Mia Bonadonna

Ho-Jung in The Human Voice. (Photo by Ed Krieger) The Human Voice, an English translation of Jean Cocteau's La Voix humaine, is currently playing at Elephant Space Theatre on Hollywood's Theatre Row. Cocteau's play turns the audience into voyeurs spying on a telephone break-up between lovers during the hello operator days in 1930s Paris. Ho-Jung performs this classic avant garde monologue loved by the likes of Roberto Rossellini, Francis Poulenc, and Robert Rimbaud. Ho-Jung...

Small Engine Repair, Rogue Machine's latest dark and edgy comedic thriller about a near-fateful reunion of thee working class heroes is currently playing at Theatre Theater. Small Engine Repair is so exceptionally engrossing, entertaining, funny, and true-to-life that it is easy to forget that you are watching...

Copenhagen is an ambitious lecture-within-a-drama about the working and political climate surrounding historically significant World War II era physicists during the development of the first nuclear weapons. Playwright Michael Frayn imagines a fictional post-mortem debate that pits Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr against...

Joe Orton's one-act farcical tragedy, Ruffian on the Stair, is playing at Whitmore-Lindley Theatre in North Hollywood's invigorating theatre district. This black comedy focuses on the impacting complexities of the outside world on the unromantically simple, yet greatly appreciated love between a middle-aged couple with a sketchy past, Mike and Joyce.

The cast of 'Offending the Audience.' (Photo by Mackenzie Hoffman courtesy of Emily Mast.) Peter Handke's cerebral anti-play Offending the Audience has a short run this weekend at Velaslavasay Panorama. This staged meta-narrative of consciousness raising interjections is an experimental theatre piece that aims to be as untheatrical as possible while transforming the audience into a self-conscious spectacle to be observed and judged by the performers on stage. Handke's work has been performed for decades throughout...

Janet Hoskins, Jossara Jinero, Elyssa Davalos, James Black, Salome Jens, Juan Carlos Cantu, and Cheyenne Hanes in 'Birthday Present 2050.' (Photo by Ed Krieger.) Birthday Present 2050 is currently playing at Skylight Theatre in Los Feliz. This speculative utopia-gone-dystopia science-fiction piece by Tania Wisbar follows events that unfold at a family gathering in the year 2050. Conflict arises over the pressing need to confront large ethical issues related to privacy, ageism, government, death, human...

Michael Bofshever and Susan Angelo in Broken Glass. (Photo by Hope Oklahoma courtesy of West Coast Jewish Theatre) Broken Glass, Arthur Miller's retrospective look at Jewish identity, pre-war psychology, and dysfunctional small group dynamics is currently playing at Pico Playhouse. Presented by the West Coast Jewish Theatre, the plot follows the disintegration of two marriages in Brooklyn at the time of Germany's 1938 Kristallnacht. Broken Glass is a doctor-driven whodunit with a thick, waxing...

Michael Kelper Meo and William Burden in 'Turn of the Screw.' (Photo by Robert Millard courtesy of Los Angeles Opera.) Benjamin Britten's potent adaptation of the classic Henry James ghost story Turn of the Screw is currently playing at the Los Angeles Opera. The production features a flawless cast, stunning set, disturbing plot, intriguing score, and a twelve year old casanova with an angelic voice. Turn of the Screw is a psychological thriller with...

Todd Waring and Lyman Medeiros in 'Five Uneasy Pieces.' (Photo by Virginia Anzengruber) Five Uneasy Pieces is currently playing at Santa Monica Playhouse. Written and performed by Todd Waring, this series of aptly titled one act monologues is full of dark humor, disturbing plot twists, and satisfying ambivalence. Under the direction of Don McManus, the show is visually stark and minimalist, although moody upright bass accompaniment by Lyman Medeiros or Steve Pandis fosters a...

Gerald McCullouch and Dan Via in 'Daddy.' (Photo by Eric Krieger) Daddy, currently playing at Hudson Mainstage, is Dan Via's superbly crafted and touching play about the convergent complexities of defining love, friendship, and family in an anti-equaity political arena. Daddy examines a plethora of finely intertwined themes, but what what makes Via's play so engaging is the acknowledgment of the painful uncertainty and emergent joys that accompany the transition to an era of...

Scott Lowell and Abby Craden in Blithe Spirit. (Photo courtesy of A Noise Within.) Blithe Spirit is currently running as part of A Noise Within's 19th season. Cheeky physical comedy drives Noel Coward's story of a pre-war ecoplasmic menage a trois peppered with quirky characters and domestic disputes. Coincidentally, the play aptly takes place amid the stoic shadows of the Historic Masonic Temple in Glendale -- a perfect contextual setting for a high-brow ghost...