Archived entries for

PRESS RELEASE: CHROMOLUME THEATRE PRESENTS “BIRD LIVES!” BY WILLARD MANUS, AUGUST 15 — SEPTEMBER 21

CHROMOLUME THEATRE AT THE ATTIC
PRESENTS
BIRD LIVES!
A SOLO PLAY WITH MUSIC
BY WILLARD MANUS
STARRING MONTAE RUSSELL
DIRECTED BY TOMMY HICKS

AUGUST 15 — SEPTEMBER 21 ONLY

Bird Lives! Charlie ParkerChromolume Theatre has announced Bird Lives! as its next production, opening on Friday, August 15 at 8pm. Written by Willard Manus and directed by Tommy Hicks, Bird Lives! will star Montae Russell as jazz icon Charlie Parker in this solo play with music. Parker, a legendary saxophone virtuoso, ushered in a new era of jazz by pioneering bebop and influencing subsequent generations of musicians. Bird Lives! will play a strictly limited engagement through September 21 only.

Montae Russell is a veteran television, theatre, and film actor. He was seen on NBC’s ER for 15 seasons as paramedic Dwight Zadro, and his other film and cable credits include The Player’s Club, HBO’s Laurel Avenue, TNT’s Lily in Winter, One Life to Live. Russell has made many television episodic appearances including Shameless, Detroit 187, and Cold Case, to name only a few. Stage credits include King Hedley II, A Few Good Men, Prelude to a Kiss (Broadway); Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and Fences (Kennedy Center); East Texas Hotlinks (Public Theater); The Glass Menagerie (Cleveland Playhouse); the solo show Thurgood; The Road Weeps, The Well Runs Dry; Jitney. Russell is active in the South Los Angeles area with his non-profit organization Successful Youth Los Angeles. www.MontaeRussell.com.

Playwright Willard Manus has had numerous plays produced in Los Angeles. Frank and Ava, a two-character play about Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner, recently concluded a six-month run at Three Clubs in Hollywood after winning a Best Play prize in the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival. Marilyn—My Secret, co-written with Odalys Nanin, is now running at the Macha Theatre. Among his other plays are Bridge and Berlin Cowboys. Manus is a member of the Actors Studio Playwrights/Directors Unit.

Director Tommy Hicks is more widely known for his starring roles in independent feature films including Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It!, Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, and Charles Burnett’s The Glass Shield. Hicks is a former Walt Disney Studios Screenwriting Fellowship Award Winner, and has lectured on theatre, film, and television at university campuses across the country. He directed Champion at the Skylight Theatre which later moved to New York City’s New Federal Theatre for a critically acclaimed run. Most recently, Hicks directed Willard Manus’ ‘Roid Rage at the Write Act Theatre in Hollywood, Bird Lives! at the Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center, and Mim & Rose at Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica. Hicks is a member of the Actors Studio Playwrights/Directors Unit.

The Chromolume design team for Bird Lives! will include Daniel Ingram (scenic) Samantha Marie (lighting), Amy Mazzaferro (costumes), and James Esposito (sound). The stage manager is Lauren J. Peters.

Bird Lives! opens on Friday, August 15 at 8pm. The regular performance schedule is Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm through September 21. Tickets are $20, with discounts for students and seniors ($17) and children 12 and under ($15), and may be purchased online at www.crtheatre.com, or via telephone at 323-205-1617. Chromolume Theatre at the Attic is located at 5429 W. Washington Boulevard (between the 10 freeway and Hauser Boulevard), in Los Angeles, 90016. Ample street parking is available.

For more information, visit www.crtheatre.com or call 323-510-2688.

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07-29-14

PRESS RELEASE – TALK RADIO’S SHEENA METAL SET TO CELEBRATE 20TH ANNIVERSARY AT HOLLYWOOD IMPROV SUNDAY 8/3 AT 9PM

Iconic LA Talk Radio Personality
SHEENA METAL
Celebrates 20th Anniversary in LA

Comedy Carnivale Anniversary Party
at Hollywood’s Famed Improv Comedy Club;
The Sheena Metal Experience
Will Air Live for the First Time

Sunday, August 3 at 9pm

Sheena Metal HeadshotSheena Metal is set to celebrate 20 years as a Los Angeles radio host with an anniversary party at the Hollywood Improv on Sunday, August 3 at 9pm. For the very first time, Metal will broadcast her LA Talk Radio program, The Sheena Metal Experience, live from the historic comedy club.

The guest line-up for Metal’s live broadcast is: Alison Arngrim (Little House on the Prairie), Corey Feldman (The Lost Boys), Geri Jewell (The Facts of Life), Jill-Michele Melean and Debra Wilson (MADtv), Susan Olsen (The Brady Bunch), Craig Shoemaker (The LoveMaster), and Judy Tenuta (The Love Goddess).

Said Metal, “I am excited to announce the line-up of onstage guests, each of whom I admire and adore. Each will be doing a hilarious, irreverent, and insightful interview with me onstage in front of a live audience of my friends, listeners, and comedy fans. I am proud to call myself a talk radio host, to work every day at amazing LA Talk Radio, and to have found another creative family at the Hollywood Improv that has given me the best anniversary present ever with this live event.”

Sheena Metal‘s name has become synonymous with radio in Los Angeles as she has anchored numerous radio shows for the past 20 years. Her current top-rated talk show, The Sheena Metal Experience, airs Monday through Friday from 5—7pm on LA Talk Radio and was recently named one of the Frontier 50 by Talkers Magazine. Metal hosts three other weekly shows for the successful LA radio station: Music Highway, an internationally syndicated music/talk hybrid now in its 10th year, Haunted Playground, a paranormal cornucopia of ghosts, monsters, aliens, psychics, and other things that go bump in the night, and Two Chicks Talkin’ Politics, which pairs her with Brady Bunch alum Susan Olsen for a program that uses both women’s irreverent opinions on political and social issues to spread awareness and unity throughout the country. In late 2013, Metal added a another weekly radio show to her schedule, following radio icon Howard Stern to SiriusXM Channel 102 as the host of On Air with Club CalExotics on Vivid Radio.

Tickets for Sheena Metal’s 20th Anniversary Party at the Improv are $10 and may be obtained online at http://hollywood.improv.com/event.cfm?id=321058. Red carpet arrivals begin at 8pm and the evening will also include a post-show meet-and-greet with Metal and her guests.

The Hollywood Improv is located at 8162 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. Valet and street parking are available.

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07-28-14

PRESS RELEASE — COEURAGE THEATRE COMPANY “ANDRONICUS” / CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL LA MOBILE BLOOD DRIVE ON FRIDAY 7/25

COEURAGE THEATRE COMPANY
AND ITS PRODUCTION OF
SHAKESPEARE’S ANDRONICUS

WILL PARTNER WITH
CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL LOS ANGELES
FOR MOBILE BLOOD DRIVE

FRIDAY, JULY 25 FROM 12PM—5PM

Blood DriveCoeurage Theatre Company (Jeremy Lelliott, Artistic Director; Nicole Monet, Managing Director), LA’s ‘Pay What You Want’ Company, has announced a partnership with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles for the Andronicus Blood Drive, a community event in Silver Lake on Friday, July 25 from 12pm—5pm. Coeurage approached CHLA with the notion of turning the negativity of Shakespeare’s bloodiest play into a positive and this blood donation event is the result.

The Andronicus Blood Drive is set to take place in CHLA’s mobile blood unit which will be parked next door to the Lyric-Hyperion Theatre & Cafe at 2030 Hyperion Avenue in Silver Lake. Blood donors will receive a pair of complimentary tickets to see Shakespeare’s Andronicus which is now playing through August 17. They will automatically be entered into a raffle with chances to win various prizes from Coeurage, the Lyric-Hyperion Theatre & Cafe, and other restaurants and merchants in the Silver Lake area. The lot next to the theatre where the mobile unit will be parked has been generously provided by Medicus Graphics Center.

To make an appointment to donate, go to www.coeurage.rsvpify.com. The donation process takes approximately 60 minutes, which should be taken into consideration when booking a time. Refreshments will be provided, and Coeurage Theatre Company members will be present to meet and greet all who come to give blood.

In Andronicus, deliciously twisted humor gives way to unexpected poignancy in this bold take on William Shakespeare’s original horror play The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus. Reveling in the darkest corners of human nature, Andronicus is a streamlined adaptation of Shakespeare’s most violent play; the bard’s masterful dramatic structure and brutal tale of revenge have been carefully preserved. Of the Coeurage production, Jason Rohrer at StageAndCinema.com said, “Director Jeremy Lelliott understands and makes clear pretty much all that may be found in the text to disgust and to amuse … he packs [the theatre] with bodies and action that threaten to overspill the [playing] area … this is a good thing in a highly emotional show. It’s an exciting and worthwhile production.”

The running schedule for Andronicus is as follows — Fridays, July 25, August 1, 8, and 15 at 8pm; Saturdays, July 26 and August 9 at 8pm; Sundays, August 3 and 17 at 7pm. All seats are available on a ‘Pay What You Want’ basis and may be reserved online at www.coeurage.org/tickets or by calling (323) 944-2165.

The Lyric-Hyperion Theatre & Cafe is located at 2106 Hyperion Avenue in Los Angeles, 90027. Street parking is available.

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07-21-14