NEWS RELEASE — “HAM: A MUSICAL MEMOIR” STARRING SAM HARRIS — OPENS JANUARY 23, 2016 AT LA LGBT CENTER’S RENBERG THEATRE

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s
Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center
In Association with Susan Dietz and Elaine Krauss
Presents

HAM: A MUSICAL MEMOIR
Written and Performed by SAM HARRIS
Directed by BILLY PORTER
Musical Direction by TODD SCHROEDER

January 23—February 7, 2016

Direct from a critically acclaimed off-Broadway run, HAM: A Musical Memoir will make its West Coast debut at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Renberg Theatre with previews beginning January 21 and opening night set for Saturday, January 23. HAM: A Musical Memoir will play a strictly limited engagement through February 7.

Based on Harris’s book HAM: Slices of a Life (Simon & Schuster), the musical play hilariously, passionately, and poignantly takes us from a conflicted childhood in Bible-Belt Oklahoma to the dizzying roller coaster ride of a life in show business to the fulfillment of the impossible dream of fatherhood, culminating in the lessons of a life well lived. Well . . . lived.

HAM: A Musical Memoir is directed by Tony Award-winner Billy Porter and musical direction is by acclaimed pianist and composer Todd Schroeder.

Sam Harris is a multi-million selling recording artist, Tony-nominated Broadway and television actor, award-winning playwright, composer, director, and most recently, best selling author. Before American Idol, before The Voice, Harris first exploded into the public eye as the premiere winner of TV’s Star Search. On Broadway, Harris starred in The Life (Tony, Outer Critic’s Circle, Drama Desk nominations), The Producers, and Grease (Drama Desk nomination). National Tour, off-Broadway and regional credits include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Hair, Pippin, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cabaret, The Jazz Singer, and The First Wives Club. On television, Harris was a series regular on the CBS sitcom The Class, had a recurring role on Rules of Engagement, and made other guest star appearances. He has performed on numerous specials and every talk show from Leno to Oprah to Fallon. He has nine studio CDs to his credit, has toured the globe in concert, and he made Rolling Stone’s list of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Harris is the author of the stage musicals Hard Copy, Different Hats, Revival, Hurry! Hurry! Hollywood!, and SAM. He co-wrote Liza’s at the Palace (Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event), co-created/co-wrote the TV sitcom Down To Earth, musically supervised segments of Michael Jackson’s 30th Year Anniversary Special at Madison Square Garden, and co-produced the PBS special Love Letter to New York. Harris is married to businessman Danny Jacobsen and they are the proud parents of seven-year-old Cooper Atticus Harris-Jacobsen.

Todd Schroeder began playing piano at the age of four. His musical family introduced him to everything from Claude Debussy to Neil Diamond to Ray Charles to Elton John to Jerry Lee Lewis. This variety of influences led to a wide range of musical accomplishments as composer, producer, arranger, musical director, and performer. Schroeder has musically directed for Harris for over 20 years including appearances at Carnegie Hall, The White House, with The Boston Pops, and at many other prestigious venues. His original music has been featured in films and on television. He co-wrote Roter Mond: The Braveheart Musical and he co-composed music and lyrics for Unbeatable: A Bold New Musical (which he also directed in 2013). Schroeder has recorded four of his own CDs. In addition to his work with Harris, Schroeder has musically directed/written/arranged for and performed with such artists as Angela Lansbury, Nell Carter, Jason Alexander, Rita Coolidge, and David Burnham. He is the musical director for Universal Studios Japan and is the founder of The Todd Schroeder Young Artist Grant, an annual scholarship presented to graduating high school students wanting to pursue careers in the arts.

Billy Porter is a Tony and Grammy Award-winning singer, composer, actor, playwright, and director. He won the 2013 Tony Award for Lead Actor in a Musical for his performance in Kinky Boots. Other Broadway credits include Miss Saigon, Five Guys Named Moe, Grease, Smokey Joe’s Café, and Dreamgirls. Porter’s off-Broadway and regional credits include Angels in America, Romance in Hard Times, The Merchant of Venice, House of Lear, Radiant Baby, Birdie Blue, Going Native, Jelly’s Last Jam, Topdog/Underdog, Songs for a New World, Jesus Christ Superstar, A Chorus Line and Chicago. His solo show, Ghetto Superstar: The Man That I Am, debuted at The Public Theater in 2005. Directing credits include The Wiz and Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Music of Stevie Wonder, and Being Alive, a musical celebration mixing the canons of Sondheim and Shakespeare and combining them with musical styles of the African-American experience. He won a NAACP Theatre Award for Best Director of a Musical for Once on This Island at Reprise in Los Angeles, where he also conceived and directed a musical revue entitled The Soul of Rodgers. Last spring he directed George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum at Boston’s Huntington Theatre. Other directing credits include Five Guys Named Moe, Altar Boyz, and Rent.

HAM: A Musical Memoir will play two preview performances on Thursday, January 21 at 8pm and Friday, January 22 at 8pm, and opening is set for Saturday, January 23 at 8pm. The regular performance schedule is Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 7pm through February 7. Tickets are $20 for previews and $35 for regular performances and are available online at lalgbtcenter.org/theatre or via phone by calling (323) 860-7300. 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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Sam Harris in “Ham: A Musical Memoir.” Photo by Timmy Blupe.

NEWS RELEASE — CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR “The MisMatch Game” AT LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER 8/29 & 8/30

CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR
The MisMatch Game
WITH HOST DENNIS HENSLEY

Presented by the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s
Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center
and Dennis Hensley

TWO NIGHTS ONLY!
Saturday, August 29 at 8pm
Sunday, August 30 at 7pm

Casting has been announced for the upcoming 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 nights only, Saturday, August 29 at 8pm and Sunday, August 30 at 7pm.

The cast on Saturday 8/29 will include (in alphabetical order) Patrick Bristow (Tim Gunn), Rachel Butera (Rosie O’Donnell), Tom Lenk (Zooey Deschanel), and Felix Pire (Ricardo Montalban). On Sunday 8/30 the cast will feature (in alphabetical order) Jackie Beat (Bea Arthur), Drew Droege (Tanya Roberts), Maile Flanagan (Danny Bonaduce), Nicol Paone (Arianna Huffington), and Marc Samuel (Prince). Visit www.lalgbtcenter.org/theatre for updates.

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 the 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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08-17-15

NEWS RELEASE — WORLD PREMIERE PLAY “STANLEY ANN: THE UNLIKELY STORY OF BARACK OBAMA’S MOTHER” STARRING ANN NOBLE SET TO OPEN AT LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER JULY 9

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s
Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center
Victoria Mudd and Elizabeth Yng-Wong Present

A World Premiere Play
STANLEY ANN:
The Unlikely Story of Barack Obama’s Mother
Written by Mike Kindle
Directed by Mark Bringelson
Performed by Ann Noble

OPENS JULY 9 AT 8PM
at the Davidson/Valentini Theatre

The Los Angeles LGBT Center, Victoria Mudd, and Elizabeth Yng-Wong have announced the world premiere production of Stanley Ann: The Unlikely Story of Barack Obama’s Mother. The one-woman play, written by Mike Kindle and directed by Mark Bringelson, chronicles the life of Stanley Ann Dunham from her young adult years in Hawaii to her later professional life in Indonesia. Starring Ann Noble (The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia?), Stanley Ann will play two preview performances on July 7 and 8 at 8pm and opening is set for Thursday, July 9 at 8pm at the Center’s Davidson/Valentini Theatre.

Stanley Ann introduces a brave, idealistic, adventurous woman whose moral compass dictated painful choices. Drawing on actual events, the play follows Dunham’s journey from single motherhood to international adventurer through a crisis of conscience at the farthest edge of the American Empire.

First workshopped at the Powerhouse Theatre in Santa Monica, Stanley Ann was further refined in Washington, DC at the Capital Fringe Festival with Ms. Noble in the title role. Now Mudd and Yng-Wong are teaming up with the Los Angeles LGBT Center to present the world premiere of this revealing and electrifying new play.

Mike Kindle (Playwright) received his BA in Drama from the University of Virginia and his MFA in Theatre from UCLA. He is highly active in the Los Angeles theatre community, is a proud member of the oft-recognized Los Angeles Theater Ensemble, and has worked for Center Theatre Group.

Mark Bringelson (Director) is a multi-award-winning director and actor who works in theatre, film, TV, opera, and music videos. The long list of world premieres he has directed for the stage include, most recently, Michael Kearns’ BANG BANG at Highways Performance Space, Susan Rubin’s EVE2 at Bootleg Theatre, and Tony Foster’s Swimmer’s Ear at Skylight Theatre. Bringelson wrote and directed the 60-minute noir film Obedience and the short film Phonecall. He also directed two pilots for HBO, Tug and Buster and Caveman.

Actress Ann Noble is one of LA’s most accomplished and celebrated actresses. A member of The Antaeus Company, Noble is also an accomplished playwright and producer. Most recently she received extraordinary praise for her multiple award-winning role as Stevie in the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s universally acclaimed production of Edward Albee’s The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia?

There will be two preview performances on Tuesday, July 7 at 8pm and Wednesday, July 8 at 8pm. Stanley Ann will open on Thursday, July 9 at 8pm. General admission tickets for are $15 for previews and $20 for regular performances and may be purchased online at www.lalgbtcenter.org/theatre or by phone at (323) 860-7300. The performance schedule is Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 7pm through July 26 only. Net proceeds from ticket sales will support the full range of free and low-cost programs and services offered by the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

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06-09-15