MARY BAXTER has had an enviable life – a dancer who married young and never looked back as she traveled the world and moved from one marriage to the next. Four husbands gave her four daughters, each of whom are as different from each other as the cities they were named after. When Mary dies, her live-at-home daughter calls her estranged sisters to return to their childhood home for what appears to be a wake; yet, what turns into a family drama that will unearth old animosities and new secrets that will change them forever.

The Dramatists Guild recently named playwright, Colette Freedman, one of the “Top 50 Playwrights to Watch”. She is also a finalist in the Eugene O’Neil playwrighting competition and the first place winner for creative writing at Santa Barbara’s Writer’s Conference 2006. She has written many plays and has had 15 of them produced around the world.

“You cannot have Watson without Moriarty, you cannot have Moriarty without Watson: and without both, there is no Holmes.”

“The Secret of Sherlock Holmes” by Jeremy Paul is a funny, intense, disturbing psychological thriller, properly set in a brooding, atmospheric Victorian England, which puts the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson themselves under the great detectives’ famous magnifying glass. A two hander, written for Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke, (who portrayed the pair for years on UK TV in the 1980’s), the play was revived in 2010 for a UK tour and a West End run in the Duchess Theatre, London. John Mawson (Holmes) was part of the company for that production.

John Mawson and Mario Vernazza (Watson) are classically trained British actors. Amir Korangy (Director) was for many years the head of acting at the prestigious Mountview Theatre School in London. A highly experienced director and a published poet.

The original sound design and score from the 2010 UK production has been kindly provided by the designer, Matthew Bugg.

In the seemingly innocent home of the Rogers family, life is like a 1950s sitcom—or is it? All is not as perfect as it seems. Mr. and Mrs. Rogers and their two darling children, Dick and Jane, must face their history and identity before it is too late, with only mysterious phone calls and a forbidden book as clues.

D is for Dog explores the themes of family loyalty and compassion using iconic imagery from 1950s television blended with startling elements of horror and science fiction. Mixing puppetry, live actors, original music and video projection, the play takes audiences from the absurd to the terrifying, and everywhere in-between.

South Texas’ #1 talk radio queen hits the web, tackling ignorance, adult bullies, and gay teen suicide!

“Mwine…is wired, vivid and insistent.” Time Out London

World premiere

A multimedia solo work for the stage written and performed by Ugandan American artist Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, A Missionary Position is a searing response to the rampant homophobia now gripping Uganda. The noted Los Angeles theater artist incorporates raw video footage and still photography—gathered over recent months on front lines of the African nation’s LGBT movement—and layers this documentary material with riveting portrayals of Ugandan gay prostitutes, gay priests and LGBT activists drawn from in-person interviews to create a complex investigation of the burgeoning resistance to state-supported oppression.

A Missionary Position is the follow-up to Mwine’s internationally heralded one-man show Biro, about the eponymous HIV-positive Ugandan who illegally entered the United States to seek treatment.

Original, ambitiously off beat performances by a lively mix of experimental Los Angeles performing artists are sure to inspire L.A.’s most adventurous audiences when REDCAT unveils the latest edition of its interdisciplinary series of new works and works-in-progress.

Previously, Studio has featured such artists as Kathy Carbone and Vinny Golia, Sheetal Gandhi, Nataki Garrett, Los Angeles Electric 8, Marcus Kuiland-Nazario, Emily Mast, Miwa Matreyek, Hana van der Kolk, Peres Owino, Poor Dog Group, Waewdao Sirisook, and Roxanne Steinberg and Steve Lockwood.

Funded in part by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

“Funny but foxy, super smart and slightly mad.” WCBS
World premiere

The wry and sometimes wicked Sandra Bernhard mixes outrageous humor, cutting satire and fiercely energetic musical numbers in Sandrology, premiering in a special limited engagement. The all-new production takes its name from Bernhard’s appearances as a “pop culture anthropologist” on Bravo TV, but there are no censors and nothing is sacred when Berhard takes the stage to journey through the worlds of contemporary culture, politics and celebrity. Backed by a high-octane rock band, Bernhard delivers incisive commentary with her signature irreverence and raunchy charismatic charm.

Since her early days at the Comedy Store in the ’70s, Sandra Bernhard has been wowing fans and critics with unforgettable live performances, including Without You I’m Nothing, Excuses for Bad Behavior, Giving ‘Til It Hurts, Hero Worship, The Love Machine and Everything Bad and Beautiful.

Image courtesy of Jeanine Nicholas Designs

One part theater. One part arm wrestling. One part anything can happen. Eight theater companies wrestle for glory. Outrageous personas, bribable judges, dodgy referees. A cross between burlesque, roller derby, WWF, and theater, you’ve never seen anything quite like it.

Part of a national movement that is the Collective of Lady Arm Wrestlers. LA is the newest league! We introduce to you our stellar line-up: The Technician, Lotte Bootay, Hippy Longstocking, Whole Lotta Rosie, The Technician, Trewly Skrumchous, and Ladystache, wrestling for Sacred Fools, Bootleg, Son of Semele, Circle X, Antaeus, Ghost Road, Opera del Espacio, and cARTel.

“Spellbinding…It’s nice to see a bit of rock-star oomph being injected into the world of contemporary dance.” Irish Independent

The Sharon Disney Lund Dance Series
Leading Los Angeles choreographer Oguri collaborates with Dublin-based choreographers Morleigh Steinberg and Liz Roche in this acclaimed international co-production featuring a beautifully haunting musical score by U2 guitarist The Edge and Paul Chavez of Feltlike. Cold Dream Colour is a precise and hypnotic dance theater work, inspired by the rich and ethereal work of the late Irish artist Louis le Brocquy, described as “the foremost Irish painter of the 20th century” by the Irish Times.

The distinctive guitar techniques of The Edge set an urgent yet subtly textured tone for the work, which merges a gestural movement style that hints at a poetic narrative with an intensely seductive movement vocabulary delivered with mesmerizing concentration and kinetic dexterity. The powerful dance is concerned less with animating figures and physical shapes in le Brocquy’s mysterious paintings than with finding the energies and meanings in them.

Presented by the CalArts Entertainment Group
7:00 PM: Talk

8:30 PM: Networking Reception

Don Cheadle (BFA Acting ’86) has continued to challenge audiences with compelling performances in film and television, earning him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance in Hotel Rwanda, a Best Supporting Actor Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics for Devil in a Blue Dress and a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA nomination for Crash.

In addition to his acting, Cheadle has been committed to international humanitarian causes, co-founding Not On Our Watch to end genocide in Darfur. In 2007, he received a Summit Peace Award by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and a BET Humanitarian Award for his work in Darfur and Rwanda. In 2010, he was named Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations. He has been a supporter of the International Rescue Committee relief organization and the Enough Project, working to end crimes against humanity.

At this intersection of art and politics, Cheadle has explored both narrative and documentary storytelling to engage audiences in critical social discourse—from the ravages of the Vietnam War in Hamburger Hill, to racial injustice in A Lesson Before Dying and Rosewood, to genocide in Darfur Now. Currently, he is appearing in Showtime’s House of Lies and developing a new project he has co-written.

The CalArts Entertainment Group/CEG is a new alumni professional networking program providing local entertainment professionals with access to industry leaders and peers.