LA Stage Blog - Beta

Oh, those wacky “Best Of” lists. How they compel and yet repulse simultaneously.Travel + Leisure has a whole slew of top 25 lists for best cities, categories include: nightlife, smarts, best views, best coffee houses, culture, peace and quiet, etc…
The one that most intrigued me, of course, is where Los Angeles ranked in the “Top [...]

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Found this nugget on the Wall Street Journal site. Thanks to Matt Wells at the needtheatre blog for the link. Raises an interesting question: Where are all the Conservative plays? Which raises an even MORE interesting query: Is theatre and conservativism anti-thetical?
In the article, Terry Teachout (great name!) puts it this way:
…I can’t think of [...]

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As most in the theatre community, especially the California theatre community, may know by now, Scott Eckern the Artistic Director of the California Music Theatre Company has resigned under pressure from advocates of No on Prop 8.
The Backstage Blog (aka Lauren Horwitch and company) has more information about the specific details and players involved here.
Eckern’s [...]

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Check out Brenda Kiley writing a manifesto of sorts in Seattle’s “The Stranger”, declaring the ten things American Theatre needs to do now to remain vital for the next generation of artists and theatre-goers.
Here are my capsule reactions to each and how I believe they pertain to Los Angeles:
1) Enough with the goddamned Shakespeare
Well, [...]

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We’ve heard the quote before. Roberto Benigni shouted it from the stage with childlike exuberance when he won his best actor Oscar for “Life is Beautiful”. It’s a notion that gets bandied about all over the world and down through the ages. The Gift of Poverty.
But what the hell does it really mean?

[...]

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I keep trying to restrain myself from “going rogue” here at Bitter Lemons.  In the wake of what happened last night, it’s been difficult.  But I think this falls under the category of “theatricality” so I figure I’m in the neighborhood of what this site is all about.
So.  Know how I can tell the world [...]

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Impossible, you say? The whole TOWN is illegitimate! People come here from other places so that they can obtain something that will allow them to LEAVE!
Fine. I’m talking about legitimizing Los Angeles Theatre. Now before I go on, understand, I find a good chunk of the theatre that is born and bred here in Los [...]

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A tremendous and always-relevant question posed by Daniel Paul Wilson in this LA Stage Blog post:
http://www.lastageblog.com/2008/09/12/salary.
It was originally posted by the Director’s Lab West. The heart of Daniel’s piece can be summarized in this paragraph from his post:
“I guess what I am saying is that all this stuff we’ve been chatting about here - [...]

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How do you invite someone to your show when you don’t really like it yourself?
The simple answer is: you don’t.
But what if it’s a One Act Festival and your one act stands out well in the evening, but the rest of the event is, well, dreadful. A connundrum.

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Just watched the video teaser for Company of Angels new production of “The Chalk Boy” which opens, Thursday, September 4th downtown at the Alexandria Hotel as well as opening simultaneously in New York. 

a2a_linkname=”Video Teasers for Theatre”;
a2a_linkurl=”http://www.lastageblog.com/2008/09/05/video-teasers-for-theatre/”;
a2a_show_title=1;

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