Archived entries for

NEWS RELEASE ▪︎ COEURAGE THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS “Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight” BY LAUREN GUNDERSON ▪︎ OPENS 8/26

COEURAGE THEATRE COMPANY
LA’S PAY WHAT YOU WANT THEATRE COMPANY
PRESENTS
EMILIE: LA MARQUISE DU CHÂTELET DEFENDS HER LIFE TONIGHT
BY LAUREN GUNDERSON
DIRECTED BY JULIANNE DONELLE

OPENS SATURDAY, AUGUST 26
AT THE GREENWAY COURT THEATRE

EmilieCoeurage Theatre Company, LA’s Pay What You Want theatre company, has announced the second production of its eighth seasonå, Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight by Lauren Gunderson. Directed by Coeurage company member Julianne Donelle, there will be one preview performance on August 25 at 8pm and opening is set for Saturday, August 26 at 8pm. Emilie will play through September 17 at the Greenway Court Theatre.

The cast will feature (in alphabetical order) Kari Lee Cartwright, Marc Forget, Nardeep Khurmi, Kim Reed, and Sammi Smith. Scenic design is by Tim Paul Vordtriede, lighting design is by Azra King-Abadi, costume design is by Tania Mustafa, sound design is by Joseph V. Calarco, and choreography is by Carly Wielstein.

Passionate. Brilliant. Defiant. Tonight, 18th century scientific genius Emilie du Châtelet is back and determined to answer her unresolved question: love or philosophy, heart or head? In this highly theatrical, fast, funny, and sexy rediscovery of one of history’s most intriguing women, the French physicist and mathematician defends her legacies — both scientific and romantic — and the groundbreaking work for which she was denounced until after her death.

Lauren Gunderson was America’s most produced living playwright in 2016. She is also a screenwriter and short story author. She received her MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU Tisch, where she was also a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her plays have been commissioned, developed, and produced at South Coast Rep (Emilie, Silent Sky, I And You), the Kennedy Center (Dr. Wonderful), the O’Neill Playwrights Conference (Fire Work), and her revenge comedy Exit, Pursued by a Bear was produced in a multi-city rolling premiere. Gunderson writes for the Huffington Post and Wall Street Journal.

Julianne Donelle is a founding member of Coeurage Theatre Company. She directed Assassins and served as assistant director on Cannibal! The Musical and The Yellow Boat. Her acting credits with the company include The Trouble With Words, Head Over Heels, The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Love–Suicide, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and The Woodsman. Donelle is the creator/writer/director of the web series No Pillowfights, for which she received a Discovery Award nomination for direction at the Raindance Film Festival in London. The series also garnered multiple nominations including Best Director and Best Comedic Series at LA Web Fest in 2016. More info is available at www.juliannedonelle.com.

Coeurage Theatre Company exists to make impassioned theatre accessible for all audiences through Pay What You Want admission and fresh, challenging productions. The company’s name is inspired by a re–imagining of the word courage — coeur is French for heart, and rage, meaning fervor; on fire. Together, Coeurage (pronounced “courage”) is a heart enflamed with passion, which the company strives to bring to every production.

There will be one preview performance of Emilie on Friday, August 25 at 8pm and opening is set for Saturday, August 26, at 8pm. The regular running schedule is Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm through September 17. There will be additional performances on Wednesdays, September 6 and 13 at 8pm. The final performance is on Sunday, September 17 at 7pm. All seats are available on a Pay What You Want basis and may be reserved online at www.greenwaycourtheatre.org/emilie or by calling (323) 944-2165.

The Greenway Court Theatre is located at 544 N. Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, 90036. Free parking is available in the lot adjacent to the theatre.

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07-28-17

NEWS RELEASE ▪︎ HOLLYWOOD FRINGE FESTIVAL AWARD-WINNING HIT COMEDY “THANKSGIVING” PLAYS FINAL TWO PERFORMANCES AT THEATRE UNLEASHED ▪︎ AUGUST 4 & 5

SAMOVAR SUBWAY ENSEMBLE PRESENTS
THANKSGIVING
A WORLD PREMIERE COMEDY
BY TIFFANY CASCIO
DIRECTED BY KITTY LINDSAY
✰UNLEASHED AWARD✰
FINAL ENCORE PERFORMANCES
AUGUST 4 & 5 at 8pm
AT THEATRE UNLEASHED IN NOHO

ThanksgivingSamovar Subway Ensemble’s acclaimed Hollywood Fringe Festival production of Thanksgiving, a world premiere comedy by Tiffany Cascio, will play two final encore performances on Friday, August 4 and Saturday, August 5 at 8pm at Theatre Unleashed in North Hollywood.

Nominated for five awards and designated as Pick of the Fringe, Thanksgiving won the Beyond Bechdel–Wallace Award (sponsored by Broads’ Word Ensemble), the Unleashed Award (sponsored by Theatre Unleashed, which makes these two final performances possible), and the Encore! Producers’ Award. The show was also nominated for the ShoWorks Don’t Wait Create! Award (sponsored by ShoWorks Entertainment) and Best Comedy.
The cast features (in alphabetical order) Trip Langley, Susan Louise O’Connor, Asia Lynn Pitts, Gary Poux, Sharon Spence, and Allison Youngberg. The creative team includes Kit Whitten (set design), Brandon Baruch (lighting design), Sharon Spence (costume design), and James Ferrero (sound design). Fight choreography is by Dane Oliver, the stage manager is Taylor Jackson Ross, and Allison Youngberg is the producer for Samovar Subway Ensemble.

Thanksgiving is a not all-the-way true, but sometimes painfully so, dysfunctional family comedy. Chloe Patterson has invited her perfect fiancé to what she will make sure is the perfect Thanksgiving, despite her very imperfect family. She’s got a solid plan in place to combat any and all hints of dysfunction, providing for every possible contingency — except the unexpected dinner guest: a very unfiltered, Las Vegas stripper. Scabs are picked, secrets are revealed, and fights erupt as this group struggles to make it through another holiday unscathed. Running time is 90 minutes.

Tickets for the two final performances of Thanksgiving are $15 and may be obtained online at www.theatreunleashed.org. Theatre Unleashed is located at 11031 Camarillo Street in North Hollywood, 91602.

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07-27-17

 

L to R — Allison Youngberg, Asia Lynn Pitts, Susan Louise O’Connor. Photo by Cali Bloomfield.

NEWS RELEASE ▪︎ TRANS CHORUS OF LOS ANGELES RETURNS TO LGBT CENTER’S RENBERG THEATRE ▪︎ AUGUST 26 & 27 ONLY

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts

Presents

The Triumphant Return of The

TRANS CHORUS OF LOS ANGELES
Lindsey Deaton, Artistic Director
Encore Performances of
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Saturday, August 26 at 8pm & Sunday, August 27 at 2pm

la-lgbtcenter-trans-chorus-ziggy-stardustThe Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center has announced the return of the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles (TCLA) to its Renberg Theatre on Saturday, August 26 at 8pm and Sunday, August 27 at 2pm. TCLA will once again perform planet Earth’s first staged concert production of the full The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie. As Bowie intended, additional hit songs will complete the entire musical saga.

TCLA is the largest group of trans and gender non-conforming people anywhere in the world who gather together regularly to raise their voices in song. Its performances are intended not only to empower its members, but also to change the way others see the transgender community. Since their founding in late 2015, TCLA has drawn attention to the trans community and trans issues through live performances, community engagement, and social and traditional media. With a strong belief that TCLA is uniquely positioned to offer the trans narrative in a truly significant and impactful way, its mission is to fiercely empower the transgender, non-binary, and intersex community to discover, love, develop, and use their voices to change the social ecology everywhere.

In its inaugural year, the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles performed at the 2015 West Hollywood Transgender Day of Remembrance with Alexandra Billings and Our Lady J from Transparent; the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles’s (GMCLA) Fifth Annual Voice Awards; True Colors debut concert with TCLA, GMCLA, and Vox Femina; LA Pride, Long Beach Pride and TransPride LA; Kol Tikvah Temple; St. John’s Cathedral, Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles (the first Trans chorus to perform in a Cathedral anywhere); the opening ceremony of LGBT Heritage Month with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and the LA City Council; the Williams Institute UniTy Awards with Laverne Cox; and Interscope Records’ song “Hands,” a musical tribute to benefit Orlando victims and LGBT organizations.
Artistic Director Lindsey Deaton is a conductor, guitarist, singer, speaker, and a fierce transgender and LGBTIQ youth advocate. She is the Founder/Artistic Director of the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles. Ms. Deaton served as the conducting apprentice to Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. She has guest conducted the San Francisco Ballet, Louisville Orchestra, Spokane Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Youngstown Symphony and Chorus, Schenectady Symphony, and numerous orchestras at the Aspen Music Festival, among others. An active music educator, in 2002 Ms. Deaton received the Dalcroze Certificate and the Dalcroze License from the Juilliard School in New York City. Her principle teachers were famed conducting pedagogue Leon Barzin in Paris, Gunther Schuller, Murry Sidlin, and Celin Romero. She studied with Dalcroze experts Robert Abramson and Marta Sanchez. She received her MFA in Conducting from Carnegie Mellon University.

General admission tickets are $35 and may be purchased online at www.lalgbtcenter.org/theatre or by phone at (323) 860-7300. Net proceeds from all ticket sales will support the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles and the full range of free and low-cost programs and services offered by the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Renberg Theatre is located at 1125 N. McCadden Place (one block east of Highland, just north of Santa Monica Boulevard), in Hollywood, 90038. During construction of the Center’s new facility, free parking is limited. Please allow extra time to find parking, or choose public transportation or a ride service.

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07-20-17