Archived entries for Los Angeles LGBT Center

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

The Mismatch GameIt’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 — 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

Ovation Awards 2015Nominees 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 — WEST COAST PREMIERE OF “HIT THE WALL” BY IKE HOLTER — OPENS FRIDAY 9/18 AT DAVIDSON/VALENTINI THEATRE

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s
Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center
and Sixth Avenue present

the West Coast Premiere of
HIT THE WALL
By Ike Holter
Directed by Ken Sawyer

LA LGBT logoThe Los Angeles LGBT Center and Sixth Avenue have announced the West Coast premiere of Hit the Wall by Ike Holter. This acclaimed play brings audiences into the famed 1969 Stonewall riots, credited historically as the beginning of the modern LGBT rights movement. Directed by Ken Sawyer with a cast of 10, a live three-piece band, and original music by Anna Waronker (former singer for That Dog) and Charlotte Caffey (guitarist for The Go-Go’s), Hit the Wall will play three previews on September 15, 16, and 17, and opening is set for Friday, September 18 at 8pm. Hit the Wall will run through October 25 Extended Through November 15 in the Davidson/Valentini Theatre.

The cast will feature (in alphabetical order) Jason Caceres, Burt Grinstead, Charlotte Gulezian, Matthew Hancock, Kristina Johnson, Roland Ruiz, Shoniqua Shandai, Adam Silver, Donnie Smith, and Blake Young-Fountain.

Revolution starts with a hot night out. Hit the Wall focuses on the wild and enigmatic first night of the riots, placing the audience right in the center of the conflict. With an imaginative and theatrical blend of history and mythology, Hit the Wall shines a contemporary light on the legacy of Stonewall. Playwright Holter introduces characters who archetypically represent some who took part in the historic uprising. The show’s producers and director will completely redesign the Center’s black-box Davidson/Valentini Theatre, making the production as immersive as possible. Hit the Wall was originally performed at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Garage Theatre, with a subsequent production at the Barrow Street Theatre in New York City.

The scenic design is by Desma Murphy, lighting design is by Matt Richter, costume design is by E.B. Brooks, and sound design is by Ken Sawyer. The production will also feature original music by Anna Waronker & Charlotte Caffey, choreography by Yusuf Nasir, and fight choreography by Edgar Landa. The stage manager is Kathleen Jaffe. The producers for the LGBT Center and Sixth Avenue are Jon Imparato and Adam Silver.
There will be three preview performances of Hit the Wall on Tuesday, September 15, Wednesday, September 16, and Thursday, September 17, all at 8pm. Opening is set for Friday, September 18 at 8pm. The engagement will run through October 25 Extended Through November 15 with performances on Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 7pm. Preview seats are $20 and admission for regular performances is $30. Tickets are available online at www.lalgbtcenter.org/theatre, or by calling (323) 860-7300.

The Davidson/Valentini Theatre is located at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Village at Ed Gould Plaza, 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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08-04-15