NEWS RELEASE — “THE MISMATCH GAME” RETURNS TO LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER’S RENBERG THEATRE FOR 2 NIGHTS ONLY IN MARCH

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s
Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center
and Dennis Hensley
Present

The MisMatch Game
CREATED AND HOSTED BY DENNIS HENSLEY

RETURNING TO
LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER’S RENBERG THEATRE
FOR AN EARLY SPRING COMIC FREE-FOR-ALL

TWO NIGHTS ONLY!
Friday, March 11 and
Saturday, March 12 at 8pm

It’s time once again to “get ready to match the stars” with a new edition of Dennis Hensley’s The Mismatch Game, the show the Los Angeles Times calls, “witty, ribald … an adventure in surrealist era bending.” The side-splitting parody of the 70s game show returns to the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Renberg Theatre for two hilarious nights on Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12 at 8pm.

Creator, producer, and host Dennis “Gene Rayburn” Hensley will be joined onstage by a panel of some of L.A.’s most creative, hilarious, and demented comic minds. Hensley and company are once again generously donating the proceeds to benefit the Center’s array of free and low-cost services. Since its debut in 2004, The MisMatch Game has raised well over $100,000 for the Los Angeles LGBT Center. With kitschy prizes for volunteer contestants pulled from the audience, it’s time to dig out that leisure suit for another run of the perennial cult favorite.

Fractured celebrity impersonations include such luminaries (living and otherwise!) as Zooey Deschanel, Bea Arthur, Harvey Fierstein, Cher, Ricardo Montalbán, and Tim Gunn. The casts for the upcoming shows will be posted at lalgbtcenter.org/theatre.

The MisMatch Game regularly fills the house at its irregularly scheduled gigs at the Renberg Theatre. Audiences keep coming back for the razor’s edge improv and the racy, anarchic, and decidedly un-PC wit and wildness. The Advocate honored The MisMatch Game with a “10 Best Theatre” citation that said, “This recurring Los Angeles happening re-imagines the ‘70s TV game show The Match Game with full-camp press and excellent sub-lebrity impersonations.”

General admission tickets are $15 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 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. Free onsite parking is available.

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02-10-16

NEWS RELEASE — BRIMMER STREET THEATRE COMPANY 2016 BREAKING GROUND SERIES NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS

CALLING ALL PLAYWRIGHTS!
BRIMMER STREET THEATRE COMPANY’S
2016 BREAKING GROUND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
★ NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS ★

Breaking Ground, Brimmer Street Theatre Company’s play development program, is now accepting submissions for 2016. 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 Sunday, February 21 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 seven-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 2016 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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02-03-16

NEWS RELEASE — CRITICAL MASS PERFORMANCE GROUP ANNOUNCES PANELS & EVENTS TO ACCOMPANY THE WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTION OF “AMERYKA” OPENING SATURDAY 2/6

CRITICAL MASS PERFORMANCE GROUP
ANNOUNCES PANELS AND EVENTS TO ACCOMPANY ITS
WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTION 0F
AMERYKA
OPENING FEBRUARY 6
AT SHAKESPEARE CENTER OF LOS ANGELES

Critical Mass Performance Group has announced a slate of panels and events surrounding and enhancing the audience experience of Ameryka, its world premiere play opening at Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles on Saturday, February 6. Written and directed by Nancy Keystone in collaboration with the company, the cast of Ameryka will feature Curt Bonnem, Russell Edge, Ray Ford, Lorne Green, Drew Stafford Harper, Danielle K. Jones, Christopher Salazar, Nick Santoro, and Valerie Spencer.

Throughout the run of Ameryka, in partnership with the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, an exhibition of political posters from the Solidarity and American Civil Rights Movements (www.politicalgraphics.org) will be featured in the theatre lobby. Additionally, The Richard Velzen Trio will perform live jazz on Saturdays 2/13, 2/20, and 3/5. For more information and activities schedule updates, visit www.criticalmassperformancegroup.com.

FRIDAY 2/12 — POST SHOW PANEL
Pawel Leszkowicz and Tomasz Kitlinski will lead a conversation about current civil rights issues in Poland, focusing on the LGBT community. Leszkowicz is a Polish art historian and art curator. He works as a lecturer and researcher at the Department of History of Art, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, is a member of the International Association of Art Critics and is an LGBT rights activist. Kitlinski is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Sociology, Marie Curie University, Lublin. He is an activist on behalf of labor rights and the equality of women and minorities in Poland and is the author of “The Stranger Is Within Us” (co- written with Leszkowicz) and “Love and Democracy: Reflections on the Queer Question in Poland.”

SATURDAY 2/13 — POST SHOW PANEL
YOU’RE PRODUCING WHAT?! — Producing Theatre in Los Angeles
With Nancy Keystone (Artistic Director, Critical Mass Performance Group) and artistic leaders from the Los Angeles intimate theatre scene.

SUNDAY 2/21 — FOLLOWING 2PM PERFORMANCE
Professor Jody David Armour will speak about the international impact of American racial and social justice and the current Black Lives Matter movement. Armour is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at USC, where he studies the intersection of race and legal decision making. A widely published scholar and popular lecturer, Armour is a Soros Justice Senior Fellow of The Open Society Institute’s Center on Crime, Communities, and Culture. His book Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism: The Hidden Costs of Being Black in America (New York University Press) addresses core concerns of the Black Lives Matter movement. Armour often appears as a legal analyst on a variety of national television and radio news programs.

SATURDAY 2/27 — 7PM (PRIOR TO PERFORMANCE)
Adam Michnik will speak before the 8pm performance. Michnik was a forceful leader of the Solidarity Movement, long-time dissident, writer, historian, and public intellectual. He was jailed multiple times during the Communist regime. He is the co-founder and editor of Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s leading newspaper. Michnik is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a laureate of many awards and honors including a Knight of the Legion of Honour. He has also received a Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, a Goethe Medal, and was named European of the Year.

MONDAY 2/29 — POST SHOW PANEL
YOU CALL THAT THEATRE?! — Devising Theatre in Los Angeles
With Nancy Keystone (Artistic Director, Critical Mass Performance Group), Sean Cawelti (Artistic Director, Rogue Artists Ensemble), Traci Kato-Kiriyama and Kennedy Kabasares (PULL Project), and Estela Garcia (independent artist).
Exploring the methods and madness of the collaborative creation process for new theatrical works. Ameryka is the product of five years of collaborative creation by Critical Mass Performance Group.

There will be one preview performance of Ameryka on Friday, February 5 at 8pm and opening is set for Saturday, February 6 at 8pm. The engagement will run through March 6 only with performances on Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm. There will be added performances on Sundays 2/14, 2/21, and 3/6 at 7pm, and on Mondays 2/22 and 2/29 at 8pm. Admission on Friday, Sunday, and Monday is $25; on Saturday it is $30. Student and senior discounts are available at all performances. Tickets are available online at http://critical-mass- performance-group.ticketleap.com/ameryka/ or by calling (323) 993-7263. Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles is located at 1238 W. 1st Street in LA, 90026.

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02-02-16