Mia Bonadonna

Based on the true stories of Downtown residents, the slightly seedy and deeply hilarious gentrification fable "The Vault: (Unlocked)" is currently playing at Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC). Vault Ensemble pokes fun at the hipster colonization of Downtown Los Angeles, bundling social commentary on redevelopment and loss of urban culture into an edgy farce with musical influences.

A stunning rendition of the ancient anti-war classic, Trojan Women (After Euripides), is playing at Getty Villa. The 2,426 year-old play depicts the brutal aftermath of the mythological Trojan War through dishonor, rape, infanticide, mass murder, enslavement, urban decimation, and despair.

Under the direction of Ronnie Clark, Ghost Road Company's experimental play Stranger Things brings a purgatorial graphic novel to life through a stark pencil-sketch landscape, multimedia effects, and strong performances. Impressionist music, steely drawings, and austere characters transform grim abstractions into a conceptual drama where the art itself slowly siphons off individuals members of a creepy family.

Falling somewhere between the low humor of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and the high morality of Charles Dickens, Frank Basloe's Guided Consideration of a Lamentable Deed follows an otherworldly guide through an ethical and redemptive journey on the eve of a college graduation.

July is National Parks & Recreation Month, and all month long LAist will be featuring a hand-selected park a day to showcase just a few of the wonderful recreation spaces--big or small--in the Los Angeles area.

July is National Parks & Recreation Month, and all month long LAist will be featuring a hand-selected park a day to showcase just a few of the wonderful recreation spaces--big or small--in the Los Angeles area.

Alexis Jones, Raymond Lee, Zach Steel, and Kevin Klein in 'Four Clowns: Romeo & Juliet' (photo by Mustafa Sayed). Hollywood Fringe Festival 2011 encompasses more than theatre and musicals -- it also features perverted and crass clowns in Four Clowns:Romeo and Juliet; a Moroccan mime in Born to be on Stage; and a narrative storytelling in Next Best Thing. Through twisted humor, live music, and audience interaction Four Clowns gives clowning some much needed...

Miwa Matreyek in 'Myth and Infrastructure' (photo by Scott Groller). Experimental theatre, simply put, is an art form that differs from the typical staged theatre paradigm where an invisible audience consumes action and dialogue on a stage. RADAR LA's primary objective is to showcase these non-traditional works from contemporary performance companies. The 2011 RADAR LA charges on with four more experimental pieces at Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC) and REDCAT that question the validity...

Brian Bennett, Nyree Yergainharsian, Rob McDermott, and Tanya Wilsown in 'As you are now so once were we' (photo by Ros Kavanagh). LAist continues coverage of the RADAR LA International Festival of Contemporary Theatre with four more shows: San Francisco's Pomo Afro Homos and Mexico's Teatro Linea de Sombra bring works that deal with crucial human emotions that are often forgotten amid politicized tension. Ireland's The Company and Rude Mechs from Texas offer process...

Kristopher Lee Bicknell and Jordan Randal in 'Dumb Waiter' (photo by Landon Johnson). Fringe festivals showcase works and performers that come to the stage without the benefit of politicized production channels. This year's Hollywood Fringe Festival conjures dark aesthetics from both large and small scale plays including a dapper 1950s British gangster one-act by Harold Pinter, an ironic David Foster Wallace adaptation from Need Theater, and a new work by LA based Gus Krieger...