THE COLUMBINE PROJECT
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
Of all the Los Angeles theater success stories of 2009, perhaps none was greater than that of The Columbine Project, Paul Storiale’s meticulously researched docudrama about the Columbine High School massacre of 1999. World premiering last April at the 48-seat Avery Schreiber theater in North Hollywood, The Columbine Project was extended twice before transferring to off-Broadway with unprecedented swiftness (and with the entire L.A. cast intact). Its July through October New York run at the Actors Temple Theatre was praised by the prestigious New Yorker magazine as a production which “fills the tiny, funky theatre with talent and gravity.” In December, the original North Hollywood production was awarded five ADA (Artistic Director Achievement) Awards including a Best Director award for its creator/writer/director Paul Storiale.
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STAGE DOOR
Saturday, January 30th, 2010
Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman’s 1936 comedy Stage Door is the kind of play that inspires the proverbial, “They don’t write ’em like that anymore.” Three acts. Twenty-seven characters. Witty dialog. Snappy repartee. Not only do they not “write ’em” like that. In these tough economic times, no mid-to-large-size theater could afford toproduce’em like that either. (Just imagine the cost of salaries and costumes!)
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HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE
Friday, January 22nd, 2010Paula Vogel tackles pedophilia in her 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning How I Learned To Drive, and if the sexual abuse of an eleven-(to seventeen)-year-old sounds like unpleasant subject matter for an evening of theater, you’re absolutely right. Told by its heroine Li’l Bit as a series of flashbacks, How I Learn To Drive is a play that had me squirming almost from its first moment. Notwithstanding, The Production Company’s current revival is as superbly performed, directed, and designed as they get.
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ORPHEUS DESCENDING
Friday, January 15th, 2010
Frantic Redhead Productions’ presentation of Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending is a prime example of Los Angeles theater at its finest. A big-name trio of leading players with serious theatrical credits and training, a gifted director with an inspired concept, and one of the finest design teams in town have combined forces to make one of Williams’ lesser known dramas not only a surefire hit but the first major artistic success of 2010 as well.
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ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD
Sunday, January 10th, 2010RECOMMENDED
After staging ten Shakespeare productions over the past three years, The Porters Of Hellsgate are for the first time paying royalties. Not that they really had to leave the public domain, there still being a few dozen more Shakespeare plays left for the talented young troupe of Bard-o-philes to produce and perform. On the other hand, having chosen Hamlet as production number ten, their decision to run Shakespeare’s Greatest Play in rotating rep with Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead (with the same casts no less) was an inspired one.
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THE BROWNING VERSION
Saturday, January 9th, 2010
By 2010 standards, not much happens over the course of The Browning Version’s seventy-five minutes, an hour and a quarter which unrolls in real time one evening in the sitting room of an English schoolteacher’s flat.
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HAMLET
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Just a little over three years ago, a trio of young PaliHi grads with a love of the Bard debuted a new theater company, The Porters Of Hellsgate, with a mission to make Shakespeare come alive for their generation. Their tenth production, Hamlet, once again proves them a force to be reckoned with in Los Angeles classical theater.
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HAMLET
Monday, December 14th, 2009
From its opening moments, it’s clear that this Hamlet will be quite unlike any you’ve seen before. Two young actors (Peter Weidman and Kirsten Kuiken) stand center stage in modern dress and begin reciting Hamlet’s instructions to the traveling players. You know the words. “Speak the speech I pray you as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue …” These oft-quoted acting tips will serve as advice to the cast of tonight’s performance of Hamlet, and the two actors are soon surrounded by the entire ensemble, joining voices till the final “Go make you ready.”
Lights down. Lights up. The Tragedy of the Prince of Denmark has begun.
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Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.
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