The Friday Feature

Innocent Flesh now playing at the Zephyr Theatre. Check it. It’s working itself out for an Off-Broadway run.

LA Times to cut all Online Calendar Listings

Except on Sundays. First a question: how many of you actually use the Times Calendar Listing to locate events? Hell, how many of you can FIND the LA Times Calendar Listings? I certainly don’t use them and haven’t in a while. Nevertheless… Strange. Cutting these listings in print is somewhat understandable, but to eradicate it [...]

Hollywood Fringe Festival Opens Registration for 2012 Extravaganza

And offers some tasty news to boot! The Fringe news: that they have teamed up with Open Fist Theatre  and their space will be the new Fringe Central. Pulls the locus of control a little further East, but Open Fist is a great space and it sounds like a match made in Hollywood, er, Heaven. [...]

The Thursday Thought

With all this talk of LAUSD considering cutting Arts Education completely from Elementary Schools, I  am continuously buoyed by the ability of private citizens to creatively teach our children about the arts outside the classrooms. If the public school system simply fails in its mission to educate our youth, well, then its up to the [...]

Autistic Child “Awakened” by Theatre Experience

This is pretty cool. Wonder if and how it can be worked into therapy for autistic children. I’m guessing it’s already happening. At least I hope it is.

Funded by Mellon Foundation “Project Audience” to be led by LA Stage Alliance and ExperienceLA

Saw this on the LASA Facebook page. Apparently, the Mellon Foundation has agreed to kick in $570,oo0 to fund this behemoth called “Project Audience”. Seems like they will be working through the already existing ExperienceLA consortium. The end goal as declared in the prospectus (see below) seems to be this: “Project Audience’s goals are to [...]

The Script Doctor

  • Other Recent Articles

  • Jennifer Levinson and Aaron Shand in "Dreams of the Washer King" at Theatre 40. Credit: Ed Krieger.

    DREAMS OF THE WASHER KING: 90% – SWEET

    SWEET Blurring time and reality, “Dreams” is part memory play, part murder mystery and part psychological suspense thriller. It requires delicate handling, and Barron has assembled just the “dream” cast for the job -– exceptional performers whose poignant portrayals are beacons in the murk. They alone are well worth seeing. F. Kathleen Foley – LA [...]

  • Evan Todd and Brandon Gill in “The Recommendation” at the Old Globe in San Diego Credit: Henry DiRocco

    THE RECOMMENDATION (OLD GLOBE): 66% – BITTERSWEET

    BITTERSWEET An otherwise handsome, absorbing production ends up meriting only a qualified recommendation. Bob Verini – Variety BITTER Let’s consider “The Recommendation” a promise of future talent. The groundwork, however, is just being laid. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET What starts out as an Odd Couple-like comedy about a pair of mismatched Brown University [...]

  • Dylan Southard: "The Dramaturg"

    Welcome Dylan Southard to Bitter Lemons!

    We are most fortunate to have co-artistic director of neetheater and the resident  dramaturgical Zen Master at the Robey Theatre Company at LATC, Dylan Southard,  hopping on board the Lemon Express with the rest of us Looney Tune Lovin’ Louts. As of late, Dylan has been blogging over at the needtheater blogspot, raining down some reality on [...]

  • Broken Eggs and Wolfbait

    Broken Eggs and Wolfbait

    Even if your feces tasted like pineapple tart, you would die of malnutrition no matter how much you stuffed into your gullet – that’s if the bacteria didn’t kill you first.  Fortunately, everybody knows better than to do that.  So why do so many people still watch and praise shitty theater?  Regular consumption of entertainment [...]

  • The Monday Moment

    The Monday Moment

    I don’t know about you, but I’ve never really been a fan of Christina Aguilera’s singing. She clearly has a great voice, but every time I listen to her all I can think about is, “Wow, nice range!” And so I find this rendition of Etta James’ “At Last” that she delivered at Etta’s memorial [...]

  • Critique of the Week

    Critique of the Week

    OUR TOWN & A RAISIN IN THE SUN Anthony Byrnes – Opening the Curtain Maybe it was the eggs? Both plays began with eggs. Scrambled eggs. Onstage, the woman of the house gets up early, before her husband, and starts the daily ritual of making breakfast. In one kitchen you can literally hear the crack [...]

  • Critique of the Week – Runner Up

    Critique of the Week – Runner Up

    NO GOOD DEED Ron Irwin – LA Examiner The Furious Theatre Company presents “No Good Deed” written by its own playwright in residence Matt Pelfrey and directed by Damaso Rodriguez at “Inside the Ford” now through February 26, 2012. This is absolutely not grandpas stage play. It’s wild, often funny and over the top. It [...]

  • The Road to Success

    The Road to Success

    “To succeed as an actor, you have to want it more than anything else in the world.” I want to be a working actor. More than that, though, I want to be healthy, and happy.   I want my family to be healthy and happy.  I want my marriage to be healthy and happy. I also [...]

  • Brendan Griffin, Damon Gupton, Annie Parisse, Crystal A. Dickinson and Jeremy Shamos in the Playwrights Horizons production of "€œClybourne Park"€ at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum

    CLYBOURNE PARK (MARK TAPER): 91% – SWEET

    SWEET Can a drama be memorable if all its characters are disagreeable? Bruce Norris proves that it’s possible in “Clybourne Park,” his smart, abrasively funny and fiendishly provocative play that opened Wednesday at the Mark Taper Forum. Charles McNulty – LA Times SWEET Director Pam McKinnon adeptly guides a strong ensemble through Norris’ steady stream [...]

  • The Saturday Saying

    The Saturday Saying

    “So there is some good truth in this play and a whole lot of entertainment value.  But it is not for everyone.  First of all young children should not attend because of language, violence and drug use.   Also folks who are mentally inflexible as this show will stretch and yes sometimes even trouble your [...]

  • The Two Dirtiest Words in Theatre

    The Two Dirtiest Words in Theatre

    One of the biggest insults to a professional theatre is to be called a “community theatre”. Your average Joe in small-town America who goes to see Arsenic and Old Lace at the local American Legion Hall doesn’t understand why that’s a problem, but theatre people sure know the difference. Even we 99-seat theatre rats here in L.A. consider [...]

  • Another Friday Feature

    Another Friday Feature

    Teaser trailer for the Geffen’s Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins starring Kathleen Tuner. An interesting mix of Ms. Ivins herself, some fun music, wacky visuals and those sparkling reviews from, well, elsewhere.

  • The Friday Feature

    The Friday Feature

    Very nicely done teaser for The 39 Steps now playing at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Spare, economical, packs a punch.

  • It’s an Illusion!

    It’s an Illusion!

    Saving this to show my son one day when he starts giving me shit. Heh. Hat tip, Jon Armstrong.

  • Barry Pearl in "Hunger: In Bed with Roy Cohn" at Credit: Michael Lamont.

    HUNGER: IN BED WITH ROY COHN: 80% – SWEET

    BITTERSWEET Great direction and great cast provide a fascinating fresh look at an old demon. Even if the bad boy Cohn stays irritating and rotten – does he really go to heaven in the end?/ that’s right, this is only a fantasy! – he’s still somewhat amusing to watch. Don Grigware – BroadwayWorld SWEET Waiting [...]

  • The Thursday Thought

    The Thursday Thought

    My buddy Rainn Wilson has finally embraced the fact that he looks suspiciously similar to a young Newt Gingrich. You can see it here.  Hmmmmm.

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