NEWS RELEASE ▪︎ “DEAD BOYS” at CELEBRATION THEATRE ▪︎ JULY 1 – 31

CELEBRATION THEATRE PRESENTS

DEAD BOYS

BY MATTHEW SCOTT MONTGOMERY

DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER JAMES RAYMOND

11 PERFORMANCES ONLY

JULY 1 – 31

Celebration Theatre has announced a limited engagement of Matthew Scott Montgomery’s award-winning drama Dead Boys, set to run July 1–31 on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights. Under the direction of Christopher James Raymond, the production will feature (in alphabetical order) playwright Montgomery and Andrew Puente.

The end of the world. Two millennials trapped in the basement of their old high school. The only gay kid in school. And the guy who used to beat him up. Provocative, hilarious, and heartbreaking, Dead Boys is about two modern American young men who have no choice but to face fate, race, sexuality – and each other.

A 2017 production of Dead Boys was a City of West Hollywood: One City One Pride Scholarship Award-winner. It was designated as Best of Fringe and won an Encore! Producers Award. The play was also a Diversity in American Theater Award finalist.

Matthew Scott Montgomery is an actor and emerging playwright. Acting credits include Sarah Ruhl’s Stage Kiss at The Geffen Playhouse, Del Shores’ Southern Baptist Sissies (as well as the adapted film version), and Shores’ Yellow at the Coast Playhouse, for which he won the LADCC for Best Actor. Television work includes Jane the Virgin, White Famous, and Disney Channel’s Sonny With a Chance, So Random!, Shake it Up!, and Austin & Ally. He is also one of the writers and stars of the web series Nasty Habits. His writing has been produced onstage at the Let Live! Theatre, Theatre Banshee, and The Working Stage Theater in sold-out runs of the annual Halloween show Spook Night (and its three sequels), as well as the dark comedies Fuck Valentine’s Day, Dead of July, and Dead of Winter.

Andrew Puente is a resident artist at the Ovation Award-Winning Chance Theater in Anaheim. His television credits include NCIS and the web series Nasty Habits. Theatre credits include Picasso at the Lapin Agile, In the Heights, Hamlet, Dogfight, and Avenue Q, among others.

Christopher James Raymond is the Associate Artistic Director of The Blank Theatre and oversees its new play development program, The Living Room Series. Other work at The Blank includes the critically-acclaimed world premiere of A Singular They by Aliza Goldstein. Also served as assistant director for The Blank’s west coast premiere of Speech and Debate and the LA premiere of Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them. He directed Doomsday Cabaret! A Rock Musical of Apocalyptic Proportions in the 2012 Hollywood Fringe Festival. He has worked at The Pearl, The Public, NADA, EST/LA, Moving Arts, and Theater of Note, among others.

Dead Boys is produced for Celebration Theatre by Jay Marcus and Tom DeTrinis. The stage manager is Tal Fox.

Dead Boys will play 11 performances only beginning Sunday, July 1, at 7pm. The running schedule is Sundays at 7pm and Mondays and Tuesdays at 8pm through July 31 (no performances on Sunday 7/15, Monday 7/16, Tuesday 7/17, and Tuesday 7/24). Tickets are $25 and may be purchased online at www.CelebrationTheatre.com or by phone at (323) 957-1884. Celebration Theatre at The Lex is located at 6760 Lexington Avenue in Hollywood, 90038.

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06/06/18

NEWS RELEASE ▪︎ 27th ANNUAL OVATION AWARDS NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

27TH ANNUAL LA STAGE ALLIANCE

OVATION AWARDS NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

LA MIRADA THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS LEADS WITH 22,

CENTER THEATRE GROUP FOLLOWS WITH 20,

GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE HAS 18,

CELEBRATION THEATRE GETS 16,

THE THEATRE @ BOSTON COURT WITH 11,

LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER RECEIVES 10

Nominees for the 27th Annual LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards were announced on Wednesday, November 2 on @ This Stage Magazine [ThisStage.la]. The ceremony will take place Tuesday, January 17, 2017 at the Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center. The curtain will rise at 7:30pm.

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts leads the pack with 22 nominations for their productions of American Idiot (7), First Date (7), Dreamgirls (4), and Empire (4). Center Theatre Group follows with 20 nominations for their productions of Endgame (10) and Women Laughing Alone with Salad (1) at the Kirk Douglas Theatre; Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 (6 noms) at the Mark Taper Forum; and Grey Gardens (2) and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (1) at the Ahmanson Theatre. Geffen Playhouse received 18 nominations for their productions of Guards at the Taj (7), Barcelona (6), Outside Mullingar (2), These Paper Bullets! A Modish Ripoff of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (1), Big Sky (1), and Best Season. Celebration Theatre garnered 16 nominations for their productions of The Boy from Oz (10), Bootycandy (3), Dream Boy (2), and Best Season. The Theatre @ Boston Court has 11 nominations which break down as follows — Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles (co-production with The Getty Villa), 4 noms; The Golden Dragon (3), Colony Collapse (3), and Seven Spots on the Sun (1). The Los Angeles LGBT Center received 10 nominations for their productions of Hit the Wall (5) and HAM: A Musical Memoir (4), as well as Best Season.

Ovation Honors, which recognize outstanding achievement in areas that are not among the standard list of nomination categories, have been awarded to Gregory Nabours (Music Composition for a Play, The Sparrow at Coeurage Theatre Company); Edgar Landa (Fight Choreography, Son of Semele Ensemble’s That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play); and Greg Ballora, Sean Cawelti, Christine Papalexis, Jack Pullman, and Brian White (Puppet Design, Woody Boy Long Fish at Bootleg Theater).

For the 2015-2016 voting season, there are a grand total of 214 nominations for 70 productions presented by 45 companies. There were 280 total productions registered from 116 companies. Of those productions registered, 56 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. This year’s Ovation Awards eligibility period ran from August 31, 2015 through August 28, 2016.

LA STAGE Alliance is a nonprofit arts service organization dedicated to building awareness, appreciation, and support for the performing arts in Greater Los Angeles. This year’s Ovation Awards ceremony is sponsored in part by Wells Fargo, Bakers Man Productions, Time Out Los Angeles, Performances Magazine, and Ken Werther Publicity.

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11-02-16

Press Release: Vibrant Voice Awards Benefit Event Raises $40,000 for Celebration Theatre

Celebration Theatre’s
VIBRANT VOICE AWARDS
BENEFIT EVENT
Featuring Betty White
And Her Hot in Cleveland Co-Stars
Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, and Wendie Malick
Reading a Classic Episode of The Golden Girls

Raised $40,000
for the non-profit theatre, now in its 31st year

2014 Vibrant Voice Awards
were presented to
Wendie Malick and Robert Forster

With Special Guests
Sean Hayes, Tracie Thoms, Dan Lauria, Tim Daly,
Max Greenfield, Millicent Martin,
and the legendary Mary Wilson
(of the original Supremes)

On Saturday, April 26 on Sound Stage 19 at CBS Studio Center in Studio City, CA, Celebration Theatre’s Vibrant Voice Awards benefit event raised $40,000 for the non-profit theatre, now in its 31st year. The evening featured original ‘Golden Girl‘ Betty White along with her Hot in Cleveland co-stars Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, and Wendie Malick reading an episode of The Golden Girls (“Blanche and the Younger Man”). The 2014 Vibrant Voice Awards were presented to Wendie Malick and Robert Forster, and there were special appearances by Sean Hayes, Tracie Thoms, Dan Lauria, Tim Daly, Max Greenfield, Millicent Martin, and Mary Wilson (of the original Supremes). The evening was hosted by Michael Burger.

The Vibrant Voice Award is presented annually in recognition of long-term support of Celebration Theatre as well as spreading the word about the work and mission of Celebration. Past recipients of the award are Leslie Jordan and Sharon Lawrence.

Founded in 1982, Celebration Theatre is a community of artists dedicated to presenting innovative, provocative and relevant work that examines the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer experience. It provides a supportive forum for professional and emerging writers, directors, designers and performers, giving voice to the full experience of gay culture. The theatre endeavors to challenge society’s perception of the community and give a vibrant voice to its evolving identity.

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04-29-14