My Macro Reviews provide you with the ideas and themes behind a performance. I think once you understand the big picture- the feeling, tenor, and tone of a show, you can make a more objective decision on whether or not to go. If my Macro Review raises questions and thoughts that spark your interest, that is a good indication that you should give that show a try.

Image courtesy of ETERNAL THOU

Feeling at times like an updated Fantastic Voyage within the inner workings of the internet, and at others like a movie of the week about the brave scientists who moved modern communication from smoke signals to instant messaging, ETERNAL THOU doubles down on immersive video and sound, but cannot break free of the didactic complexity inherent in explaining the interactive marvel of the internet within the context of a straightforward performer/ audience construct.

Matthew McCray’s personal, informational new show does have its moments, including one of the more disorienting audience entrances of recent productions. The set is cold and isolating, yet strange and fantastical in its ability to meld multiple video projections to help propel the story and place its protagonists back in time, or inside of the internet.

ETERNAL THOU has a good deal to say and share, helping the audience to understand how today’s internet is a direct relation to the telegraph and operator manned telephone switchboard. Most importantly, the show is able to explain that the internet is a massive communications channel that is replacing all other media and communication channels available. Telephone, Television, Radio, Music, Film, Art, Letters, it is all happening over the internet. And when the pipes are owned and controlled by a corporate or governmental interest, we are all in danger of loosing our freedom of speech, and freedoms of choice.

Of special mention are an incredibly adorable sequence documenting the obsolescence of human manned telephone switchboards, as well as the notion that who we become or purport to be online can actually weave its way back in to our real life personas. ETERNAL THOU sees the future of humanity as a melding of man and machine, always communicating together with everyone… but at what cost? When do we loose what we consider our individuality, our humanity, as we begin to freely share all possible knowledge all of the time?

Eternal Thou at Atwater Village Theatre desperately attempts to breathe life into a discussion/ lecture on the importance of network neutrality. Even with the incredible video, sound, and lighting, this show is a difficult piece that takes a subject that is all about interaction and serves it up in a cold, technical way that keeps the audience at a distance from the work on stage.

• The Show
• Links
• Map

ETERNAL THOU

TICKETS AND PRICING

GENERAL ADMISSION: $20

Tickets purchased before April 1 are $5 off. Online: $17 Student/senior/union, $22 general. At door: $25

Thematic content includes: Redemption, Sex, Self Destruction, Dance/ Movement, Highbrow, Humor

DATES AND TIMES

This show runs: 04/06/2012 to 05/06/2012

Mondays: 8:00pm
Fridays: 8:00pm
Saturdays: 8:00pm
Sundays: 5:00pm

No performance on Monday April 9

Atwater Village Theatre: MAP

OR BY PHONE 323-841-9151

ADDITIONAL INFO

Atwater Village Theatre
3269 Casitas Ave.
Los Angeles, CA
90039

OR BY PHONE
323-841-9151

	Websites Atwater Village Theatre ETERNAL THOU Matthew McCray tickets
	Twitter
	Facebook ETERNAL THOU

ADDITIONAL INFO

Atwater Village Theatre
3269 Casitas Ave.
Los Angeles, CA
90039

OR BY PHONE
323-841-9151

Atwater Village Theatre: MAP

Image courtesy of Chalk Repertory Theatre

Chalk Repertory Theatre prides itself on its mission of producing plays in unconventional spaces. Site specific work can be revelatory, and some of Chalk’s past productions clearly benefited from unique locations. With their production of SLITHER by Carson Kreitzer at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Chalk’s ‘unique location’ approach falls flat, leaving the audience wondering exactly why they have to crane their neck around to ping pong from one mini set to the next.

All that tennis neck gets in the way of appreciating SLITHER for what it is, a solid look at the continual struggle of women to break free of the yoke of misogyny inherent in society. It is rather nice to see a show deal with the subject without the didactic rut that Caryl Churchill can fall in to, or the womYn with a Y feel of a graduate thesis or performance piece.

Kreitzer has created a handful of strong women who are the glue that holds their families together. These women bear the hardships that life throws at its participants so fragile men in their lives don’t have to. As explained by one such protagonist, “There are some things a man does not need to know- so the bad things don’t touch them.”

Jessica Olson does a fantastic job of costuming the ladies, especially Amy Ellenberger’s Fanny Lou, a snake dancer. Her dance costume has magnificent chiming coins, and her dress at home is fantastic as well. The best moment of the evening may be a miraculous quick change as Fanny Lou shifts from mom to grandma with a shawl, glasses, and shift in posture. Kudos to Olson and Ellenberger for pulling off such a disarmingly simple theatrical magic trick with effortless grace and sophistication. If only Casey Stangl’s staging of SLITHER had the same je ne sais quoi. Sssssssse la vie.

• The Show
• Links
• Map

SLITHER

TICKETS AND PRICING

GENERAL ADMISSION: $25.00

Students: $15.00

Thematic content includes: Redemption, Love, Highbrow, Humor, Site Specific

DATES AND TIMES

This show runs: 02/10/2012 to 03/04/2012

Mondays: 8:00pm
Fridays: 8:00pm
Saturdays: 8:00pm
Sundays: 7:00pm

2/17: Pay-What-You-Can night 2/24: Post Show Discussion: "Snakes, Girls, & the Bible" *No performance Sunday 2/26

Hollywood Forever Cemetery Masonic Lodge: MAP

OR BY PHONE 877-435-9849

ADDITIONAL INFO

Hollywood Forever Cemetery Masonic Lodge
6000 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
90038

OR BY PHONE
877-435-9849

	Websites Hollywood Forever Cemetery Masonic Lodge SLITHER Chalk Repertory Theatre tickets
	Twitter
	Facebook SLITHER Chalk Repertory Theatre

ADDITIONAL INFO

Hollywood Forever Cemetery Masonic Lodge
6000 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
90038

OR BY PHONE
877-435-9849

Hollywood Forever Cemetery Masonic Lodge: MAP

Photo by Michael Doucette

Facing a warm crowd eager for entertainment, Mx Justin Vivian Bond knew just how to hit all the right marks in an evening of cabaret tailor made for an audience of bent urbanites who are over it all… including themselves.

Mx Bond’s sumptuous baritone was supported by Lance Horne and Nathann Carrera on piano and/ or guitar for songs that not only registered emotionally time and time again with the audience, but pierced and cracked the hard shells of the basement crowd at REDCAT with choices plucked from the radio of the 1970s, and mixed in a few originals and covers including an incredible rendition of HOMAGE TO MARAT from The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum at Charendon Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade.

Mx Bond took the time throughout the evening to open up to the crowd, easily identifying with the misunderstood and marginalized perched on uncomfortable chairs as the ‘real art patrons’ listened to the conducting of Dudamel upon cushy thrones above them. Honesty can be funny- and brutal. Where else are you going to hear “…if Whitney Houston would have stayed a lesbian she would be alive today.”

But the attack was not on Whitney. It was a slur upon the societal machinery that forces cookie cutter heroes and artists. The message was to “…let people be who they are.” The show was one of hope. A shot in the arm to the people of like minds who would have preferred Karen Carpenter alive- talking like a trucker and walking like a Mack truck. The politics, and sexual politics, of choice, being, expression, and freedom were played for laughs, but always lurking just beneath the surface.

Mx Bond encouraged the crowd to rise up and be heard. To be respected. To find their power. One cannot help but feel better about oneself after experiencing Low Double Standards: An Entitlement Program. Someone out there loves you just the way you are. One just has to wonder… what impact would Bond’s work have on those whose social and political views run counter to his own? The growing popularity and acceptance of his act might let us know sooner than later.

• The Show
• Links
• Map

Mx Justin Vivian Bond: Low Double Standards: An Entitlement Program

TICKETS AND PRICING

GENERAL ADMISSION: $25.00

Thematic content includes: Love, Sex, Singing, Live Music, Dance/ Movement, Lowbrow

DATES AND TIMES

This show runs: 02/17/2012 to 02/19/2012

Mondays: 8:00pm
Fridays: 8:30pm
Saturdays: 8:30pm
Sundays: 7:00pm

REDCAT | Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater: 213 237-2800 MAP

OR BY PHONE 213-237-2800

ADDITIONAL INFO

REDCAT | Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
631 West 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA
90012
213 237-2800

OR BY PHONE
213-237-2800

	Websites REDCAT | Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater Mx Justin Vivian Bond: Low Double Standards: An Entitlement Program tickets
	Twitter Mx Justin Vivian Bond: Low Double Standards: An Entitlement Program REDCAT | Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
	Facebook Mx Justin Vivian Bond: Low Double Standards: An Entitlement Program REDCAT | Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater

ADDITIONAL INFO

REDCAT | Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
631 West 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA
90012
213 237-2800

OR BY PHONE
213-237-2800

REDCAT | Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater: 213 237-2800 MAP

Image courtesy of REACTOR project

FUSION vs. FISSION.

Fission is currently possible, in use, and prolific. It is called “safe, clean, and efficient” as a means of providing power to the world without the consequences of gas and coal, our greenhouse gas emitting, health debilitating status quo solution. But how safe is it, really?

Fission is the ripping apart of the atom. A destructive force both powerful and mysterious, shrouded behind the smoke of scientific understanding beyond the comprehension of most mortals. It does not have to be. In a revelatory moment in Brenda Varda’s new work, composed communally by the entire ensemble, a father easily explains nuclear fission and fusion to his two children on the side of a San Diego County road.

In fact, this fusion research scientist turned stay near home father has a much easier time explaining the basics of nuclear power and its variants than he does parsing out the reasons he has rekindled a romantic relationship with their mom.

FUSION vs. FISSION.

Fusion is the holy grail of cheap, safe energy production. By creating a new nucleus by forcing two or more nuclei together, limitless power can be generated with no harmful (radioactive) waste product. Varda and her team equate the two types of nuclear power to the building and destruction of the nuclear family. The fission, or bringing together of the players and the nucleus of the family is possible- yet ultimately unsustainable.

What proves sustainable is the tearing apart of not only this modern family, but also true love, and possibly, our societal fabric and health of our planet. The complexities of the two parents, both nuclear scientists working on opposite theories, fusion and fission, deftly showcase our current societal dilemmas… Parents work in dangerous environments just to keep food on the table, or leave the work they love to stay close by. They sublimate their own needs and desires in an attempt to create and keep a nuclear family together.

How far must parents go in sublimating their own desires and fulfillment to create a stable home life for their children? How hard is it to fight the naturally occurring destructive forces tearing families apart to recapture or kindle an amorous ideal long discarded? Is all love doomed? Is humanity destined to invent its way to extinction?

It seems quite likely. The team behind REACTOR shows how people across the globe eschew their own personal safety in exchange for an emotional familiarness. Chernobyl survivors return to the hot zone to finish their lives on their own terms, consequences be damned. Scientists and engineers reassure themselves that they are in control of volatile reactions that can easily rage out of control at the drop of a hat, or crash of a tsunami.

The few characters that are truly happy are dying or dead, including a ‘real life Buckaroo Banzai’ who worked on the Manhattan Project but passes time playing a rock and roll guitar and waxing philosophically on the meaning of it all- what the hell does he have to worry about anymore anyway?

REACTOR is a smart, humorous piece that asks the audience for moments of contemplation of their own actions that enable a dangerous world of action and emotion that could come crashing down in flames at any moment. Like the characters onstage who mirror our society, it could use a touch of refinement, but gets along just fine. As a first run of a new, hastily developed work, it shows more promise than the current state of fusion science.

No matter how hard we try to make all of the pieces fit together, or ensure everyone is safe, and everything is okay… beautiful AND horrible things keep happening. And people still live and die and make more people. REACTOR holds a mirror up to our actions and asks us to step up our game and make a better future for those who will follow our paths upon the Earth; or admit that the shortcuts we take are at our own peril, and the safety of those we hold dear.

• The Show
• Links
• Map

reactor: simple. clean. efficient

TICKETS AND PRICING

GENERAL ADMISSION: $18.00

REACTOR is part of the SOSE Company Creation Festival and runs in rep with three other shows. Please double check with SOSE to confirm dates.

Thematic content includes: Live Music, Humor

DATES AND TIMES

This show runs: 01/21/2012 to 03/01/2012

Mondays: 8:00pm
Wednesdays: 8:00pm
Thursdays: 8:00pm
Fridays: 8:00pm
Saturdays: 8:00pm
Sundays: 5:00pm

Son of Semele Ensemble: 213-351-3507 MAP

ADDITIONAL INFO

Son of Semele Ensemble
3301 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, California
90004
213-351-3507

	Websites Son of Semele Ensemble reactor: simple. clean. efficient tickets
	Twitter
	Facebook reactor: simple. clean. efficient

ADDITIONAL INFO

Son of Semele Ensemble
3301 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, California
90004
213-351-3507

Son of Semele Ensemble: 213-351-3507 MAP

Photo by STEVEN GUNTHER

Receiving its Los Angeles debut before returning to New York for an eight week run, REDCAT is hosting Rinde Eckert’s contemporary opera AND GOD CREATED GREAT WHALES through the weekend.

This rework of the production that toured in the early aughts is a streamlined success featuring several incredible duets between Rinde Eckert as Nathan and Nora Cole as Olivia, both his internal muse and real life ‘favorite’ retired Opera star.

Eckert treats its audience to a peak inside a crumbling mind as it reaches the ecstatic heights of a creative journey. His opera is a stunning, poignant dramatization of the decline of a man fighting back against his degrading memory long enough to complete his magnum opus, an opera based on Melville’s Moby Dick.

The conceit that pushes the plot forward is simple, and ingenious. Before his neurological issues progressed too far, Nathan has recorded specific instructions and reminders for himself on cassette tapes. Each day, Nathan listens to his instructions and continues to write, noting thoughts and ideas in several color coded cassette recorders strewn about his workroom.

By dramatizing Nathan’s struggle to work in his incapacitated state, Eckert is able to boldly wink at the audience while sending up long standing operatic/ symphonic traditions. Nathan’s explanation to himself of how woodwinds are used to play the part of different birds, and what Sopranos and Altos (singers) should be used for, are quite hilarious bits of ochestrational instruction.

Nathan straps his instructional cassette recorder over his jacket like a life preserver, in the hopes of rescuing this recluse from his wild, open ocean of a lost mind. Eventually Nathan straps on one over another, an operatic Frank Black bulking up on armor to keep the perilous world at bay. Instead of guitars, he layers himself with the comfort of a familiar voice intoning instructions meant to incite the completion of our hero’s quest for his own white whale.

AND GOD CREATED GREAT WHALES asks us to face up to our own mortality and the fragility of our human condition. “Nature is a bitch,” and it does not let us escape from our personal horrors and terrors, nor the prison of our ever rotting body and mind.

• The Show
• Links
• Map

Rinde Eckert: And God Created Great Whales

TICKETS AND PRICING

GENERAL ADMISSION: $25.00

$16-25

Thematic content includes: Singing, Live Music, Dance/ Movement, Site Specific

DATES AND TIMES

This show runs: 01/25/2012 to 01/29/2012

Mondays: 8:00pm
Wednesdays: 8:30 pm
Thursdays: 8:30 pm
Fridays: 8:30 pm
Saturdays: 8:30 pm
Sundays: 3:00 pm

REDCAT | Roy & Edna Disney CalArts Theater: 213.237.2800 MAP

OR BY PHONE 213.237.2800

ADDITIONAL INFO

REDCAT | Roy & Edna Disney CalArts Theater
631 W. 2nd St
Los Angeles, CA
90012
213.237.2800

OR BY PHONE
213.237.2800

	Websites REDCAT | Roy & Edna Disney CalArts Theater Rinde Eckert: And God Created Great Whales tickets
	Twitter REDCAT | Roy & Edna Disney CalArts Theater
	Facebook REDCAT | Roy & Edna Disney CalArts Theater

ADDITIONAL INFO

REDCAT | Roy & Edna Disney CalArts Theater
631 W. 2nd St
Los Angeles, CA
90012
213.237.2800

OR BY PHONE
213.237.2800

REDCAT | Roy & Edna Disney CalArts Theater: 213.237.2800 MAP

Image courtesy of The Porters of Hellsgate present Shakespeare’s Troilus & Cressida

At its absolute best and brilliant moments, Troilus & Cressida is a kinetic, thrilling, and powerful look at an unfortunate, useless family feud; the Trojan war.

The Porters of Hellsgate open strong, using fun and forceful tribal choreography to launch the audience in to the midst of the ongoing struggle over the possession of a human treasure, Helen, Queen of Troy.

The cast offers striking beats of emotional and lyrical syncopation. Nearly every performer hits it out of the park at least once in delivering a moment of clear connection to the text, context, and fellow players, providing the Porters’ Troilus & Cressida the promise of top notch play.

The Porters’ production zings and bursts beyond the trappings of it’s NOHO Black Box in the physical expressions of the war itself. The climactic fights at the end of the show, and the tidbits of choreography drizzled throughout as tantalizing teaser serve only to cement its lesser aspects. What if Director Charles Pasternak had found more ways to liven the non physical scenes to foster better engagement with an audience disinclined to head out to a four hundred year old play? The lackluster execution of costumes and other production design limitations distract as Troilus & Cressida exposes its own flaw- a vacillation of tone which this show struggles to overcome.

Unfortunately, Troilus & Cresida is bogged down in uneven performances detailing Grecian and Trojan meditations on the meaning of life, value of war, and machinations of the pride of a warrior- not to mention the title’s (sub)plot of Troilus’ determined, yet ultimately futile attempt to secure his true love as his bride.

With their Troilus & Cressida, The Porters of Hellsgate add to their collection of solid attacks on classic works. While this show is enjoying a bit of a renaissance of late, there IS a reason it is not oft produced. The Porters have found a way to attack the show and make the most of their company’s resources. This production should please patrons seeking out classical theater and adventurous audiences up to the challenge of Shakespeare’s verse in an infrequently produced play that momentarily transcends the limitations of a 99 and under contract.

• The Show
• Links
• Map

The Porters of Hellsgate present Shakespeare’s Troilus & Cressida

TICKETS AND PRICING

GENERAL ADMISSION: $20.00

$15.00 for students/seniors 60+/AEA

Thematic content includes: Love, Sex, Violence, Self Destruction, Dance/ Movement, Highbrow, Lowbrow, Humor

DATES AND TIMES

This show runs: 01/13/2012 to 02/19/2012

Mondays: 8:00pm
Wednesdays: 8:30 pm
Thursdays: 8:30 pm
Fridays: 8:00pm
Saturdays: 8:00pm
Sundays: 2:00pm

The Whitmore-Lindley Theatre Complex: 818-325-2055 MAP

OR BY PHONE 818-325-2055

ADDITIONAL INFO

The Whitmore-Lindley Theatre Complex
11006 Magnolia Blvd
North Hollywood, CA
91601
818-325-2055

OR BY PHONE
818-325-2055

	Websites The Whitmore-Lindley Theatre Complex The Porters of Hellsgate tickets
	Twitter The Porters of Hellsgate
	Facebook The Porters of Hellsgate present Shakespeare’s Troilus & Cressida The Porters of Hellsgate

ADDITIONAL INFO

The Whitmore-Lindley Theatre Complex
11006 Magnolia Blvd
North Hollywood, CA
91601
818-325-2055

OR BY PHONE
818-325-2055

The Whitmore-Lindley Theatre Complex: 818-325-2055 MAP

Image courtesy of O(h)

Incredibly charming. That sums up the confectionery treat that Liz Casebolt and Joel Smith have spun together in O(h), their light and breezy, genre defying piece playing through February, 19 at The Actor’s Company Theatre in West Hollywood.

Clocking in at an hour, including the shortest intermission in performance history, Casebolt and Smith, modern dance choreographers by trade, dish up slices of comedy, sexual politics, movement, and even delve in to the meaning (or lack thereof) present in pieces of contemporary dance.

Because they are based in the world of dance, Casebolt and Smith get away with presenting pieces of ’sketch’ and song that may not make the grade in a stand alone cabaret performance, but actually work within the winking, broken fourth wall context of this show to fully endear themselves to the audience.

Where O(h) truly shines, however, is a segment that helps to define choreography and artistic appropriation to a crowd that may not be steeped in the collaborative process of creating live performance. As the duo dance a ‘traditional’ contemporary duet, a voice over details the history of the ‘Amen break,’ a six second cut of a drum solo by The Winstons’ Gregory Cylvester Coleman that became the most heavily sampled drum loop used in Hip Hop, Breakbeat, and the basis for Drum n’ Bass and Jungle music.

O(h) allows the audience to internalize the importance of how this simple bit of drums from a 1969 B Side release spawned countless songs and musical genres, and then asks that you take the intellectual leap to understand that choreographers create dances in the same way that a producer or dj creates a song from the Amen break.

O(h) is a sure hit for anyone loosely affiliated with the dance community, a big ‘in’ joke about contemporary dance that Casebolt and Smith make accessible to audiences with no understanding of or history with the artform.

• The Show
• Video
• Links
• Map

O(h)

TICKETS AND PRICING

GENERAL ADMISSION: $30.00

Students/seniors: $22

Thematic content includes: Singing, Dance/ Movement, Highbrow, Lowbrow, Humor

DATES AND TIMES

This show runs: 01/13/2012 to 02/19/2012

Mondays: 8:00pm
Wednesdays: 8:30 pm
Thursdays: 8:30 pm
Fridays: 8:00pm
Saturdays: 8:00pm
Sundays: 5:00pm

Actors Company Theatre: 323-463-4639 MAP

OR BY PHONE 800-838-3006

ADDITIONAL INFO

Actors Company Theatre
916 N. Formosa Ave
Unit A
West Hollywood, CA
90046
323-463-4639

OR BY PHONE
800-838-3006

Click here if video is not visible

ADDITIONAL INFO

Actors Company Theatre
916 N. Formosa Ave
Unit A
West Hollywood, CA
90046
323-463-4639

OR BY PHONE
800-838-3006

	Websites Actors Company Theatre O(h) casebolt and smith tickets
	Twitter
	Facebook casebolt and smith

ADDITIONAL INFO

Actors Company Theatre
916 N. Formosa Ave
Unit A
West Hollywood, CA
90046
323-463-4639

OR BY PHONE
800-838-3006

Actors Company Theatre: 323-463-4639 MAP

Image courtesy of Sweet Charity

SWEET CHARITY by Secondline Productions is frighteningly unbalanced. Fans of the film version of the musical are want to flock to the production to relive the fantastic songs live, and hope to catch a fun romp in this seldom produced Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields, Neil Simon show from ‘way back when’ in 1966. Unfortunately, design choices, financial limitations, and certain bland performances take this charming throwback and force it to life, shoving it into gear after gear without bothering to engage the clutch.

The show is not without moments of triumph… The richness and fun of the dance numbers at the ‘ritzy’ club took full advantage of the cast, filling the stage and energizing the audience. Charity, Nickie, and Helene’s There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This works wonderfully. The indication of a ride on the subway made real by the hand straps and passengers is a nice moment. Charity and Oscar’s scene at the Mexican restaurant is heartbreaking, truthful, and sincere.

SWEET CHARITY is a tricky production to bring to life. Finding the right balance in some of the characters is tough fifty years on, when tastes and styles have changed. Just as Brooke Seguin’s Charity settles in to a great, believable presence, Vittorio comes off as an incompetent over actor off of the screen. Daddy, supposedly a tremendously charismatic leader, is swallowed up by the cast in The Rhythm Of Life, offering up a bland wisp of what could have been a stunning show stopper of a performance.

This unevenness is seen in most of the elements of the show. Sometimes the sets are unnoticeable, servicing the action. At other times they come off as so inexpensive and cheesy that they are visually distracting. The decision to place all of the dance hall girls in white lingerie is a unifying touch, but they come off as cheap and bland- just like Vittorio’s ten dollar top hat. It is impossible for the quality of the vocal presence of the cast to overcome deficiencies that border on the low rung of community theater. It is just as difficult for an audience to truly engage in suspension of disbelief.

All in all, an audience really needing a fix of SWEET CHARITY in the flesh will enjoy their time, but this production suffers from an overwhelming lack of cohesive vision, or perhaps shows the scars of really rough behind the scenes troubles for the creative team. Which is a shame. After all, down deep, aren’t we all just suckers for love?

• The Show
• Links
• Map

Sweet Charity

TICKETS AND PRICING

GENERAL ADMISSION: $25.00

Thematic content includes: Love, Sex, Singing, Live Music, Dance/ Movement, Humor

DATES AND TIMES

This show runs: 10/28/2011 to 11/20/2011

Mondays: 8:00pm
Wednesdays: 8:30 pm
Thursdays: 8:30 pm
Fridays: 8:00pm
Saturdays: 8:00pm
Sundays: 3:00pm

No show Friday, Nov. 18th

The Knightsbridge Theatre: MAP

OR BY PHONE 1-800-838-3006

ADDITIONAL INFO

The Knightsbridge Theatre
1944 Riverside Drive
Los Angeles, CA
90039

OR BY PHONE
1-800-838-3006

	Websites Sweet Charity Secondline Productions tickets
	Twitter Sweet Charity Secondline Productions
	Facebook Sweet Charity Secondline Productions

ADDITIONAL INFO

The Knightsbridge Theatre
1944 Riverside Drive
Los Angeles, CA
90039

OR BY PHONE
1-800-838-3006

The Knightsbridge Theatre: MAP

Written in 1946, PEACE IN OUR TIME is Noel Coward’s postulation on a United Kingdom under the thumb of an occupying Nazi force. As the nation is worn down by their Nazi ‘guests’ Coward examines how the occupation effects the pulse of a nation, and how each character chooses to react to the hard facts of life in wartime.

Coward’s examination of the toll of foreign occupation on a society is certainly relevant at a time when Americans are at war, but only a sliver of the population is bearing the brunt (with treasure or blood,) and populist movements attempt to define both ends of our political spectrum.

With the local pub standing in for the nation as a whole, regulars either submit to the occupation and surrender identity and values in exchange for riches and preferential treatment by their Nazi overlords, or defy the occupiers and fight, understanding the consequences will most likely be dire. Being an examination of a society, and not the war itself, the villain is not a Nazi, but an effete British intellectual.

The team at Antaeus, headed by Barry Creyton in conjunction with The Noel Coward Society, has reworked the original text. Roughly forty minutes of dated political rhetoric has been cut with no discernible loss to plot or pacing. In an ingenious move, 11 lesser known Noel Coward songs have been worked in to the show, highlighting the mood of the times.

The songs shine as the emotional core of the show, contributing touching, powerful moments that serve as both counterweight to, and amplifiers of, the dire straights our Britons find themselves in.

PEACE IN OUR TIME features immersive sound cues by John Zalewski and a detailed set care of Tom Buderwitz, paired with some gorgeous Forties looks by Jesica Olson and solid performances of over 20 speaking roles by the Antaeus ensemble under the direction of Casey Stangl. In an age when ‘Broadway’ touring companies at the Pantages feel paired down for the road, this Noel Coward reworking is a must for fans of Coward’s music and large casts alike.

*Antaeus double casts all of their productions. The Epp’s Cocoa cast performed the night of this review.

• The Show
• Links
• Map

Peace In Our Time

TICKETS AND PRICING

GENERAL ADMISSION: $15.00

Thursdays and Fridays: $30 Saturdays and Sundays: $34 Press Openings (All press openings include a post-show reception with the actors):Friends and Family Openings (October 20 & 21): $40 Gala Openings (October 22 & 23): $75Previews: $15

Thematic content includes: Live Music

DATES AND TIMES

This show runs: 10/20/2011 to 12/11/2011

Mondays: 8:00pm
Wednesdays: 8:30 pm
Thursdays: 8:00pm
Fridays: 8:00pm
Saturdays: 8:00pm
Sundays: 2:30pm

Dark on Thursday, Nov 24

Deaf West Theatre: 818-506-1983 MAP

OR BY PHONE 818-506-1983

ADDITIONAL INFO

Deaf West Theatre
5112 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA
91601
818-506-1983

OR BY PHONE
818-506-1983

	Websites Peace In Our Time The Antaeus Company tickets
	Twitter The Antaeus Company
	Facebook The Antaeus Company

ADDITIONAL INFO

Deaf West Theatre
5112 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA
91601
818-506-1983

OR BY PHONE
818-506-1983

Deaf West Theatre: 818-506-1983 MAP

Image courtesy of Scott Groller

MYTH AND INFRASTRUCTURE was performed as a part of RADAR L.A. on a bill with CHRISTINE MARIE & ENSEMBLE: GROUND TO CLOUD.

In MYTH AND INFRASTRUCTURE, Miwa Matreyek presents a multi layered animated film that she inserts herself into. Matreyek becomes a life size shadow puppet, utilizing her own form in performance to interact with the mythic worlds of fantasy and industry she finds herself within.

Matreyek begins as a conjurer, as if her shadow is playing a video game with the images on screen, cutting fruit, flipping the pages of a book, imposing her power over the animation with magic dots reminiscent of modern day motion sensitive games.

MYTH AND INFRASTRUCTURE quickly moves into a more ethereal realm, as Matreyek asks how we, a society steeped in creation, come to terms with the fact that our industrial creations destroy the wondrous natural world around us. Her shadow’s towering presence amongst her animated creations reminds the viewer of their own out sized ego and false assumption of their own significance. Even though we strive to control the world around us, we are each truly insignificant in comparison to the powerful forces of nature.

Matreyek attempts to present it all in a non threatening way, using ‘friendly,’ cute animations and sound. For her finale she even offers up her treatise as a sugary confection; a cake she has baked just for you, as if she has wrapped up the show and her treatise in a tidy bow for you to enjoy.

Matreyek’s work is all about the insertion of the human form and live human performance into a pre-shot, pre-scripted animation. But the wonder of live performance disappears completely when the only vestige of a live performer she allows us to see is a two dimensional shadow, no different than any other animation projected upon the screen that confines the performance.

While she works hard to create ‘magical’ interactions between her shadow and the animations, there is no clear reason for her ‘live’ presence. Each interaction feels canned and preordained, without the danger, thrill, and invention that the best theatrical productions conjure up within their audience.

MYTH AND INFRASTRUCTURE would be better served as a clear cut video installation, replacing her ‘live shadow’ work with an additional layer of animation. In contrast with GROUND TO CLOUD, which she shared the bill with, Matreyek’s performance is painfully cold, detached, and removed from the fantastic transformative qualities of live performance.

• The Show
• Video
• Links
• Map

Christine Marie & Ensemble: GROUND TO CLOUD / Miwa Matreyek: MYTH and INFRASTRUCTURE

TICKETS AND PRICING

GENERAL ADMISSION: $20.00

Thematic content includes: Site Specific

DATES AND TIMES

This show runs: 06/15/2011 to 06/18/2011

Mondays: 8:00pm
Wednesdays: 3:30 pm
Thursdays: 3:30 pm & 7:30 pm
Fridays: 7:30 pm
Saturdays: 2:00 pm
Sundays: 2:30pm

Los Angeles Theatre Center: 4th Floor: 213-237-2800 MAP

OR BY PHONE 213-237-2800

ADDITIONAL INFO

Los Angeles Theatre Center: 4th Floor
LATC: 4th Floor
514 South Spring St
Los Angeles, CA
90013
213-237-2800

OR BY PHONE
213-237-2800

Click here if video is not visible

ADDITIONAL INFO

Los Angeles Theatre Center: 4th Floor
LATC: 4th Floor
514 South Spring St
Los Angeles, CA
90013
213-237-2800

OR BY PHONE
213-237-2800

	Websites Los Angeles Theatre Center: 4th Floor Christine Marie & Ensemble: GROUND TO CLOUD / Miwa Matreyek: MYTH and INFRASTRUCTURE RADAR L.A. tickets
	Twitter
	Facebook Christine Marie & Ensemble: GROUND TO CLOUD / Miwa Matreyek: MYTH and INFRASTRUCTURE RADAR L.A.

ADDITIONAL INFO

Los Angeles Theatre Center: 4th Floor
LATC: 4th Floor
514 South Spring St
Los Angeles, CA
90013
213-237-2800

OR BY PHONE
213-237-2800

Los Angeles Theatre Center: 4th Floor: 213-237-2800 MAP