Author Archive for Colin Mitchell

LA STAGE DAY Arrives This Saturday, May 18th, 9am-5:30pm

I cannot attend as I have fatherly duties, but it looks like an interesting gathering. Here’s all the poop: Join us for LA STAGE Day — a day-long community event for the greater Los Angeles performing arts community: performers, designers, administrators, leaders, students, supporters, vendors, and patrons. Generously hosted by California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) [...]

The 11 Rules for Having a Good Time at the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival

Some have referred to me as “Fringe Obsessed”. I believe that’s a new mental disorder recently added to the DSM III – or whatever they are calling it now – and to be honest I fully embrace the description. “But why?” You may ask, “Why be Fringe Obsessed, when so much of the work is [...]

Writer for National Review Destroys Annoying Audience Member’s Cell Phone During Live Performance

Saw this great story on the LAist wire. Kevin Williamson, writer for the National Review and other publications, just couldn’t take it any longer and finally grabbed some chick’s cell phone and tossed it into oblivion. I know the feeling, Kevin. As do most of you reading this. It’s is still astonishing to me that [...]

Theater as Church

The Mad Genius of MadTheatrics, Andrew Moore, recently wrote a very compelling article on the Parallels of Theater Companies and Church Communities. He references a powerful article called Autopsy of a Deceased Church. In the article, author Thom S. Rainer, lists 11 important points he gleaned from the death of a particular church community. What Andrew [...]

LA’s Top Small Theater Companies According to CBS LA [UPDATED]

This is a pretty solid list from CBS LA and the Lemon approves. From top to bottom they are: The Fountain Theatre Odyssey Theatre Ensemble The Antaeus Company 24th Street Theatre Ensemble Studio Theatre L.A. Long Beach Playhouse If I could add four more to make it a solid ten I’d probably go with, Sacred Fools, [...]

The Monday Moment

Wow. Musical Theater in space, if you will. This is a music video version – the first ever recorded in space apparently – of Bowie’s “Space Oddity” performed live in the international space station by Canadian astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield. It’s a bit precious here and there, but mostly it’s quite spectacular and oddly moving. [...]

Hollywood Fringe Fest Launches New App

And I’ve had the privilege of being allowed to play with it for the last couple of weeks before your schmos have even had a chance to get a sniff! So there. Here’s the official announcement from the Fringe Folk: The Hollywood Fringe announced the launch of a new festival app today meant to “enhance [...]

Critique of the Week

This one from Anthony Byrnes is more conversational in tone – probably due to the fact that he actually READS these on air at KCRW – but in the writing it’s an interesting and engaging style as well, kind of like a folksy storyteller pulling up by the fire. This praise is in direct contrast [...]

Critique of the Week – Runner Up

The two critiques that stood out for me this week were both praises, but differed widely in their presentation, which I like. This one here from Myron Meisel is a veritable burst of intellectual joy and Myron’s writing is always smart and curious. JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE Myron Meisel – The Hollywood Reporter The [...]

The Saturday Saying

“What did he say?” Standing on a stage and repeating lines does not make one an actor. For those of us who were introduced to theater during the heyday of the great Britons—Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, et al—it is a great disappointment to listen to the mushy ramblings of many of today’s “stars”.The current stage actors’ mantra, “act [...]

The 99-Seat Transitional Committee has Some News for the Los Angeles Theater Community

And it sounds pretty good. At long last. Results. Results that we – all of us – can see and actually vote on. That’s right. All y’all, actors, writers, directors, producers, artistic directors, everybody who considers themselves a part of the Los Angeles Theater Community, this is your opportunity to take a look at the [...]

More Respect

Apologies for airing what is essentially my public mourning for my dad, but hey, what’s a blog for if not to make things personal. I appreciate your continued indulgence. More incredible shots from my dad’s funeral at Arlington National Cemetery on May 6th, 2013. The caisson. And the riderless horse.

Final Hollywood Fringe Town Hall, Monday, May 13, 7:00pm

If you haven’t caught one of these and are participating in the Fringe, don’t miss this final one before the great Fringe engine begins a-cranking. They are very informative, very helpful, and an excellent way to network and meet some fellow fringies and just have a good old time. Here’s the meat: When: Monday, May [...]

THE LARAMIE PROJECT & THE LARAMIE PROJECT: 10 YEARS LATER (CHANCE THEATRE): 100% – SWEET

SWEET By presenting both stagings in alternating performance slots as, essentially, two halves of one show, director Oanh Nguyen and company have created a nearly five-hour epic. The results are sobering and painful in their candor, but the sum total – the act of experiencing of both plays – is also richly rewarding. Eric Marchese [...]

Hey Alec Baldwin Maybe Your Show Just Sucked?

I noticed when I got back from Virginia that a lot of people had been drinking deep from actor Alec Baldwin’s vintage whine that he recently crafted for the Huffington Post entitled How Broadway Has Changed. In it Alec laments how Broadway has changed and how those that write about Broadway and those that administrate [...]

Wondering Why Your Show Isn’t Getting a LemonMeter Rating? Because You’re Not Helping! [UPDATED)

Well most of you aren’t. Some of you have figured it out, and yes, we’re at fault as well. It’s not like we have a large staff here at the Lemon (don’t ask) and we could be doing better with our communications and business operations and whanot. Nevertheless, some of you have figured out the [...]

The Antaeus Company Shows Us How to do the Teaser Trailer

It’s a little long – they’ll figure that out as well – but clearly what the The Antaeus Company has already figured out – and what we’ve been pushing here for years at the Lemon – is that the teaser trailer for theater needs to ENTERTAIN. It needs to entertain to such a degree that [...]

Respect

Critique of the Week

Like a master class in theater history every time this dude deigns to offer us a morsel. Too few and far between for my tastes. Ernest! Pick it up for Chrissakes! HURACLOWN Ernest Kearney – Working Author Clowning is a very serious business. Emmett Kelly, Bill Irwin, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, the great Vyacheslav [...]

5 Better Ways to Revive Reviewing than Ken Davenport’s 5 Ways to Revive Reviewing

Some interesting grist here from Ken, and the effort is much appreciated, but there are better ways. So here are my top five: Allow the producer to challenge the negative reviewer to 3 minutes in the octagon to settle the matter. I’d pay to see Dave Fofi and Jason Rohrer get in the ring. Or hell, [...]

Off to Virginia to Bury My Dad

Saturday I fly to Northern Virginia and on Monday, May 6th, 2013, at approximately 9:30am EST, surrounded by hundreds of family and friends and attended by the United States Army’s best, my father Major General John Henderson Mitchell will be laid to his final rest with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. I’m bringing [...]

LA Stage Space Needs an LA Strike Truck

LA Stage Alliance has done well to put this LA Stage Space project together – with the help of all us – now they are trying to put the final button on the whole affair by trying to fund a Strike Truck that will serve as the muscle which will, as they put it,: “…allow [...]

Newest BLIP: Which traits make you care about a character?

But first a quick analysis of our last BLIP which we left up there for almost three months. Thanks to everyone who participated. Here are the results (remember you can’t see the results unless you vote and you can actually still vote RIGHT NOW!): As you can see the vast majority chose “to separate the [...]

4th Annual Hollywood Fringe Festival Tickets go on Sale this Wednesday

The engine is about to go into overdrive as tickets officially go on sale this Wednesday, May 1st, 2013. You can get all your info here at their newly revised website. Should be a grand old time.

Shakespeare Created Modern Man and Modern Language

I remember I read a book many years ago where the hypothesis was basically Shakespeare created Modern Man. All the archetypes and personalities that we now simply use in our lexicon without even thinking about them, the Falstaffian character, Hamletesque, MacBethian, the tragic romance of Romeo & Juliet, the villainy of Richard III, and on [...]

Lost Moon Radio at South Coast Rep this Weekend

One of my favorite companies, Lost Moon Radio, is doing a weekend of shows this weekend only, May 2-5, 2013, at South Coast Repertory as a part of their Studio Series. If you’ve never seen them, go, if you’ve seen them before, go again and bring a friend. If you can’t do either pass the [...]

Critique of the Week

This is something new for Bob Verini. I’ve always thought of Bob as a master of the shorter form review, along with Bill Raden of LA Weekly. They are able to say a lot about a show in a very short time. But now that Bob is writing more and more for ArtsInLA, he is [...]

Critique of the Week – Runner Up

Andrew Moore gets down and dirty with the Red Bastard. RED BASTARD Andrew Moore – MadTheatrics There’s a nagging little imp inside our minds that is telling us we could do more, accomplish more, be more. We try to shut him up with pills or alcohol or simply being “too busy,” but he’s there, waiting [...]

The Saturday Saying(s)

“The ancient Greeks, with their complicated notion of catharsis, thought theater could speak to these questions. Great plays, like Medea or MacBeth, have taken us into unspeakable acts and if not made sense of them – at least honestly plumbed their depths. The folks at Boston Court couldn’t have imagined how their choice of plays [...]

Happy Fifth Anniversary Bitter Lemons!

Yup. Hard to believe, but it’s true. Back on this day five years ago, April 24th, 2008, I published this measly first post. The topic? Quality. Seems like not much has changed in five years. It feels like we’re barely hanging on here at times, but I must say, it has been quite a ride. [...]