Actor Ashley Nugent was at the iO West Theater in a rehearsal yesterday when a car smashed into the front of the building. She explains what happened from her perspective: All of the sudden there was this incredibly long screech of tires. It was long enough for all of us to look at each other and wonder if this was going to end in a crash. Oh yeah, it did. It was this horrific breakage......

It's classic romantic comedy formula--Boy Meets Girl, Boy Falls for Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy Gets Girl--but it has its roots in the venerable tradition of BritLit icon Jane Austen, whose mere six novels continue to capture the modern imagination. But imagine coming up with a full Austen-esque plot line, characters, witty repartee, and resolution in about 90 minutes? It's no easy feat, but for ImproTheatre's Unscripted Repertory performers (some pictured at right), it's simply......

Midnight Ridazz are rolling with the alphabet tonight. / Photo by ~db~ via LAist’s flickr pool. SPOKEN WORD It’s Spoken Word night at the Echo Park Film Center, where artists and writers gather to read a range of work. “Past readings have included critical theory, fiction, drama, poetry, performance, erotica, excerpts from plays, poorly written ad copy promoting consumables, letters to your math teacher and more.” On the schedule tonight are writers/performers: Kim Calder,......

Photo by Paul Antico, courtesy of the artist You know you've experienced it, talked about it or even watched it somewhere along the line, but Christine Suarez DanceTheater is taking female orgasm and, together with an intergenerational group of women, she's presenting dance theater about it in the ecologically-sound Eco Cottages this Friday and Saturday nights on the Venice Beach.......

Photo by Maryam S. via Flickr ... on the sidewalk at the ever so iconic Westwood building, the Village Theatre Westwood (961 Broxton Ave). Have fun! Update, 3:56 p.m.: The Kooks are walking over to the UCLA campus to play. No word yet on where they are headed specifically. Update, 4:33 p.m.: About 150 showed up for the initial concert and now The Kooks are heading to a frat house to play, possibly indoors.......

In 1991, "resocialized" murderer and Austrian writer Jack Unterweger visited Los Angeles to pen a story about the difference between attitudes toward prostitution between Europe and the United States. Unterweger's initial long term imprisonment was for killing a prostitute by strangling her with her own bra, but was released after 14 years. While in the the LA area, he killed three prostitutes and fled California, eventually being caught by the FBI in Miami. Once back in Austria, he was convicted of eleven homicides and committed suicide....

Photo Megan Geckler's art by susan catherine via LAist Featured Photos This is a purposefully backdated post for a National Arts Marketing Project (NAMP) workshop called "The New Frontier Part Two: Blogging, Social Networking and YouTube!" organized by the LA Stage Alliance with guest speakers D. Jean Hester and LAist Editor, Zach Behrens. The following are notes and reference links for workshop participants. BLOGS - Video: Blogs in Plain English - General Blogs: boingboing,......

Fans of the indie cult favorite Shortbus who want to catch Tobias the Mayor, known in theatre circles as the legendary actor Alan Mandell, in what the Los Angeles Times dubbed last year as “one of the five best performances you’ll see in this lifetime,” should circle Monday, April 7 on their calendar. That’s when tickets go on sale to the public for Mandell’s short two-week return engagement as Francis Biddle in Trying from......

On Saturday, March 8rd I went down to Silverlake's Manual Archives (a "Microtheater") and saw a strange and wonderful play called Concrete Folk Variations Part 1: Death Of A Sugar Daddy. Written and designed by Susan Simpson, this absurdly titled play is a surprisingly gripping thriller about city corruption, sex and murder, set against the backdrop of LA's gay underground during the McCarthy era. It had literally everything - A scandal revealing the black underbelly......

The company of "Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" | Photo by DavidAllenStudio.com Written by Stephen Sondheim, the original "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" is a classic. The most recent Tim Burton screen adaptation of Edward Sissorhands the musical was "meh." And last night's Los Angeles premiere under John Doyle's direction was, simply put, purely amazing. It begins as the lights go down in the house and up on......

Matt Belknap is changing the way people experience comedy. As founder of Aspecialthing.com , Matt's created a place where comedy nerds, whether they be fans or the artists themselves, can discuss the art form they love so much. But Belknap isn't only a comedy fan. He runs See You Next Tuesday at the UCB Theater, is producer of and panelist on Never Not Funny, one of the I-Tunes picks for best Podcasts of '06 and......

Matt Belknap is changing the way people experience comedy. As founder of Aspecialthing.com , Matt's created a place where comedy nerds, whether they be fans or the artists themselves, can discuss the art form they love so much. But Belknap isn't only a comedy fan. He runs See You Next Tuesday at the UCB Theater, is producer of and panelist on Never Not Funny, one of the I-Tunes picks for best Podcasts of '06......

Part of an ongoing series. On Saturday evening, local green-minded band (and Go Magazine covergirls) The Ditty Bops (MySpace), with Jesca Hoop (MySpace), John Reynolds, and Kaveh Rastegar (MySpace), performed at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. The shows also celebrated the release of The Ditty Bops' third full-length album, Summer Rains, with Hoop singing backup on three tracks: "Skinny Bones," "What Happened To The Radio," and "Feel From The Outside In." The Ditty......

If, like me, you were such a huge fan of Muppets and costumed creatures growing up that you're practically anti-CGI, you should head over to the Silent Movie Theater on March 18th for "Jim Henson's Commercials & Experiments"! The screening starts at 8pm and will feature rare clips, shorts and commercials from Jim Henson's studio archives, including experimental animation and "a 35mm print of Time Piece, an Academy Award nominated 8-minute masterpiece that showcases Henson’s......

LAist catches up with Michael J. Nelson, a former host of Mystery Science Theater 3000, as he talks about his latest project, RiffTrax. In the interview, he also gives us the scoop about political ads, bloopers and a possible live event in Los Angeles....

Director/choreographer/performer Liz Hoefner seems to bring her life to the stage. While this isn't a new or different way of making theater, Ms. Hoefner's life is filled with humorous moments that surround the challenges of being alive in our 21st century. Performed this past weekend at the Diavolo Dance Space downtown, her new work, Fear of Drowning/Fear of Flying, included a large cast of dancers, actors and musicians. These people loaded the stage with big......

Drinks with Digital LA tonight at Bodega Bar in Santa Monica (and yes, this is not the Bodega bar) / Photo by C-Monster via LAist's photo pool. FILM I am so scaaared. Writer/director Eli Roth (Hostel) continues his reign at the New Beverly in “The Greats of Roth” series. Tonight, he’s screening the double-feature of The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Cannibal Holocaust (1980), an earlier film that deals with a missing documentary film......

In Orange County, CA, a nearly empty theater Sunday night became a crime scene when two men watching the Sundance raved-about gruesome horror movie, The Signal, got stabbed by another man who fled through the back doors. ...

See the video of this above picture below | Photo courtesy of the company En route to performances in New York, the highly acclaimed Irish company CoisCeim Dance Theatre, will make a stop at the Irvine BarclayTheater this Tuesday, February 26 -- its premiere West Coast engagement. Pronounced "kush came," the company will present their award winning evening length work, Knots, based on psychologist R.D. Laing 's book by the same title. Both the......

Next time your uncle and aunt are in town skip the usual Hollywood Boulevard shenanigans. The Walk of Fame and Mann's Chinese Theater are just as exciting as they look on Google Images. Instead take them to Pincher's Liquor and crush their spirits with these unusual murals.......

photo courtesy of artist Local independent dance artist Liz Hoefner has directed and choreographed Fear of Drowning/Fear of Flying and will present its premiere this Friday through Sunday at the Diavolo Dance Space in the Brewery Arts Complex. According to her, the new dance theater work is a collection of stories, dialogues and dances that relate to actual and metaphorical fears of traveling, flying, drowning and dying in a post 9/11, tsunami, and Hurricane......

photo courtesy of the artist This Thursday through Saturday, award winning Argentine choreographer Diana Szeinblum is bringing four performers to REDCAT to present "Alaska" in its theater below Disney Hall. In her promotional material, Buenos Aires-based Szeinblum calls the work a "container of memories where everything that has not been said regarding a personal experience is kept." With original music by Ulises Conti for piano and viola and a physical language Szeinblum calls "extreme,"......

Walking away from the Mayan Theater on Tuesday night, dazed, my ears still ringing and images of brightly-colored wrestling unitards still flashing before my eyes, I was transported back through time and space to a little strip club in Montana called Shotgun Willie’s, on a hot night last August. I was sitting on the stage, handcuffed to the pole by a naked young blonde woman for what's called a "hostage dance." Out of the......

Killing on the big screen at the New Beverly tonight, courtesy of Eli Roth. / Photo by hemmob via flickr. TALK Author Katha Pollitt discusses her new book On Learning to Drive: And Other Life Stories with UC Irvine Professor Jon Wiener as part of the ALOUD at the Central Library series. Pollitt is a poet and columnist for The Nation who’ll discuss her latest essays that deal with sex, death, ex-lovers, politics, motherhood,......

So I'm a fairly new resident of Studio City, and am still discovering little surprises on this side of town. Driving down Ventura, I have twice noticed a small, nondescript building bearing a sign with the letters ICA at Colfax Ave., which, upon closer examination while sitting at a red light, rest above the casually printed name "Intercontinental Absurdities." Clearly, this was something that called for investigation. It sounded a bit like something out......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on LAist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Kanye West at the Nokia Theater, tickets went on sale today! Other People's Love Letters, the book where you can see 150 love letters you were never meant to see. Joe Jackson's Rain, available now on Amazon.com. Nik Bärtsch's Ronin, the new album that's available now. Busted......

Just in time for the release one of the most anticipated titles for the Wii this year, the folks over at Nintendo are staging a regional tournament for fans of Super Smash Brothers Brawl, the game that just recently shattered Wii sales records in Japan. According to our sources, the first 256 people who show up at the Orpheum theater downtown will have a chance to fight to the finish in an attempt to......

And you thought the Burger King Chicken was crazy? Check out the Crazy Chickens this week at the Mayan / Photo by upslases via flickr. TALK Could you not get into Michael Pollan last night at the Central Library? No worries because American eating habits and food policy are a hot topic this week. Tonight, the Center for Healthy Communities presents “Hungry for Change: The Politics of Food with Marion Nestle.” The nutritionist, author......

Today it became official. Mark Lisanti, the Editor of Defamer since mid-2004, is done as of this Friday: Of the 9 or 10,000 posts I've done since we started this site, this one is the hardest to write. After almost four years here at Defamer, I've decided it's finally time to move on. In an effort to keep this short and sweet, I'll be climbing out of the blogging hamster-wheel this Friday, and though I......

Monday Michael Pollan and Barry Glassner discuss In Defense of Food 7pm @ Central Library Cindy Pierce and Edie Thys Morgan presents Finding the Doorbell 7pm @ Book Soup Tuesday Traci Slatton presents Immortal 6:30pm @ Metropolis Books Joe McGinniss and special guest Bret Easton Ellis present The Delivery Man 7pm @ Book Soup Terri Cheney discusses and signs Manic: A Memoir 7pm @ Vroman's Gary Goldberg presents Sit, Ubu, Sit 7pm @ Dutton's......