Archived entries for Bootleg Theater

Announcing: La (Ir)résistance Benefit for Leiris/Picasso

LA (IR)RÉSISTANCE
A BENEFIT SPECTACLE FOR EDINBURGH-BOUND AT SUNDOWN
THURSDAY, JULY 8 AT LEIRIS/PICASSO

BRIMMER STREET THEATRE COMPANY
IN ASSOCIATION WITH BOOTLEG THEATER
PRESENTS THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT THE HOME OF MICHEL LEIRIS A READING OF THE PLAY ‘DESIRE CAUGHT BY THE TAIL’ BY THE PAINTER PABLO PICASSO
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY DAVID JETTE

SPECIAL EVENT AT BOOTLEG THEATER WILL INCLUDE CATERING BY GASTROBUS, A SPECIAL PERFORMANCE OF LEIRIS/PICASSO, AND MORE

La (Ir)résistance, a benefit evening for the Edinburgh-bound At Sundown, will be held on Thursday, July 8 at the Bootleg Theater. The event will help the company of this world premiere work make its move to Scotland before returning to Los Angeles this fall. Including a special performance of Brimmer Street Theatre Company’s Leiris/Picasso, the festivities will begin with cocktails at 7pm.

Hosted by Brimmer Street Theatre Company and Bootleg Theater, La (Ir)résistance will feature food, drink, theatre, dance, music, magic, a kissing booth, photo booth, fortune telling, and raffles. The popular Gastrobus will provide the repast; musical performances (beginning at 10:30pm) will include Rev Juli Crocket and the Evangenitals, Bulgarian Moonshine Company, the Action Jackson Twins, indie rockers Nadine et Terrence, and more.

At Sundown is an original work about memory, aging, and identity. Developed over the last year, this original theatre piece explores memory, aging, and sundowning, a phenomenon often experienced by people with dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease. This syndrome causes agitation and hallucinations during the daily cycle, especially as the evening approaches. Directed by Zoe Moore, half of the company are students at California Institute of the Arts.

Leiris/Picasso twists the true story of an underground meeting between Picasso and the French existentialists into a slamming-doors sex farce. Enduring hunger, the Nazis, and each other, the greatest thinkers of the 20th century risk their lives to find that the master has written a play so unwatchable that even they cannot stomach the pretension. The L.A. Weekly said, “GO!”

Brimmer Street Theatre Company is a Los Angeles-based performance company with a commitment to develop original theatre artists whose work challenges established forms and expectations, and to assemble a close ensemble of these artists, craftsmen, students, and benefactors to produce work of exceptional innovation and character. The mission of BSTC is to entertain, inspire, challenge, astound, and empower audiences and artists in the Los Angeles community.  For more, visit www.BrimmerStreet.org.

Tickets prices for La (Ir)résistance range from $10-$50. For more information and to purchase tickets for the benefit evening on July 8 as well as all other performances of Leiris/Picasso, visit www.BrimmerStreet.org or call (213) 290-2782. Leiris/Picasso continues on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm through July 24, and tickets are $29 . Discounts are available when tickets are purchased seven days prior to the performance date. To purchase tickets and to get more info on discounts, call (213) 290-2782, or reserve online: www.BrimmerStreet.org. A portion of the ticketing fees for all Brimmer Street productions goes toward supporting LA Stage Alliance through their partnership with Patron Technology.

The Bootleg Theater is located at 2220 Beverly Boulevard, in Los Angeles, 90057. Free parking is available.

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06-29-10

Photographs: Leiris/Picasso





(L to R) Melissa Powell, Fred Ochs, Patrick Baker (on floor), Jenny Byrd, Amy K. Harmon, Michael Bulger and Tyler Jenich.


(L to R) Amy K. Harmon, Michael Bulger, Patrick Baker, Jenny Byrd, Fred Ochs, Joseph L. Roberts, Melissa Powell and Tyler Jenich.


Tyler Jenich and Amy K. Harmon.


Michael Bulger as Michel Leiris.


(Front) Melissa Powell and Patrick Baker; (Rear) Amy K. Harmon.


(L to R) Jenny Byrd, Fred Ochs and Melissa Powell.


(L to R) Tyler Jenich and Michael Bulger.


(L to R) Marie Lively, Fred Ochs, Dan Gordon and Robbie Carver.


Fred Ochs and Jenny Byrd.


The cast of Leiris/Picasso: (Front, L to R): Patrick Baker, Tyler Jenich, Michael Bulger; (Rear, L to R): Marie Lively, Dan Gordon, Robbie Carver, Jenny Byrd, Fred Ochs, Melissa Powell, Amy K. Harmon and Joseph L. Roberts.

ALL PRODUCTION PHOTOS BY MICHAEL LAMONT

Reviews: Leiris/Picasso

LA Weekly Logo
GO LEIRIS/PICASSO “We try not to have so many guests. It disturbs what’s left of the neighbors,” says Michel as he stumbles around his Paris home in the dark, falling down stairs, knocking over crudités, and scalding himself on a teakettle. It’s all rather amusing … until you realize that it’s 1944 and there’s a Nazi patrol outside. This just the sort of dark humor that characterizes writer-director David Jette‘s farcical take on an actual evening at the house of Michel Leiris (Michael Bulger) when members of the French Resistance produced Pablo Picasso‘s play, Desire Caught by the Tail. The play itself is nonsensically awful (but oh, how the man could paint), so Jette has instead written about the circumstances surrounding its production, a sort of play without a play. In it, Leiris, his wife Zette (Jenny Byrd), Albert Camus (Tyler Jenich), Jean-Paul Sartre (Patrick Baker), Simone de Beauvoir (Amy K. Harmon), and Picasso’s mistress Dora Maar (Melissa Powell) scramble to set up while they wait for the master. Besides their own petty but hilarious squabbles, they also have to deal with a Nazi (Joseph L. Roberts) who keeps popping up, as well as the leader of the resistance, Sam Beckett (Dan Gordon). Jette’s direction keeps all the moving parts well synchronized as the actors enter and exit Juliana de Abreu‘s well-designed, multi-door set. The ensemble is strong overall, though Baker’s over-the-top bombastic caricature of Sartre and Bulger’s sincerity as the put-upon host stand out. And while the work isn’t historically accurate, it succeeds because, as Camus says, sometimes “happiness feels better than truth.” Bootleg Theater, 2220 Beverly Blvd., L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru July 24. (213) 290-2782, BrimmerStreet.org (Mayank Keshaviah)