Results tagged “theater”

Since its inception in 1999, the members of the Lodestone Theatre Ensemble "have always done the shows we wanted the way we wanted,” asserts company co-founder Philip W. Chung. “We were all young back then, and none of us had any experience running a theater company. Maybe if we knew better, we wouldn’t have done it that way. But we’ve maintained our identity the whole time and we never deviated from our initial mission: to stretch the definition of Asian-American theater."

Culture Clash--the Latino performance troupe that hilariously rips the U.S. melting pot--takes to the Royce Hall stage at UCLA tonight. For their 25th anniversary special, the Culture Clash boys are back in their hometown for a raucous party with an all-star guest list: Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine; the band Ollin; comedian Carlos Mencia; actors Edward James Olmos, Tony Plana and Lupe Ontiveros; and other special guests. They’ll preview their next project: "Palestine, New Mexico" and reprise hits from "Chavez Ravine." Tickets: $32-$60 ($15 UCLA Students) 

Born in New Orleans forty-odd years ago, choreographer/performer Meg Stuart came to REDCAT last week with a lot under her belt. After spending her collegiate years at New York University, she danced with Trisha Brown alumnus Randy Warshaw’s company before being offered an opportunity to showcase and develop her own voice in Brussels, Belgium 15 years ago. Since this relocation, she has been afforded state support from the arts-aware nation where she lives, as well as commissions from international funders and collaborating artists and presenters.


The 8th Annual Precious Cheese Feast of San Gennaro, Los Angeles, begins today and runs through Sunday on Highland, just south of Hollywood Boulevard. There will be Italian eats, games, rides and entertainment. And, of course, Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Corrolla among the celebs celebrating all things Italia. Admission is $5, but kids under 12 free.


Breadbar and Chef Nori of Ironori Concepts launched the “the hatchi series”; in June, with a guest chef event showcasing culinary treats the last Thursday of the month. Each series’ menu features eight small plate courses (six savory items and two desserts) priced at $8 per dish. Each guest must order a minimum of three dishes. Reservations are available from 6-10 pm tonight. Guest chef is Remi Lauvand with plates like Barramundi, Lady Peas, Watercress, Prosciutto, Basil Jus; Mini Tropézienne, Santa Barbara Pistachios and Chocolate Cracker; Slow Cooked Veal Breast, Carrottes Rissolées, Arugula; Penryn Orchard Pear, Crepe, Sofia Goat Cheese, Young Walnuts and more.

Good kitsch is hard to find these days. But not at Ghettogloss tonight because it’s the Allee Willis Museum of Kitsch Closing Karaoke Night from 7-11 pm. On display are hundreds of artifacts from her personal kitsch collection. There’s going to be a karaoke sing-off of Allee's classic Earth Wind & Fire hit, "September," at the party ("Do you remember...the 21st night of September...?") plus other surprises.

Today’s the last day for Hannah Beth’s “Things I Love” pop-up shop at Royal/T in Culver City. Her collection features reconstructed vintage fashions, art, jewelry, sunglasses and accessories of Laeken, Lily L, Esther Kim, Danny Roberts, Ivy Ensley, Adri Law, Lauren Ishii, Lulu Christine and Cinderella.

The Actors Gang presents The Trial of the Catonsville Nine tonight at 8 pm. The play brings to life the 1968 trial of two Catholic priests and seven other activists who committed an act of civil disobedience to protest the Vietnam War. “The play presents a moral imperative to commit civil disobedience when national hubris and global corporate interests act against the welfare of the nation and the well-being of the international community.” The production runs through Sunday, where the matinee performance will be followed by a gala reception hosted by actor Tim Robbins and United Talent Agency. Tickets for tonight’s show are $25; gala tickets for the Sunday show are $250 ($200 is tax-deductible).

It’s Ukulele Night at the Manhattan Beach Library starting at 7 pm tonight. The little guitar is finally being taken seriously--and not just as cheap tourist trinket from Hawaii. Ukulele performer and teacher Mitch Chang will play and show uke aficionados a few chords and songs. People are welcome to bring their own ukulele or just drop by to listen.

Amoeba holds its weekly Monday night series of music-related films in the courtyard of Space15Twenty. Tonight’s free screening is Trouble The Water, an award-winning look at Hurricane Katrina.Tia Lessin and Carl Deal tell the story of an aspiring rap artist and her husband who survive the storm and then take a chance for a new beginning. The DVD comes out tomorrow from Zeitgeist Films, and will be made available for early sale at the screening. The movie starts at 8 pm.

Grand Performances at California Plaza features Adaawe, a six-member international group of women - from Kenya, Morocco, Brazil and the United States - who blend drums, percussion and voices with high-octane funk, Gospel-infused lyrics and pure joy. The event is free.

If you’re old enough to remember the TV show thirtysomething, then you might be intrested in checking out the reunion for the angst-filled show tonight at 7 pm at the Paley Center. During its four seasons, the show broke new ground for the portrayal for the babyboomers forced to grow up. To commemorate the show and the release of the season 1 DVD, the Paley Center hosts the series’ cast and creative team, including creators Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick and actors Peter Horton and Timothy Busfield, with additional panelists to be announced. Tickets are $20 ($15 for Paley Center members).

The 48th Annual Sunland-Tujunga Watermelon Fest starts this afternoon at 5 pm. On tap for the fest: a watermelon carving display, watermelon eating contest, watermelon seed spitting contest, watermelon recipe contest and the royal coronation of the Watermelon Festival Queen! There’s also a food court, wine and beer garden, artisan exhibits, carnival rides, arcade games, pony rides, petting zoo and more. The festival lasts through the weekend. Admission is $1 and will enter you in a nightly prize drawing.

The sixth annual three week New Original Works Festival ran its course this past weekend downtown at REDCAT. True to its mission, the series showcased new and emerging artists working in new genres as well as mid-career creators further exploring their art or collaborating with other experimenters in other media. Each of the three separate programs was a shared event and this final triptych went down as promised. To begin the evening, comic performer, writer and alumna of cable TV’s The Daily Show, Lauren Weedman presented Off.

Rogue Theater presents Shorts & Sweets tonight at 10:30 pm. It’s an evening of four world premiere one-act plays with three servings of sweets (cookies, cupcakes etc.) that keep to the plays’ themes. On the program are: Keeping Pace by Robin Rothstein, Weedwhaker Tuesday by Amanda Mauer, Free by Craig Pospisil and I Hate L.A. by John Pollono. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 10:30 pm until Aug. 22. Tickets are $15.

The EM & Co boutique is hosting an opening cocktail and appetizer reception for Chris Callaway's first solo photography exhibit "Femme Fatale" tonight from 7-10 pm. His work explores the “dark side of female seduction through a series of portraits and fashion editorial photos.” DJ Vancans will also be on hand spinning original compositions.

Reform School, an art, craft and design shop, is holding an an opening reception for Savanna Snow’s new show “Charming Cobras.” It’s an Indian-inspired theme with Indian snacks from Jaredfood and live sitar music. The reception starts at 7 pm. Preview the show here.

The NoHo Arts District has over 20 live theatre spaces, but no movie theatre of note nearby. Part of the redevelopment of the neighborhood--besides adding public art that LAist readers dislike--is the third phase of the NoHo Commons development that includes a mixed use building, Phil's Diner, a parking garage and a seven-screen Laemmle Theatre, which is being delayed. "Laemmle Theatre is working on their architectural drawings and hoping to secure financing to be able to start construction," according to Curbed LA.

Last weekend, the noted Bruce Norris play, "The Pain and the Itch" opened at the Boston Court in Pasadena, earning the Critic's Pick nod from Back Stage. "This astutely designed and intelligently rendered production is a shared feather in the cap for two of L.A.'s most adventurous theater companies," wrote Les Spindle of the Furious Theatre Company's production.

Buzzworks Theater Company presents “Angst! A Radical Night of 80s Oddities” tonight at 8 pm at the Renberg Theatre at The Village at Ed Gould Plaza. The company will reinvent favorite 80s classics for the stage. The local indie-pop band, Populuxe, will be covering the biggest hits of the decade with celebrity guest singers. Audience members will be invited to mix and mingle with the stars at a post-show cocktail reception. Tickets are $25 and will help benefit the company.

For the second time this summer, traveling troupe Cirque Berzerk has extended their run, this time through the end of August. This just confirms to us that Los Angeles is indeed ready for permanent high quality acts. Soon Cirque du Soleil will be arriving for a 10 year show at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, but what else? Can this city support a Blue Man Group theatre? Would it go on the revived Broadway? Can we give Vegas a little run for their money? Let's hope so, L.A.

NewFilmmakers LA screens “Youth Knows No Pain + 5 Short Films” tonight at 6:30 pm at Sunset Gower Studios. At 7 pm, there’s a screening of Mitch McCabe’s documentary Youth Knows No Pain, followed at 8:45 pm by the short films: Old Dogs (Dir. Jonathan Fahn) Propel (Dir. Jay Gammill) The Dying Western (Dir. Michael Kortlander) A Kolor to Kill for (Dir. Tim Hall). Guest will have the opportunity to mingle with the directors and participate in an audience Q&A session. Tickets are a bargain at $6 which includes screening ticket and free open bar and appetizers all evening.

Remember the classic Griffith Observatory show when "the audience sat in dentist-like chairs so they could watch whirling laser beams dance on the domed ceiling to the classic rock tunes of Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon,' Led Zeppelin and the Beatles"? Well, it's back, reports the Daily News in a feature today. But there are some changes, most notably with new technology and its new pedestrian friendly location at the Historic Vine Theater at Hollywood and Vine. And apparently, the popcorn glows in the dark.

Tonight’s the opening night for Cole Porter’s Red, Hot and Blue! at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks. This Depression era screwball comedy deals with a National Lottery offering a first prize to anyone who finds a long-lost love with a rare identification mark. Included are the Cole Porter classics "It's De-Lovely," "Down in the Depths (On the 90th Floor)," "Ridin' High" and "Red, Hot and Blue!" The show begins at 8 pm tonight and runs through July 5.

We are all lucky enough to live in a region rich in arts, especially theatre. And Pasadena has one of the strongest presences around with its Playhouse District, which includes the Boston Court Performing Arts Center (follow them on Twitter) where a new world premiere play, Courting Vampires, opened this earlier this month.

Mother daughter relationships are complicated to begin with. Power struggles, personality clashes, communication misfires. But add to that the question of whether mom once tried to kill her little girl, and things go quickly from complicated to depraved.

The two-day Los Angeles Lebowski Fest culminates with -- what else? -- a bowling party at Cal Bowl in Lakewood. There will be plenty of entertainment and guest appearances by actors from the Coen brothers’ 1998 cult classic The Big Lebowski. The 21+ party begins at 9 pm. Tickets are $27.50 and includes general admission, bowling* and shoe rental. (*Bowling is general admission and not guaranteed.)

Over the course of a woman's reproductive years, the idea of getting knocked up takes on different meanings. It can be terrifying at times, and if she wants children, all-consuming at others. In her new play, "Family Planning," Julia Edwards explores one couples' experience as they navigate the tail end of those years.

When you sign up for an evening with a Henrik Ibsen production, you know what you’re getting into: The drama, the heaviness, the repression oozing from the script. But what you don’t always expect is a good production with impeccable acting. But that’s exactly what LAist found with A Noise Within’s production of Ibsen’s 1891 play Ghosts.

The Aero begins a two-night stint featuring the “The Erotic Films of Pier Paolo Pasolini,” and Italian filmmaker, screenwriter, essayist, poet, critic and novelist. He considered himself a Catholic Marxist despite having being kicked out from the Communist Party for being gay. Tonight’s double feature begins at 7:30 pm with The Decameron (1970), which is based on a Giovanni Bocaccio novel. The film’s followed by the way more intense Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975). The film depicts “with cold precision the sexual and psychological atrocities visited on 16 young men and women, held hostage by a group of depraved nobles at the end of WWII.” Due to the graphic sexual nature of these films, no one under 18 will be admitted to the screenings.