joy, self-care and love; interracial relationships; and finding commonalities and acceptance in a church community.” Hero Theatre will present a three-week run, May 12 through May 27, 2023, as a site-specific production at a local church. For more information about Nothing Nothing, go to www.herotheatre.org
Center Theatre Group announces the casting has been set for the U.S. premiere of “2:22 – A Ghost Story,” a supernatural thriller, written by Danny Robins and directed by Matthew Dunster, playing at the Ahmanson Theatre. The four-person play will star Constance Wu, Finn Wittrock, Anna Camp and Adam Rothenberg. All four will be making their Ahmanson debut. Opens Nov 4, running through Dec 4. Tickets are available through CenterTheatreGroup.org, Audience Services at (213) 972-4400 or in person at the Center Theatre Group Box Offices (at the Ahmanson Theatre) at The Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A. 90012.
AROUND TOWN
Fredericka Meek and Troy Wallace Photo: Zach Mendez
Ensemble Studio Theater opens its 2022-23 Season with Carmen Jones, an adaptation of the opera, Carmen, by Geogres Bizet with new lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. The classic story of the bewitching Carmen is reset in a parachute factory during 1940’s World War II. The cast features Fredricka Meek as “Carmen Jones,” Chauncey Packer, Zelda Carmen, Troy Wallace, Nataley Carter, Ashli Ferguson, Christopher James Hester, Michael Howard-Dossett, Constance Jewell Lopez and Desmond Newson, directed by William Foster McDaniel, choreography by Lisa Ruffin and musical direction by William Foster McDaniel. Opens Oct 8, running through Oct 23 at New Victory Theatre, 33 W. Victoria St. in Santa Barbara. Tickets and more information are available through the ETC box office at (805) 965-5400, or online at etcsb.org
Just in time for the midterms, an all-new revival of “Farragut North,” the off-Broadway hit play by Beau Willimon (House of Cards) focusing on behind-the-scenes election intrigue, presented by Foursome Productions, hosted by Theatre 68 Arts Complex in NoHo. Directed by Peter Allas, the cast includes Chris Wong, Jack Esformes, Camryn Mann, Amy Motta, K.J. Powell, David Reyes and Michael Rubenstone. Previews Oct. 13, 20, 27 & Nov. 3. Opens Oct. 14, with performances continuing through Nov 5. Theatre 68 Arts Complex: The Rosalie is located at 5112 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood 91601. For tickets and more information, go twww.onstage411.com/farragutn.
Gregg T. Daniel
A Noise Within continues its 2022-23 Season with “Radio Golf,” the final play in Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson’s “American Century Cycle” decade-by-decade exploration of the Black experience in 20th century America. The cast includes DeJuan Christopher, Sydney A. Mason, Alex Morris, Matt Orduña and Christian Telesma, directed by Gregg T. Daniel. Opens Oct 22 (8pm). Performances continue through Nov 13 at A Noise Within, 3352 E Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107. For tickets and information, go to www.anoisewithin.org.
Ken Ludwig
International City Theatre is presenting “Lend Me A Tenor,” a combination of slapstick, word play, romance and great opera, written and created by Ken Ludwig. The production features Matt Curtin, Michael Scott Harris, Bella Hicks, Holly Jeanne, Kailyn Leilani. Barry Pearl, Jade Santana and Nick Tubbs, directed by Todd Nielsen. Opens Oct. 21 (8pm), continuing through Nov 6. International City Theatre, located atLong Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, 330 E. Seaside Way, Long Beach, 90802. For tickets and more information, go to https://ictlongbeach.org/2022-season.
SOLO MOJO
Whitefire Theater is hosting “Traveling With Angels.” A hero’s journey around the world, written and performed by J. René Peña, directed by Kimleigh Smith. Plays one night only, Nov 3 at 8pm. Whitefire Theatre is located at 13500 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks 91423. For tickets and information, go to https://whitefire.stagey.net/projects/9412?tab=details
INSIDE L.A. STAGE HISTORY:
The Depression & LA Theater
Otto Kruger
The Stock Market crash of late 1920s did not affect the Hollywood film industry, which flourished with the advent of talking pictures. But the early years of the Depression did take a heavy toll on live theater in Los Angeles. In the 1933 edition of Burns Mantle’s annual Best Plays, Drama Editor of the LA Times theater critic Edwin Schallert observed, “Whether the low ebb has finally been reached in Southern California theatricals cannot at this moment be determined but certainly the season of 1932-33 has been the poorest in volume of attractions and one of the most erratic in quality.”
To be fair, this was a pretty tough time on the West Coast. The election of liberal-minded Franklin D. Roosevelt as President in November 1932 left many conservative investors wary about speculating on such risky endeavors as live theater. This proved to be prudent when FDR declared a “bank holiday,” closing all US banks for four days, March 6-9, 1933. Successful productions of such West Coast premieres as Of Thee I Sing at the Biltmore, Dinner at Eight (starring Louis Calhern and Hedda Hopper) at the Belasco Burbank and The Marquise (starring Billie Burke) at El Capitan, had to close down for lack of cash flow. The banks opened on March 10, the day LA was slammed by a 6.4 earthquake that hit just offshore at Long Beach. Many theater houses became inhabitable, never to reopen.
Fortunate to debut later in the spring, the most successful legiter of the 1932-33 season was Elmer Rice’s Counselor-at-Law starring Otto Kruger, which enjoyed a nine week run at the Belasco before transferring to San Francisco’s Curran Theater. However, when Rice’s play moved north, Kruger stayed behind, having been swept up by MGM, an increasing occurrence in Tinseltown. It wasn’t only actors who were deserting the stage for film. Formerly dedicated theater producers such as Dickson Morgan, Arthur Collins, Edward Everett Horton, Sid Grauman and Oliver Morosco became more infatuated with the success of talking pictures, believing the big screen offered audiences a greater antidote to Depression doldrums than live theater. By July 1933, Schallert concluded, “The future lies momentarily with the community theater, until the professional can summon reserves and capital to reenter the tourney.” Yeah? We’ll see.
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Fritz Coleman
Arts in Review, hosted by arts journalist Julio Martinez, celebrating the best in theater and cabaret in the Greater Los Angeles area, airs on KPFK (90.7fm) on Fridays (2-2:30pm), streamed live around the world in real time over www.kpfk.org. On Oct 7, Arts in Review welcomes former KNBC weatherman Fritz Coleman, whose one-person show, Unassisted Living, opens at El Portal Theatre on Oct 16.
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