NEWS RELEASE — 2015 OVATION AWARDS NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

2015 LA STAGE ALLIANCE OVATION AWARDS
NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

EBONY REPERTORY THEATRE &
CENTER THEATRE GROUP LEAD WITH 14 EACH,
WALLIS ANNENBERG CENTER FOR
THE PERFORMING ARTS FOLLOWS WITH 13,
LA MIRADA THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS &
SACRED FOOLS THEATER COMPANY TIE WITH 10 EACH

Nominees for the 2015 LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards were announced on Thursday, September 24 on @ This Stage Magazine [ThisStage.la]. This year’s Ovation Awards ceremony will take place Monday, November 9 at the Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center. The curtain will rise at 7:30pm.

Ebony Repertory Theatre and Center Theatre Group tied with 14 nominations each, followed by Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts with 13, and La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and Sacred Fools Theater Company, tied with 10 each. Ebony Repertory garnered all 14 of their nominations for The Gospel at Colonus; Center Theatre Group received nominations for Chavez Ravine: An L.A. Revival (7) and Luna Gale (1) at the Kirk Douglas Theatre; Bent (3), The Price (1), and Immediate Family (1) at the Mark Taper Forum; and The Trip to Bountiful (1) at the Ahmanson Theatre. Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts received 11 nominations for their production of Deaf West Theatre’s Spring Awakening (Deaf West’s original intimate theatre production received four nominations), Love, Noël: The Letters and Songs of Noël Coward (1), and Best Season; La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts received nominations for Carrie The Musical (5), Billy Elliot the Musical (1), Mary Poppins (1), Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, A Musical (1), Good People (1), and Best Season; and Sacred Fools received nominations for The Behavior of Broadus (9) and Astro Boy and the God of Comics (1). Along with La Mirada and the Wallis Annenberg, Best Season nominations went to Los Angeles LGBT Center, Rubicon Theatre Company, and The Theatre @ Boston Court.

Ovation Honors, which recognize outstanding achievement in areas that are not among the standard list of nomination categories, have been awarded to Mat Sweeney and Ellen Warkentine (Music Composition for a Play, The Temptation of St Antony at Four Larks), Mike Mahaffey (Fight Choreography, She Kills Monsters at Loft Ensemble), and Ted Blegen (Puppet Design, She Kills Monsters at Loft Ensemble).

For the 2014-2015 voting season, there are a grand total of 203 nominations for 73 productions presented by 45 companies. There were 297 total productions registered from 118 companies. Of those productions registered, 72 were Ovation Recommended, identified during their runs as scoring in the top quarter of all productions in the Overall Production categories. [A COMPLETE LIST OF NOMINEES IS AVAILABLE AT ThisStage.la.]

Founded in 1989, the LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards are the only peer-judged theatre awards in Los Angeles. Voters are Los Angeles theatre professionals who are chosen each year, through an application process, by the Ovation Rules Committee. The list of nominees is determined by a tabulation of scores conducted by Green Hasson Janks. This year’s Ovation Awards eligibility period ran from September 1, 2014 through August 30, 2015.

LA STAGE Alliance is a nonprofit arts service organization dedicated to building awareness, appreciation, and support for the performing arts in Greater Los Angeles. Their programs are sponsored in part by Green Hasson Janks, Ken Werther Publicity, Sony Pictures, The Shubert Foundation, Arts:Earth Partnership, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, NBC Universal, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Dew Foundation, Baker’s Man Productions, California Arts Council, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Creative Entertainment.

Variety is the media sponsor for this year’s Ovation Awards ceremony.

09-24-15

FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF NOMINEES, CLICK HERE

NEWS RELEASE — COEURAGE THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS “THE SPARROW” — WEST COAST PREMIERE OPENS SATURDAY 10/24

COEURAGE THEATRE COMPANY
LA’S PAY WHAT YOU WANT THEATRE COMPANY
PRESENTS
THE WEST COAST PREMIERE OF
THE SPARROW
BY CHRIS MATHEWS, JAKE MINTON, AND NATHAN ALLEN
DIRECTED BY JOSEPH V. CALARCO

OPENS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24
AT THE HISTORIC LANKERSHIM ARTS CENTER

Coeurage Theatre Company, LA’s Pay What You Want Company, has announced the final production of its 2015 season, the West Coast premiere of The Sparrow by Chris Mathews, Jake Minton, and Nathan Allen. Directed by Joseph V. Calarco, there will be one preview performance on October 23 at 8pm and opening is set for Saturday, October 24 at 8pm. The Sparrow will play through November 21 at the Historic Lankershim Arts Center.

The cast will feature (in alphabetical order) David Crane, Audrey Flegel, Katelyn Gault, Joel Gelman, Nardeep Khurmi, Jane Lui, John McKetta, Jeffrey Nichols, Katie Pelensky, Lillian Solange, Danni Spring, Cyrus Wilcox, and Malika Williams. Scenic design is by Kristin Browning Campbell, lighting design is by Benoît Guérin, costume design is by Rebecca Guzzi, and sound design is by Joseph V. Calarco. Choreography is by Tasheena Medina, fight choreography is by TJ Marchbank, and original music is by Gregory Nabours. The stage manager is Emily Goodall.

In The Sparrow, a small-town girl returns home 10 years after a tragic accident that claimed the lives of her entire class. As the town struggles to move on from the loss and accept her, she must hide the special powers that make her different and come to terms with her past. The Chicago Sun-Times called The Sparrow, “A three-dimensional graphic novel about the passion of family and community life, the importance of myth, and the pain of exile.”

There will be one preview performance on Friday, October 23 at 8pm and opening is set for Saturday, October 24 at 8pm. The regular running schedule is Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm through November 21. All seats are available on a Pay What You Want basis, and may be reserved online at www.coeurage.org/sparrow or by calling (323) 944-2165.

The Historic Lankershim Arts Center is located at 5108 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, 91601.

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09-24-15

NEWS RELEASE — WORLD PREMIERE DRAMA “CAGED” OPENS FRIDAY 10/16 AT THEATRE BANSHEE

MEAN MACHINE PRODUCTIONS
AND GEORGANNE ALDRICH HELLER
IN ASSOCIATION WITH THEATRE BANSHEE PRESENT
A WORLD PREMIERE PLAY
CAGED
BY DERMOT DAVIS
FEATURING ELIZABETH LANDE AND JOHNNY O’CALLAGHAN
DIRECTED BY TIM BYRON OWEN

OCTOBER 15 — NOVEMBER 22
OPENS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16 AT 8PM

Mean Machine Productions and Georganne Aldrich Heller in association with Theatre Banshee have announced the world premiere production of a new drama, Caged by Dermot Davis. Featuring Elizabeth Lande and Johnny O’Callaghan and directed by Tim Byron Owen, Caged will play one preview on October 15 at 8pm and opening is set for Friday, October 16 at 8pm. The engagement will run through November 22 only at Theatre Banshee in Burbank.

In Caged, two strangers find themselves trapped together in the elevator of a deserted high rise building late at night. Their worlds are turned upside down in a desperate struggle against the raw, primal animal that lives just below the surface in all of us.

Elizabeth Lande has been seen in many stage productions in Los Angeles and around the country. Credits include Remembrance, Kin, and American Wee-Pie (Theatre 40), As You Like It (Yale Repertory Theatre), A Knife in the Heart (New Dramatists), Look Back in Anger (Williamstown Theatre Festival), and King Henry IV, Part 2 (New Jersey Shakespeare Festival). She is a graduate of The Yale School of Drama.

Johnny O’Callaghan most recently appeared in Remembrance at Theatre 40. His Ovation Award-nominated solo show Who’s Your Daddy? in LA launched a move to Off-Broadway, Edinburgh, and Toronto. Other Off-Broadway successes include Howie The Rookie, Ladies and Gents in the toilets of Central Park at The Irish Arts Center, and The Hostage at The Irish Repertory Theatre. His critically acclaimed solo performance in Conor McPherson’s Rum and Vodka followed in New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto.

Dermot Davis is an award-winning playwright and author. He was formerly a child actor in Dublin, Ireland and he is the co-founder of Laughing Gravy Theatre (which performed the best of Irish and European theatre as well as some original plays by Davis). He has had plays performed in Dublin, Boston, Los Angeles, and at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, NC. He is a recipient of the O.Z. Whitehead Award for Playwriting and his novels so far have won total of seven literary awards to date.

Tim Byron Owen has produced, directed, or appeared in over 60 productions with theatre companies in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, London, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Cardiff. He co-founded The Sarah Fulton Group in Sherman Oaks which has produced numerous theatre projects as well as several short films. Some of Owen’s directing credits include A Night In November, Fighting Words, The Walworth Farce, Love Me Deadly, Falling Upward, Jimmy & Sam, Spoken Words, and Remembrance, among many other award-winning productions.

There will be one preview performance of Caged on Thursday, October 15 at 8pm and opening is set for Friday, October 16 at 8pm. The regular running schedule is Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 3pm through November 22 only. General admission tickets are $20 and may be obtained online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2181781 or by calling (800) 838-3006. Theatre Banshee is located at 3435 W. Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank, 91505.

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09-18-15