Results tagged “openfist”

While searching for a one-act play to direct at an upcoming director's festival, playwright, dramaturge, adaptor, and director Cindy Marie Jenkins stumbled across a collection of interviews from individuals affected by the Chernobyl disaster. Deeply moved by the stories of these survivors, Jenkins immediately began adapting the interviews for the stage. Voices from Chornobyl premiered at Open Fist and was later showcased at L.A's annual theatre festival, EdgeFest. Now in its third incarnation, Voices from Chornobyl will be a part of the Empty Stage's New Voices Series Sept. 30th and Oct. 14th.

I don’t know who first said “never judge a book by its cover,” but I think it is safe to assume that for a theatre junkie such as myself, that a play should never be judged by its title. I mention this because as I go through my weekly play-picking ritual, I tend to avoid attending any and all plays that are about love and romance. It just seems to go against my bitter, jaded, and jealous proclivities. But while attending the Idiot Box at the Open Fist Theatre, I noticed that the theatre was also showing a late-night play called Do Do Love by Laura Richardson and donating some of the show’s proceeds to an organization called Hollygrove (see note at the end of this article). Normally, something with the word “love” in the title is a no-go for me, but knowing that for a few dollars I can get some of the theatre that I so crave and do something to help out a great organization totally sealed the deal for me, all anti-romance proclivities aside. And surprisingly, in retrospect, I can say that Do Do Love, was not the mushy-schmaltzy romance that I expected it be, but rather a complex aggregate of plot that dismantled my personal sense of individuality as I had previously understood it to be.

The Idiot Box portrays the structural demise of a group of Friends-esque roommates living in an alternate realm of televised situational comedy (complete with predictable jokes, stereotypes, accepted sexism, and laugh tracks) that slowly collapses under the weight of the crude reality of the modern human condition. This Open Fist Theatre production has all of the traditional markers of a really good drama: Michael Elyanow's new play is a carefully crafted quagmire of complex, yet well-structured writing that painstakingly deconstructs commercialized apathy; Jeremy Cohen's complementary stage direction subtly juggles all of the unnerving discomfort, painful associations, and concocted awe that the Idiot Box inherently emotes with the tact of a Twilight Zone junkie; and the cast skillfully completes the production, straddling both exaggerated artificiality and awakened intensity as their paradigm shifts from that of a sit-com world to one of war, terrorism, poverty, racism, psychological crises, mediocrity, self-loathing, and fear.

Now why would you want to spend your hard-earned dough this weekend on a flick about Chuck and Larry when you can see live, local theater? Here are LAist's five picks for this weekend... Do Do Love Diana lives alone on disability baking cupcakes in her Burbank studio. Her landlord wants to get her out of the apartment and so sends a hottie of a handyman to disrupt her life and up her rent....

Here are LAist's theater picks for this weekend: Angel Feathers How’s this for a few laughs: Imagine a play where all the characters, except a daughter visiting from New York City, have cancer. That’s the premise behind writer Greg Suddeth’s new two-act dark comedy premiering this weekend. The Lost Studio. 130 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles. 323.651.5632. Tickets are $20. Opens Friday at 8 pm. Runs Friday and Saturday at 8 and Sundays...

The Sun: I am The Sun. I am always shining. Shine: I'm called Shine, as was my father before me. Sometimes I shine. Sometimes I dont shine. The Sun: I am The Sun. See me shine. Shine: I am a son, called Shine. Can we swear for a second? Okay, here goes... Fucking amazing. Just fucking amazing. Last night's presentation of week 2 in the yearlong 365 Days/365 Plays festival was just that. The...

In our continuing yearlong coverage of 365 Days/365 Plays, we present you with weeks two through four: Week 2: The Open Fist Theatre Company Tuesday, November 21 at 7:45 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. Friday, November 24 at 10:45 p.m. Saturday, November 25 at 6:45 p.m. Week 3: Playwrights’ Arena Wednesday, November 29, 2006, 8 p.m. Lutheran Church of the Master, 10931 Santa Monica, Los Angeles Week 4: The Elephant Asylum Theatre December 5 -...

Can't get enough of that Russian political satire? This weekend is your last chance to see the Open Fist's production of HOW TO EXPLAIN THE HISTORY OF COMMUNISM TO MENTAL PATIENTS before they head off to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which is sort of the Burning Man-meets-Sundance of theater festivals, with a lot of cobblestones.

Now that the old Actor's Gang space has been hollowed out like a kiwi, and the Open Fist has tenaciously but lightly taken up residence there, the Fist's avant-garde modern dancer friends, Hysterica Dance Company, are taking advantage of the cavernous emptiness of the space with their new work, RAPTURE.

The nominees for the 2004-2005 Ovation Awards have been announced. You can read the full list here. The Ovations are an annual peer-judged awards ceremony for Los Angeles theatre, and are voted on by represesntatives from the member theatre companies of LA Stage Alliance.

The resilient and acclaimed Open Fist Theatre Company, recently thrust from their home of 15 years in Hollywood, has gallantly taken up residence in a new home at the Powerhouse Theatre in Santa Monica. , by Andrew Bovell, is the last show of their 05-06 season. It is a perfect collaboration, not only between two theatre companies, one with a play and no stage, and another with a space and an empty slot in their season, but also between first-time director Stephen Spinella and his agile, miraculous cast. LAIST saw it last Sunday and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Three coins, and no fountain in sight, which is good for us because LAist recently attended the opening night of The Threepenny Opera at the Open Fist Theatre, and we are happy to let you know that Mackie is definitely back in town.

We feel like we don't see enough local theatre. In particular, local theatre by stage actors instead of the Hollywood plays that are often a showcase for actors hoping to get a TV or a film role. Tomorrow night is an opportunity to get a look at some true stage acting...we think.