Tarran Killam

MOVING ON…After a summer-long dispute with Actors’ Equity, writer Henry Jaglom may have yanked his long-running comedy, Just 45 Minutes from Broadway, from Santa Monica’s Edgemar Center for the Arts but he has not forsaken the production. Original cast members Tanna Frederick, David Garver, Julie Davis, Harriet Schock, David Proval, Diane Salinger, Jack Heller and director Gary Imhoff are enjoying a Labor Day weekend three-night run of Broadway at The Pewter Plough Playhouse in the Central California village of Cambria (Sept. 3-5) and a film is in the works…In the meantime, the Edgemar has picked up the slack with a three-week run of Michael Cristofer’s Tony and Pulitzer winner The Shadow Box, helmed by Keith David, produced by Shayne Anderson (Sept. 11-25). Upcoming is the seductive French cabaret, Le Tick Tock (Oct. 16), wrought by the creators of the 2005 Edgemar hit The Night of the Black Cat, helmer Deborah LaVine and producer Alexandra Guarnieri…Over in Hollywood, that nurturing ground of bravura sketch comedy, The Groundlings, has sent another alumnus to NBC’s late-night laff-fest, Saturday Night Live.  Taran Killam joins a long list of Groundling grads who have made it to 30 Rockefeller Ctr.’s SNL stage, including Cheri Oteri, Ana Gasteyer, Jimmy Fallon, Phil Hartman and Chris Kattan…

Maria Conchita Alonzo

Also, the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse has figured out how to keep a play going even after losing its high profile cast. Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron’s Love, Loss and What I Wore, helmed by Jenny Sullivan, welcomes a new ensemble of noted thesps including Maria Conchita Alonzo, Jami Gertz, Jenny O’Hara, Harriet Sansom Harris and Christine Lahti, re-opening Sept. 2…And Mad World Productions is so happy with the response to its revival of Stephen Belber’s acclaimed three-person drama Tape, directed by Joelle Arqueros, produced by Arqueros and Nicolas Read, which closed Aug. 28 at the Renegade Theatre in Hollywood, it is immediately moving the show to Phil Becker’s NoHo Stages in North Hollywood (Sept. 2)…

MORE HOUSES REVEAL SEASON WARES…Daniel Henning (Founding Artistic Director) and  Noah Wyle (Artistic Producer) have come forth with the 20th Anniversary Season of Hollywood’s Blank Theatre Company,  featuring works by Edmund White, David Sedaris, and Marc Blitzstein, plus 12 new plays by “inspired teenagers.” Opener is the LA premiere of White’s Terre Haute, helmed by Kirsten Sanderson (Oct. 2 at Blank’s 2nd Stage), followed by the return of Sedaris’ The Santaland Diaries, starring Nicholas Brendon, staged by Michael Matthews (Nov. 19 at the Stella Adler). Reviving its 1994 hit, Blank re-boards Blitzstein’s tuner, helmed by Henning, The Cradle Will Rock (Feb. 5). A TBA spring premiere will be followed by The Blank’s 19th Annual Nationwide Young Playwrights Festival (June 2-26, 2011 at the Stella Adler)…Looking ahead, Long Beach-based International City Theatre’s artistic director Shashin Desai has revealed its 2011 season, beginning with the West Coast premiere of the tuner, Loving Repeating: A Musical of Gertrude Stein, adapted from the writings of Gertrude Stein by Frank Galati, music by Stephen Flaherty, staged by caryn desai (Jan. 21). Upcoming: Kathleen Clark’s Southern Comforts, directed by Jules Aaron (Mar. 18); the three-hander Old Settler by John Henry Redwood (June 3); the Noel Coward perennial Private Lives (Aug. 26); and Tony-winning tuner, The Robber Bridegroom by Alfred Uhry (book and lyrics), Robert Waldman (music), based on the novella by Eudora Welty…

THIS AND THAT…The legendary stage/film actor James Whitmore Sr., died last year before he could put final touches to the Whitmore Eclectic Lyric Theater in Hollywood.  Now run by his son, noted TV director James Whitmore Jr., granddaughter actress/creative director Aliah Whitmore and production designer Jacob Whitmore, the theater’s resident company, the Whitmore Eclectic Theater Group, is launching a five play, six-month season beginning with Sam Shepard’s True West, staged by Aliah Whitmore beginning Sept. 9. Upcoming is the Orson Welles adaptation of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (date TBA)…Costa Mesa-based South Coast Repertory has added the world premiere romantic comedy, Completeness, to its formerly announced 2010-2011 season, scripted by Itamar Moses who scored a hit with his previous SCR preem Bach at Leipzig. Developed earlier this year at SCR’s Pacific Playwright’s Festival, Completeness debuts Apr. 17, helmed by Pam MacKinnon …Over in Burbank, the Victory Theatre Center is getting kind of aggressive with its fundraising, issuing an invitation to its Sept. 12 (5:30 pm) backer’s audition for the West Coast premiere of Sex and Education by Lissa Levin, helmed by Daniel Guntzelman, produced by Tom Ormeny. The three-hander features Madison Palasini, Kanin Gunzelman and Maria Gobetti…

Al Alu and Vickery Turner

INSIDE LA STAGE HISTORY…Incorporated in 1968, the Shakespeare Society of America (SSA), founded by Robert Thaddeus (”R. Thad”) Taylor, began performances this month, 1972, in a former auto repair shop/warehouse on Kings Road in what is now the Macha Theatre in West Hollywood. The SSA Globe Theatre was an authentic one-half scale replica of the interior of Shakespeare’s original Globe Theatre (1599-1613). SSA attracted many of the finest classical stage actors in the US and abroad including Al Alu, who had been a founding member of the American Conservatory Theatre, and British thesp and novelist Vickery Turner, who had originated the role of Sandy in the London world premiere of The Prime of Miss Jean Brody. Alu recalls, “We not only performed on stage, the actors built that Globe theatre replica from scratch out of a glorified Quonset hut.” SSA was the first theatre in the world to stage all 38 Shakespeare plays in succession. Both Taylor and Turner passed away in 2006.  Alu, who is renowned for his annual national Pacifica Radio broadcasts of Dylan Thomas‘ A Child’s Christmas in Wales, also has received great acclaim as an artist. His exhibit of “architectural caricature” miniatures of such iconic Los Angeles landmarks as El Coyote Restaurant, the Canyon Country Store, Pink’s and The Improv will debut Sept. 30 at the Wellness Store in Santa Monica. And the Shakespeare Society of America has found a new home at Moss Landing on the Monterey Peninsula…

If you’ve always wanted to be in a play, you’ll get your big chance when you see Director Charlie Mount’s production of Clifford Odets’ stirring Waiting for Lefty at Theatre West. As an engaged member of the audience you’ll be expected to whoop and holler appropriately as the leaders of the taxi drivers’ union call for a strike for higher wages.

Anthony Gruppuso and David Baer.

“Many of the 16 cast members will be in the audience, too,” Mount says. “And while we can’t force the audience to take part, we do intend to immerse them in the action.”

Written in 1935, Waiting for Lefty is an old-fashioned play full of outdated passion—or so it would seem. But Charlie Mount thinks otherwise. “It has its parallel in the present time,” he says, “when economic and political institutions are running amok and the people are calling for regulation. We’ll be taking those universal elements and making them relevant.

“The audience knows the Depression sucked,” Mount continues but this play personalizes that time by exploring the stories of different individuals: a couple who can’t get married because they can’t afford to; a woman who dies because her surgery was handled by an incompetent physician who happens to be the nephew of a Senator.

The core of the play, Mount says, is “the choice between the dollar bill and a human life.” (Could anything be more relevant in the time of BP?) “It’s a look at democracy and capitalism from a different perspective,” he says. “The taxi drivers want to change the world despite the fact that they recognize they might get hurt.”

He quotes Abbie Hoffman, who said, “A play is like shouting ‘Theatre!’ in a crowded fire…” explaining, “The theatre is a conflagration of ideas and bringing life to that conflagration is what theatre is all about.”

Charlie Mount

The Lefty of the play’s title is the head of the union and, like Godot, he never shows up.  But “management” does, along with their gunman, to talk the drivers out of uniting and to label those calling for a strike “reds.” It’s necessary for the union to prevail, however, as “It takes a village to make a revolution,” Mount says.

“We were told ‘It’s your fault!’ in the 1930s and we’re told that now,” he says. “The rich have a vested interest in a system that exists to keep you where you are.”

Booms and busts are cyclical. When there’s no work we’re told, “Go into the Army! Go kill someone!” and those without work become cannon fodder. “What power does the President actually have?” he asks rhetorically. “At least the hippies had good music!”

Charlie Mount began his career as a cabaret clown and magician at the Magic Town House in New York. “I was a cross between Harpo Marx and Penn & Teller.” He did stand-up at Greenwich Village’s Comedy Cellar and in nightclubs, resorts and casinos. His first play, The Indecent Act of Jeff Zelinski, was produced Off Off Broadway in 1987.

Coming to LA in 1994, he joined Theatre Geo as an actor and playwright and had his play Trumpets and Table-Tipping, about Harry Houdini and a clairvoyant, produced at Theatre 40. His next play, The Junto, was mounted at the Road Theatre and dealt with a secret government conspiracy and the six people who actually run the country.

Kristin Wiegand, Paul Gunning.

Mount joined Theatre West in 1996, teaching acting and improv, and started directing. Gaslight, Waiting in the Wings and Acting—The First Six Lessons are among his recent hits. Six years ago he founded “Chestnuts,” a new wing of Theatre West designed to stage classic plays and he currently serves as its Producing Director.

For the past 11 years he has also served as General Manager of the Classic Arts Showcase, a free 24-hour arts channel available in more than 50 million American homes. “It’s like MTV for the classic arts,” he says.

Mount has been married for 19 years to actress Arden Lewis, whom he met at the Drama Project collective in New York. She currently appears on a website, Reel Housewives of Theatre West, which is seen on YouTube. The couple also writes plays for kids, such as It’s Elementary School, Watson.

When you come to see Waiting for Lefty Mount says to bring your vocal chords. And you don’t even have to audition!

Production photos by Thomas Mikusz.

Waiting for Lefty, produced by Charlie Mount for Chestnuts, opens Sept. 3; plays Fri.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 2 pm; through Oct. 10. General seating $22 (ticket prices range from $5 to $27). Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Los Angeles; 323.851.7977 or theatrewest.org.

Connie Danese

CONNIE CHATS

THE BIZ REPORT: The national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera (known as the Music Box Company) has been running continuously for 17 years and plays its final performances at the Pantages Theatre with a gala opening on Saturday, Sept. 25. I jokingly called to ask if a trooper phantom existed - someone who had been with the company the entire time. Expecting a “no, of course not” reply, I was surprised to learn that indeed Kristi Patricia, who played a member of the Paris Opera ballet company in 1992 when the tour opened in Seattle, will be doing the same when it ends at the Pantages. Patricia studied ballet at the Royal Academy of London. Kudos to a lady who has been touring “on her toes” in Phantom for 17 years and to a show that reigns as Broadways longest running musical (22 years) and celebrates its 25th birthday as London’s second-longest running musical.

Kristi Patricia

Can you guess which Ms. is London’s number one? …Alice Ripley, who garnered the 2009 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in the Tony Award winning Next to Normal reprises her performance in a multi-city tour launching at the Ahmanson on Nov. 28, running through the holidays and closing Jan. 2, 2011. The real question is how will Ripley adapt to playing her difficult bi-polar character as she travels all over the country for 36 weeks? Touring time translates into nine months of strange beds in new places with lots of packing, eating out and getting through tech time at each new theatre. In her Tony acceptance speech Ripley said, ”Musical Theatre is a fine art…” Hmm! Is it possible her run at the Ahmanson may lead to some well-deserved offers in the “fine art” of film and television? After the success of Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara, could Showtime be ready for a bi-polar singing mom?

Brooke Berman

THE BOOK NOOK: Brooke Berman has written a delicious novel that will instantly seem familiar to any young person trying to make a life, start a career and find serenity in the big city. No Place Like Home: A Memoir in 39 Apartments is funny, poignant and so real you will relate whether you are an actor, writer, musician or simply a college graduate without a job. Berman is an award-winning playwright who originally trained as an actor and solo performer. The 39 apartments (yes, each address is noted) exemplifies how housing can easily become the number one concern for theatre people whose lives are often wrapped around out-of-town jobs and temporary sublets as they struggle to fulfill their dreams. This wonderful “survival guide,” a lesson in how an abode is often a reflection of one’s life, is published by Harmony Books…Brad Lemack’s follow-up book, The New Business of Acting: How to Build a Career in a Changing Landscape and published by Ingenuity Press, is meant primarily for newbies. It explains how the casting process operates in the electronic age where the 8×10 glossy is a relic and all actors must become familiar with the industry’s new cyber-world environment.

Brad Anderson

CHIT CHAT: LA Times article “Small Theaters: Having Impact” appeared in the Aug. 8 issue of the Calendar as a conversation between LA Weekly critic at large Steven Leigh Morris and Times theatre critic Charles McNulty. They favorably mentioned Son of Semele Ensemble more than once when giving examples of companies doing experimental work. At the end of the article there was a directory of websites for theatres they discussed. Semele was inadvertently left off the list so we offer a bravo! for being noticed by the critics along with their website: www.sonofsemele.org…When Leap of Faith starring Raul Esparza and Brooke Shields opens at the Ahmanson on Oct 3 directed by Rob Ashford, LA local Brad Anderson will once again be appearing in the ensemble. He was also in Ashford’s company of Parade (Aug. 2009) at the Taper. It’s always wonderful for an actor when a talented director selects him for an encore…The Blank Theatre Company’s casting director Scott David was searching for names to appear in its production of fiction writer Edmund White’s Terre Haute. White imagines four conversations that might have occurred between Timothy McVeigh and Gore Vidal who actually were pen pals.

Mike Farrell

The character names are not Gore and Timothy (hence White will not face the legal eagles) however the audience soon realizes the connection. As to the “names” producers got for the roles, they are Mike Farrell (best known as Capt. Hunnicutt in M*A*S*H) and Jim Parrack (HBO’s True Blood). The play is scheduled to open Oct. 2 directed by Kirsten Sanderson… Actress Beth Grant, who I interviewed prior to her delectable appearance at the Colony Theatre in Grace and Glorie, is proud to report her latest film, Herpes Boy, a coming-of-age movie that won Best Comedy at the International ComicCon Film Festival, screened at the Egyptian Theatre and picked up three more awards at the Feel Good Festival in Hollywood. Grant is off to New York for the first reading of her play, The New York Way…We’re told famed film director Robert Altman’s son Michael Altman is directing the world premiere of Danny Darst’s play, Exit 10, scheduled to open at Theatre 68 in December.

CHAT CITE: “Half of the American people never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.” –Gore Vidal

Closing

The Foursome
9/2/10, Little Fish Theatre, Beaches
Four former college buddies navigate 18 holes of golf fueled by old rivalries and beer for breakfast.

Procreation
9/4/10, Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, West Side
Justin Tanner’s outrageously hilarious comedy about the perils of child-rearing.

8 Midsummer Quickies
9/4/10, Roadkill Productions, West Side
Love means never having to use your safe word…

The Mystery of Irma Vep
9/4/10, Celebration Theatre, Hollywood
LA Weekly Award-nominated production THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP is back!

Opening

The Men of Mah Jongg
9/1/10, Theatre 40, West Side
Poignant and hilarious new serio-comic play about four older buddies from Manhattan.

19 Annual Denise Ragan Wiesenmeyer One Act Festival
9/3/10, Attic Theatre Conservatory Inc, West Side

Waiting for Lefty
9/4/10, Theatre West, Hollywood
Odets’ stirring play about the political, economic and social issues of his day — and ours!

Be sure to visit LAStageAlliance.com for more information of shows and half-price tickets.

It is a post-rehearsal tete-a-tete between Circus Theatricals’ impresario Jack Stehlin, who has become a noted purveyor of LA theatre, and world-wide theatrical artist John Farmanesh-Bocca, who has decided to lay down roots again in California. Pure creative energy defines these men as they discuss their latest project. Together they are immersed in a highly ambitious retelling of Shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedy Titus Andronicus, retitled Titus Redux.

This is part of a series created by Farmanesh-Bocca, whose Shakespearean “redux” concepts are at the center of the director’s Not Man Apart productions which include Richard III in Northern California with the Veterans Center for the Performing Arts, followed by Pericles Redux, which toured extensively including a stint at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before landing at the Kirk Douglas Theatre.

John Farmanesh-Bocca

Farmanesh-Bocca explains the concept behind the productions. “The redux moniker doesn’t mean a narrow, single thing. It is not simple deconstruction. It means we are going to dive in hopefully in a way that is relevant and inspiring. The common thread is we use the most ancient and most modern techniques to tell the story all at the same time. I find a lot of theatre is difficult for me to sit through. I don’t know if I am a good director but I do know I get bored easily. That may have fueled me on.

“Redux is to indicate this is not a straightforward version audiences have seen. It is re-imagined but not obsessively or annoyingly so. We pretend we’ve just discovered the play for the first time. We try to get whatever collective unconscious there is out of our heads. We start from scratch and say, ‘What is this? What is in front of me?’

“From that we use everything we know to tell the story, which for me is movement. I don’t see any separation between text and movement. There is a good deal of text - sort of ‘the best of.’ Those coming to hear Shakespeare’s poetry will not be disappointed. We slide between Shakespearean verse and modern vernacular. It proves to be a really exciting adventure. Visually I would say we’re very “Poor Theatre” style as in the Polish Theatre of Grotowski. I want the least amount on stage with the maximum effect.”

The mind that created this treatment of Shakespeare belongs to an American wunderkind who developed his theatrical imagination in central California before exploring the world. As a very young man he followed a girl into ballet class in Holland. He laughs, “Dance stuck but the girl didn’t.” He then moved into acting where he developed quite a successful career but never gave up his penchant for dance.

As a director he could meld the two. His skills led him to Juilliard where he was one of a very few prestigious winners of a Directing Fellowship that helped him take off as a director. He considered remaining in New York but chose to travel the world, finally deciding to create his artistic life in Southern California. The success of Pericles Redux made him secure in this decision. Now the pact with Jack Stehlin and Circus Theatricals makes him even more positive about his future here.

Titus Redux features an seven-member ensemble including Stehlin as Titus, Desperate Housewives regular Brenda Strong (Tamora), three-time daytime Emmy Award winner Margeaux J. London [formerly Jennifer Landon] (Lavinia), Nicholas Hormann (Marcus Andronicus), Vincent Cardinale (Chiron), Dash Pepin (Demetrius) and Farmanesh-Bocca (Aaron). Live cello is provided by Houmayoun Khosravi. The production designers include Allison Leach (costumes), John Rousseau (lights), Adam Phalen (sound), Jason Collins (special effects) and James Skylar (director of photography).

Jack Stehlin

In his youth Stehlin was one of the lucky few to be accepted into the Juilliard acting program. During his time there, he made a fortunate alliance with young director Des McAnuff, who pulled him into a New York Shakespeare Festival in the Park production of Henry IV. This led to a dozen productions at Joseph Papp’s theatre, including the role of the Servant to Al Pacino’s Antony in Julius Caesar. He has now been in several productions with Pacino, including Salome which is soon to be released on film.

During the heady days of his theatrical career at the Public Theatre, Stehlin recalls a particular young bartender in an East Village hotspot called Café Tabac, with whom he had long conversations about theatre. Little did he know he would run into the fellow so many years later in Los Angeles but now the bartender was a theatrical director, who had Juilliard in common and was as enthralled with Shakespeare as Stehlin had proven to be in so many Circus Theatrical productions.

In Los Angeles with Pericles, several of Farmanesh-Bocca’s former students spoke about their involvement with Circus Theatricals. He did his best to get Stehlin to see the show and he saw the final performance. It was at that moment they realized they were the two young artists who had such amazing conversations in the New York pub. Soon they were enmeshed in Titus Redux.

Generally Stehlin is known for directing his own productions but with the right colleague he is happy to give up those reins. “I have to feel safe and when I do I’m as directable as anybody can be. I just say, ‘Yes, let’s go, let’s try it.’ I am not sitting there feeling I can think of something better. If you do that, you’ve foiled yourself. If I get involved with a director then I have decided I want to receive the direction and do that work. I think I am really good at it. I am happy to give way with a good director.”

He was ready to give his creative instincts to Farmanesh-Bocca. “John is really strong in a physical way, like a dancer. He was a directing fellow at Juilliard and does whatever he wants directorially; this work went into a place where he mixes text with music. In this case there are little films throughout the play we shot to coincide with the storytelling.

“So he is bringing in a lot of unique elements. Text and movement meld and move through each other and back into each other. It will go from text into movement into dance and back into the text and it never left the other one. It’s not like you stop to dance or stop to speak. That’s really my best shot of describing it. It is all about storytelling.

“This is the one thing I feel very strongly about. Everything is an attempt to articulate the story and move through the story and heighten it and carry it and identify it through movement, dance, music, through the film work we are doing and of course the text. We were trying to figure out what to write on the postcard. It is explosive, adrenalin filled and just turbo. It is really fun.”

Stehlin never leaves out of the equation the insight of his producer and wife Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin. He explains, “I am reckless and stubborn and have stuck to the idea I am an artist and need to do what I want to do. Luckily Jeannine, who has been my partner for 16 years, is an incredibly astute maker of stories. She understands story as well as anyone I have ever met. We understand each other and work in tandem artistically in terms of what we choose to work with, who we choose to work with, the stories we want to tell. Then we’ll be at rehearsal and her comments are always the best.”

As Managing Director of Circus Theatricals, Wisnosky Stehlin was asked about the arrangement with the Kirk Douglas Theatre. “We are an independent production,” she replies, “with the full support of the theatre staff and a great recommendation from the City of Culver City.”

While Jack Stehlin’s heart and soul are owned by his theatre passion and business, Stehlin does find time for film and television. He and his wife are sponsoring a film competition which is the beginning of some personal forays into filmmaking. “We have this idea, sort of like Mercury Theatre, where you bring the legitimacy and intensity of theatre to filmmaking. We’re hoping to do that.”

Dash Pepin, Jack Stehlin, Brenda Strong, Margeaux J. London and Nicholas Hormann rehearse a dance in Titus Redux. Photo by Jeannine Stehlin.

Stehlin is also involved in high level film and recently finished a stint on one of cable’s best television programs Weeds in the major role of Captain Till. He was cast in no small part because of his theatre work. When he first learned of the project he was merely auditioning for a five-line role. “I am standing there with all my buddies - guys I know, the 40-something character guys. We’re all moaning because we’re at this ridiculous audition for five lines in some shit new show. We’re standing around kvetching, not paying attention. Then these three young guys walk up - as they get closer I recognize this guy and he starts looking at me, making big eyes. I’m thinking, ‘Who is this guy?’  He looks at me and says, ‘Jack! I was in your theatre company.’ I said, ‘Did it end well with us?’ He goes, ‘Did it end well? Are you kidding? I have nothing but the best memories. You gave me that great recommendation to Yale.’

“Turns out 15 years ago there was a kid in my company - a young actor named Rolin Jones. He wanted to go to drama school and asked me for a letter of recommendation to Yale. Five years go by and I hear he did go to Yale. A few years later I hear he was runner-up for a Pulitzer. A few years later he’s writing Weeds.

“I go in there and had this wonderful audition. At the top of the scene Captain Till is laughing uncontrollably and so I start making fun of the character and caught one of these wacky laughing jags; I can’t stop laughing. And the producers start. And the director starts. We’re all in this room like crying maniacs, crying, laughing. I got the part. Then at the beginning of next season they brought me back and they started improvising. One of the producers and Rolin became infamous in the writing room fighting over who was going to improvise my part. Then it became a battle of who could say the most outrageous thing. They went nuts with it. I got a call one afternoon from Rolin. He said they had a brilliant idea. He told me my character would be gay. I was on a picture shoot and went, ‘Wow! That’s wild. Sure, great, let’s do it.’ It was really challenging. Great for me. I was very pleased with it.”

Throughout the discussion between Jack Stehlin and John Farmanesh-Bocca there is a consistent sense of the joy that artistic work brings. Certainly there are thousands of frustrations every day. But with the true performer and director the thrill of creation trumps the annoyances. The excitement displayed by these two director-actors is palpable and incredibly contagious.

Feature image Jack Stehlin and John Farmanesh-Bocca by Jeannine Stehlin.

Article by Tom Provenzano.

Titus Redux, co-produced by Circus Theatricals and Not Man Apart - Physical Theatre Ensemble, opens Aug. 29; plays Tues.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 7 pm; until Sept. 12. Tickets: $35-$65 (for performances through 9/8, tickets are available for $17.50). Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City; 310.710.0788, circustheatricals.com or notmanapart.com.

Are you trying to decide what to see this weekend? Consider an Ovation Recommended production.

These productions have been ranked in the top 20% of all registered shows in the ‘Overall Production’ voting category by the LA Stage Alliance Ovation Voters.

CURRENTLY RUNNING OVATION RECOMMENDED PRODUCTIONS

Click on the titles for more information. Click on the O! to read the LA Stage story.

BECKY’S NEW CAR - Pacific Resident Theatre - O!

John Lithgow. Photo by Nigel Perry

AND THE BIG HOUSE TRUMPETING BEGINS…Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Michael Ritchie revealed the bill of fare for 2011 at CTG’s Mark Taper Forum, highlighted by the board-trodding efforts of such noted thesps as Jane Fonda, John Lithgow and Olympia Dukakis, featured in new works by Moisés Kaufman, Lithgow and Morris Panych, respectively, plus reprises of works by Lanford Wilson and Theresa Rebeck. Starting things off is Lithgow’s one-hander, Stories by Heart, a theatrical memoir featuring works of P.G. Wodehouse and Ring Lardner, opening Jan. 5…Next door to CTG, REDCAT’S Theater season is shorter but more far-reaching, including:  In the Solitude of Cotton Fields by Polish-based Radoslaw Rychcik/Stefan Zeromski Theatre (Sep. 23); from Manhattan, Reverend Billy and the Life After Shopping Gospel Choir, featuring the anti-consumerism antics of Billy Talen (Oct. 21); Venlo, by the Dutch theater ensemble Wunderbaum (Nov. 17); a multimedia staging of Tennessee Williams‘ Vieux Carre, by New York-based The Wooster Group (Dec. 1) and Betontanc and Umka.lv: Show Your Face, a modern-day Everyman tale, a collaboration between the Slovenian dance-theater company Betontanc and the Latvian puppet theater company Umka LV (Jan. 19)…and in Hollywood, Broadway/LA at the Pantages road show guide of touring tuners includes The Phantom of the Opera (Sept. 23), West Side Story (Nov. 30), Hair (Jan. 5), Traces (at the Ricardo Montalban Theatre, Jan. 11), Spring Awakening (Feb. 8), Rock of Ages (Feb. 15), Avenue Q (Mar. 1), Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (March 9), Rain - A Tribute to the Beatles (Apr. 2) Burn the Floor (Apr. 26) and Shrek the Musical (July 12)…

Placido Domingo. Photo by Richard Haughton

THE MUSIC GOES ROUND AND ROUND…LA stages are enjoying a tuneful early fall. The Beat Project brings Dear Harvey to the Lee Strasberg Theatre, based on the writings and civil rights activity of Harvey Milk. Penned by Patricia Loughrey, with original music by Thomas Hodges, musical direction and orchestrations by Wayne Moore, directed by Anthony Frisina, this LA premiere tuner opens Oct. 10 at the Strasberg in Hollywood…On Sept. 10, Placido Domingo is holding a press conference at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to introduce the creative team behind the premiere of Il Postino, including Daniel Catán (composer), Ron Daniels (director) Grant Gershon (conductor), David Bridel (choreography), based on the book Ardiente Paciencia by Antonio Skarmeta and the film Il Postino by Michael Radford. This contemporary opera debuts Sept. 28 at DCP, featuring Domingo in the role of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda…Updating biblical times, David: The Musical, a modern day retelling of the life of King David of Bethlehem, wrought by Craig Constanza (book & lyrics), Tim Murner (music), Rich Lyle (additional book & lyrics), Michelle Holmes (stage adaptation) and Adam T. Rosencrance (director) premieres at the Hayworth Theatre (Sept. 10)…Not to be outdone, Stiltz: The Musical, focusing on a young woman who is willing to risk everything to save her loser of a father, opens Sept. 24 at NoHo’s Actors Forum Theatre. Creative team includes Deborah Johnson (music & lyrics), Paula Miller (additional lyrics), Wayland Pickard & Doug Engalla (directors) and Michelle Bernath (choreography)… And for one night only (also Sept. 10), Troupe Vertigo holds forth at Ford Amphitheatre, releasing a mash-up of theater, dance, music and acrobatics, with the band Nightmare & the Cat, Mongolian contortionist Gana Ganchimeg, trapeze artist Kerren McDeeman and more, under the direction of Rex Camphius and Aloysia Gavre…On a final, more traditional note, Hollywood-based Actors Co-op is reviving Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, Sept. 19 at the Crossley Theatre…

NEW LEGIT FARE…Needtheater is premiering the action thriller The Web at Art/Works Theater in Hollywood. Scripted by Cornerstone Artistic Director Michael John Garces, directed by Alyson Roux, produced by Ilona Piotrowska, Rachel Stoll and Matt Wells, production opens Sept. 17…the multi NAACP Theatre Award nominated Robey Theatre Company is preeming The Reckoning by Kimba Henderson at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Sept. 25…And the inseparable writing/performing duo of Renee Taylor & Joseph Bologna (Lovers and Other Strangers) is debuting their latest two-hander, Sort of a Love Story, at NoHo’s El Portal Theatre, Oct. 14…

Stephanie J. Block

THIS AND THAT…Reprising their Long Wharf Theatre roles, Judith Ivey, Patch Darragh and Keira Keeley, will usher Amanda Wakefield, Tom and Laura, respectively, onto the Mark Taper Forum stage (Sept. 12), in the CTG production of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. They are joined by Ben McKenzie as the illusive Gentleman Caller. Long Wharf Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein guides the action…The ever-prolific Del Shores is enjoying great success with his latest legiter, Yellow (Ovation Recommended, LA Times Critics Choice, LA Weekly GO!, Backstage Critics Pick), now extended through Oct. 17 at the Coast Playhouse in West Hollywood…a stellar lineup of Broadway stars including Sutton Foster, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Kerry Butler, Stephanie J. Block and Stephen Tewksberry are lending their talents to the Orange County-based Broadway Knights tuner extravaganza Broadway Memories, a fundraiser concert to benefit Alzheimer’s Association and Capistrano Center for the Arts, at the OC Pavilion in Santa Ana, Oct. 2…

Alice Wellman and William Schallert. Photo by George Boroff.

INSIDE LA STAGE HISTORY…In June 1945, seven advanced drama students (Ilyana Yankovich, Margie True, Jerry Epstein, Marilyn Clark, Patricia Englund, Dan Matthews, Julian Ludwig) from UCLA set out to form a theatre of their own, calling their venture the Circle Players. By January 1947, they found permanent residence at a former drugstore-turned-garage at 800 N. El Centro Ave. in Hollywood. By then, the troupe had grown to include former classmates Kathleen Freeman, William Schallert, John Crawford and a Tinseltown offspring contingent (Sydney Chaplin, Charles Chaplin Jr., Edward G. Robinson Jr., Robert Burns Jr.) that often included the directorial services of the Chaplin boys’ dad Charlie. A Circle Theatre production highlight was the Oct. 1948 staging of Rain by John Colton and Clemence Dane. June Havoc (the real Baby June fictionalized in Gypsy) starred as Sadie Thompson with a cast that featured Schallert, Freeman, Crawford, Sydney Chaplin and Alice Wellman, helmed by Terry Kilburn. By the end of 1949, a contingent of company members that included Freeman, Crawford and Larry Salters ventured off to form The Players Ring at a new space located at 8351 Santa Monica Blvd. (destroyed by fired in June, 1964)…

Neighbors, produced by Joseph Stern for Matrix Theatre Company, opens Aug. 28; plays Thur.-Sat., 7:30 pm; Sun., 2:30 pm; through Oct. 24. Tickets: $25. Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Av., W. Hollywood; 323.960.7774 or plays411.com/neighbors.

Director Nataki Garrett doesn’t refrain from eating watermelon because she wants to avoid perpetuating a bigoted African American stereotype. She stays away because it makes her mouth itch.

Nataki Garrett

“As a little girl I remember my grandmother wouldn’t eat it in public,” she recalls. “I thought, it’s a fruit, why wouldn’t you? I know now she was dealing with a stereotype and how much power it had over people. You don’t want others to relate you to that.”

Certainly the melon’s racist Jim Crow connotations run deep. For a “post racial” Obama-era black intellectual, distancing oneself from anything or anyone that might give white people a reason to associate you with Stepin Fetchit’s present day ghetto brethren requires constant vigilance and conflicting self-denial. That is until Mammy, Zip, Sambo, Jim and Topsy move in next door.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ highly provocative new play Neighbors, making its West Coast premiere at the Matrix Theatre Company, sets up just such a scenario. What happens when Richard, an assimilated African American academic complete with white wife and a mixed race private schooled daughter, butts head with an uncouth family of black actors named the Crows? Ones who perform in blackface? Call it Meet the Minstrels.

“Branden expressed to me that he wanted to write an August Wilson social drama with a minstrel show embedded in it,” explains Garrett, the co-head of undergraduate acting at CalArts one night after rehearsals. “I said that’s really interesting because when I did Fences in grad school at CalArts, I was looking at the intersection of the characters he writes. These sorts of recognizable stock African American people everybody knows. How far can you push those characters before they become stereotypes? What’s the extension of their distortion through stereotype and minstrelsy?”

First workshopped at the Matrix last December, Neighbors was subsequently mounted by New York’s Public Theater in February as part of their noted Lab Series. The play touched off a firestorm of reaction. Audiences were shocked by the minstrel characters’ outrageous behavior. So much so the Public uncharacteristically invited critics to review. The response ranged from vitriolic to circumspect.

The New York Times’ Charles Isherwood wrote, “Any serious points the play hopes to make are obscured by Mr. Jacobs-Jenkins’s flame-throwing dramaturgy. He and director Niegel Smith hurl so many incendiary images and hackle-raising ideas at the audience the play sacrifices cogency and meaning for pure sensation.” David Cote at Time Out New York said: “Jacobs-Jenkins invents a theatrical conceit sure to baffle and enrage… Nevertheless, Neighbors is a wild carnival ride: It will make you scream, or ill, or both.”

Matrix founder and producer Joe Stern admits, “Certain people didn’t want me to do this play. A lot of other people wanted me to do it. It’s interesting,” he laughs. “I think it’s an important play. We had a very controversial reaction to the workshop after I flew Branden and Niegel out for a very intensive week. There were 100 people here. It’s one of those plays where people really get into it. Both black and white. It’s a generational thing. Some of the older black audiences don’t want to go here. And here I am this white Jewish guy but nevertheless, this is just a continuation of the dialogue we’re starting.”

Stern originally intended to produce Young Jean Lee’s The Shipment with Lee directing but ultimately found the costs too prohibitive. Lee’s agent subsequently gave Stern the works of several new playwrights with Jacobs-Jenkins’ piece among them, adding that no one had the courage to do it.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Jacobs-Jenkins is a 20-something former Brooklyn-based African American playwright, dramaturg and performer, now residing in Berlin. He studied anthropology at Princeton and received a Master’s in performance studies from NYU. Besides the Public, his work has been seen at New York Theatre Workshop, PS122, Soho Rep, New Dramatists, Theater Bielefeld in Germany and the National Theatre in London. He is a former New York Theatre Workshop Playwriting fellow plus alumna of Soho Rep Writers/Directors Lab and Public Theater Emerging Writers Group.

“Young Jean Lee’s the thing now,” Stern stresses. “Playwrights like Branden are influenced by her. There’s a whole new group of African American playwrights that see race differently. They don’t live in the world of August Wilson. They see it more acerbically and irreverently. They believe the playing field is not equal, that it’s ongoing and there is no resolution.”

“I know there are black people who don’t really want to have those conversations,” adds Garrett. “Who would really be satisfied if August Wilson represented all of us and that was sort of how it ended. That’s why I love Thomas Bradshaw. Branden. Lydia Diamond. Young Jean Lee. I love that these writers are saying, well actually, there’s a real conversation to be had.”

Embracing the N-word

It was Garrett’s directorial work on the LA premiere of Bradshaw’s Strom Thurmond Is Not a Racist at Open Space that led the playwright to recommend her to Stern. In addition to her duties at CalArts, Garrett is also co-artistic director of Blank-the-Dog Productions (BTD), a Los Angeles/New York based ensemble theater company. Besides Strom Thurmond, most recent BTD works include Carolyn Bryant, a project about Emmett Till currently in development at REDCAT plus Week #29 of 365 Plays/Days by Suzan-Lori Parks (Celebration Theatre).

Additional productions include June and Jean in Concert (CalArts), Ochre and Onyx: The Langston Hughes Project (Watts Village Theatre Co.), Black Women State of the Union: An Evening of Plays by Black Women (Company of Angels - 2010 NAACP Theater Award nomination for Best Director with co-director Ayana Cahrr), world premiere of Smoke Lilies and Jade (Center for New Performance), Sucktion (REDCAT NOW FEST), They Call Me Wanjiku (in development at NY’s Martin E. Segal Theatre Center), Coffee Will Make You Black (Celebration Theatre), Las Meninas (CalArts) and the world premiere of Wet (REDCAT). For LA Theatre Works radio theater series she had helmed Biloxi Blues, Tape, 16 Wounded and The Living Room.

“It couldn’t be further up my alley, this play,” admits the Virginia Union University graduate. “I knew after reading three scenes I had to direct it. Mostly because it has a conversation I’d like to have about identity and what dealing with our identity does to us African Americans in particular. What’s the conversation we don’t want to have, why are we so afraid of how we’ve been represented and does it have ownership over us? I’m from the generation who decided in order to get away from the negative impact of hearing the N-word, they would just use it all the time. I’m not a rap artist so I wasn’t one of the people who perpetrated it, and I didn’t grow up in a house where it was okay to use. It’s a word I heard like once a year and my mother had to be really mad.”

Garrett says she felt liberated when her peers started to say it more frequently because that lessened her fear. Still, she didn’t want everyone to flaunt its usage. “It’s a fighting word, you know, but not one I feel stops me dead in my tracks or makes me want to cry. My first experience of it was very negative. I was five or six and told I couldn’t play with a toy everybody else was playing with because I was a n——. It was made clear enough for me to understand that word placed a limit on me. Being liberated from that limit was really important.”

In Neighbors, Aristotelian scholar Richard uses the N-word when he first sees the minstrel Crows arrive next door. But are they really that or simply his prejudiced projections? According to Garrett, Jacob-Jenkins’ intention is, “In some ways, the way we see them, or our perception of them, is through Richard’s eyes. So they might actually be minstrels or they might actually be a working class black family who moved in next door. They are judged either way. It doesn’t matter.”

That the Crows are judged by another African American raises the specter of Bill Cosby’s infamous education speech or the White House distancing itself from Shirley Sherrod. It’s an unspoken taboo topic no one wants to acknowledge publicly - that many African Americans judge each other across socio-economic lines and secretly believe as Richard does.

“That is actually what the play is saying,” Garrett emphasizes. “We think that. We actually do. We look at a group of people who might embarrass us in certain situations and we think to distance ourselves. We think it’s great when you talk about social programs that help people and bring them up and we might even help fund them and support them in certain ways. But if there are two sistahs walking down the aisle of a grocery store, and one is talking loud on her cell phone and twitching and chewing gum and smacking her kid or whatever the stereotype is or has rollers in her hair, and the other is in a business suit like Condoleezza Rice. Condoleezza? She’s going to move over three aisles because she doesn’t want anyone to go, oh, those two things are alike.”

Julia Campbell and Derek Webster. Photo by I.C. Rapoport.

It’s not that the two extremes shouldn’t exist, Garrett insists, but certain white people believe once you peel back the Brooks Brothers veneer, the other persona lies in wait to jump out. “It’s my experience it would be acceptable if all of a sudden I started cracking my neck and snapping my gum. Like I have to either be watermelon or not. I feel like that’s what pits us against ourselves and what pits Richard against the minstrels.

“It’s fear of having to address how limiting it is for that to be your only existence in people’s eyes. So what we tend to do is fight each other about it. We want to get rid of Shaniqua and all her girlfriends because if we could just erase all of those people then we wouldn’t have to worry about how hard it is to advance. I’m a black female director. It’s strange to be me because I don’t really exist very often in this world and I’ve had to work very hard to get where I am.”

Likewise, preferring August Wilson plays to remain the standard-bearers rather than provocative works by people like Jacobs-Jenkins implies to Garrett that African Americans are not capable of looking at themselves critically in a public forum. They much prefer discussions like those raised in Neighbors to be held behind closed doors for fear exposing the minstrels gives white people license to either keep blacks down or keep them from moving forward.

“I feel like other ethnic groups in this country look at themselves critically because they don’t have to worry about how they’ve been politicized,” she says. “But I feel like we have to if we’re going to actually grow in our dialogue. We have to be able to say ‘What does it mean for Richard if he can really only see what might be a working class black family that moved into the house next door as minstrels?’ What does that say to us about ourselves? Because of our fears of being associated in a certain way, we have no way of accepting those people as a part of us.”

From Blackface to Blowback

For the actors playing the Crows, working in blackface has caused deep identity issues to surface. “I know a lot of African American actors who fight on a daily basis not to be asked to act more urban in an audition. Who can speak the speech trippingly on the tongue, you know, and who are amazing? Some of them are in this cast who fight very hard not to be stereotyped. And so even revealing the stereotypes for them is really damaging emotionally because of how hard they have to work in order not to be associated with these ideas about who they are.”

The Neighbors ensemble features Baadja-Lyne (Flatliners, The Lady Killers); Keith Arthur Bolden (Fences/Gem of the Ocean at The Fountain Theatre); Leith Burke (Judgment at Nuremberg on Broadway; three seasons with Oregon Shakespeare Festival; The Tempest at ACT); Julia Campbell (original Matrix Company member, LADCC Best Actress award in Bitter Women); James Edward Shippy (Off Broadway’s Another Man’s Poison); Rachae Thomas (Musical Theatre of LA’s Ragtime, A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Theatricum Botanicum); Daniele Watts (Cornerstone Theatre’s Demeter in the City, Ken Roht’s 99 Cents Only Show: The Calendar Girl Competition); and Derek Webster (regular on Mental, recurring on Kville).

On the other hand admits Garrett, blackface has opened up a unique avenue for exploring mask technique. “Branden said one of the characters was borne out of a fascination with burlesque and commedia dell’arte. We’ve worked a lot on what you do behind the mask and what it represents. Like what did it mean for Bert Williams to be wearing it? There’s a lot of technical stuff too because blackface deadens the face, so what do you do with your face in order that your expressions are clear? The mask becomes a kind of puppet so what do you do with your eyes and how do you work your mouth? If there’s a moment where you’re truly invested in a kind of sadness that we actually feel for you, how do you make that work?”

She says the company hopes people get past the blackface to really look at the faces in the play, get the humor and understand the clash of dynamics. Garrett is also bracing herself for the blowback from black Angelenos.

“There’s a part of me that knows people will walk out before intermission. I know it. I know there are some people who are going to look at this and be like, no way. I have no space for this. I’m out of here. I have to shore myself up for black people who are going to feel very emotional about what’s being projected on the stage, for white people who will feel very emotional about what’s being projected on the stage, for my students who are going to come and ask what does it represent in me. And I have to make sure I’m not justifying why I’m doing this because I’m an artist or because we ‘have to’ but because I feel like it’s so necessary to have this dialogue.

“The beauty of this play is that it says I don’t know the answer. I just know there’s a question that’s not being asked. And it has to be asked every day.”

Feature image of Julia Campbell and Leith Burke by I.C. Rapoport.

Article by Deborah Behrens.

This year’s summer Shakespeare season has been rife with cases of unfounded sexual jealousy. Independent Shakespeare Company staged the most famous play on the subject, Othello, and it’s now presenting Much Ado About Nothing - with its subplot about the ridiculously callow and green-eyed Claudio.

In any competition for the most jealous Shakespearean character, however, Othello and Claudio would have to duke it out with King Leontes of A Winter’s Tale. And this is truly the summer of A Winter’s Tale. Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival in Thousand Oaks tackled it (sorry, I missed that one), as did Theater 150 in Ojai. Now, one of the most creative interpretations of the Tale ever conceived is at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank under the title A Wither’s Tale.

Yes, the Troubadour Theater has tossed the ingredients of A Winter’s Tale with the soulful musical stylings of Bill Withers.

More about that in a moment, but first let’s note that Jessica Kubzansky’s take on  Winter’s Tale at Ojai was fairly creative, too. She expanded the brief role of Time into a character who appeared sporadically, reciting Shakespearean sonnets related to the time theme. But I found these passages too abstract to serve the function of a guide, and they made the play longer than necessary.

Also, in an attempt to explain what happened to the much-maligned Queen Hermione in the years in between her announced death and her dramatic return, Kubzansky arranged for Hermione to go undercover as the rogue Autolycus in the play’s pastoral scenes (with both roles played by Carolyn Ratteray). This required only five altered words and a few judicious cuts, Philip Brandes reported in his Times review. But the concept was more original than satisfying - I wanted more details about why the queen would assume that particular identity, which seemed so foreign to her nature. How could she pull it off for so long? Why was it so necessary, considering that the king had long ago repented?

Joseph Keane as the Green Eyed Monster and Matt Walker as Leontes in A Wither's Tale

Kubzansky’s ideas were relatively tame, compared to those of director Matt Walker and the other creators of A Wither’s Tale. Would you believe a Hermione who might not be quite as unblemished as advertised? A bear who gives Antigonus ample time to be rescued? A green-eyed monster who isn’t simply a metaphor? A play whose Shakespearean passages are occasionally interrupted by contemporary jokes and more frequently by choreographed Withers-inspired musical numbers?

Actually, you probably would believe it. The mood of the music is well-matched to the shifting moods of the play, including the more serious moments. The power of the Shakespearean original still manages to emerge from time to time, in a way that’s reminiscent of the company’s OthE.L.O. in 2007.

Troubie regulars will want to know which roles Walker and Beth Kennedy are playing. Walker plays Leontes, of course, giving himself the chance to wail “Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone,” but he also plays a carrot-topped clown (Autolycus?) in the pastoral scenes.  Kennedy plays the no-nonsense Paulina and the (male) shepherd who finds the baby Perdita in the woods - and she also offers sushi to the guests at the harvest festival.

Although A Wither’s Tale is the season’s funniest Shakespeare, a close runner -up is Independent Shakespeare’s Much Ado, especially the scene in which Benedick (David Melville) tries to snoop on the carefully staged conversation in which his friends prattle about how much Beatrice secretly dotes on him. Melville takes this scene and runs with it - quite literally.

It’s a moment that bridges the gap between stage and audience in the company’s new home, next to the Old Zoo on the east side of Griffith Park. The audience sits on a lawn that offers a lot more room than did the company’s previous home at Barnsdall Park. But the audience must bring low-slung chairs or simply sit on blankets, because the keepers of the park won’t allow risers to rise,  as the authorities at Barnsdall did in their own, smaller park. I hope that the company can eventually persuade the parks department to change its mind about this and/or raise enough money to pay for whatever re-seeding might be required by the use of risers. Raked seating on risers helps concentrate the theatrical energy of an outdoor venue - a point that I’ve also made to Shakespeare Festival/LA (which didn’t do a show this summer, but is scheduling another Much Ado next winter under its new name, Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles).

Turning from the hilarious to the truly chilling in this summer’s Shakespeare, let me briefly point out something about the double-cast Antaeus production of King Lear that most of the critics didn’t mention - probably because they didn’t want to dilute the shock value. But since it has now closed, I won’t spoil anyone’s surprise when I report that director Bart DeLorenzo brought the usually offstage murder of the Fool into the open. The poor Fool was strangled by the Duke of Cornwall in a startling scene that took place just before the same duke gouged out Gloucester’s eyes. I asked DeLorenzo about it during intermission, and he told me that he got the idea from the box-cutter murderers on 9/11, who quickly killed a few individuals in order to terrorize others.

Susan Angelo as Gertrude and Jeff Wiesen as Hamlet at the Theatricum Botanicum

Like DeLorenzo’s King Lear, the Theatricum Botanicum’s Hamlet should probably be seen twice, as Mike Peebler and Jeff Wiesen take turns playing the roles of Hamlet and Laertes. So far I’ve seen it only once, so I won’t make any comparisons here. But I will point out that Ellen Geer’s alfresco production uses the widest stage I’ve ever seen for Hamlet, leading to a few especially expansive scenes.

Hamlet’s pivotal conversation with the ghost of his father takes place on a real rooftop, where it looks as if either one of them could slip and fall without too much effort. This, of course, more or less sums up the position in which they see themselves - the ghost is about to enter hell, and Hamlet is wondering if he might be dragged down there, too.

Finally, the drowning of Ophelia is more clearly suggested than usual, because we see her disappearing down an actual stream bed. OK, it’s dry. Still, if this production is ever revived, Geer should start thinking now about how to make that creek briefly flow with real water - but not ruin her main stage, which bridges it, a few yards downstream. Creative grantsmanship might come in handy, to pay for the engineering. Naturally, the engineer would have to figure out how to recycle the water, which could generate extra points in the grant proposal and in the later publicity. Are we all aboard on this?

Much Ado About Nothing, Old Zoo area of Griffith Park, enter from Crystal Springs Drive on the east side of the park, near the merry-go-round. Follow the signs. Free.  Thur-Sun 7 pm. Closes Aug, 29. www.independentshakespeare.com.

A Wither’s Tale, Falcon Theatre, 4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank. Wed-Sat 8 pm; Sun 4 pm. Closes Sept. 26. 818-955-8101. www.FalconTheatre.com.

Hamlet, Theatricum Botanicum, Sundays Aug. 29, Sept. 12, Sept. 19, 3:30 pm and Sept. 5, 7:30 pm; Saturdays Sept. 25, 8 pm; Oct. 2, 4 pm. 310-455-3723. www.theatricum.com.

L.A. TIMES MONITOR: The Theatricum’s innovatively-cast Hamlet has been open now since early June without an L.A. Times review. But let’s give the Times some credit - it quickly reviewed the latest productions at two of the midsize companies whose preceding productions it had either ignored entirely (Othello) or ignored until it was almost too late (Grace & Glorie). In recent weeks, the Independent’s Much Ado and the Colony’s Free Man of Color received glowing Times reviews, at greater length and with more prominent displays than the Theater Beat reviews. Cheers for that.

Now let’s look briefly at the Arts and Books section from last Sunday, which usually contains a feature article about some kind of theater, happening somewhere, if not in L.A. Last week, however, was an exception. The only trace of theater coverage in the section was the fact that theater critic Charles McNulty wrote a “Critics’ Notebook” - but it was about a Patti Smith memoir, not theater. Nor did it even mention Michael Sargent’s play Black Leather, which was about characters based on Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe and which played the Unknown Theater in Hollywood last fall (without a Times review).

DUELING ‘DOGS’: Which of the two current productions of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog is the topdog and which is the underdog? Well, the one that just opened at Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasadena would initially appear to be the underdog, because it follows two weeks after the version at Lillian Theatre in Hollywood - so it probably won’t receive as much public attention. On the other hand, James Reynolds’ South Pasadena staging will transfer to an Equity-contract production at the Cape May Stage in New Jersey next month, so in that sense, it might well emerge as the topdog, at least in terms of remuneration for the actors.

Stephen Ryder, Jed Reynolds in Topdog/Underdog

I saw both versions over the weekend, and I preferred the Fremont’s, in South Pasadena. Dove Huntley’s set offers a grimy open window at the back of the two brothers’ sad-sack apartment. Through the window, we can see the top part of a vertical “OPEN” sign at some next-door establishment. This indicates that we’re in at least a second-floor walk-up, or maybe even on a higher floor, which adds to the sense of weariness of Lincoln (Jed Reynolds) as he walks up from the street in the Abraham Lincoln get-up that he wears on his job in an amusement arcade.

The window also adds a narrow sense of the world outside the apartment. That world doesn’t look welcoming, but at least this brief glimpse of it slightly relieves the sense of prolonged confinement that can overcome a play that lasts approximately 2 hours, 45 minutes (including intermission) with only two characters in one room. The Lillian production - which lacks such a window — is only about five minutes longer than the Fremont version, but it feels maybe a half-hour longer. Part of that is probably due to the direction and the performances as well as the set design, but that window helps the South Pasadena production feel brisker, more urgent.

The casting is also a factor. In the Hollywood production, I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone had considered reversing the slightly distracting casting.  M.D. Walton is taller and lighter-complexioned than A.D. Murtadha, yet Murtadha plays the more dominant, older brother - who makes his living playing a tall, white man (albeit while wearing whiteface makeup). I guess you could argue that this casting adds yet more irony to the situation.

In South Pasadena, however, Reynolds as Lincoln and Stephen Ryder as Booth are more logically cast in their respective roles, and the performances soar — while those in Hollywood eventually sag. Whatever the reasons, I found the South Pasadena production - which I saw two days after the Hollywood production - considerably more emotionally involving.

Topdog/Underdog, Fremont Centre Theatre, 1000 Fremont Ave. (at El Centro), South Pasadena. Fri-Sat, 8 pm; Sun, 3 pm. Closes Sept. 18. 866-811-4111. www.fremontcentretheatre.com.

Topdog/Underdog, Lillian Theatre, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Fri-Sat, 8 pm; Sun, 2 and 7 pm. Closes Sept. 12. 323-960-7719. www.plays411.com/topdog.

A Wither’s Tale photo by Chelsea Sutton

Hamlet photo by Ian Flanders

Topdog/Underdog photo by Dove Huntley

Closing:

Stripped
8/27/10, Roadkill Productions, West Side
Stripped (A Comedy About a Drama) is a one-act multi-media solo show.

The Emperor’s New Clothes
8/28/10, West Valley Playhouse, San Fernando Valley
The Emperor’s New Colthes This famous story is for children from 5-12 years old.

AMADEUS
8/28/10, The Production Company, San Fernando Valley
CRITIC’S CHOICE!-LaTimes, CRITIC’S PICK!-Backstage,  WOW!-StagSceneLA, Peter Shaffer’s ‘BEST PLAY’!

Karma
8/28/10, Write Act Repertory Company, Hollywood
A world premiere musical that explores the relationship between ones past and future.

Opening:

The Clean House
8/24/10, International City Theatre, Southern
The New York Times called it “one of the finest and funniest new plays you’re likely to see.”

Be sure to visit LAStageAlliance.com for more information of shows and half-price tickets.