Over 11 years and 570 episodes, John Rabe and Team Off-Ramp scoured SoCal for the people, places, and ideas whose stories needed to be told, and the show became a love-letter to Los Angeles. Now, John is sharing selections from the Off-Ramp vault to help you explore this imperfect paradise.
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As a journalist and host, it's my job to generalize from the specific, and often to generalize from the personally specific, so: Every time I go to a local theatre production, I say to myself, "Self, that was good! I need to do this more often." Then, it takes me months to get out again, and I repeat the whole process. Since I'm not an extrordinary person, I'm going to assume, like me, that a reasonable amount of you need a kick in the pants to see more local theatre. KPCC Morning Edition host Steve Julian, in his non-work capacity, is delivering just such a kick ... not to your pants, but to your e-mail in-box. He writes:
A little over a year ago it occured to me, as a theater major, avocational actor, and public radio host, I knew few of the theater companies that sent me press releases. I'd visited fewer still. I was inspired to start blogging about local theater companies, actors, directors and playwrights. Within a couple months, LAStageAlliance invited me to write for their website and I have since interviewed Marsha Mason, Kathleen Turner, Tim Robbins, and many others.
While I still write feature stories for my site and for LAStageTimes, I also compile each week a list of upcoming and extended shows, so readers can plan their ticket purchases. After all, I have to do something with all the press releases I get! Anyone can receive it via e-blast at stevejulian@live.com or on Facebook.
Steve is currently playing Ernie in Neil Simon's Rumors at the Covina Center for the Performing Arts through June 12; and on June 1, he appears as Carl the bus driver in William Inge's Bus Stop at the Candlelight Pavilion in Claremont, an IVRT production.
Remember the knock-down dragout between Carl and Beau in the movie version of Bus Stop, starring Don Murray as Beau? Sorry Steve, but if you played Carl and Don reprised his role, even though he's 80+, Don would win this time. I'm just saying...