THE WEB


While surfing the Internet, Chris Quiñones makes a shocking discovery—someone with the very same name as his, a Chris Quiñones who graduated with very same high school class, has the same date, place, and even hospital of birth, the same Columbian father and Jewish mother… The very same Chris Quiñones, yet subtly different in small details like the fact that for one Chris a particular time of import is a.m. but for the other p.m. Chris stays online all night searching, until finally the trail left by Chris II ends about a year ago, in Djibouti, after which his doppelganger has seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth.
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RUINED


Playwright Lynn Nottage puts a human face on the ongoing Civil War in the Democratic Republic of Congo in her Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Ruined, now in its West Coast Premiere engagement at the Geffen Playhouse.
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MYSTERIOUS SKIN


Mysterious Skin, Scott Heim’s powerful 1995 novel about two teenagers with a shared secret almost too horrendous to talk about, is the kind of book that would seem unadaptable to screen or stage, if only for its scenes of child sexual abuse. Still, miracle of miracles, Mysterious Skin The Movie and Mysterious Skin The Play did end up written, produced, and presented to audience bravos, the former by film maker Gregg Araki and the latter by playwright Prince Gomolvilas. It’s Gomolvilas’ ingenious stage adaptation that now gets an absolutely stunning Los Angeles Premiere at Little Tokyo’s East West Players in a production easily the Asian-American theater’s finest non-musical since Durango, three years ago.
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YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN


When the very first Broadway musical for which you write book, music, and lyrics wins a record-breaking twelve Tony awards and runs for over 2500 performances, what do you do for an encore?

If you’re Mel Brooks, your follow-up to The Producers is Young Frankenstein, and though the comic master’s sophomore musical ran less than 500 performances, it’s nonetheless a tuneful, laugh-filled treat for Brooks fans and horror buffs alike.
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MISS SAIGON


One of Broadway’s biggest smash hits of the 1990s, Miss Saigon, now lights up the nights at the San Diego-adjacent Moonlight Amphitheatre with its blend of war, romance, gorgeous melodies, and show-stopping production numbers. In a production directed with sensitivity and dazzle by Steven Glaudini and starring Jennifer Paz in the role which won her the 2008 Ovation Award as Best Actress In A Musical, Miss Saigon provides Broadway pizzazz and operatic passion in equal measure.
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BECKY’S NEW CAR


“When a woman says she wants new shoes, what she really wants is a new job. When she says she wants a new house, what she really wants is a new husband. And when she says she wants a new car, what she really wants is a new life.”

Imparting these words of wisdom is Rebecca (Becky) Foster, middle-aged wife and mother and the title character of Steven Dietz’s Becky’s New Car, now delighting San Diego audiences in an absolutely terrific production at Solana Beach’s North Coast Repertory.
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NEIGHBORS


How would you feel if your worst nightmare—the family from hell—moved into the house next door to yours? This is precisely the dilemma faced by African American adjunct college professor Richard Patterson when the Crows take possession of the suburban tract home across the street from his in Neighbors, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ provocative though imperfect new comedy-drama now playing at the Matrix Theatre.
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UNDER MILK WOOD


Most theater majors graduating from college and beginning their professional careers end up relying on the kindness of strangers (i.e. producers, directors, and casting directors) to get themselves cast in a play, TV show, commercial, or movie. Then there are the talented Cal State Fullerton grads who have taken matters into their own hands by forming Coeurage Theatre Company.
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