PRESS RELEASE — BRIMMER STREET THEATRE COMPANY NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS FOR 2015 BREAKING GROUND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

CALLING ALL PLAYWRIGHTS!
BRIMMER STREET THEATRE COMPANY’S
2015 BREAKING GROUND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
★ NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS ★

Breaking Ground, Brimmer Street Theatre Company’s play development program, is now accepting submissions for 2015. Breaking Ground is an opportunity for playwrights to work with BSTC’s ensemble and other artists to finalize a fully-drafted script-in-progress through a collaborative rehearsal process culminating in a workshop performance. The application deadline is Monday, December 15 at midnight.

Breaking Ground is a play development program aimed to move nearly-completed scripts to a final draft through the collaboration and discovery provided by a rehearsal process. Writers interested in polishing a script using an ensemble-driven, collaborative process are encouraged to visit www.brimmerstreet.org/breaking-ground to complete an application and submit the current draft of their script. Projects will be selected by the BSTC ensemble based on the play’s potential fit for the company; writers are encouraged to submit plays with smaller-sized casts. Selected playwrights will receive a small stipend. Screenplays will not be considered.

The Breaking Ground program is a follow-up initiative to BSTC’s six-years-strong Blueprint Series, through which playwrights advance an idea for a play from a brainstorm to a first draft script. The goal of Breaking Ground is to advance a rough draft to a final script that is ready for possible production. Both programs are funded in part by a grant from the LA County Arts Commission.

Brimmer Street Theatre Company is a non-profit ensemble theatre that creates and produces new works of theatre in order to cultivate artists and engage audiences in Los Angeles. By working from a select core of talented artists, BSTC aims to produce a unique brand of American theatre that is rooted in a common experience and driven by their commitment to building better theatre that is challenging, extraordinary, and inspiring.

Applications for the 2015 Breaking Ground program are available for download at www.brimmerstreet.org/breaking-ground. Actors, directors, designers, and producers interested in participating as collaborative artists should email info@brimmersteet.org.

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12-04-14

PRESS RELEASE — SIXTH AVENUE TOWN HALL READING SERIES PRESENTS “LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHANNUKAH” — TUESDAY 12/9 AT 8PM

SIXTH AVENUE TOWN HALL
BACK ROOM PLAY READING SERIES
ENDS ITS 2014 SEASON WITH
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHANNUKAH
BY JOSHUA HARMON
DIRECTED BY LUKE KANTER
AT AKBAR IN SILVER LAKE
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9 AT 8PM

Sixth Avenue’s Town Hall Back Room Reading Series will end its 2014 season with Love in the Time of Channukah, written by Joshua Harmon and directed by Luke Kanter, it was announced today by Sixth Avenue producer Adam Silver. The play will be read one night only, Tuesday, December 9 at 8:00 at Akbar in Silver Lake.

The cast will feature (in alphabetical order) JD Barton, Will Branske, Dylan Chouinard, Pip Lilly, Chelsea London Lloyd, Alain Pierre, and Rick Shattuck. Love in the Time of Channukah tells the tale of Gayboi, a college freshman celebrating Channukah on his own for the very first time. With a motley crew by his side — funky bff, Neanderthal-lite homophobic roommate, studly str8 crush, flaming sidekick, and a fairy godperson — can Gayboi build a collegiate family of friends and find true love? A proper gay fantasia, sans Kushner. Joshua Harmon wrote last year’s NYC hit Bad Jews (which received both Outer Critics Circle Award and Lucille Lortel Award nominations) and which will have its West Coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse in the summer of 2015.

Town Hall is Sixth Avenue’s monthly play reading series taking place on the second Tuesday of every month at Akbar. A slate of events for 2015 will be announced shortly.

Akbar, Silver Lake’s “neighborhood oasis,” is located at 4356 W. Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Admission is free, but reservations are suggested at www.6avenue.org. For more information on Sixth Avenue and Town Hall, visit www.6avenue.org.

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12-02-14

Remarkable Spirit! (LAArtsOnline.com)

Angela Lansbury stars in Blithe Spirit at the Ahmanson Theatre (Photo: Johan Persson)

Remarkable Spirit!

Noel Coward’s classic comedy Blithe Spirit, arriving at the Ahmanson Theatre this month starring the redoubtable Angela Lansbury, was first seen in London’s West End in 1941 creating a new long-run record for a non-musical British play with 1,997 performances. It opened on Broadway later that same year (657 performances) and has since enjoyed several critically acclaimed West End and Broadway revivals, most recently in 2009, winning Lansbury her fifth Tony Award.

Coined “an improbable comedy,” the play tells the tale of novelist Charles Condomine who, hoping to gather material for his next book, invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant Madame Arcati (Lansbury) to his house to conduct a séance. The scheme backfires when his annoying and temperamental first wife Elvira is summoned from the dead and makes continual attempts to disrupt Charles’s marriage to his second wife Ruth, who cannot see or hear the ghost. As we are fond of saying in America, hijinks ensue!

The history of Blithe Spirit is remarkable. Coward himself adapted the play to film in 1945 and then directed a musical adaptation entitled High Spirits on Broadway in 1964. The play has also been adapted for television and radio, and it is considered to be Coward’s most popular comedy, which, considering the classic canon of work he left behind, is really saying something. So, the question now is, do we believe in spirits? Do we believe in ghosts? It seems we will soon find out!

Blithe Spirit runs December 9 to January 18 at the Ahmanson Theatre.