“Swarm Cell” Premiere
There is a great deal about Swarm Cell which is commendable
The Tempest Reimagined
John Farmanesh-Bocca has in the past impressed me. Now he’s pissed me off. Though, I am still impressed. A number of years back Farmanesh-Bocca first entered my consciousness with his staging of Ellen McLaughlin’s Ajax in Iraq at the Miles Playhouse in Santa Monica by his Not Man
“Father, Son & Holy Coach” at The Odyssey
I initially reviewed John Posey’s one man show, Father, Son & Holy Coach when it played at the Whitefire Theatre last year. I thought it would be interesting to have a second opportunity to consider the show again and see if time might have shifted my
Politics as a Contact Sport
When I think that political discourse has hit a new low--twice a week these days--I sometimes remind myself of the brutal caning of Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the U.S. Senate in 1856. The subject was slavery. Sumner was nearly killed and his attacker, Representative
Perfect Timing for “Placas: The Most Dangerous Tattoo”
Placas: The Most Dangerous Tattoo has only a week left on its limited run at Casa 0101 in Boyle Heights, which is a pity. It is a rough, poetical work about the plights of Salvadoran immigrants, driven from their homeland by the unending cycle of violence
Schadenfreude, with a Side of Carnage
Schadenfreude [shahd-n-froi-duh] noun. Satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else’s misfortune. Serve it up ice cold! Tribal Council finally arrived. Two of ’em. And blood was spilled. South Carolina comes up next, and in Nevada another caucus with scarcely decipherable rules. Suddenly, everything is moving at top speed. We’ve
About ‘Bed’ — The World Premiere
The bed is our most formidable arena. And two people in bed alone are never really by themselves. Bed by Sheila Callaghan, is a slight piece of sexual fluff which nevertheless conveys an intoxicating freshness in both writing and acting that lifts it above expectations to win
Katori Hall’s “The Mountaintop”
Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop won the 2010 British Olivier Award for Best New Play. In 2011 it opened in New York with Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett. And on February 6, 2016 it opened at the Matrix Theatre Company and at the closing of that first
Stephen Sach’s Dream Catcher
Stephen Sachs is an intellectual juggernaut of a playwright who plumbs premises for his pieces from the pages of the Los Angeles Times and other news sources, populates them with well developed and finely crafted characters, then provides them with dialogue both sparkling and believable. He
Sam Harris in Ham a Musical Memoir
Seven years prior to American Idol breaking out on Fox to become one of the most successful and talked about television shows in U.S. history, there was Star Search. From 1983 to 1995, Ed McMahon hosted the talent competition filmed initially at the old Earl Carroll