Announcing: ‘L.A. Deli’ – A New Comedy by Sam Bobrick – Opens March 22 at Marilyn Monroe Theatre

L.A. DELI
A NEW COMEDY BY SAM BOBRICK
DIRECTED BY WALTER PAINTER

ANNOUNCED FOR MARILYN MONROE THEATRE
SIX WEEKS ONLY
MARCH 21 — APRIL 27

L.A. Deli, a new comedy by Sam Bobrick, has been set for the Marilyn Monroe Theatre in West Hollywood, helmed by award-winning director Walter Painter. L.A. Deli will play two preview performances on Friday, March 21 at 8pm and Saturday, March 22 at 3pm, with opening set for Saturday, March 22 at 8pm. The limited engagement will run through April 27 only.

L.A. Deli is a series of comedic sketches that take place in a Hollywood delicatessen giving the audience a wicked and hilarious look inside show business. The cast of outrageous, shameless, and sometimes certifiable characters includes movie and TV producers, writers, directors, actors, their wives, ex-wives, and a very patient waitress named Kathleen. Some of the events portrayed actually happened to the playwright, some to his friends, and some to people he just happened to be sitting next to at lunch.

The cast will feature (in alphabetical order) Rachel Boller, Scott Kruse, Jeffrey Landman, Melinda Peterson, Phil Proctor, and Darrin Revitz. The set design is by Jeffery Eisenmann, lighting design is by Michael Gend, costume design is by Michael Mullen, music is arranged and supervised by Larry Grossman, sound design is by Chris Mosciatello, and the stage manager is Liana Dillaway. L.A. Deli is produced by Theatre Planners.

Sam Bobrick has written and co-written over 40 plays, many of them performed throughout the world, including Norman, Is That You?, Death In England, Passengers, Getting Sara Married, and without William Shakespeare’s blessing, Hamlet II (Better Than the Original). To date, 21 of his plays have been published by Samuel French with more to follow. In 2011, he won the prestigious Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for his play The Psychic. Bobrick’s extensive TV writing credits have earned him three Writers Guild of America awards and an Emmy nomination. Some of his television credits include Captain Kangaroo, The Andy Griffith Show, Get Smart, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and numerous musical variety specials. He created the Saturday morning hit series Saved by the Bell. Also a songwriter, his songs have been recorded by Elvis Presley, Brian Ferry, and Los Lobos. www.SamBobrick.com

Walter Painter’s theatre credits include direction for productions of Camelot, Hello Dolly!, Cabaret, Once Upon A Mattress, Annie Get Your Gun, I Remember You (a new comedy by Bernard Slade at Garry Marshall’s Falcon Theatre), Bad Habits, Biloxi Blues, A Few Good Men, Dancing in the Mirror (a new play with dance), and Moon Over Parador (co-director with Paul Mazursky). He created the musical staging for the Broadway, National, and London companies of City of Angels. Painter is a seven-time nominee and three-time Emmy Award-winner for outstanding choreography in television. Credits include Musical Comedy Tonight (PBS Great Performances), four Oscar telecasts, and Hit Record TV (with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tony Danza). He stages National Memorial Day Concert and A Capitol Fourth with the National Symphony Orchestra for live broadcast on PBS. www.WalterPainter.com

There will be two preview performances of L.A. Deli on Friday, March 21 at 8pm and Saturday, March 22 at 3pm. Opening is set for Saturday, March 22 at 8pm. General seating admission is $20 for previews and $30 for regular performances. The running schedule is Friday and Saturday at 8pm with matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 3pm through April 27 only. Tickets are on sale now, and may be purchased online at www.plays411.com/ladeli or by calling (323) 960-7738.

The Marilyn Monroe Theatre at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute is located at 7936 Santa Monica Boulevard (one block west of Fairfax), in West Hollywood. Street parking is available.

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02-28-14

Announcing: EST/LA Presents ‘The Ugly One’ by Marius Von Mayenburg – Opens Feb. 15 – Atwater Village Theatre Speakeasy

“You are ugly. It’s a fact. I can’t believe you didn’t know.”

Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA
Presents the West Coast Premiere of
THE UGLY ONE
By Marius von Mayenburg
English Translation By Maja Zade
Directed by Gates McFadden

OPENS FEBRUARY 15
AT THE SPEAKEASY
ATWATER VILLAGE THEATRE

Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA has announced the West Coast premiere of The Ugly One, a comedy by Marius von Mayenburg (English translation by Maja Zade), directed by Gates McFadden. Starring Robert Joy, Tony Pasqualini, Eve Gordon, and Peter Larney, The Ugly One will play one preview performance on February 14 and is set to open Saturday, February 15 with performances at 5pm and 8pm. The limited engagement will run through March 24.

The Ugly One is a comedy that tells the story of Lette, a successful engineer who after decades of contentment is suddenly confronted with the news that he is, in fact, unspeakably ugly. He sets out to change his looks and finds out that nothing can be taken at face value. The Ugly One is a whip-smart social satire from one of Germany’s most exciting contemporary playwrights that lampoons our culture’s quest for beauty.

Marius von Mayenburg is a playwright, translator, dramaturg, director and one of the most widely produced German playwrights. His plays have received productions at the Schaubühne/Berlin, the Royal Court Theater in London, and other major theaters around the world. His first play Fireface (Feuergesicht), premiered at the Kammerspiele in Munich and was subsequently produced at the Kleist Theater in Frankfurt and at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg. For Fireface, Mayenburg received the Award for Emerging Playwrights Kleistförderpreis für junge Dramatiker and the prize of the Frankfurt Writer’s Foundation Preis der Frankfurter Autorenstiftung. All of Mayenburg’s plays (more than 10) have been produced in Germany as well as worldwide. He is currently dramaturg and playwright-in- residence at the Schaubühne/Berlin.

Translator Maja Zade was raised in Germany and Sweden and studied English literature at London University and Queen’s University in Canada. She has translated works by Marius von Mayenburg, Roland Schimmelpfennig, Lars Norén and Falk Richter into English.

Director Gates McFadden is also Artistic Director of EST/LA. Plays produced under her tenure include Julie Hebert’s Tree, Nicholas Kazan’s Mlle. God, Tom Jacobson’s House of the Rising Son, Crack Whore Galore and House of Gold. Her acting credits include six years and four films portraying Dr. Beverly Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Taking Care of Business, and The Hunt for Red October. McFadden’s numerous acting credits include Cloud Nine, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, How to Say Goodbye, Emerald City, The Homecoming, To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday, Viva Detroit, and EST/LA’s The Shore. On TV: Marker, Mad About You, and numerous guest roles. A well-known teacher of the techniques of Jacques Lecoq, her faculty positions have included AADA, Brandeis, Harvard, NYU, Tisch School of Arts, The Stella Academy in Hamburg, and University of Pittsburgh.

Set and projection design for The Ugly One are by Hana S. Kim, lighting design is by Pablo Santiago, costume design is by Catherine Baumgardner, sound design is by Joseph ‘Sloe’ Slawinski, and the stage manager is Marissa Drammissi. Producers for EST/LA are Mina Sharpe and Gabrieal Griego.

There will be one preview performance of The Ugly One on Friday, February 14 at 8pm and opening is set for Saturday, February 15 with performances at 5pm and 8pm. The running schedule will be Saturdays at 5pm and 8pm, Sundays at 7pm, and Mondays at 8pm through March 24. Preview tickets are $15 and regular tickets are $25. All seats are general admission and may be purchased online at www.EnsembleStudioTheatreLA.org or www.brownpapertickets.com/event/556574 or by calling (323) 644-1929. The Speakeasy at Atwater Village Theatre is located at 3269 Casitas Avenue, in Los Angeles.

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01-22-14

Announcing: West Coast Jewish Theatre Presents “The Whipping Man” – LA Premiere February 8 thru April 13

WEST COAST JEWISH THEATRE
PRESENTS A LOS ANGELES PREMIERE
THE WHIPPING MAN
BY MATTHEW LOPEZ
DIRECTED BY HOWARD TEICHMAN

FEBRUARY 6 — APRIL 13
AT THE PICO PLAYHOUSE

OPENING SET FOR SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8

West Coast Jewish Theatre has announced the Los Angeles Premiere of The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez. Directed by Howard Teichman, the production will play two previews on February 6 and 7 with opening set for Saturday, February 8 at the Pico Playhouse in West Los Angeles. The engagement will run through April 13.

It is April, 1865. The Civil War is over and throughout the South slaves are being freed, soldiers are returning home, and in Jewish homes the annual holiday of Passover is being celebrated. Into the chaos of war-torn Richmond, VA comes Caleb DeLeon, a young Jewish Confederate officer who has been severely wounded. He finds his family’s home in ruins and abandoned, save for two former slaves who wait in the empty house for the family’s return. As the three men wait for signs of life to return to the city, they wrestle with their shared past and the reality of the new world in which they find themselves.

Of the 2011 Manhattan Theatre Club production, The New York Times’ Charles Isherwood said, “The Whipping Man … is an atmospheric period drama … that surely has few equals in its arresting strangeness.” And of a 2013 production in St. Louis, the Dispatch proclaimed, “You don’t have to be Black or Jewish, let alone both, to appreciate this provocative drama.”

The cast of The Whipping Man will feature (in alphabetical order) Kirk Kelleykhan, Ricco Ross, and Shawn Savage. The set design is by Kurtis Bedford, lighting design is by Ellen Monocroussous, costume design is by Michelle Young, and sound design is by Bill Froggatt. The stage manager is Priscilla Miranda.

Playwright Matthew Lopez was awarded the John Gassner New Play Award from the New York Outer Critics Circle for The Whipping Man, and since premiering at Luna Stage in 2006 the play has been produced by over two dozen theatres across the country. The Whipping Man premiered in New York in 2010 at Manhattan Theatre Club. Other plays by Lopez include Somewhere, Reverberation, Zoey’s Perfect Wedding and The Sentinels. His newest play, The Legend of Georgia McBride, will premiere at the Denver Theatre Center this winter. Lopez currently holds new play commissions from Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, and Hartford Stage.

Howard Teichman is the Artistic Director of West Coast Jewish Theatre. For WCJT, he has produced and/or directed I’m Not Rappaport, The Immigrant: The Musical, Neil Simon’s Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Sarah Sarah, The Value of Names, and the Ovation Recommended production of Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass. Other directing credits include From Door to Door, Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers and Rumors, Murray Schisgal’s LUV, and Modern Orthodox (LA Weekly nomination, Best Comedy Director). Teichman has worked extensively with Theatre 40, Buffalo Nights Theatre Company, and The Laugh Factory Ensemble, among others. While living in Chicago he was a member of the legendary “Second City” improvisational troupe.

The Whipping Man will play two preview performances on Thursday, February 6 and Friday, February 7 at 8pm, and opening is set for Saturday, February 8 at 8pm. Preview tickets are $20 and regular performances range from $25—$35. The regular running schedule is Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 3pm through April 13. Tickets are available online at www.wcjt.org or by phone at (323) 821-2449. The Pico Playhouse is located at 10508 W. Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, 90064.

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01-13-14