DAVID DEAN BOTTRELL MAKES LOVE: A ONE-MAN SHOW
Thursday, November 17th, 2011
As a boy growing up in a state whose motto is “If you can catch it, you can fuck it,” young David Dean Bottrell probably never dreamed that he would one day become a successful actor, comedian and screenwriter, pen a monthly column for MetroSource Magazine and write for the Huffington Post, win seventeen awards for his short film Available Men, be one of the stars of the L.A. stage smash Streep Tease, or direct the current Colony Theatre hit Travels With My Aunt. And even if he had dreamed this impossible dream, he probably never would have imagined that just talking about his life on a nearly bare stage would turn into one of Summer 2011’s hottest tickets.
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THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE
Thursday, November 10th, 2011
“It’s estimated that every two weeks, a language dies. I don’t know about you, but this statistic moves me far more than any statistic on how many animals die or people die in a given time, in a given place. Because when we say a language dies, we are talking about a whole world, a whole way of life.”
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BHUTAN
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
Something went dreadfully wrong in the life of New Hampshire high school senior Warren Conroy a year ago, or so we surmise from our first glimpse of him, behind bars, in Daisy Foote’s riveting family drama Bhutan, now getting a superb West Coast Premiere at Rogue Machine Theatre under the inspired direction of Elina de Santos.
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HERMETICALLY SEALED
Tuesday, November 1st, 2011
Hermitically Sealed is both the title of Kathryn Graf’s compelling new family drama and an apt description of the way 40something caterer Tessie May has chosen to live the life she shares with her teenage male offspring—like an egg, “safe and sound in its own little world.”
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MOSES SUPPOSES
Monday, October 31st, 2011
1970 Oscar nominee Karen Black and David Proval of TV’s The Sopranos play longtime marrieds in Moses Supposes, Ellen Malaver’s entertaining family comedy—no, make that entertaining dysfunctional family comedy, now playing at the Zephyr Theatre.
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HOUSE OF GOLD
Saturday, October 29th, 2011RECOMMENDED
The personal tragedy of the still unsolved 1996 murder of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey has, in the years since her death, been eclipsed by the ensuing media side show, one that continues to this day. Playwright Gregory Moss satirizes our endless fascination with JonBenét in his black comedy House Of Gold, now getting its West Coast Premiere by Ensemble Studio Theatre Los Angeles in a production worth a look-see despite considerable shortcomings, thanks to imaginative direction by Gates McFadden, a brilliant performance by award-winning theatre vet Jacqueline Wright as JonBenét, and a sensational production design.
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NINE CIRCLES
Saturday, October 29th, 2011
If protests against the war in Iraq have never come close to reaching the size or intensity of those of the Vietnam War era, one need merely compare the military demographics of troops serving in the Iraqi desert with those of soldiers sent to fight in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Whereas the pre-1973 military draft affected all but the wealthiest of Americans more or less equally, these days we have an all-volunteer Army, few of whose members have likely chosen a soldier’s life over a university degree or a white collar job. In fact, as Bill Cain’s Nine Circles makes abundantly clear, with soldiers like Pvt. Daniel Reeves in uniform, our military may well be scraping the very bottom of the barrel in recruiting new grunts. If not for Cain’s searing, probing, heart-rending look at Pvt. Reeves wounded soul, few among us would give much of a damn whether he lived his soldier’s life or got sent home in a body bag.
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I LOVE LUCY® LIVE ON STAGE
Monday, October 24th, 2011
Have you ever wondered what it might have been like to be inside Desilu Studios for a taping of the sitcom that revolutionized TV? If so, then let I Love Lucy® Live on Stage be your time machine back to the early 1950s—and ninety of the funnest/funniest minutes you’re likely to have all year.
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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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