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Announcing: Brimmer Street Theatre Company Presents World Premiere of “All Your Hard Work” by Miles Brandman – Opens July 21

BRIMMER STREET THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
ALL YOUR HARD WORK BY MILES BRANDMAN
DIRECTED BY MICHAEL MATTHEWS

OPENS JULY 21 AT THE LILLIAN THEATRE

All Your Hard Work - Brimmer Street posterBrimmer Street Theatre Company has announced it will present the world premiere of All Your Hard Work by Miles Brandman, directed by Michael Matthews, at the Lillian Theatre in Hollywood, with performances beginning on Thursday, July 19. Opening night is set for Saturday, July 21 at 8:00. All Your Hard Work will play a strictly limited engagement through August 25.

In All Your Hard Work, Mary-Ellen reconnects with Jim, a college boyfriend in town on business, and they end up back at her apartment. When Jim asks for a potentially dangerous favor, Mary-Ellen is forced to choose between her old affections and a long-simmering need for revenge. Playwright Miles Brandman is a writer and director for film and theatre. In the fall of 2010, Brimmer Street Theatre Company produced the world premiere of his play Summer in Hell at studio|stage in Hollywood. Brandman also wrote and directed the independent feature film Sex and Breakfast starring Macaulay Culkin and Eliza Dushku. His other plays produced in Los Angeles include Ladies of the State at Working Stage in Hollywood, and An Old Problem at Casa 0101 in Boyle Heights.

The cast will feature (in alphabetical order) Amy K. Harmon and Michael Grant Terry. Amy K. Harmon is a founding member of Brimmer Street Theatre Company. She can be seen this fall co-starring on the new FOX comedy Knights of Glory.  Past BSTC credits include Summer in Hell, <3, Leiris/Picasso, and Flower to Flower. Other TV credits include Scandal (ABC), Kings by Night (Comedy Central), Private Practice (ABC), The West Wing (NBC), and American Splendor. Michael Grant Terry is perhaps best known for his recurring role as Wendell Bray on the FOX television series Bones. His LA stage credits include Lobster Alice as well as many appearances in the Young Playwrights Festival at The Blank Theatre, and Stupid Kids at Celebration Theatre. Michael’s other TV credits include The Closer, CSI, Criminal Minds, and Castle.

Director Michael Matthews most recently helmed the smash hit production of The Color Purple for Celebration Theatre, as well as the West Coast premiere of Steve Yockey’s Very Still and Hard to See at The Production Company. Matthews is the winner of two 2011 NAACP Image Awards for his direction of The Women of Brewster Place and Take Me Out, both at Celebration Theatre. For The Blank Theatre, he has directed The Jazz Age, The Temperamentals, and The Santaland Diaries. Matthews also served as assistant director on Dead End at the Ahmanson Theatre and The Cherry Orchard (starring Annette Bening and Alfred Molina) at the Mark Taper Forum.

The set design for All Your Hard Work is by Stephen Gifford, lighting design is by Tim Swiss, costume design is by Christian Svenson, sound design is by Cricket Myers, Rebecca Eisenberg is stage manager, and All Your Hard Work is being co-produced for Brimmer Street Theatre Company by Ken Werther and Michael Bulger. The play was developed as part of the 2011 Brimmer Street ‘Blueprint Series,’ and is a guest production at the Lillian Theatre.

Brimmer Street Theatre Company creates and produces new works of theatre to cultivate artists and engage audiences in Los Angeles. By working from a select core of talented artists, the company is able to produce a unique brand of American theatre that is rooted in our common experience and driven by our commitment to building better theatre that is challenging, extraordinary, and inspiring. For more, visit www.BrimmerStreet.org.

There will be two lower-priced preview performances of All Your Hard Work on Thursday, July 19 and Friday, July 20 at 8pm, and opening night is set for Saturday, July 21 at 8:00. The regular performance schedule will be Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm through August 25 only. All seats for regular performances are $20 (previews are $15). To purchase tickets, visit www.BrimmerStreet.org or call (213) 290-2782. The Lillian Theatre is located at 1076 N. Lillian Way (one block west of Vine, just off Santa Monica Boulevard), in Hollywood, 90038. Street parking is available.

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06-25-12

Announcing: “Deathtrap” Set to Return To G&L Center in September

IRA LEVIN’S DEATHTRAP
SET TO RETURN IN SEPTEMBER

L.A. GAY & LESBIAN CENTER’S HIGHLY ACCLAIMED PRODUCTION WILL RUN SIX WEEKS ONLY
SEPTEMBER 21 – OCTOBER 28

Deathtrap - Ken Werther PublicityThe much acclaimed, ‘Ovation Recommended’ production of Ira Levin’s classic comedy thriller Deathtrap is set to return to the Davidson/Valenti Theatre for six weeks only, opening on Friday, September 21 and running through Sunday, October 28. Directed by Ken Sawyer, Deathtrap recently enjoyed a ten week sold out run at the Davidson/Valenti Theatre, located at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center in Hollywood. Net proceeds will benefit the entire array of the Center’s free and low-cost programs and services.

Deathtrap’s famously complex script provides genuine, edge-of-your-seat thrills, and is perfectly tailored to jolt audiences out of their seats. Playwright Ira Levin is perhaps best known for his suspense novels Rosemary’s Baby, The Boys from Brazil, and The Stepford Wives. Of Levin, famed author Stephen King said, “He is the Swiss watchmaker of suspense novels, making the rest of us look like cheap watchmakers in drugstores.”

Director Ken Sawyer has won a total of eight Ovation Awards for his work in the suspense/horror genre, three for Dracula at the NoHo Arts Center, and five for The Woman in Black at the Road Theatre Company. The entire cast will be returning, and they are (in alphabetical order) Brian Foyster, Cynthia Gravinese, Burt Grinstead, Elizabeth Herron, Carl J. Johnson, and Stephen Mendillo. The set design is by Joel Daavid, lighting design is by Luke Moyer, costume design is by Paula Higgins, and sound design is by Ken Sawyer. Deathtrap is produced by Jon Imparato, artistic director of the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center.

Opening night is set for Friday, September 21, and this return engagement of Deathtrap will run through October 28 only. The running schedule is Friday and Saturday at 8pm, and Sunday at 7pm. General seating admission is $25 on Friday and Saturday, and $20 on Sunday. Tickets are available online at www.lagaycenter.org/theatre, or by calling (323) 860-7300.

The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center provides a broad array of services for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, welcoming nearly a quarter-million client visits from ethnically diverse youth and adults each year. Through its Jeffrey Goodman Special Care Clinic and on-site pharmacy, the Center offers free and low-cost health, mental health, HIV/AIDS medical care and HIV/STD testing and prevention. The Center also offers legal, social, cultural and educational services, with unique programs for seniors, families and youth, including a 24-bed transitional living program for homeless youth. Information about the Gay & Lesbian Center is available on the Web at www.lagaycenter.org.

The Davidson/Valenti 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. Free parking is available.

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06-19-12

Announcing: Wasatch Theatrical Ventures Presents “Our House” by Theresa Rebeck, Opening 6/30 at the Lounge Theatre

WASATCH THEATRICAL VENTURES ANNOUNCES
WEST COAST PREMIERE OF
OUR HOUSE
BY THERESA REBECK
DIRECTED BY KIFF SCHOLL

DARKLY COMIC LOOK AT AMERICA’S OBSESSION
WITH REALITY TELEVISION
OPENS JUNE 30, 2012 AT THE LOUNGE THEATRE
FOR SIX WEEKS ONLY

Our House poster - Ken Werther PublicityWasatch Theatrical Ventures has announced the West Coast premiere of Theresa Rebeck’s Our House, helmed by award-winning director Kiff Scholl, for a limited engagement at the Lounge Theatre in Hollywood. There will be one preview performance on June 29, with opening night set for Saturday, June 30, 2012 at 8:00. Our House will play through August 5.

Are news and entertainment interchangeable? In Our House, a cocksure TV big shot faced with dwindling ratings installs America’s favorite news anchor as host of a popular reality show. Meanwhile, in Middle America, a houseful of roommates bickers over high-stakes real-world conflicts: Merv doesn’t clean the bathroom. Someone ate Alice’s yogurt. And the rent is long past due. When reality collides with reality TV, we find ourselves front and center in a drama that holds the nation riveted. Our House is a deliciously scathing new comedy that takes on a media-obsessed culture intent on turning even the most sobering crisis into sexy entertainment.

Theresa Rebeck is a widely produced playwright throughout the United States and abroad whose work also includes The Scene, The Water’s Edge, Loose Knit, The Family of Mann, Spike Heels, Bad Dates, Poor Behavior, View of the Dome, Omnium Gatherum (co-written with Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros and a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2004) and The Understudy. She has written two novels, Three Girls and Their Brother and Twelve Rooms with a View. She is also an award-winning writer and producer for television, including the shows Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Brooklyn Bridge, Dream On, L.A. Law and NYPD Blue, and she is the creator of NBC’s Smash, among others.

Award-winning director Kiff Scholl most recently served as director of Hyper-Chondriac at the Asylum Lab and Expecting to Fly at the Elephant Space. Other Los Angeles directing credits include Kill Me, Deadly and Shake at Theatre of Note, and Don Giovanni Tonight, Don Carlo Tomorrow at Sacred Fools, about which the LA Times said, “Director Kiff Scholl has few peers at keeping us intrigued.”

The cast of Our House will feature (in alphabetical order) Mark Belnick, Ajarae Coleman, Patrick Hancock, Rachel Germaine, Kyle Ingleman, Jennifer Kenyon, and JB Waterman. The set design is by Dan Mailley, lighting design is by Matt Richter, costume design is by Sharell Martin, and sound and video design is by Corwin Evans. The stage manager is Stephaine Boltjes, and Our House is produced for Wasatch Theatrical Ventures by Racquel Lehrman and Theatre Planners.

There will be one preview performance of Our House on Friday, June 29 at 8pm. Opening night is set for Saturday, June 30 at 8:00. General seating admission is $12.50 for the preview, and $25 for regular performances. The running schedule is Friday and Saturday at 8pm, and Sunday at 7pm, through August 5 only. Tickets are on sale now, and may be purchased online at www.plays411.com/ourhouse or by calling (323) 960-7773.

The Lounge Theatre is located at 6201 Santa Monica Boulevard (just east of Vine, at El Centro), in Hollywood. Street parking is available.

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06-04-12