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BLOGROLL
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MARK BLANKENSHIP
The Critical Condition
ISAAC BUTLER
Parabis
MATTHEW FREEMAN
On Theatre and Politics
GEORGE HUNKA
Superfluities Redux
CHLOE VELTMAN
Lies Like Truth
BROADWAY WORLD
Broadway Blogs
THEATERMANIA
Various Writers
jazz
PAMELA ESPELAND
Bebopified
JAMES HALE
Jazz Chronicles
ORANGE CURTAINS
Shakespeare OC is 21 years old
With its 2012 Summer Season, Shakespeare Orange County reaches the ripe old age of 21. And, its hefty three-play schedule is ample cause for celebration and buying the Bard-based company a round at a neighborhood bar
To get things off on the right nasty foot, our friend John Walcutt (pictured, right) will take up the title role of Richard III, in a production directed by Carl Reggiardo. Walcutt played Cassius in last season’s Julius Caesar The production will run July 19-August 4. The other two productions in the 21st Season are Venus and Adonis and Much Ado About Nothing, which will be directed by Producing Artistic Director Thomas F. Bradac.
"This promises to be the most ambitious season in our 21-year history,” Bradac said.
With its 2012 Summer Season, Shakespeare Orange County reaches the ripe old age of 21. And, its hefty three-play schedule is ample cause for celebration and buying the
Bard-based company a round at a neighborhood bar.
To get things off on the right nasty foot, our friend John Walcutt will take up the title role of Richard III, in a production directed by Carl Reggiardo. The other two productions in the 21st Season are Venus and Adonis and Much Ado About Nothing, which will be directed by Producing Artistic Director Thomas F. Bradac.
"This promises to be the most ambitious season in our 21-year history,” Bradac said.
The production of Venus and Adonis comes "direct from Prague," where SOC staged the romantic and highly erotic poem at this
year’s internationally acclaimed Praha Fringe Festival in the Czech Republic. Venus and Adonis with a cast of Evelyn Carol Case, Michael Nehring, Michael D. Fountain, Misha Bouvion, Alyssa Bradac and Amanda Zarr, will be presented for two performances only on August 10 & 11.
And what better to cap a season that marks a measure of the company's maturity than Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare's great comedy about two jaded veterans of love, fighting their way to romance. It runs August 16-September 1, with Nehring as Benedict and Case as Beatrice.
All three productions will be presented at the 550-seat Festival Amphitheatre, at 12762 Main Street in Garden Grove. Performances of Richard and Much Ado is performed Thurs.-Sat. at 8:15 p.m. For more information call 714-744-7016 or visit the SOC website.
CHATTER
She sings and writes her own songs just like I do, and we even have the same color eyes!
– Loretta Lynn
Announcing Zooey Deschanel will
star in 'Coal Miner' on Broadway
Read article
It was a big surprise. I had no awareness even that it was being announced that day.
– Quiara Alegria Hudes
on winning the
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Read article
“This is the second full subscription season since the bankruptcy, the first season was mostly pickup shows. We're in good financial health.
– Charles Dillingham
Pasadena Playhouse's
Interim Executive Director
on 'Sleepless in Seattle' announcement
Read article
'WAR HORSE' COMETH
Cast Set to
Launch Tour
at Ahmanson
On June 14, the Ahmanson begins previews for five-time Tony Award-winning War Horse as the starting gate of a U.S. tour. The 2011 Best Play will open June 29 and continue through July 29.
The company of more than 30 performers includes Andrew Veenstra, Brian Keane, Michael Wyatt Cox, Todd Cerveris, Angela Reed, Jason Loughlin, and Jason Alan Carvell.
War Horse is based on the Michael Morpurgo novel and adapted by Nick Stafford. The tour is directed by Bijan Sheibani based on the original direction by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, and presented in association with Handspring Puppet Company, which created the show's life-sized puppets that, in turn, bring breathing, galloping, charging horses to thrilling life on stage. Morpurgo’s novel also inspired last year's Steven Spielberg film, which was nominated for six Academy Awards.
In a story The New York Times called "theatrical magic," Joey, the beloved horse of young Albert, has been enlisted to fight for the English in World War I. Caught in enemy crossfire, Joey ends up serving both sides of the war before landing in no man’s land. Albert, not old enough to enlist, sets out to find and bring him home.
In addition to Best Play, War Horse received Tony Awards for Best Direction, Best Scenic Design for Rae Smith, Best Lighting Design by Paule Constable, and Best Sound Design by Christopher Shutt. Handspring received a Special Tony Award for its work.
The 30-city U.S. tour will rehearse and preview at Boise State University before heading to Southern California. The well-traveled War Horse began with a 2007 world premiere at London's National Theatre before its 2009 West End production and a Broadway bow in 2011. For the full schedule and more information visit the tour site.
From the London cast
REVIEWS
Uneasy Virtue
Good People • Geffen Playhouse
In Matt Shakman's acting-clinic staging, David Lindsay-Abaire uses drama's potential for complexity to take audiences for a ride along the edge of America's widening education and employment gap.
Photo: Jane Kaczmarek
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Barred in Boston
The Prince of Atlantis • South Coast Repertory
Steven Drukman's new play is a genial character comedy about two brothers lacking in character. By play's end, however, both play and at least one brother have earned our respect, thanks to judicious allusions to Shakespeare, particularly "the Prince of Denmark."
Photo: Nike Doukas
Read review
Heavy fog
Cloudlands • South Coast Repertory
For a play with maps as a central metaphor, Cloudlands, the world premiere by Octavio Solis (book and lyrics) and Adam Gwon (music and lyrics), feels lost. A well-appointed production directed by Amanda Dehnert only adds to the frustration that the heart the creators expected to emerge within this ambitious musical has lost its way.
Photo: Joseph Melendez, Katrina Lenk
Read review
Downsizing
Dividing the Estate • Old Globe Theatre
Empathy for the financial straits of the (over)extended Gordon family at the center of Horton Foote's last Broadway hit, could only have deepened between its debut during the 1987 recession and the 2008 production at Booth Theatre
Photo: Penny Fuller
Read review
Fighting depression
Elemeno Pea • South Coast Repertory
Molly Smith Metzler's light comedy that recalls the silver-screen tonics of the Great Depression is welcome divertissement from the less severe, less clear Great Recession.
Photo: Jamison Jones, Melanie Lora
Read review
In the pocket
The Recommendation • The Old Globe
Jonathan Munby's engaging staging, built around three powerful performances and a muscular production design, held the audience throughout the Super Bowl Sunday evening performance of Jonathan Caren’s world premiere at The Old Globe. We were caught off-guard, however, when the play seemed to fumble on the final line, dropping its narrative arc short of its goal.
Photo: Jimonn Cole
Read review
AUTO RAFFLE
Struggling
Playhouse gets
the 'Benz'
The Laguna Playhouse has an official 2012-13 Season Sponsor, and you can expect to see a gleaming new Benz somewhere around the theater when you attend a show.
Treat it with respect and gratitude as it will be on loan from Mercedes-Benz of Laguna Niguel, which has stepped forward to provide corporate support for the struggling Playhouse.
Once the artistic second banana to nationally respected South Coast Repertory, Laguna Playhouse suffered a disappearing act by its longtime powerhouse Executive Director Richard Stein and then, with the honorable step-down of Artistic Director Andrew Barnicle, the other shoe dropped.
Since then, the theater has been relying on late-nite comic catechism and tuneful imports to attract a new audience. This is an encouraging sign and one that Executive Director Karen Wood and Development Director Elizabeth Pearson hopefully can snowball into additional support from the community.
All theaters are getting buffetted by high costs and low interest from their communities. A great neighborhood and tourist destination like Laguna Beach may not be the place for a ground-breaking LORT theater, but it will hopefully proceed with an artistic vision that gives it a greater appeal and identity.
"Given our commitment to give back to the communities we serve, it was a natural partnership for Mercedes-Benz of Laguna Niguel," said Pat Bolter, General Manager of Mercedes-Benz Laguna Niguel. "And the fit is so natural: both the Playhouse' audiences and ours have an appreciation for the highest level of quality and aesthetics."
Here's to Orange County theatergoers giving the Playhouse and the automaker a sincere test-drive this season.
According to a press announcement, "everyone has an opportunity to enter to win a new 2012 Smart Pure Coupe car built by Daimler AG, parent of Mercedes-Benz. Mercedes Benz of Laguna Niguel is the #1 Smart Center in the US. Only 500 tickets will be sold, tickets are $100 each, and proceeds benefit The Playhouse, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Tickets may be purchased online. The winner will be announced at The Playhouse’s Surfing fundraising gala scheduled for November 16, 2012 at the Dana Point Marriott."
And, not only do you have the chance to win a car for $100 . . . you'll get to pick the color.
This Week
The Sleeper
May 25
Theatre Tribe
WAKE UP CALL.Eight years after its Laguna Playhouse premiere, Catherine Butterfield's The Sleeper creeps up the Interstate to NoHo. In post-9/11 America, a suburban mom is drawn to her son's handsome tutor. But his political leanings awaken her to a bizarre series of events that blow the lid off her previously sheltered existence. Performances are Thurs, Fri, Sat at 8 p.m. through June 30. Theatre Tribe is located at 5267 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood. Tickets are $20 and available here, or by calling 800-838-3006.