Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum presents TOM, a world premiere stage adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ that offers a new look at the power of Stowe’s most famous novel and at the true grit of its title character. Written by artistic director Ellen Geer and featuring folk music of the period, TOM is part of the 5-play repertory season at Theatricum’s spectacular outdoor amphitheatre in Topanga.

Long before Black Lives Matter entered our lexicon, Stowe’s most famous novel about a slave who demonstrates great strength in the face of overwhelming brutality rallied abolitionists worldwide. Inspired by the draconian measures of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 — which made it illegal to help or harbor runaway slaves — and by the words of former slave, social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer and statesman Frederick Douglas, Stowe first released ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ in serial format in a weekly newspaper beginning June 5, 1851 with the subtitle ‘The Man That Was a Thing.’ Geer sets her adaptation 35 years later, in 1886, following the death of Stowe’s husband. According to historians, that was the year when Stowe’s health began to deteriorate and she succumbed to what is now believed to have been Alzheimer’s. Obsessed with ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ she devoted the remainder of her life to re-writing it again and again.

“In the play, Harriet is rewriting her novel once more in her later years, so you see her passion for its themes,” explains Geer. “The dehumanization of Tom, who was a man of peace. Laws stating that slaves were not allowed to read or write or keep their children. Debasement of women. It’s so important that modern audiences see and feel what slavery really meant. One cannot work towards repairing racism without honoring and depicting the past reality of slavery.”

TOM stars Gerald C. Rivers in the title role and Melora Marshall as Harriet Beecher Stowe alongside Thad Geer, Tim Halligan, Mark Lewis, Earnestine Phillips, Taylor Jackson Ross, Shannon Shepherd and Elizabeth Tobias. Also in the cast are Lily Andrew, Celeste Arrazolo, Caitlin Durkin, Eben Eldridge, Ian Flanders, Liam Flanders, Angelo Fowler, Durant Fowler, Daphne Gabriel, Jasmine Gatewood, Bradley Gosnell, Kevin Hudnell, Jasmine Nicole Jacquet, Roderick Jean-Charles, Vanduncan Johnson-Phillips, Finn Kerwin, Shane McDermott, Jeffrey McFarland, Julia Merius, Candace Nicholas-Lippman, Clarence Powell, Talya Sindel, Celina Lee Surniak, Sky Wahl and Lane Wray

Sound design is by Ian Flanders; lighting design is by Zach Moore; costume design is by Maggie Clapis; and the wardrobe supervisor is Beth Glasner. The props master is Sydney Russell; assistant stage manager is Karen Osborne; and the production stage manager is Kim Cameron. The dramaturg is Jennie Webb.

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Previews: September 8 and September 9

Performances: September 10 through October 2
Thursdays and Fridays, 8 pm
Saturdays and Sundays 3pm and 8 pm

Brimmer Street Theatre Company’s upcoming production of And Then They Fell, a new play by Tira Palmquist, directed by BSTC company member Amy K. Harmon, will premiere at the Atwater Village Theatre.

And Then They Fell tells the story of Jordan and Cal, two teenagers who find themselves without stable homes. Jordan has fled a home wrecked by alcoholism and sexual abuse while still trying to graduate high school with honors. Cal is a young transgender boy set adrift by his family’s intolerance and the failure of adults and institutions to help him through a severely vulnerable period of his young life. These two teens find each other, and for a while, they give each other the hope and security they so desperately need.

The cast features (in alphabetical order) Chelsea Boyd, Ben Fuller, Brad Harris, JJ Hawkins, Faith Imafidon, Ian Madeira, Lily Nicksay, Kacie Rogers, Jaquita Ta’le, and Tim Venable. The scenic and lighting design by Katrina Coulourides, costume design by Kaitlyn Kaufman, and sound design by Vincent Olivieri. The stage manager is Kathryn Eipl, and the show is produced for Brimmer Street Theatre Company by David Jette and Emilia Richeson.

Tira Palmquist’s plays include Two Degrees, Ten Mile Lake, Age of Bees, among others. Two Degrees has been featured in numerous festivals, including New American Voices in the UK, the Caltech Mach 33 Festival, and the Great Plains Theater Conference. It will be featured this year at Denver Center’s New Play Summit. Palmquist’s work has been developed by Seven Devils, Inkwell, 9Thirty Theatre Company, the Road Theatre, EST-LA, and the Theatricum Botanicum Seedlings program. She teaches creative writing at the Orange County School of the Arts. She is a member of the Playwrights Union, the EST-LA’s Playwrights Unit, the Antaeus Theatre Company Playwrights Lab, and is a member of the Dramatists Guild. www.tirapalmquist.com

Director Amy K. Harmon is a founding member of Brimmer Street Theatre Company. Past directing credits include Pack Up the Moon (Brimmer Street), A Poster of the Cosmos by Lanford Wilson (Equity Fights AIDS, Boston), and Scenes from Our Marriage by Michael Rex (The Ivy Substation). Past BSTC acting credits include All Your Hard Work, Summer in Hell, <3, Leiris/Picasso, and Flower to Flower. Film and television credits include Scandal (ABC), Suit Up (FOX), Castle (ABC), Private Practice (ABC), The West Wing (NBC), and American Splendor (HBO). Additionally, Harmon has been a guest professor of movement theory and scene study at Culver City’s Advanced Academy of Visual and Performing Arts and is a Graduate of Steppenwolf Ensemble Conservatory.

All ticket proceeds will be donated to My Friend’s Place, a homeless youth resource center in Hollywood. Their mission is to assist and inspire homeless youth to build self-sufficient lives. It is a professionally staffed drop-in resource center serving over 1,400 homeless youths ages 12 to 25 (and their children) each year. The primary goal is to lower traditional barriers to service and provide homeless youth with the opportunity to improve their psychological, intellectual, and physical capacity to reach their potential.

Brimmer Street Theatre Company is a non-profit Los Angeles-based performance company with a commitment to develop original theatre and welcome artists whose work challenges established forms and expectations. BSTC strives to form a close ensemble with these artists, craftsmen, students, and benefactors to produce work of exceptional innovation and character. For more info, visit www.BrimmerStreet.org.

September 9 thru October 8, 2016

On what starts out as a brief visit home, Kathleen embraces the world at large yet remains at arms length from intimate connections. She witnesses her Gran and Auntie’s normal lives splinter into new dimensions of aging. Her emotional barriers begin to fade even more after friendly interactions with Mr. Knight, the local radio announcer. Mr. Knight, a voice known to thousands, lives a solitary life between his sound booth and his wife’s hospital room. Kathleen, Gran and Auntie’s simple lives expand as they embrace their own troubles, and work to bring Mr. Knight out of his isolation.

Written & Directed by Bernadette Armstrong

Starring
Cast
(In Order of Appearance)

Goreti da Silva, Anne Cooper, Elaine Mello-Clarke, Dan Metcalfe, Christine Uhebe & Penelope Kroff

Here’s what people are saying about “Simple Lives” after Friday night’s opening at the Secret Rose Theater in No. Hollywood:

“… a play that address the issues of women as we get older.”
“… loved the realism of your sweet, funny, tragic and complex characters.”
“It is haunting…”
“… love the show and these issues are front and center for me. GREAT work !!! “
“The women in the house on stage are real, and I find myself wondering what they are doing now.”
“Their conversations are so real, I felt like I was listening to friends chat.”

Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/bernadette.armstrong.31

THROW ME ON THE BURNPILE AND LIGHT ME UP
Written and Performed by Lucy Alibar
Directed by Neel Keller
September 10 – October 2, 2016

A lecherous goat, Pentecostals on the radio, a clutter of in-bred cats, phone calls from death row, and Daddy’s burnpile. Experience a delicious and magical stew of stories about growing up in Grady County, written and performed by Lucy Alibar, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Sundays at 7:00 p.m.
September 10 through November 27.

A female actor begins her memory play, which quickly falls to pieces. It’s a metaphor for her life. She is determined to fix both her play and her life in this hilarious comedy.

“Everything a one woman show should be; WITTY HILARIOUS and SINCERELY FUNNY…Leslie Caveny is INESCAPABLY RIVETING … IT IS IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO LOVE THIS SHOW…Leslie Caveny has penned yet another SMASH HIT!” Los Angeles Post Examiner

Directed by Maria Burton.

Cast: Leslie Caveny, Anne Leyden, Seemah Wilder, Frank Gangarossa, Sheila Shaw.

Social media links at theatrewest.org

Established in 1962, Theatre West is the oldest continually running theatre company in Los Angeles. It is the most intimate mid-sized theatre in the city offering professional productions in association with Actors Equity. In addition, our 25 year old Storybook Theatre was recently named Best Children’s Theatre in Los Angeles by Los Angeles Magazine.

Previews: September 8 through September 11
Performances: September 15 through October 9

The first half of the trilogy (Part A: Mexican Revolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis) can be seen on Thursdays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 5 p.m.; and Sundays at 3 p.m.

The second half (Part B: assassination of JFK to the death of Pope John Paul II) runs on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 6 p.m.

(Previews follow the same schedule as above).

For those wishing to experience the entire trilogy in one day, box dinners are available for $20 between performances on Saturdays and Sundays (must be ordered 48 hours in advance).

“A Mexican Trilogy: An American Story,” is an epic, theatrical event present for the first time as a single theatrical event. Evelina Fernández’s award-winning trilogy, ‘Faith,’ ‘Hope’ and ‘Charity,’ will be presented in its entirety as one unforgettable tour de force. The first production in the Latino Theater Company’s fall programming celebrating the company’s 30th anniversary and its 10th year operating the Los Angeles Theatre Center, audiences can choose to enjoy this adventure over the course of two evenings — or as one thrilling, all-day immersive experience (box dinners available for purchase). Travel with the Morales family through decades of the Mexican-American experience, from a remote mining town in Arizona during World War II, to the Phoenix family home during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and, finally to Los Angeles following the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005. Compelling, funny and peppered with song, ‘A Mexican Trilogy’ is the winner of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle’s Ted Schmitt Award and was published by Samuel French in 2015. “As poetic, imaginative, and culturally accessible a work as anything since the commercial emergence of Tony Kushner.” — David C. Nichols, Backstage.

“We subtitled it ‘An American Story’ because the immigration experience is so integral to the fabric of our country,” explains Valenzuela. “We first presented the plays individually in 2011 and 2012. Our intention was to create a history, in response to growing anti-immigration rhetoric, of contributions made to this country by Mexican-Americans – how we have assimilated, how we have participated in the democratic process, how we have contributed culturally. Now, with immigration a hot-button topic in the current election process, these plays are more important and more timely than ever.”

Compelling, funny, peppered with song and flavored with a splash of magical realism, ‘A Mexican Trilogy: An American Story’ touches on aspects of tradition, religion, labor issues, war and the clash between immigrants and their first and second generation American offspring. In just five hours, the twelve-actor ensemble portrays members of the Morales family over the course of 90 years and four generations. As the years fly by, we recognize the music of each era in classic songs ranging from the Andrews Sisters and Glenn Miller, to the Isley Brothers and Elvis, to Jimi Hendrix.

Thu, Sep 15 – Thu, Oct 06
Thursday’s @ 8:00PM

After packed houses and an Encore award by the Hollywood Fringe Festival, Amy Snowden’s Casting Confessions From La to LA is back Thursday nights at The Zephyr on Melrose (7456 Melrose Ave. LA 90036). Created and performed by Amy Snowden, Casting Confession’s is a outrageous and comical insight into her formative years in a small town in Louisiana, getting chewed up and spit-out in Hollywood and her unique secret ways of finally making money to survive and rise in the OC. Amy’s wild ride is full of hilarious and terrifying stories of nightmare roommates, nowhere jobs, public transportation, and see-through underwear. Amy Snowden’s Casting Confessions From La to LA is an outlandish journey from innocence to happy endings.

Los Angeles comedian Amy Snowden grew up in Oakdale, Louisiana, a small town about three and a half hours northwest of New Orleans. As an awkward, shy kid she found she had a knack for making harsh realities hilarious. She began performing her funny and quirky original music in clubs from Louisiana to Los Angeles, eventually leading her to her career in stand-up. One of her original songs, Toe Hoe, based on a true story, was a youtube sensation and remains a huge fan favorite. Amy was a top five finalist on The John Lovitz “Find Me A Comic Contest,” has appeared on FXs The Man Show, Americas Got Talent, Comedy Time, on the stages of The World Famous Comedy Club and The Hollywood Improv. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRb6Jf9jKJo&feature=youtu.be

September 16 – October 8, 2016
Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm

Crowned America’s Funniest Mom on Oprah, stand-up comedienne and actress, Andrea Mezvinsky has created a new solo play “Sawed in Half” that begs the question: ‘What happens when one woman’s competing roles of wife, mother, lover, and performer collide? Seeking guidance from role models as diverse as her spry but dead Jewish grandmother and her neurotic, feminist mother to Frida Kahlo, Isadora Duncan, and Erma Bombeck, Andrea tries to abide by all the rules before realizing that, in the game of life, a woman has to make her own.

Starring Andrea Mezvinsky

Directed by Victoria Larimore

What evil lurks in the heart of suburbia? Get ready for another wild ride from The Echo Theater Company when Dustin Wills directs the world premiere of a modern-day, darkly comic revenge tragedy by playwright Mary Laws. ‘Blueberry Toast’ puts the “dys” in family dysfunction beginning Sept. 17 at Atwater Village Theatre.

Blueberry Toast runs Sept. 17 through Oct. 24, with weekly performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. and additional performances on Mondays at 8 p.m. on Sept, 19, Sept. 26, Oct. 2 and Oct. 24, and on Thursdays at 8 p.m. on Oct. 6 and Oct. 13. Three preview performances are set for Wed., Sept. 14; Thurs., Sept. 15; and Fri., Sept. 16, all at 8 p.m.

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Every family has a dark underbelly — especially the perfect ones. Walt and Barb may seem like your typical suburban couple with a fabulous eat-in kitchen and two precocious children, Jack and Jill. The scary thing is… maybe they are.

“Mary and I both grew up in the suburbs,” says Wills. “We have a deep understanding of the lasting damage that comes from the demand for perfection – for the idyllic nuclear family unit, maintaining a well manicured lawn, remembering to always smile, not daring to raise your voice in public. This might be the ‘performance of life,’ but I’d hardly call it living. It’s an unnatural and distinctly American form of socialization that causes us to stifle our primal desires, to squelch and push down our essential nature. Underneath, we’re all animals; if we don’t take the time to acknowledge that animal or take that animal on a little walk, then it may eat us alive.”

Laws was inspired to write the play after reading “Tales from Ovid” by Ted Hughes. “Growing up, I was very disappointed in all the insincerity around me,” she explains. “It was heartbreaking to discover that behind closed doors, my neighbors and friends were silently struggling with abuse, drug use and alcoholism. When I read how Ovid transformed humans into animals and stars, I wanted to write a play in which people really do behave like animals.”

Sept. 24 through Nov. 27 at the Odyssey Theatre
Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm; Sundays at 2:00 pm

Playwright Shelagh Delaney was just 18 years old when this controversial play rocked the British theater community in May, 1958 with its exhilarating and honest depiction of harsh, working-class life in post-war England. The story of Jo, a working-class adolescent girl, and her relationships with Helen, her saloon-frequenting mother; Peter, her mother’s newly acquired husband; Jimmie, the black sailor who makes Jo pregnant; and Geoff, the homosexual art student who moves into her apartment to help her through her pregnancy, ‘A Taste of Honey’ bursts with energy and daring, an explosive celebration of the vulnerabilities and strengths of the female spirit in a deprived and restless world.