by Analyn Revilla

James Svatko, the producer of the play, “The Last Train” has taken this French written play and produced its first English and North American performance at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. He found the play in Stage32 and contacted the playwright, Natacha Astuto, who lives and works in Switzerland, and they worked together on the translation. After that, it was James who completed the work with his actors and director to present the truth of this psychological thriller.

In James’ own words, “There is no one truth but a series of truths that one often has to follow to get to the truth” With that, the team has been through a major revision since after the premier of the play at Schkapf Theatre last June 5^th. As any living work of art, it will continue to evolve. Starting with the writer’s initial impulse, Natacha was curious about writing a play set in an enclosed environment. Her imagination brought her to two characters, incarcerated for at least 20 years, bunked in the same cell. She layered the secrets that the men keep to themselves which are the subtexts in every word uttered and every gesture displayed. This is neatly packaged by the careful surveillance of a female guard, who controls what passes in and out of the cell. However, this situation is incited by external forces – a storm and a visit from an unknown woman with unknown motives.

When James embarked on the journey, perhaps he had a roadmap at hand, or maybe he had a sketch of where he wanted to go with it. Upon reading the story, it was clear that the play would be demanding for any actor who is chosen for any one of the four characters. Though tempted to wear the hats of the producer, the actor and the director, he chose to give up the role of the director so that he could focus on playing the lead character of Jack.

Natacha was comfortable to allow the artists to interpret the play as they imagined it. She expressed her curiosity as to how her words would be acted upon on stage, and also what an American’s perspective could be. After the first two performances at the Fringe, she and her husband Cedric arrived from Switzerland. They decided to get involved by giving the cast and crew a little push (a la Natacha, “un petit coup de pouce utile”) to help them further along in translating and rendering the performance closer to the essence of the story. A psychological story is as complex as any human being.  This story is a stew of four distinct personalities confined in a jail cell for an unbeknownst period of time, reigned upon by a freak thunderstorm that has knocked out the power and renders the doors of the cells inoperable. (It is in modern time as the cells are opened with a swipe card, and not the traditional keys.)

When I saw the premier of The Last Train on June 5^th, James commented that he was just happy and relieved to get the first one out there, because of the anticipation and ‘premier’ jitters (par for the course). His main thrust in producing this play is to make an impact on people, to make them think and wonder to the point that they are drawn in, so that they have a conversation with the actors, at the end of the show, while they are still in character. This is a wonderfully creative way to evolve the story.

I told James that I wish I had not read the play before seeing the premier, because I had set myself up with expectations. I walked out of the theatre feeling, ‘huh…, so that’s how it was interpreted on stage.’ I had hoped for more, and it’s not fair to hope for more, because I had already built the story in my imagination from my first absorption. I suppose it is like the first time you make love. Subsequent experiences after the first time will be different.

So, I was enthusiastic to see the noticeable differences between the first performance and the one that had been tailored with insight and suggestions by Natacha and Cedric. The first was Robert, played by Benjamin Mitchell. In the premier he bolted like a young and unbridled colt dissipating energy; while in the second interpretation he started as smoldering embers building up to a fury. I found this was powerful, because it built up the suspense.  Benjamin commented that he had contemplated on the cue that Robert is a ticking time bomb, so he adjusted his tempo to be a slowly burning fuse.  Jack was also more defined personality in the revised version.  These adjustments help us, the audience, to perceive these psychological phases roll out, like wheels moving forward on pavement. Each revolution is the same, but different in space in time. It is Jack, but it’s not the same Jack in the previous scene.

In the first 3 scenes, the interactions between Robert and Jack, establishes that Jack is the reasonable, mature and mothering type. When the conversation tilts on being out of control, he is quick to diffuse a potential heated situation with ‘Want some tea?’ He appears as the normal one who can gauge situations, have perspective and act with reason. He shows his capacity for compassion when he appears concerned over Robert’s attempted suicide, and possibilities of him trying again with success. He bides his time with the hope of getting out on early parole for good behavior. His character could be described by someone from the parole board as a ‘well-adjusted’ individual.

James clarifies the psychological stages that the character of Jack transmutes from beginning to end, starting with the nurturing type with Robert.  Upon the arrival of the mysterious and provocative Louise (played by Victoria Hopkins), who insists to meet the men in the cell, and to conduct her interview in the cell, he changes to contemplation then suspicion. Why would she want to expose herself to two strangers incarcerated for manslaughter in a confined room? Her questions are strangely non-threatening and almost pointless: “How long have you been incarcerated?”, “What’s your schedule on a typical day?” Has she not done her homework before hand; looked at their files to know the answers to these questions? Her motive becomes apparent only after she’s alone with Jack.

The scene, before the last, reveals the true nature of Jack’s illness. As he answers her questions in the midst of the brewing storm that knocks down the power, he decides that she is not someone from the parole board evaluating his mental fitness to be released from incarceration, so he seizes the chance to incite Robert by taunting him as being paranoid. James aptly describes the last phase as the realization phase, because Jack goes into action upon recognizing Louise Dupont. “Dupont. You could have found something better”.

The movements between the phases happen quickly in a 1 hour play. It takes thought, technique and execution to convey the psychological moments in live theatre, in the absence of the omniscient narrator, and the team has done this all very well.

Just as Benjamin had made adjustments to his character then this also affects the other characters. Victoria (Louise) toned down her sexual allure between the premier and the 5^th performance. I thought this was also powerful, because it complimented Robert’s slow burn. Though conscious of Robert’s sexuality and veiled threats; her target is Jack, and she needs to preserve herself for that purpose. Louise is a mother who suffers, and she needs vengeance to appease her loss like the Greek goddess Demeter who walks and searches under every rock for her daughter Persephone. Jack is not compliant, as he distances himself to assess the situation so that he can navigate the situation to his advantage.

Marianne (played by Jennifer Lewis) upped her ante in the game in the revised performance. She was more invested, and this was important, because she needs to expound that she is the figure of authority in this menagerie. Marianne oversees the two men, and has probably known them for as long as they’ve been in jail. She’s a woman in an all-male environment, and she’s proud of it, as though only she has the capacity for this work. In her mind, in her unique position, she has to prove that she is in control at all times.

I asked James if there were purposeful crossovers of elements of a Greek tragedy in this particular production. His response was only in the direct violence that plays out between Louise and Jack. I also noted hubris, because Robert is a proud man. His pride is his downfall in that he overlooks other possibilities that he is the normal one, and that he is worthy of being free again. His pride keeps him strong to accept his sentence.  He is dynamic because he struggles with his conscience, whereas  Jack does not.  He is purposeful and ruthless to achieve his goal.  C’est fait accomplit.  He is not capable of transformation.  He can only show his character’s chameleon abilities – to hide the truth and is therefore evil natured. Natacha made the point in our interview that we don’t know where evil lies, and so we can be duped by appearances.

By now, as we are near the close of the festival, and The Last Train is at the eve of its last performance the cast, the director, Justin Morosaand Natacha and Cedric are transformed by this worthy journey of bringing us this well thought out and performed work. Justin described that with each performance he wants to get closer to the truth. The Last Train IS a heart-full performance, and the team has given us the opportunity to mine deeper into the human heart. Last performance is tomorrow night at 10:15 at Schkapf Theatre.

by Kitty Felde

It’s anniversary time. NPR called last week, wanting me to reminisce about covering the “Trial of the Century” – the murder trial of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. I spend nine long months trapped in that 9th floor courtroom in downtown Los Angeles. I rarely think about it anymore. I even gave away all of my OJ memorabilia and cartoons and press passes to the Newseum.

But as I put together my notes for the interview, I started thinking about the trial as theatre. Which led me to think of theatrical lessons for playwrights from the entire experience.

So here goes:

1) The Power of Raw Emotion

The strongest memory I have from sitting in that courtroom all those months was the pure rage and anger of Fred Goldman. Hate and fury radiated from the grieving father of the murdered waiter Ron Goldman. He wanted more than justice. He wanted an eye for an eye. I have thought about him over the past two decades. I’ve actually prayed for him – not that he can ever find forgiveness, but some peace.

How often do we dare to put that raw emotion on stage? It’s not polite, it makes an audience uncomfortable, but it gets to the heart of what makes us human beings.

Shakespeare did it often. I’ll always remember Kevin Kline’s performance in “Henry V” in Central Park, interrupted several times by thunderstorms. And then during the St. Crispin speech, he just raged at the heavens as water poured down, lightening turning the night bright as day. He was as electric as the storm: pure, raw emotion on stage.

2) Structure Your Plot

The prosecution got off on the wrong foot in the Simpson case when it failed to share information with the defense about its domestic violence evidence. Judge Lance Ito punished the district attorneys’ office by requiring attorneys to hold off on presenting that evidence until the end of the trial. That meant the prosecution’s motive for the killing was missing until so late in the trial that the jurors didn’t care.

I saw a production recently that was structured very much like the Simpson trial. The action exploded at the very end of the play with no denouement. As an audience member, I felt cheated and angry.

It’s our job as playwrights to create characters that give an audience a reason to love or hate, lead them along with the promise that their time will not be wasted, and deliver on that promise.

3) Shiny, Pretty Things

I argued against covering the trial to my then-boss. “It’s all about celebrity!” I told her. She argued that the Simpson trial was about race and domestic violence. But if that’s what she wanted to cover, I told her, there were a hundred other cases in that same criminal courts building that were much more about those two topics. I lost that argument.

That trial was – I think – the beginning of our modern-day celebrity culture. In fact, the lead KCBS reporter on the trial Harvey Levin went on to launch TMZ, an entire empire of celebrity reporting. It’s a shiny, pretty thing we can’t take our eyes off of. And we can’t ignore it as playwrights.

I’m still a grump about my plays. I write about “serious” topics like war crimes and urban unrest and racial stereotypes. But for a theatre to sell tickets to any of these plays, they also need their own shiny, pretty things. It’s what gets an audience through the door.

It could be turning the set into a giant wrestling ring like “The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity” by Kristoffer Diaz. Or building a play around the creation of a beloved cartoon hero in Natsu Onoda Power’s “Astro Boy and the God of Comics.”

A really good title can qualify. Like “We Are Proud To Present A Presentation About The Herero Of Namibia, Formerly Known As South West Africa, From The German Sudwestafrika, Between The Years 1884-1915 “by Jackie Sibblies Drury. I love that title. I wish I’d thought of it. And I love “Six Degrees of Separation” by John Guare and “Playboy of the Western World” by JM Synge.

My own best title came from an artistic director who warned me he couldn’t sell tickets to the play “Erdemovic.” “Nobody buys tickets to a play they can’t pronounce.” He renamed it after a line in my play about how much blood a patch of earth can absorb. “A Patch of Earth” has been performed around the world and has been published in a collection with a pretty good title of its own: “The Theatre of Genocide.”

4) Wardrobe

I wonder how many great suits Johnnie Cochran owned. Every day, he’d come to court in a different, fabulously tailored suit and memorable tie. Cochran’s wardrobe screamed self-confidence. No one in that courtroom could compete. Except maybe the jury, which would wear black or some other color to illustrate its mood. They even wore California Pizza Kitchen tee shirts one day.

It’s helpful to me as a playwright to find the one item of wardrobe that defines a character. Mike Marcott, ex-cop-turned politician, wears nothing but starched, white shirts to project that Marcott the Hero image, masking the darker side underneath. Betsy’s mother Babs first appears in her Code Pink tee shirt, leaving the audience no doubt about her political persuasion and activism. They say on a job interview, you have on opportunity to make a first impression. The same is true for our characters.

5) It’s Still A Boys Club

I spent part of my day in the courtroom, the other part writing scripts in the 12th floor media room. Radio reporters were tucked away in the corner in tiny three foot by four foot cubicles. I was one of the only radio “girls.” My gender normally didn’t matter. Until the day one of my compadres posted pictures from one of the tabloids of prosecutor Marcia Clark’s topless beach outing. It was annoying and insulting and the guys didn’t understand why. Finally, only the words “sexual harassment” were enough to have the offensive picture taken down.

It’s still a boys club in theatre. The annual number of plays produced by male and female writers remind us of that fact. It’s annoying and insulting. And on days when I look at Tony nominations or look at a season ticket brochure for a local theatre, it’s maddening. We do our own agitating – creating the Lily Awards and the LAFPI and see some progress some years in the numbers. But on those days when I open the rejection email, I find it helpful to remind myself: it’s not your talent. The things you find important to write about are not necessarily the things a person of another gender thinks are important.

If the play don’t fit, you must acquit … the guys making the decisions. At least until the retrial.

By Erica Bennett

“Do you have anything to add,” asked Pasadena Playhouse Associate Artistic Director Seema Sueko of LAFPI playwrights before each micro-read last night*.

We met to see the Playhouse’s imaginative production of Vanessa Claire Stewart’s Stoneface that features a remarkably versatile cast led by the singularly talented French Stewart, performing as the dissolute master, physical comedian Buster Keaton.

Stoneface actors gave generously of their time, and cold read fifteen wonderfully diverse 1-page works written by LAFPI playwrights. Slated last, I had fourteen Micro-Reads to think of two sentences of introduction to my page of dialogue from Act I of my new play, Sacrosanct…

What is my play about?…

What is it About?…

What is important for actors and audience to know?…

Under the pressure, I came up with: “They are two academics, father and daughter, he, a Professor Emeritus in Library and Information Science, a librarian, and she a Professor of Creative Writing and a poet. She is under threat of [insert threat here].”… And ended it at that.

Not bad, I thought.

The actors were tremendous. The audience was appreciative. There was tension, conflict, and significant laughter, all in the right places, imho.

In my earlier plays, I’ve realized, my female protagonists are poet wannabes, I think, because so was I. “Merit” in Sacrosanct Is a poet… I think I’m finally starting to “own” it. I’ve got a long way to go. But I’m getting better at this thing, playwriting.

However, I didn’t grab Sacrosanct out of thin air.

I have four different groups of readers and they all provide feedback in their own ways that is both provocative and inspiring.

It would be a great tragedy, I think, if they didn’t know how much I appreciate their talent and time, and interest and coaching, and care and kindness.

So, I sign off my week of blogging with a great, big shout out to my Readers!!!

*Micro-Reads is am LA FPI program providing playwrights the opportunity to hear a reading of one page of their work. https://lafpi.com/events/

By Erica Bennett

When I was nineteen, I auditioned for the role of “Luisa” for a local civic light opera production of The Fantasticks. I made it to callbacks where the director pulled me aside. Apparently, I had the ability, the youth, the spirit, and the edge, but it was all packaged in a woman’s body; not right for the role. This was my first true disappointment in the theatre. It was my loss of innocence and I despaired. As a consequence, I had never went to see a production of the play.

A couple of weeks ago, I was cleaning out my garage, and came upon a box of LPs. In the box is my original cast album of The Fantasticks, from which I learned the music all those many years ago… Seeing it brought back the pain of never being “right” enough.

Yet, I decided to put aside my reservations, and, last night, I met actor Matt Franta’s parents waiting in line for the start of The Good People’s production of Jones and Schmidt’s The Fantasticks for the Hollywood Fringe, directed by Janet Miller. The Franta’s are so proud of their son, having flown in from Iowa to see the production.

Matt portrays The Boy. In the last scenes of the play, The Boy returns home after experiencing the world; its hardships, disappointments, and despair, only to realize he had perfection at home… In those scenes, Matt’s performance broke my heart. And, for me, the despair came full circle, and it was cathartic. Thank you.

https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/1513? for future performance dates and times.

By Erica Bennett

I’m working on the fourth page one rewrite of act one of my new play… The fourth in a month… Of act one… Adjusting the act two outline, constantly, as I go.

Grateful for all of my readers…

But it doesn’t feel like peeling an onion; I’m not crying…

Feels like a lump of clay; it’s shape slowly revealing itself to me…

Losing sight of what I want to Say is part of my game. I’m writing toward some unknown…

It’s so easy to get caught up in page counts and format and sentimentality and my own words.

It would be so much easier to write from an outline. I try.

But I lust for the freedom of letting characters breath, the moment when one page becomes five, without effort. I had a thirteen page today.

And tomorrow I cut the [insert expletive here] out of it.

There is a party happening out there in the world, without me, because I am writing toward a self-imposed, hard, fast deadline.

Because, if I didn’t create a deadline, I’m afraid I won’t write. It’s happened before.

I get caught up in house repairs and chores, and work, and pets, and family.

A small part of me knows I need more balance.

But time is a terrible thing to waste when you’re racing a clock.

The pendulum swings.

By Erica Bennett

“My life, it seems now, has been, all along, this hazy wasteland of subjective opinion.” – “Merit” in Sacrosanct

A thought just occurred to me… What if the plays are like ovarian follicles; we’re born with a predetermined number of them inside of us, and when we’ve reached the end of our reproductive life, we find ourselves wordless… And then I remember Dr. Maya Angelou…

“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” http://mayaangelou.com/

My heart is full.

By Erica Bennett

We all have teachers in our lives, teachers, who grab our imagination and never let it go. Few, however, offer up Imagination as The method for instruction. I was fortunate to have studied at the Stella Adler Theatre West back in the day before the Hollywood metro line took away the little theater that we built.

During that precious time of my youth I had the opportunity to bring up before Ms. Adler a scene from 27 Wagons Full of Cotton. Teacher Joanne Linville coached me in her inimitable fashion, and I’ll remember that night vividly for the rest of my life. I felt affirmed, finally, as an actress, affirmed publicly by the one of the greatest acting teachers of the 20^th Century.

However, if you’re looking for the legendary post-Stanislaski Stella Adler as teacher, you won’t find her in Sheana Ochoa’s Harold & Stella: Love Letters at the Bliss Art House Café this week.

What you will find is arguably more enticing.

Applause Theatre & Cinema Books recently published Ms. Ochoa’s biography of Adler, Stella! Mother of Modern Acting (May 13, 2014), and she has produced this staged reading of love letters written in 1942 between the youthful Adler and director Harold Clurman.

In Love Letters, the energetic and earthy Clurman aches for Adler and the glorious Adler relays her love and expectations for Clurman, even as they strain to find direction in their theatrical lives, in this love letter to the art of theatre. I highly recommend it.

Bliss Art House Café 1249 Vine Street, Hollywood

Visit hollywoodfringe.org/projects/1654 for future dates and times.

Natacha Astuto has a habit of speaking while her hands move with the passion of her words.  When she’s thinking of what to say she glances at the right corner of her face, like she’s tickling her left brain.  During the hour that she and I conversed via Skype last Monday night (10 pm PST which was 7 am in Switzerland) she was eager to express as clearly as possible what I tried to draw from her.

The Last Train (La Dernier Train) is debuting in its English translation production at the Hollywood Fringe Festival this year of the Horse in Chinese Zodiac.  She got connected with James Svatko through Stage32.  He came upon the story, read it and called her to say he wanted to produce the play and wanted to play the lead.  As a most weathered playwright she accepted his interest with politeness while maintaining an arms’ length perspective of ‘well, let’s see’.  It’s a natural self-preservation reaction to wanting to be swept away with grand dreams and emotions, but wanting a cushion landing if it was only a dream.

That encounter happened last year.  When January 2014 rolled around, he called her again, and this time he said it was really going to happen, and Natacha decided to invest emotionally into the project which brings us to today.  It was 7am in Switzerland, and Natacha looked a little tired from last night’s performance, but she was alert and wasn’t missing a beat.  I posed my first question- what motivated her to write the play with this dark and sinister theme?  “To be honest” she started, and I thought this was already telling that something unexpected was coming forth.  She said there was not any particular personal or newsworthy event that inspired the writing.  It was simply that two actors approached her with the parameters to write a play with 4 characters. Natacha added her own curiosity to explore a setting that was enclosed, or in other words limited input and output. In French, the expression is Huis Clos, which translates to “No Exit”.  Jean Paul Sartre wrote a play by the same title and told the story of three people in the afterlife forever together in hell.

So this was her spring board, and what caught my attention was the setting of a jail cell and its literal and figurative analogy to our own personal selves – the prison of our minds limited by our mentality and imagination – if we are so inclined.  In a play of 4 characters the idea of lead and supporting seems to be grey.  I think it’s becomes a constellation of individual characters revolving around the theme of where does evil lurk.  This is my take on it, because I’ve been on the hunt on this topic.  The play is not bounded by that theme alone. Art is alive.  What the seer brings into the chemistry or the formula will influence what they get out of it.

Natacha meditated upon the parameters and she came up with a story of two men who had been incarcerated for twenty years in the same cell for crimes we are not privy to.  She wanted to know what happens to people who’ve been removed from normal society for such a long period of time?  My initial take was that she had come upon a story that touched a nerve in her soul and the catharsis of understanding the events came through in writing the The Last Train,  and I found out I was wrong.  Her process of creating The Last Train was internal and organic, which is what makes this story original, and the story telling so provocative.

She covers a lot of ground in 1 hour in the English version.  The French version that is playing in Europe is 75 minutes long.  What translation differences occurred?  It was mostly colloquial references, for example, using ‘Alex Trebek’ of Jeopardy.  Did she change the names of the characters?  (I found that the character of Jack evoked the spirit of Jack the Ripper, and that Louise resembled Clarice (Silence of the Lambs)  in sound .  ‘No,’ replied Natacha, she did not even catch on to those nuances.  I’m esoteric in my beliefs that storytellers are channels of a story, and this came to the playwright in her deep meditations to evoke a story of 4 people in an enclosed chamber.  That is a formula for explosive cabin fever.  Louise was shortened from the original form of Heloise.  Historically the name is attached to Heloise d’Argenteuil who was the lover of Peter Abelard, a scholar and theologian from the Medieval period.  She was also a scholar and her beauty, insight and intelligence sparked a deep stroke in Peter’s heart, who belonged amongst the ranks of the church.

Natacha created characters with whom she can relate to.  There were aspects of each person that she can identify with either personally or through stories she had brushed with and absorbed into her own being.  Jack and Robert are cellmates and they relate to one another similarly as a married couple.  They take care of one another in their own terms.  Though bound by the cell and the daily routine of prison life there are still secrets that each person carries, and neither has the willingness to expose what lies beneath the façade.  But how long can each person bear the weight of the masquerade?

Secrets have a strong sinister voice that is unspoken, but yet very powerful. The idea of caching secrets into the play is a tool Natacha has used in this play and her other plays.  In writing secrets into the story, she gives a loud voice to victims who have not been able to speak of the unspeakable.  There have been people in the audiences who have found consolation in seeing her plays, and came to talk to her to express their gratitude for giving them a voice.

In this story, the two jailbirds are under the care of a woman, Marianne.  This is an unusual compensation in a male dominated environment.  As a former employee at a women’s prison, she was selected for an experimental exchange program recommended by psychiatrists during the nineties.  She found she was more suited working in the all-male environment and remained in her post.  Jack, Robert and Marianne had created a functional triad with the two men acting as subordinates under the authority of a motherly figure.  She is kind and vulnerable, and the two men perceives this, but do not abuse it.  Her language is soft.  When she leaves them, she says ‘See you guys later.’  She unwittingly exposes her vulnerability by confiding that she’s worried and senses Jack’s fear, and this is the feeling-nurturing behaviors associated with women.

The men bide away their time in their own ways.  Jack has a snowglobe and becomes curious about its self-contained environment.  ‘Where does the water come from?’ he asks Robert who becomes exasperated with Jack’s inane conversation about a stupid snowglobe when he only wants to get out.

You don’t give a damn about anything! You don’t even look up

when I talk to you! You’re just here, waiting to leave fucking

feet first!

Act 1 has very strong overtones of Waiting for Godot, I told Natacha.  She chuckled.  She said that James Svatko made the same comment to her.  “What?! I’m not a Samuel Beckett’, she said amused, both thrilled and humbled to be compared to a wholly alive artist/playwright.

The monotony and bubble of the cell is cracked open by a female visitor, and the hidden thoughts and motives of the men rise to the surface. The stakes are heightened and we are drawn in closer to witness the unveiling of secrets.

Natacha is a bright artist and I am very lucky that I had the opportunity to speak with her about herself and the play.  One of the other questions I posed to her was if she found any disparity between men and women in having exposure as a playwright.  She pondered this question deeply.  Her first response was no.  She explained that she already thrives in a man’s world working professionally as a mechanical engineer.  Being in a man’s world she behaves simply as a person doing the work that is mostly filled by men, but it’s not about the gender.  It’s about doing the work.  She is aware of a common theme in comments by other people that they were surprised that a woman had written a play in a setting that was primarily male oriented and about two men in a prison.  Storytelling is a vocation.  It’s a job that can be done equally well by any man or woman.

Natacha has written 6 plays in total.  The Last Train is the first one to be translated into English.  Her storytelling and writing style is purposeful and engaging.  Get curious and thrilled!  Go see The Last Train.

The Last Train is playing at the SCHKAPF, formerly known as Artworks Theatre.  ADDRESS: 6567 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90038. tel. 323.871.1912

The schedule is:

• Thursday June 05 2014, 10:15 PM | 1hr
• Saturday June 14 2014, 6:30 PM | 1hr
• Thursday June 19 2014, 10:15 PM | 1hr
• Saturday June 21 2014, 6:30 PM | 1hr
• Thursday June 26 2014, 10:15 PM | 1hr

By Analyn Revilla

Top 10 reasons to see plays at the Hollywood Fringe Festivals:

10. Participation in the Hollywood Fringe is completely open and uncensored. This free-for-all approach underlines the festival’s mission to be a platform for artists without the barrier of a curative body. By opening the gates to anyone with a vision, the festival is able to exhibit the most diverse and cutting-edge points-of-view the world has to offer. – That was straight out of the horse’s mouth – http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/learn/index/89

9. Theatre hopping in one night in the same theatre or just mozyin’ on down to the theatre next door to catch the next act.  Two weeks of staying out late theatre-bar-theatre-bar hoppin.

8. Live entertainment with breathing, salivating, thinking, reacting and overacting people in their own skin. This is the opportunity to boycott computer animated movies for two weeks.

7. Make an artist feel appreciated.

6. Surprise yourself.  If you can’t stretch your body, stretch your mind.  It’s yoga for the imagination.

5. Because Theatre is the new Cool (always has and always will be). I liken Theatre to Miles Davis – a classic cool who will always be cool, because he was fearless in reinventing himself.

4. 278 shows! (I think this is about right from the search on the website) to choose from in 2 weeks

acting · american · comedy · dark comedy · hilarious · identity · los angeles · love · new york · one woman show · relationships · storytelling · adult themes · comedic · comedy · dark humor · death · drama · dramedy · ensemble · family · funny · gay · music · musical · musical theater · one person show · one-act · original · satire · solo show · storytelling · theater · women · world

3.  Fancy is back! (I saw FANCY: Secrets from the Bootydoir last year, and was amazed by the talent. Chris Farah is a hot blooded story teller.)

2. A new and brave talent on the scene from Europe – Natacha Astuto wrote the thriller The Last Train. This is the first English version of the play that has played for 2 years in Europe in French. It won both the Grand Prix and the Young Jury prize at last weeks’ FESTIVAL DE CAHORS, FRANCE.

1. Women on the Fringe! This is the list of the shows that were written by women – shortened without the hashtags. Get the complete details on https://lafpi.com/about/women-at-work-onstage/women-on-the-fringe/

1. BURNT AT THE STEAK by Carolann Valentino

2. I CAN HEAR YOU…BUT I’M NOT LISTENING by Jennifer Jasper

3. LYDIA TRUEBLOOD – THE BLACK WIDOW OF THE ATLANTIC COAST by Liz Eldridge & Efrain Schunior

4. BETTER THAN SHAKESPEARE PRESENTS: MUCH ADO ABOUT SOMETHING, created by Megan Kelly and Kate Grabau (and William Shakespeare)

5. WOMEN by Chiara Atik

6. THE PENS SHALL HAVE THEIR DAY by Lesley Gouger

7. GWYNETH & BEYONCÉ: A Tale of 2 Virgins by Laura Keller and Christina Jeffs

8. THE CAVE: A FOLK OPERA by Melanie Rose Thomas

9. HONESTLY, OK – THE SEMI-TRUE STORY OF A GIRL AND HER SHOES by Nicole Dominguez and Lauren Stone

10. LOST IN LVOV by Sandy Simona

11. PIECES OF CARRA created by Rachae Thomas and Carly Pandza

12. THAT’S WHAT SHE DIDN’T SAY: A TRUE STORY OF TABOO, REDEMPTION & MUSICAL THEATRE by Bonnie Joy Sludikoff

13. THE LAST TRAIN (Le Dernier Train) by Natacha Astuto

14. FANCY: SECRETS FROM MY BOOTYDOIR by Chris Farah

15. SHAME BASED FUN by Sasha Fisher

16. GIMPLECAPPED: A JOURNEY OF “INSPIRATION” by Regan Linton and Laura Alsum

17. FROM A YARDIE TO A YANKEE BY Sardia Robinson

18. THE ALEXIS LAMBRIGHT TELL-A-THON: COMBATING ADULT VIRGINITY by Alexis Lambright

19. MARIA CONCHITA ALFONSO ALFONSO ALFONSO by Marina Gonzalez Palmier

20. BELLI GEMELLI: AN OPERA SITCOM by Kara Morgan and Heidi Tungseth

21. LOCKOUT by Ann Matthews

22. HAROLD & STELLA: LOVE LETTERS by Sheana Ochoa

23. THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC by Jacquetta Szathmari

24. CAN’T TAKE MY (EYES) OFF OF YOU by Fiona Lakeland

25. BONNIE’S FUTURE SISTERS by Meghan Gambling

26. AND SHE BAKES, LIVE by Daliya Karnofsky

27. VICTORIAN COURTING AND ZOMBIES book by Susan Sassi

28. WOMEN ON THE VERGE by Kimba Henderson

29. Poofy du Vey in BURDEN OF POOF by Courtney Cunningham

30. THE LAST TEMPTATION OF PAULA DEEN by Fell Swoop Playwrights

31. RIOT GRRRL SAVES THE WORLD (or, The Zine of Grrrl)’ by Louisa Hill

32. THE MERMAID WHO LEARNED HOW TO FLY by Kyla Garcia

33. WAITLESS by Cailin Harrison

34. DAUGHTER OF . . . by Susannah Blinkoff

35. CHITLIN BLUES: DANCING IN THE GREY concept by Constance Strickland

36. 52 PICK-UP by Rita Bozi and TJ Dawe

37. WHY I DIED, A COMEDY! by Katie Rubin

38. JESUS H: A SOLOR PLAY FOR THE ZEALOT IN ALL OF US by Mariah Freda

39. THINGS BEING WHAT THEY ARE by Wendy Macleod

40. GERMAINE by Rachel Germaine

41. PATHWAYS the DIGITAL MUSICAL by Lei Lei Lashawn

42. HAPPY AND GAY by Mary Steelsmith

43. LA BETE by June Carryl