The Los Angeles Theatre Digest: April 1–7 | Playbill

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Los Angeles News The Los Angeles Theatre Digest: April 1–7 A Doll's House, Part 2 heads to the West Coast (while also on Broadway), the L.A. Theatre Awards return, and more.

Bart DeLorenzo Directs West Coast Premiere of Guillermo Calderón’s Kiss
The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble continues its mission this season to bring in premieres with the West Coast debut of Chilean playwright Guillermo Calderón’s Kiss.

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Guillermo Calderón

Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “Chile’s most acclaimed playwright-director of the last two decades,” Calderón’s work has been presented all over the world, including the Royal Court Theater, Center Theatre Group, and the Public Theater.

With Kiss, we see two couples meet for dinner in Damascus in 2014 as a war rages around them. During this dinner, a series of events unfolds that slowly open their eyes to the limits of living under an oppressive militaristic regime. Kristin Couture, Max Lloyd-Jones, Natali Anna Ortiz, and Kevin Matthew Reyes make up the two couples of this Syrian melodrama directed by Bart DeLorenzo.

Performances of Kiss run from April 29 through June 18. The Odyssey Theatre is located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. in West Los Angeles. For more information about Kiss and the Odyssey, visit OdysseyTheatre.com.

Susan Graham Named Artistic Advisor at L.A. Opera
A renowned opera star is set to serve as artistic advisor to LA Opera's Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program. Plácido Domingo recently announced that Susan Graham is the most recent artist to take on a leadership role since composer-conductor Matthew Aucoin was appointed as artist in residence. Graham will be in residence for at least ten weeks each season. She will serve as a mentor, focusing on both the performance and business aspects of a career in opera.

Graham is a celebrated mezzo-soprano who has performed in a multitude of roles—from Monteverdi’s Poppea to Sister Helen Prejean in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking. She has sung with the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the L.A. Opera, and many other companies around the world.

Center Theatre Group Hosts “Going Pro Career Fair”
Current undergraduate and graduate-level college and university students are invited to attend the “Going Pro Career Fair” on April 8. The event will be held at the East Los Angeles College Performing and Fine Arts Complex, 1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez in Monterey.

The fair is aimed at helping current students prepare for a professional theatre career. There will be resources available, a networking event and panel discussions all geared towards helping students navigate the post academic world of theatre.

Students are welcome to stop by any time but encouraged to RSVP beforehand. For more information, visit CenterTheatreGroup.org.

Actors’ Gang Offering Pay What You Can
Tim Robbins’ new show, Harlequino: On to Freedom, is currently running at the Actors’ Gang through May 6. The production is offering pay-what-you-can performances every Thursday through the end of the run.

Written and directed by Robbins, the musical is a celebration of commedia dell’arte, the more than 500-year-old style of theatre that developed out of Italy. The production explores the limits of free expression due to the authoritarian environment that 16th-century Italian actors lived in.

For more information, visit TheActorsGang.com.

Stage Raw Announces Third Annual L.A. Theatre Awards
French Stewart and Vanessa Stewart will host the third annual Stage Raw Los Angeles Theatre Awards: A Wake And Sing. Celebrating the best of 99-seat Theatre in 2016 and the best since 1979, the awards will be presented on May 15 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center located at 514 S. Spring Street in downtown. Nominations include productions from Echo Theatre Co., Skylight Theatre Co., Antaeus, The Fountain, Rogue Machine, The Odyssey and many more.

For a full list and more information, visit StageRaw.com.

Coming soon to the Los Angeles area:

A Doll’s House, Part 2
Written by Lucas Hnath
Directed by Shelley Buter and featuring Shannon Cochran, Bill Geisslinger, Lynn Milgrim and Virginia Vale
April 9–30
South Coast Rep
655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa
15 years after Nora broke free of her cage, she has returned. Returned to the same door she walked out of. Why has she returned to Helmer and the house and what does this mean for her life now?
Visit SCR.org

Closing soon in the Los Angeles area:
The Cruise
Written by Jonathan Ceniceroz
Directed by Heath Cullens and featuring Ric Salinas, Ken Lopez, Carolyn Amos, Brian Wallace, and Gary Lamb
Through April 9
Los Angeles Theatre Center
514 S. Spring Street in Los Angeles
Set entirely on a high-end cruise ship, the play is a literal vehicle with which to explore current cultural, political, and sexual topics. This comedic drama centers on a father and son and reveals the effects of an unbalanced social ladder.
Visit TheLATC.org

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Ric Salinas, Brian Wallace,Kenneth Lopez, and Carolyn Almos Grettel Cortes Photography

Burners
Written by Terence Anthony
Directed by Sara Wagner and featuring Amielynn Abellera and Noel Arthur
Through April 9
Atwater Village Theatre
3269 Casitas Ave in Los Angeles
In the not-so-distant future, a true divide between the super rich and the rest of the world has been created. The majority of the world’s population, living in slums, starts a resistance and an attack on the secluded wealthy population, using the only weapon they have: human beings as bombs.
Visit MovingArts.org

Disinherit The Wind
Written by Matt Chait
March 3–April 9
The Complex
6476 Santa Monica Blvd. in Los Angeles
How can we understand and contextualize new information challenging what we take for granted as scientific fact? Chait’s play focuses on a neurobiologist who sues a prominent university to gain the right to teach theories of evolution. Through the action of the play, the audience is asked to view the wonders of science through a different lens.
Visit Plays411.com

Malicious Bunny
Written by Matthew Sprosty
Directed by Brian Fox and featuring Markus Taylor, Heidi-Marie Ferren, Andrew McIntyre, Jennifer Edwards, Larry Gilman, Tess Kartel, James Vallejo, Daniel Cordileone, Camila Greenberg, Karen Praxel, Mitchell Holden, and Sherita Starks
March 17–April 9
The Actors Company
916 N. Formosa Ave. in Los Angeles
How far would you go to prove your love for someone? Would you kill for them? Would you kill for them twice?
Visit MaliciousBunny.com

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