Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
'Home: A Dramatic Improvisation' Brings Instant Awesomeness To The Stage
Ian Forester and Jet Eveleth in 'Home: A Dramatic Improvisation' (Photo courtesy of Needtheater).
()
Needtheater's new theatrical experiment, Home: A Dramatic Improvisation, is playing at Moving Arts Hyperion Station. Unlike a standard stage play with memorized dialogue and blocking, Home is completely improvised. Originally conceptualized by Erica Elam and Jet Eveleth, the work does not have a traditional playwright. Every performance is essentially a new play with an instantaneously conceived plot loosely structured around a backstory of a close, but imperfect family. Home offers audiences an exciting, engaging, and surprised-filled hour of theatre that highlights interpersonal familial complexity through singularly unique performances.
()
Kate Duffy in 'Home: A Dramatic Improvisation' (Photo courtesy of Needtheater).
Elam, Eveleth, Kate Duffy, Ian Forester, Bret Elam, and Kristina Johnson -- the ensemble cast of Home -- is a risk-taking bunch that curates improvised plot quickly and instinctively to fully capture a sense of self-reflective realism. Superficially, the performance is a work with a solid, believable, and relatable improvised story line. The most striking element of Home is how heavily the cast captures significance through subcontext and meta-communication. The Home cast is like a living, breathing lens into which the intricacies of human behavior can be spied upon. Elam (Erica) is particularly full of surprises and constantly pivots the plot in unexpected directions.Home has no traditional director as the cast self-directs while improvising. Their theatrical constructions feel and look perfectly natural. The pressure generated from making up a play on the spot is always redirected into a simmering, contagious warmth imbued with gravitas. The set for the production is simple, but does give the audience the sense that they are willing spies, and at times, voyeurs, into the lives of the central characters. What the production lacks in over-rehearsed polish, it makes up for in raw, gritty authenticity that is absolutely enjoyable.
Home: A Dramatic Improvisation is playing at Moving Arts Hyperion Station through June 25. Tickets are by donation and available at the door.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity. -
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
Monarch butterflies are on a path to extinction, but there is a way to support them — and maybe see them in your own yard — by planting milkweed.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
-
The weather’s been a little different lately, with humidity, isolated rain and wind gusts throughout much of Southern California. What’s causing the late-summer bout of gray?
Best of LAist