TICKETS: Online at www.TheBlank.com or by calling (323) 661-9827.

The Inventor, The Escort, The Photographer, Her Boyfriend and His Girlfriend is an outrageous sex romp, juxtaposing two lusty comic scenarios involving five people in a New York City apartment building during a fierce blizzard. Downstairs, Julia, a call girl, arrives for an appointment with Jeffrey, a nerdy guy who has made a fortune inventing and selling sexual devices. What begins as a routine ‘trick’ has quite the unexpected ending. In the meanwhile, upstairs neighbors Karen and John, an estranged couple, settle in for an evening of sweet reconciliation and make-up sex. Their plans go awry, however, when Molly, a young dancer with whom John had dallied, arrives seeking refuge from the blizzard. Drunken lunacy ensues.

Matt Morillo’s first play, Angry Young Women In Low-Rise Jeans With High-Class Issues, was a runaway hit on two continents, packing houses and receiving rave reviews through three separate runs in New York City, and two separate runs in Sydney, Australia.  Of the 2008 Los Angeles production, Variety wrote, “Angry Young Women is a cheerfully raunchy show that boasts … hilarious writing and a sharp, fearless and funny cast.” Morillo’s other playwriting credits include All Aboard The Marriage Hearse, and American Soldiers. Also a screenwriter, he made his debut at age 23 with the award-winning film The Pretenders (2000), and he has written several highly lauded and award-winning short films, including Maid of Honor (2003).

Directed by Morillo, the cast of The Inventor … will feature (in alphabetical order) Jeffrey Cannata, Isidora Goreshter, Jenni Halina, Jessica Moreno, and Jaret Sacrey. The set design is by Dan Mailley, and the lighting and sound designs are by Matt Richter. The stage manager is Rebecca Schoenberg, and The Inventor, The Escort, The Photographer, Her Boyfriend and His Girlfriend is produced for KADM  Productions by Racquel Lehrman and Theatre Planners.

There will be one preview performance of The Inventor … on Friday, June 1 at 8pm. Opening night is set for Saturday, June 2 at 8:00.  General seating admission is $10 for the preview, and $20 for regular  performances. The  running schedule  is Friday and Saturday at 8pm, and Sunday at 7pm, through July 8 only. Tickets are on sale now, and may be purchased  by calling (323) 960-7712.
The Lounge Theatre is located at 6201 Santa Monica Boulevard (just east of Vine, at El Centro), in Hollywood.  Street parking is available.

Bruce Howard first went to Vietnam in 1965 to work for the Navy at Headquarters Support Activity, Saigon. He returned to Saigon in 1975 to secretly evacuate the remaining U.S. employees before the country fell to the North Vietnamese Army. Using tapes he recorded documenting his experiences and the imminent communist invasion, writer Christina Howard has created a play about a daughter trying to connect to her emotionally distant father as she journeys with him through the events that led to his destiny. Led by critically acclaimed director Tiger Reel, the production incorporates dynamic visual staging with media, including never-before-heard footage from Bruce Howard’s tapes.

Saturdays at 8 pm
Sundays at 7 pm
For tickets click here

LA WEEKLY SAYS “GO”

About the author from the LA Stage Times

 WE NEED A PRODUCER’S ORGANIZATION

A series of meetings has, been held over the past few months, where the focus of the discussions has been the need to formalize a producers organization in LA. This is not a premise that is new, in fact it has been bantered around for years. Now we have an opportunity to make it happen.

So here we are–at probably the most significant crossroads LA Theater has seen in the past 20 years. There has been a lot of discussion in most recent two meetings, much of it heated, some of it confusing, and little of it with a clear purpose.  The facts as presented only show that there has been a committee primarily composed of Joe Stern, Tom Ormeny, Maria Gobetti, Gary Grossman, Simon Levy, and a few other acting on behalf of all theatres in negotiations with AEA, since 1989, and that AEA is again asking to review and revise the plan. In an awareness that there are many producers and organizations interested in providing some input into this discussion, the committee has sought to expand the conversation, and as a result the opportunity to build a strong Producers League is now at hand.

Moments like this come along once in a generation.  If we miss this opportunity because we don’t have the energy, time or money to ask the critical questions, then we are going to pay for it for the next 20 years. None of us can afford this.

SO, WHAT EXACTLY DO WE NEED ANYWAY?

There are two underlying needs that will set the foundation for solving all of our other needs:

(1) An organization, which is independent and created by the producers, with membership, leaders and funding of only producers.

(2) We must all abide by any official majority vote of the producers organization.

 These two points are critical.  As so often happens in a democracy, the people with money wield the most control.  But we, as producers, cannot afford to give control of our organization to anyone who is not a producer, no matter how tempting the potential funding.  If actors were to create AEA today, they would not allow it to be funded and administered by a third party–they would insist it be an organization of the people, run by the people.  As producers, we must do the same. It is imperative that our organization be an independent group run and funded by us.

And, in the interest of solidarity, we must always debate, reason, study, and articulate all issues and solutions put forth by the leadership/committees of the producers organization.  Once we do so and hold an official vote, we must all live with the majority decision.

Anything less will harm the collective, and doom it to failure.

OK, BUT WHAT WILL THIS INDEPENDENT PRODUCERS GROUP DO?

This group will form the organization to allow for the process of collective bargaining. In addition, this group (which could look like this) can also help solve our larger problems.  For example: solving the 1/2 price ticket issue, getting better rental contacts, getting better ticketing companies, create a shared list of companies that are not providing good services and a list of companies providing great services to producers, training new producers, rebranding and marketing and creating a 20 year plan, study the terrible economics of LA theater, and so many other things that will benefit the producer community. This group, in short, will do what is needed to solve the problems that are crippling LA Theater.

HOW DO WE GET THERE?

STEP (1) We must vote, as a group, to form an independent Producer’s Organization.

STEP (2) The members of the newly formed group must agree that we will all abide by the group’s decisions so long as an official majority vote is conducted.

STEP (3) We must build a structure.  Every member of the group should be allowed to submit a proposal as to how we should form our group, should they feel the need to do so.  Perhaps there are additional options such as contacting the Leagues in New York and/or Chicago and looking at their structures.

Proposals should include the general make-up of the electable staff (i.e., President, Vice, President, Treasurer, etc) and general rules of order (i.e. Roberts Rules of Order

STEP (4) We will come together as a group and discuss the proposals and vote.

STEP (5) Members of the group will nominate within ourselves to leadership positions. Each nominee will submit a statement clarifying their positions.

STEP (6) We will vote for our leaders.

STEP (7) The leadership will need to determine the initial cost and how dues should be assigned and collected. The group should vote to accept or reject the leadership’s proposal.

STEP (8) We will start the process of forming interest committees.  These committees should be created by the membership, not an outside party, and should reflect the way the membership views itself. All committees should be open to all members of the whole group and leadership of each committee should be voted on by the committee  (unless another process is decided upon by the larger group).

GREAT! WE HAVE A GROUP, LEADERS AND SUBCOMMITTEES. NOW WHAT?

Now we really get to work!

written by James Mathers is a “whodunit” involving a police psychic, CAP’N, and his “paranormal guinea pig,” Lieutenant LEO FLECK. Together they are investigating a string of brutal killings centered around the temple of a rogue religious cult and an artsy-fartsy, open-mic poetry café run by Bunny and her daughter, Marlo Montecarlo. It is being directed, produced and performed by a stage-hardened crew of attractive women and social rejects committed to reinventing theatrical storytelling for the approaching cataclysm. Nothing will stop “Astral Dick”.

“I’m a dick Leo, I’m not paid to think, I’m paid to detect stuff.”- Cap’n

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5aX7Z4Xt_0

Thursdays through Sundays May 10th through July 8th 2012                                                                                                                                                                                            Secure, on-site parking: $5
More details at: www.FountainTheatre.com

Artist, Trevor Pratt has gained fame and a cult-like following by creating brutal works of art. Living in up-state New York with her former art professor and step-son, Trevor is obsessed with the violence on TV. After hearing a local news story, she decides to incorporate potentially lethal roadkill into her new work. Soon those around her begin to die and an FBI agent is called in to investigate, but his increasing infatuation with Trevor and her work just might be leading the agent to commit his own act of violence.

Roadkill Confidential uses art, video and live performance to reveal the loneliness and desperation beneath our fame and media obsessed culture. The play premiered at 3LD in September 2010 by Clubbed Thumb, an OBIE award-winning company that commissions, develops, and produces funny, strange, and provocative new plays by living American writers.

Sheila Callaghan is the author of 22 plays including Dead City; Lascivious Something; Kate Crackernuts; That Pretty Pretty: or, The Rape Play; Fever/Dream; Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake); and We Are these Hands.  Callaghan?s work has been produced and developed at Soho Rep, Playwright’s Horizons, South Coast Repertory, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, New Georges and Woolly Mammoth among others. She was a writer for the Showtime series United States of Tara, and is the recipient of the Princess Grace Award for emerging artists, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, and the prestigious Whiting Award.

Roadkill Confidential will be directed by SOSE ensemble member, Barbara Kallir, who has also directed the SOSE productions of Slaughter City by Naomi Wallace, The Tower by Matthew Maguire, and Melancholy Play by Sarah Ruhl, as well as Lisa Dillman?s Half of Plenty for Rogue Machine. The cast features Son of Semele Ensemble members Melina Bielefelt, Daniel Getzoff, Melissa Randel, Alex Smith and Alexander Wells. The set is co-designed by Adam Hunter and Barbara Kallir, with video by Adam Flemming, sound by Joseph Sloe Slawinski, lighting by Ian Garrett, costumes by Vicki Anne Hales-Daly and movement direction by Melina Bielefelt. The production features original roadkill artwork by Travis Novak.

Son of Semele Ensemble  was profiled as one of the hippest, hottest, most innovative theatre troupes in the U.S. by American Theatre, and featured on the magazine?s cover. Over the past twelve years the company’s work has received 17 regional awards and award nominations including the Ovation Award, the L.A. Weekly Theatre Award and the NAACP Theatre Award. In addition to producing theatre, SOSE also sponsors the work of like-minded theater artists, sharing resources for co-productions through SOSEhost, a curated guest-production program. For additional information on SOSE and SOSEhost visit www.sonofsemele.org.

Performances of Roadkill Confidential begin June 8, playing Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 5:00 p.m.  One theatre community performance will be offered on Monday, June 24 at 7:00 p.m. Admission ranges from $18-20.  Discounted group tickets are available for groups of 6 or more. Unsold seats at the time of curtain will be sold to local residents of zip codes 90004 and 90026 for $5.00 (I.D. required).  Tickets are available through the SOSE website at www.sonofsemele.org.  The box office opens one half hour prior to curtain.  Son of Semele Theater is located in Silver Lake at 3301 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA  90004 (one mile west of Alvarado).  For more information visit www.sonofsemele.org.

What we were talking to Congress about?  At the top was funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.  This year’s request was $155 million, the ammount recommended by the Senate and just about what the President has suggested as well.  If passed, this would be an increase of $9 million over last year.  Nice but still $20 million below what the NEA was funded back in the early 1990’s.  Had the agency’s funding just held steady with inflation over the past 20 years, the NEA would now be receiving $280 million, almost twice its actual appropriation.  Fiscal hawks love to point to the NEA as a frivolous expense (and in fact arts advocates had to fight back an effort to eliminate the agency in the last legislative session).  Yet the Endowment’s appropriation is miniscule by Washington standards (a blade of grass compared to the Washington Monument if the total dollars of federal spending were translated to inches).  And the NEA is phenomenally cost effective, attracting 8 more dollars in funding for every one dollar the agency grants.  An NEA grant is a powerful magnet for other contributions, acting as a persuasive “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.”  Around the Bay Area, theatres and other arts nonprofits are well served by the National Endowment.  It is one of the few federal programs that actually returns an investment to the state that is commensurate with our population.  One of every eight Americans lives in California, one of every nine dollars of NEA grants is awarded to California.  The Berkeley students knew these facts to the penny, and drove the message home.

Next on our policy agenda, arts education, a topic very near to these students.  They were the lucky ones, they knew.  They were fortunate to have the arts in their schools and to participate in Berkeley Rep’s after school programs.  Many American students don’t have this opportunity.  Despite the fact that Congress has declared the arts to be a core academic subject—on par with reading, math and science—the arts are being dropped by public schools across the country and across California.  Despite the fact that study after study proves that kids who participate in arts education are four times more likely to stay in school, score far better on the SAT’s, and are more likely to graduate from college and enter the professions, schools shunt arts classes in favor of “teaching to the test.” When the Berkeley students cited not only these studies, but also told their own stories of how the arts have impacted their lives and the lives of their classmates, the Congressional offices we visited took notice and took notes.

Not all of the Berkeley teenagers who went to Washington (with funds they raised themselves) will find a career in the arts.  In fact only one or two of the group expects to make the theatre their profession.  But all are convinced that theatre and the arts have changed them as students and as people.  They are determined that the arts and their transformative power must not be something offered only to a privileged few.  For them, full arts funding and universal access to arts education is a social justice issue.  And with a passion for social justice that is a hallmark of their hometown, these Berkeley students reminded Congressional offices and us adult advocates that the arts are birthright we all share, not just as Americans, but as human beings.

You will not want to miss out on this show, did you catch her on Good Day LA?

To win a pair of tickets get yourself Illuminated,  sign up for our newsletter and keep an eye on those inboxes.

More about the show from the Pantages Theatre 

“After her critically-acclaimed debut as Roxie Hart on Broadway and in London’s West End, Christie Brinkley, one of the world’s most successful supermodels, will make her highly-anticipated Broadway tour debut this spring as she reprises her killer role in the six-time Tony Award-winning musical smash hit CHICAGO, also starring John O’Hurley. Catch her red-handed in one of Broadway’s most popular and thrilling musicals of all time! This tale of greed, murder, corruption and show biz is filled with hit songs such as “All That Jazz,” “Cell Block Tango” and “Razzle Dazzle.” CHICAGO features some of the most electrifying dancing seen on Broadway — and with a gorgeous ensemble, performing sizzling numbers choreographed in the style of Bob Fosse, it’s no wonder The New York Times calls it “the best musical in town!”

Double check that  you can attend on May 17th and/or 22nd because tickets are not refundable or exchangeable or in any way shape or form negotiable. By participating in this drawing you agree to the terms and conditions of FootLights Publishing Inc.

http://theatreofnote.com/