September 2021

Deborah Lawlor and Stephen Sachs

Fountain friends, longtime and new, enjoyed an unforgettable afternoon Sunday at the magnificent Hollywood apartment of actress and Fountain board member Karen Kondazian. Delicious middle eastern fare from Adana was served to thirty invited special guests who marveled at Karen’s extraordinary home, the panoramic view of Hollywood,  and chatted about the achievements and future of the Fountain Theatre.

The afternoon salon was organized so distinguished friends and supporters of the Fountain could stay connected with the theatre and each other. New colleagues and associates from the Los Angeles business and arts communities were introduced to the Fountain’s inner circle. And the Fountain unveiled a new level of sponsorship, the Artistic Directors Circle, for elite donors who underwrite specific plays or programs or an entire season. 

Fountain Co-Artistic Directors Deborah Lawlor and Stephen Sachs were joined by Producing Director Simon Levy, Associate Producer James Bennett and Director of Development Barbara Goodhill.

“Diversity sits at the heart of our artistic mission,” said Sachs. “When Deborah and I founded the Fountain back in 1990, it was to offer an artistic home for theatre and dance artists, of all backgrounds, to create and develop new work that reflects the cultural diversity of our city and our nation. The Fountain Theatre sits in the center of District 13, the most ethnically and culturally diverse district in Los Angeles. 32 languages are spoken at the local high school.

“Our programing is community-driven. When we think about putting a season together, we ask ourselves which community needs to be served? Which cultural, religious or ethnic group is struggling with an issue that needs to be dramatized? Who’s voice needs to be heard?”       

The 2017-18 Fountain Theatre season includes the world premiere of Building the Wall by Robert Schenkkan, Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, the world premiere of Runaway Home by Jeremy Kamps, the world premiere of Freddie by Deborah Lawlor, the stage adaption of The Chosen by Chaim Potok, and the world premiere of Arrival and Departure by Stephen Sachs performed in Spoken English and American Sign Language.

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Fountain Board members Dorothy Wolpert, Karen Kondazian, Dick Motika, Jerrie Witfield, Don Zachary, and Oscar Arslanian welcomed guests Nyla Arslanian, Miles and Joni Benickes, Lorraine Evanoff, Bennard Gillison, Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, Lucinda Cowell and Ron Michaelson, Victoria Meyers, Bonnie Nijist and Arthur Zeesman, Jacqueline Schultz, Mark Stankevich, Ron and Elaine Stein, , and Stanley Wolpert.

Stephen Sachs and Deborah Lawlor spoke to the group, reviewing the recent accomplishments of the Fountain Theatre, its fundraising goals, and outlining the upcoming 2017-18 season. They expressed the artistic heart and soul of the company and its dedication to diversity and inclusion by serving a wide variety of communities throughout Los Angeles. And they articulated the challenges and objectives moving forward, describing the Fountain as an essential treasure on the cultural landscape of Los Angeles. And declared that the Fountain’s longtime dedication to diversity was essential in these turbulent times. 

“We are an immigrant nation, ” stated Sachs. “Los Angeles is a world city, rich with the multi-colored fabric of diversity.  At this moment in history, now more than ever, it is crucial that the Fountain Theatre maintain its mission of diversity and inclusion and community focus,  where people from all backgrounds are seen on our stage and in our audiences.”

“The Fountain Theatre may be small in size, ” he concluded. “But we are large in vision, in purpose, and in our commitment to creating and producing meaningful work that has the power to change lives.”

Posted in actors, Arts, arts organizations, Fountain Theatre, fundriaser, Hollywood, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, Theater, theatre

Tagged Arthur Zeesman, Barbara Goodhill, Bennard Gillison, Bonnie Nijist, Daniel Greenberg, Deborah Lawlor, Dick Motika, diversity, Don Zachary, Dorothy Wolpert, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, immigration, Jacqueline Schultz, James Bennett, Jerrie Whitfield, Joni Benikes, Karen Kondazian, Lorraine Evanoff, Los Angeles, mark Stankevich, Miles Benickes, new plays, Nyla Arslanian, Oscar Arslanian, season, Simon Levy, Stanley Wolpert, Susan Steinhauser, Suzanne Zachary, theater, theatre

Are you curious about the people who create those lifelike reborn dolls? Why they do it? How they’re made? We hosted a fascinating Q&A discussion with reborn doll artists Amy Karich and LaJuana Hawkins following last Sunday’s matinee of Reborning by Zayd Dohrn.

Amy Karich is a professional Reborn artist based in Southern California. Her online nursery, Amy’s Dollhouse, can be found at www.amysdollhouse.com.  LaJuana Hawkins is a sculptor of African American figurines who has recently turned her talents to reborning.

In Zayd Dohrn’s play, currently receiving rave reviews in its Los Angeles premiere at the Fountain, a young reborn artist who crafts custom-made dolls tries to unravel the mystery surrounding a new client and, in the process, discovers the path to her own “reborning.” Starring Kristin Carey, Ryan Doucette and Joanna Strapp, and directed by Simon Levy, the Fountain Theatre’s production has been named a “Critic’s Choice” by the Los Angeles Times, which calls it an “exquisitely well-realized production … All the actors are rock-solid — a real heart-stopper.”

Enjoy These Snapshots from the Reborn Artist Q&A 

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More Info/Get Tickets

Posted in Acting, actors, Arts, arts organizations, dolls, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, playwright, Theater, theatre

Tagged actors, Amy Karich, dolls, Fountain Theatre, Joanna Strapp, Kristin Carey, LaJuana Hawkins, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Premiere, new plays, performing arts, plays, reborn artist, reborn dolls, Reborning, Ryan Doucette, Simon Levy, theater, theatre

Joanna Strapp in ‘Reborning’

“Reborn” doll artists Amy Karich and LaJuana Hawkins will lead a discussion at the Fountain Theatre on Sunday, March 8 at 3:30 p.m., following the 2 p.m. matinee performance of Reborning by Zayd Dohrn.

A Reborn doll is a manufactured vinyl doll that has been transformed to resemble a human baby with as much realism as possible. Although many consumers collect Reborns as they would regular dolls, others use them to replace a child they once lost or a child that has grown up. The dolls often come with birth or adoption certificates, and their “parents” care for them as they would an infant. Because of their realistic appearance, Reborn dolls have occasionally been mistaken for real babies and rescued from parked cars after being reported to the police by passers-by.

Kristin Carey in “Reborning”.

The doll design process — called Reborning — is elaborate and time-consuming. Creators hand-root each strand of hair onto a doll’s scalp. They replicate dewy newborn skin by adding up to 80 layers of paint to the vinyl molded baby, which then must be baked to be sealed. Some are then perfumed with new-baby smell. Manicured nails and opening of the nose holes, so that the baby can “breathe,” are other details that are added during the process. Reborn heads are often weighted, so that owners have to support the head like one would a real newborn. Electronic devices that mimic a heart beat, or make the chest rise and fall to simulate breathing are common. Reborns might come with an umbilical cord, baby fat, heat packs to make the reborn warm to the touch, or voice boxes that mimic infant sounds. Reborn dolls can be purchased on EBay and on artist websites, often called “nurseries.” Purchases are not called sales, but “adoptions.” There are trade shows for collectors nationwide. Depending on craftsmanship, dolls range in price from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

Amy Karich is a professional Reborn artist based in Southern California. Her online nursery, Amy’s Dollhouse, can be found at www.amysdollhouse.com.

LaJuana Hawkins is a sculptor of African American figurines who has recently turned her talents to Reborning.

In Zayd Dohrn’s play, currently receiving its Los Angeles premiere at the Fountain. a young artist who crafts custom-made dolls begins to suspect that a demanding client may be the mother who abandoned her at birth. As she tries to unravel the mystery, she discovers the path to her own “Reborning.” Starring Kristin Carey, Ryan Doucette and Joanna Strapp, and directed bySimon Levy, the Fountain Theatre’s production has been named a “Critic’s Choice” by the Los Angeles Times, which calls it an “exquisitely well-realized production… All the actors are rock-solid — a real heart-stopper.”

Get Tickets/More Info

Posted in Acting, actors, Arts, arts organizations, dolls, Drama, Theater, theatre

Tagged actors, Amy Karich, Amy’s Dollhouse, arts organizations, Fountain Theatre, Joanna Strapp, Kristin Carey, LaJuana Hawkins, Los Angeles, new plays, performing arts, plays, reborn dolls, Reborning, Ryan Doucette, Simon Levy, theater, theatre, Zayd Dohrn

By Daniel Lehman

Does an ability to “get into character” and portray other people help actors resolve their own internal conflicts offstage? Or will the pursuit of a career that values emotional vulnerability, but at the same time involves frequent rejection, inevitably lead to poor mental health and instability?

Dr. Paula Thomson and Dr. S. Victoria Jaque of California State University, Northridge, endeavored to answer these questions in “Holding a Mirror Up to Nature: Psychological Vulnerability in Actors,” a study published this month in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Over the course of several years, the researchers surveyed a sample of 41 professional actors in Los Angeles; Toronto, Ontario; and Cape Town, South Africa. The actors’ answers were compared with those of a control group of 41 non-actors.

“This study demonstrated that the actor group had greater fantasy proneness and a greater distribution of psychological security as compared with the nonartist control group,” Thomson and Jaque write. “Despite no group differences in type and frequency of trauma and loss, the actor group had more unresolved mourning and elevated dissociation.”

All of the actors surveyed had at least three years of conservatory training, all of which Thomson said was rooted in Stanislavsky’s method. They also had the common link of at least a few months of experience creating and performing “testimonial theater,” an autobiographical medium that is used most often to heal individuals and communities that have undergone major trauma. Subjects were evaluated through a 60- to 90-minute interview session.

“I think in performing artists, there’s an incredible tolerance to accept emotional abuse from people,” Thomson told Back Stage. A former dancer, she is fascinated with the psychology of actors and performing artists. “I was very struck by how aware they were about people’s emotions and how sensitive they were,” she said, “and then how unpredictable they could be.”

Thomson and Jaque speculated that experience embodying different characters in order to act out dramatized conflicts would indirectly give actors greater resolution for their own past experiences. Yet the researchers found that while actors tend to be more emotionally self-aware and secure, they are no better at getting over unresolved trauma or loss than their counterparts in the control group. In fact, the actor group was more likely to respond with confusion, silence, or halting speech when asked about past traumatic events, and they displayed “greater vulnerability for psychological distress.”

Thomson and Jaque could not determine whether an actor’s career choice was determined by his or her mental state or vice versa. The researchers are analyzing the results of a related physiological study — in which actors wore what they call a “life shirt” during interviews, stress tests, and rehearsals and onstage performances — to evaluate whether their physiology shows the same vulnerability as their psychology.

Daniel Lehman writes for Backstage

Posted in actors, Arts, Fountain Theatre, performing arts, plays, theatre

Tagged actors, and the Arts, Back Stage, Brene Brown, California State University, Cape Town, Creativity, Daniel Lehman, drama, emotion, Fountain Theatre, Holding a Mirror Up to Nature: Psychological Vulnerability in Actors, Los Angeles, Ontario, Paula Thomson, performing artists, plays, Psychology of Aesthetics, S. Victoria Jaque, sensitive, South Africa, Stanislavsky, The Power of Vulnerability, theater, Toronto, vulnerability

By Daniel Lehman

Does an ability to “get into character” and portray other people help actors resolve their own internal conflicts offstage? Or will the pursuit of a career that values emotional vulnerability, but at the same time involves frequent rejection, inevitably lead to poor mental health and instability?

Dr. Paula Thomson and Dr. S. Victoria Jaque of California State University, Northridge, endeavored to answer these questions in “Holding a Mirror Up to Nature: Psychological Vulnerability in Actors,” a study published this month in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Over the course of several years, the researchers surveyed a sample of 41 professional actors in Los Angeles; Toronto, Ontario; and Cape Town, South Africa. The actors’ answers were compared with those of a control group of 41 non-actors.

“This study demonstrated that the actor group had greater fantasy proneness and a greater distribution of psychological security as compared with the nonartist control group,” Thomson and Jaque write. “Despite no group differences in type and frequency of trauma and loss, the actor group had more unresolved mourning and elevated dissociation.”

All of the actors surveyed had at least three years of conservatory training, all of which Thomson said was rooted in Stanislavsky’s method. They also had the common link of at least a few months of experience creating and performing “testimonial theater,” an autobiographical medium that is used most often to heal individuals and communities that have undergone major trauma. Subjects were evaluated through a 60- to 90-minute interview session.

“I think in performing artists, there’s an incredible tolerance to accept emotional abuse from people,” Thomson told Back Stage. A former dancer, she is fascinated with the psychology of actors and performing artists. “I was very struck by how aware they were about people’s emotions and how sensitive they were,” she said, “and then how unpredictable they could be.”

Thomson and Jaque speculated that experience embodying different characters in order to act out dramatized conflicts would indirectly give actors greater resolution for their own past experiences. Yet the researchers found that while actors tend to be more emotionally self-aware and secure, they are no better at getting over unresolved trauma or loss than their counterparts in the control group. In fact, the actor group was more likely to respond with confusion, silence, or halting speech when asked about past traumatic events, and they displayed “greater vulnerability for psychological distress.”

Thomson and Jaque could not determine whether an actor’s career choice was determined by his or her mental state or vice versa. The researchers are analyzing the results of a related physiological study — in which actors wore what they call a “life shirt” during interviews, stress tests, and rehearsals and onstage performances — to evaluate whether their physiology shows the same vulnerability as their psychology.

Daniel Lehman writes for Backstage

Posted in actors, Arts, Fountain Theatre, performing arts, plays, theatre

Tagged actors, and the Arts, Back Stage, Brene Brown, California State University, Cape Town, Creativity, Daniel Lehman, drama, emotion, Fountain Theatre, Holding a Mirror Up to Nature: Psychological Vulnerability in Actors, Los Angeles, Ontario, Paula Thomson, performing artists, plays, Psychology of Aesthetics, S. Victoria Jaque, sensitive, South Africa, Stanislavsky, The Power of Vulnerability, theater, Toronto, vulnerability

Poster for 1972 political film “The Candidate” starring Robert Redford.

The acclaimed Fountain Theatre has obtained permission from Warner Bros to present a one-night celebrity reading of the Jeremy Larner screenplay for the Academy Award winning 1972 movie, The Candidate.  The event will take place in the City Council Chamber at Los Angeles City Hall in 2020, the cast, date and time to be announced.

The celebrity reading continues the Fountain’s ongoing program created in partnership with LA City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell to bring local government, the arts community and the public together in a unique setting to address timely issues of the day. The Candidate will follow the Fountain’s hugely successful 2018 celebrity readings of All the President’s Men, starring cast members from The West Wing and Scandal, and the 2019 all-star reading of Ms. Smith Goes to Washington, starring Bellamy Young  and Sam Waterston.

In the gritty, documentary-like film The Candidate directed by Michael Ritchie, Robert Redford stars as an idealistic, good-natured attorney whose high standards are soiled by his run for political office.  Jeremy Larner won the Academy Award for his screenplay.  The film is considered one of the top ten political movies ever made.

Fountain Co-Artistic Director Stephen Sachs, who directed the City Hall readings of All The President’s Men and Ms. Smith Goes to Washington, will guide the celebrity reading of The Candidate in 2020, stating “I can think of no better choice for the upcoming election year.”

Posted in actors, arts organizations, Drama, film, Fountain Theatre, government, Hollywood, Los Angeles, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, Theater, theatre

Tagged All the President’s Men, Bellamy Young, celebrity, Fountain Theatre, Jeremy Larner, Los Angeles, Los Angeles City Hall, Michael Ritchie, Mitch O’Farrell, movie, Ms. Smith Goes to Washington, Robert Redford, Sam Waterston, Scandal, screenplay, Stephen Sachs, The Candidate, The West Wing

Casting is now complete for our upcoming West Coast Premiere of On the Spectrum by Ken LaZebnik, directed by Jacqueline Schultz. Awarded a 2012 Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award citation and granted a 2011 Edgerton Foundation New American Play award, On the Spectrum is a funny and touching love story between a young man with Asperger’s and a young woman with autism. Previews begin March 9th and it opens March 16th.

Meet The Cast:

Dan Shaked (Mac) is from New York and making his Fountain Theatre debut. He is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts drama program and studied at The Lee Strasberg Film/Theater Institute and at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He can be seen in the upcoming films “The Broken” and “Homeward”, the TV movie “Gilded Lilys” with Blythe Danner, and was a guest star on ABC’s “Body of Proof”.  He played the lead role in the film  “Storm up the Sky,” selected for the Tribeca Film Festival. He has worked at LaMaMA in New York City and played the lead role in Boston’s UnderGround Railway Theater’s production of Naomi Wallace’s “The Fever Chart” at the Central Square Theatre in Cambridge.

Virginia Newcomb (Iris) was last seen at the Fountain Theatre in the 2011 West Coast Premiere of the rarely-seen Tennessee Williams play A House Not Meant to Stand. She recently co-starred on stage in The Grapes of Wrath at Knightsbridge Theatre, Sweet Bird of Youth at the Marilyn Monroe  Theatre and This Property is Condemned at the Globe Playhouse. She has appeared on TV’s “The Office” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and can be seen in the new comedy webseries “Bandmates“. Virginia stars in the lead role in “The Boogeyman”, a feature film based on Stephen King’s short story.

Jeanie Hackett (Elisabeth) is well known to Los Angeles theater audiences. She served as Artistic Director of two prestigious Los Angeles ensemble companies: The Classical Theatre Lab & The Antaeus Company. She has played several roles for LA Theater Works, including Trifles with Amy Madigan. And with The Antaeus Company: Tonight at 8:30 & The Autumn Garden, along with numerous readings & workshops. Broadway credits include Stella in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (with Blythe Danner) at Circle in the Square & Belle in Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness at the Roundabout. Off-Broadway she’s been seen in new plays at Soho Rep, The Promenade & The Harold Clurman Theaters. She received her Equity card at the Williamstown Theater Festival where she appeared in over a dozen plays such as The Greeks, Room Service, The Bay at Nice, Summerfolk & The Front Page among others. She’s performed at the Pasadena Playhouse, South Coast Rep, Center Theater Group, Long Wharf, Three River Shakespeare Festival & The Tennessee Williams Arts Center playing leading roles in Richard III (Lady Anne) The Winter’s Tale (Perdita, Hermione) The Taming of The Shrew (Kate) Hamlet (Ophelia) Cyrano de Bergerac (Roxanne) Uncle Vanya (Yelena) Old Times (Kate) Arms and The Man (Louka) How the Other Half Loves(Teresa) Vieux Carre (Jane Sparks) & Present Laughter (Joanna) among others. Other LA Theater credits include: The Seagull (Matrix), Black Box (Odyssey), Phaedra (Getty Villa), Light & Pera Palas (Theatre@Boston Court), Kate Crackernuts (24th Street Theater) & Andromache in The Trojan Women at CBS Radford. Recent film work includes: The Words (with Bradley Cooper & Dennis Quaid),Take Me Home Tonight (with Topher Grace), King of California (with Michael Douglas) & Post Grad (with Michael O’Keefe & Carol Burnett.) Favorite television work: Lie to Me, Lincoln Heights, Medium, Criminal Minds, The “L” Word, Charmed, Judging Amy (recurring) & playing Queen Margaret from Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 3 on The West Wing. On the Spectrum marks her debut at the Fountain Theatre.

On the Spectrum March 16 – April 29 (323) 663-1525  More Info

Posted in actors, Arts, Fountain Theatre, new plays, performing arts, plays, playwright, Theater, theatre

Tagged A House Not Meant to Stand, A Streetcar Named Desire, Ah! Wilderness, Amy Madigan, Antaeus Company, Asperger’s, autism, Blythe Danner, Body of Proof, Broadway, Center Theater Group, Charmed, Classical Theatre Lab, Criminal Minds, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Cyrano de Bergerac, Dan Shaked, Edgerton Foundation New American Play award, Getty Villa, Jacqueline Schultz, Jeanie Hackett, Judging Amy, Ken LaZebnik, LA Theatre Works, Lee Strasberg, Lie to Me, Lincoln Heights, Long Wharf, Marilyn Monroe, Medium, Naomi Wallace, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, On the Spectrum, Pasadena Playhouse, Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, South Coast Rep, Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, Stephen King, Sweet Bird of Youth, Tennessee Williams, The “L” Word, The Fever Chart, The Grapes of Wrath, The Office, The West Wing, Theatre@Boston Court, This Property is Condemned, Tribeca Film Festival, Virginia Newcomb

Kate Tempest

myShakespeare is the digital home of the World Shakespeare Festival, a celebration of Shakespeare as the world’s playwright now underway in London through September, 2012.

Produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, in an unprecedented collaboration with leading UK and international arts organisations, and with Globe to Globe, a major international program produced by Shakespeare’s Globe, it’s the biggest celebration of Shakespeare ever staged.

Almost 60 partners are coming together to bring the Festival alive.  Thousands of artists from around the world are taking part in almost 70 productions, plus supporting events and exhibitions, right across the UK, including London, Stratford-upon-Avon, Newcastle/Gateshead, Birmingham, Wales and Scotland and online.

Measuring Shakespeare’s Digital Heartbeat

At myShakespeare artists and audiences interpret, recode and remix Shakespeare’s online world. It’s a creative space to share thoughts and ideas, revealing how his words, stories and characters continue to influence and reflect human life.

Why are the plays of Shakespeare still so powerful today as they were over 400 years ago?  “The stuff that we care about doesn’t change,” says UK actor, musician and comedian Tim Minchin. Take a look at Tim’s video explaining what myShakespeare is all about:

From every continent, myShakespeare has commissioned a series of artists to create new work. First on the site is rapper, poet and playwright, Kate Tempest from Southeast London.

Check out her video rap/poem, My Shakespeare.  It’s wonderful!

Who is your Shakespeare?

Posted in actors, Arts, Fountain Theatre, performing arts, plays, playwright, poem, poetry, Shakespeare, theatre

Tagged digital, Globe to Globe, Kate Tempest, London, myShakespesare, online, poet, poetry, rap, Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s Globe, Stratford Upon Avon, Tim Minchin, William Shakespeare, World Shakespeare Festival

Shirley Jo Finney

The Fountain Theatre is proud to announce that the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not-for-profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), has selected Director Shirley Jo Finney as SDCF’s 2017 Denham Fellow for her production of Runaway Home by Jeremy J. Kamps. Runaway Home made its world premiere at The Fountain Theatre and runs to November 5th. 

The Denham Fellowship was established by Mary Orr Denham in 2006 with a bequest to SDCF in honor of her late husband, Reginald H. F. Denham. It is an annual cash award given to women directors to further develop their directing skills, and supports a particular proposed project. Past recipients include May Adrales, Tea Alagic, Rachel Alderman, Kathleen Amshoff, Jessi D. Hill, Joanie Schultz, Bridget Leak, Hannah Ryan, and Diane Rodriguez.

“I love this place because it does important work, ” Finney stated about the Fountain Theatre and Runaway Home. “I love when a piece of work is being presented and the audience can’t get out of their seats. Because they have not experienced a play. They have experienced a life.”

Denham Fellow Shirley Jo Finney is an award-winning international director and actress. She has worn her director’s hat in some of the most respected regional theater houses across the country including: The McCarter Theater, The Pasadena Playhouse, The Goodman Theater, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Playhouse, Fountain Theater, LA Theater Works, Crossroads Theater Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival, Sundance Theater Workshop, Mark Taper Forum, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the State Theater in Pretoria, South Africa. Ms. Finney has received many prestigious awards over the years for her special talent and eye for storytelling and for creating exciting ensembles. Her awards include the L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Award, The Los Angeles Drama Critics Award, LA Weekly Award, The NAACP Award, and the Santa Barbara Independent Award for her directing work. Finney helmed the acclaimed international all South African Opera entitled Winnie, based on the life of political icon Winnie Mandela. Most recently, Ms. Finney directed and developed the critically acclaimed world premiere of Citizen: An American Lyric by the award-winning PENN poet, Claudia Rankin. Other recent works include Facing Our Truth, The Trayvon Martin Project at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles, the Lark Play Development Center’s rolling world premiere of the road weeps, the well runs dry by Marcus Gardley at the Los Angeles Theater Center, and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Brother/Sister Plays.

“Shirley Jo has been a cherished member of our Fountain Family for many years,” says Stephen Sachs, Co-Artistic Director. “We are thrilled and proud that the SDC Foundation has honored her excellence.”

Runaway Home now playing to Nov 5th.

Posted in artist, Arts, director, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, new plays, performing arts, Theater, theatre

Tagged Denham Fellowship, director, Fountain Theatre, Jeremy J. Kamps, Los Angeles, Runaway Home, SDC, SDCF, Shirley Jo Finney, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Stephen Sachs

Something important happened last weekend. Something historic for the Los Angeles theatre community. On Sunday, May 20, 2012, the first step was taken to launch a new chapter in how we produce theater in Los Angeles. At a gathering moderated by LA Stage Alliance at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, a meeting of 80-plus theatre producers agreed by unanimous vote that we would produce theater in a new way in the future: together.

The house full of producers, artistic directors and independent theatre-makers from venues all over Los Angeles, each with their own issues and concerns, voted unanimously to form a new Producers Guild that will speak with a single voice on behalf of all Los Angeles producers (99-seat producers, mid-size and larger). This is the most important milestone in LA Theatre history in the past 20 years.

Can 700+ theater producers spanning a diverse landscape as immense and wide as Los Angeles learn to collaborate and speak with one voice for the benefit of all? We’ll see. Let’s hope.

The new Producers Guild will work with the 99-seat Review Committee, the group already in place since the 1980’s to negotiate with Actor’s Equity Association about any proposed changes to the 99-Seat Plan.

The Producers Guild  could also address many issues that can enhance the creation and producing of theatre in Los Angeles: improve conditions at venues (at all levels), rebranding the national image of LA Theatre, shared marketing, standard and  improved rental contracts between venues,  discount ticketing, collective bargaining with fair and equal dealings with unions (Actors Equity, SDC, USA,), and much more.

And perhaps most importantly: create a deeper sense of community. Remember, this new Guild would include theater producers at all levels: 99-seat, mid-size, large-size, and independents. Power and solidarity and community in numbers.

What Happens Now?

We must build a structure for this new Guild.  We should reach out to the producers Leagues in other cities like New York and Chicago and examine their models.

Yes, we will have more meetings. And meetings about meetings. We must come together as a group and discuss how to proceed. This is the long, boring part of the process. It’s going to take time. But let’s get started.

Let the work begin.

Posted in actors, Arts, Fountain Theatre, performing arts, plays, theatre

Tagged 99-Seat Plan, Actors Equity Association, community, Fountain Theatre, Kirk Douglas Theatre, LA Stage Alliance, Los Angeles, plays, Producers Guild, SDC, solidarity, theater, theatre producers, union, USA

by Leah Bergman

Have you ever watched a film and been deeply and profoundly moved,   or read a book that changed your perspective?  That is the type of impact that the play El Nogalar, written by Tanya Saracho, is having upon audiences everywhere.

El Nogalar delves into the complexities that Mexico is facing due to the drug war.  “It is topical and what is happening right now.  If you take a glass and you put it on that area and look inside, everyone is being affected by that,”  said Saracho.

The play artfully weaves through the intricacies of the Mexican caste system and how the drug war is affecting each person’s role within the societal unit.  Saracho does this in such a poignant way that the viewer is able to see and feel each character’s point of view in a personal way.  The pain and sorrow that is felt by the characters becomes universal where everyone, Latino or Non-Latino, can relate.

The play was inspired by Anton Chekhov’s  The Cherry Orchard.   The name “El Nogalar” reflects what is grown in Mexico – Pecans.  Saracho said,”My mom picked the name…, she said, ’Look it up on your internet. It can’t be cherries. We don’t grow cherries!’”

The name wasn’t the only twist that Saracho added; she made the cast mostly females.  She likes to expose, “Life from the point of view of women. “  She continued with, “Talking about Latina women and Mexican women and complicating their image is important to me.  It is also important to me to change their stereotype.”

Her vision of bringing light to the woman’s perspective began before being commissioned by Chicago’s Teatro Vista to write El Nogalar.  Twelve years ago Saracho formed an all-women’s company entitled Teatro Luna.  “When we formed Teatro Luna, we were called man haters in the press…  My writing has been criticized for that. There are enough plays for men,” said Saracho.  She contests claims of being exclusive by saying, “It is not exclusive.  It is inclusive.  I am including the female voice.”

The female voice is not the only theme expressed in her writing.  Saracho passionately explains, “I’m obsessed with class– if we are speaking thematically.  I’m obsessed by how we (Latinos) are seen as the immigrant in the U.S., and I’m obsessed with gender.”    This would not seem surprising as she was born in Sinaloa, Mexico, but grew up in the adjoining border towns of Reynoso, Mexico and McAllen, Texas.   She was entrenched in both cultures learning both languages.  She was educated in the U.S.   She attended high school in Texas and went on to Boston University to graduate in theater studies.

At Boston University her writing skills flourished.  She put up three plays for the student festival.  This, however, was not the beginning of her story telling.  “I was the one who entertained the sisters and I was always a story teller.  I liked to terrify them with “La Llorona”, a legend of a wailing women,” she laughs contagiously, and continues, “I used to tell jokes.  Now I don’t even know one joke… My grandparents would put me on the table and you would either dance or tell a poem or a joke.”

There seems to be no limit to her storytelling and incredible talent. In fact, El Nogalar is actually the first in a trilogy that Saracho has written.  Song of the Disappeared is the next play in the series.  It takes place on the Texas side of the border where the crime element has now infiltrated.  The last installment of the trilogy is entitled Nights.  The characters have been kidnapped and stay alive by telling stories like in the book:  Thousand Nights and One Night.

El Nogalar is so moving that it truly is a must see.  Saracho’s soulful writing leaves a profound impact on viewers.  This play has put her on the radar, and is only the beginning to a brilliant career. Saracho is definitely someone to watch for in the future.

Leah Bergman writes for Latino Weekly Review.

El Nogalar   Now Playing to March 11 (323) 663-1525     More Info

Posted in actors, Arts, Fountain Theatre, new plays, performing arts, plays, theatre

Tagged Anton Chekhov, Diana Romo, drug wars, El Nogalar, Fountain Theatre, Isabelle Ortega, Justin Huen, Latino, laurie Woolery, Los Angeles, Luis Alfaro, Mexico, playwriting, Sabina Zuniga Varela, Tanya Saracho, Teatro Luna, Texas, The Cherry Orchard, West Coast Premiere, Yetta Gottesman

by Leo Widrich

For over 27,000 years, since the first cave paintings were discovered, telling stories has been one of our most fundamental communication methods. Recently a good friend of mine gave me an introduction to the power of storytelling, and I wanted to learn more.

Here is the science around storytelling and how we can use it to make better decisions every day:

Our brain on stories: How our brains become more active when we tell stories

We all enjoy a good story, whether it’s a play, a novel, a movie, or simply something one of our friends is explaining to us. But why do we feel so much more engaged when we hear a narrative about events?

It’s in fact quite simple. If we listen to a powerpoint presentation with boring bullet points, a certain part in the brain gets activated. Scientists call this Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area. Overall, it hits our language processing parts in the brain, where we decode words into meaning. And that’s it, nothing else happens.

When we are being told a story, things change dramatically. Not only are the language processing parts in our brain activated, but any other area in our brain that we would use when experiencing the events of the story are too.

If someone tells us about how delicious certain foods were, our sensory cortex lights up. If it’s about motion, our motor cortex gets active:

“Metaphors like “The singer had a velvet voice” and “He had leathery hands” roused the sensory cortex. […] Then, the brains of participants were scanned as they read sentences like “John grasped the object” and “Pablo kicked the ball.” The scans revealed activity in the motor cortex, which coordinates the body’s movements.”

A story can put your whole brain to work. And yet, it gets better:

When we tell stories to others that have really helped us shape our thinking and way of life, we can have the same effect on them too. The brains of the person telling a story and listening to it can synchronize, says Uri Hasson from Princeton:

“When the woman spoke English, the volunteers understood her story, and their brains synchronized. When she had activity in her insula, an emotional brain region, the listeners did too. When her frontal cortex lit up, so did theirs. By simply telling a story, the woman could plant ideas, thoughts and emotions into the listeners’ brains.”

Anything you’ve experienced, you can get others to experience the same. Or at least, get their brain areas that you’ve activated that way, active too:

Now all this is interesting. We know that we can activate our brains better if we listen to stories. The still unanswered question is: Why is that? Why does the format of a story, where events unfold one after the other, have such a profound impact on our learning?

The simple answer is this: We are wired that way. A story, if broken down into the simplest form, is a connection of cause and effect. And that is exactly how we think. We think in narratives all day long, no matter if it is about buying groceries, whether we think about work or our spouse at home. We make up (short) stories in our heads for every action and conversation. In fact, Jeremy Hsu found [that] “personal stories and gossip make up 65% of our conversations.”

Now, whenever we hear a story, we want to relate it to one of our existing experiences. That’s why metaphors work so well with us. While we are busy searching for a similar experience in our brains, we activate a part called insula, which helps us relate to that same experience of pain, joy, or disgust.

The following graphic probably describes it best:

In a great experiment, John Bargh at Yale found the following:

“Volunteers would meet one of the experimenters, believing that they would be starting the experiment shortly. In reality, the experiment began when the experimenter, seemingly struggling with an armful of folders, asks the volunteer to briefly hold their coffee. As the key experimental manipulation, the coffee was either hot or iced. Subjects then read a description of some individual, and those who had held the warmer cup tended to rate the individual as having a warmer personality, with no change in ratings of other attributes.”

We link up metaphors and literal happenings automatically. Everything in our brain is looking for the cause and effect relationship of something we’ve previously experienced.

Let’s dig into some hands on tips to make use of it:

Exchange giving suggestions for telling stories

Do you know the feeling when a good friend tells you a story and then two weeks later, you mention the same story to him, as if it was your idea? This is totally normal and at the same time, one of the most powerful ways to get people on board with your ideas and thoughts. According to Uri Hasson from Princeton, a story is the only way to activate parts in the brain so that a listener turns the story into their own idea and experience.

The next time you struggle with getting people on board with your projects and ideas, simply tell them a story, where the outcome is that doing what you had in mind is the best thing to do. According to Princeton researcher Hasson, storytelling is the only way to plant ideas into other people’s minds.

Write more persuasively—bring in stories from yourself or an expert

This is something that took me a long time to understand. If you start out writing, it’s only natural to think “I don’t have a lot of experience with this, how can I make my post believable if I use personal stories?” The best way to get around this is by simply exchanging stories with those of experts. When this blog used to be a social media blog, I would ask for quotes from the top folks in the industry or simply find great passages they had written online. It’s a great way to add credibility and at the same time, tell a story.

The simple story is more successful than the complicated one

When we think of stories, it is often easy to convince ourselves that they have to be complex and detailed to be interesting. The truth is however, that the simpler a story, the more likely it will stick. Using simple language as well as low complexity is the best way to activate the brain regions that make us truly relate to the happenings of a story. This is a similar reason why multitasking is so hard for us. Try for example to reduce the number of adjectives or complicated nouns in a presentation or article and exchange them with more simple, yet heartfelt language.

Quick last fact: Our brain learns to ignore certain overused words and phrases that used to make stories awesome. Scientists, in the midst of researching the topic of storytelling have also discovered, that certain words and phrases have lost all storytelling power:

“Some scientists have contended that figures of speech like “a rough day” are so familiar that they are treated simply as words and no more.”

This means, that the frontal cortex—the area of your brain responsible to experience emotions—can’t be activated with these phrases. It’s something that might be worth remembering when crafting your next story.

Leo Widrich is the co-founder of Buffer, a smarter way to share on Twitter and Facebook. Leo writes more posts on efficiency and customer happiness over on the Buffer blog. Hit him up on Twitter @LeoWid anytime; he is a super nice guy.

Posted in Arts, arts organizations, Drama, Fountain Theatre, performing arts, plays, Theater, theatre

Tagged arts organizations, brain, Broca’s area, creative process, creative writing, evolution, Fountain Theatre, insula, Jeremy Hsu, John Bargh, language, Leo Widrich, Los Angeles, metaphor, performing arts, plays, playwriting, Princeton, stories, storytelling, Uri Hasson, Wernicke’s area, Yale

Kristin Carey, Joanna Strapp in ‘Reborning’.

by Mindy Farabee

Sometimes art imitates life and sometimes life imitates art. And somewhere in between, sometimes things get curious.

Hollywood’s Fountain Theatre recently opened a play dealing with parenthood, the mystery of creation and the scars of loss. What it’s literally about is reborning, a thriving subculture in which artists spend hundreds of hours creating and collectors spend thousands of dollars buying vinyl dolls meticulously fashioned to resemble real babies.

Reborning began in the United States in the 1990s, when a few enthusiasts started painting over and otherwise altering (or “reborning”) store-bought dolls to make them appear more realistic. Now, however, it has become an international phenomenon. One unassembled, limited-edition kit for making the dolls recently released online sold out in less than three minutes.

The play, Reborning, centers on an artist and the increasingly unnerving relationship she develops with a client. Zayd Dohrn wrote it after the birth of his first child. In stumbling upon the curious art form, Dohrn found a perfect vehicle for exploring the terrifying vulnerability of new life. He also made something of a mess. “I tried my hand at making a couple dolls,” Dohrn says. “It didn’t turn out well.”

The show has previously been produced in New York, San Francisco and Anaheim (at the Chance Theater in 2012), with local reborners employed to create dolls.

The Fountain called Amy Karich, an Orange County stay-at-home mom who sells her reborn creations online. Karich, who also designed dolls for the Chance production, works out of a studio tucked into the tidy rolling hills on the outskirts of Laguna Beach. A slant-roofed add-on to the back of the family home, Karich’s workshop sits on one of those quiet, planned streets with an abundance of two-car garages, stacked rows of matching terracotta-hued roofs and artfully spaced palm trees.

Amy Karich in her studio.

Inside, her studio testifies to a flurry of activity. A paint-drenched sponge lies on her desk amidst jars of paints, brushes and beads. Against the walls sit boxes of eyeballs and a small table of disembodied doll parts. Teething toys, bassinets and pastel blankets dominate the decor.

“I’m not even a baby person,” announces the petite, blond mother of four, with the hint of an ironic smile.

That she’s going on the record at all is a pleasant surprise. The fact that some buyers have suffered miscarriages or found themselves unable to conceive prompted several articles casting them as mildly deranged. “People feel like they’ve been burned in the press,” says Dohrn, to explain why lately the subculture has taken on a slight air of secrecy.

Some clients ask for dolls with particular characteristics, occasionally including a picture. Other clients are more vague. One asked for 13 moles, though Karich could place them where she chose. The dolls aren’t usually used as toys — they’re mainly for display.

Artists become known for certain trademarks, such as color palates, and Karich says her skin tones are a signature of her work. She plucks the head from a nearly completed newborn to illustrate. “I put stork bites on them,” she says, pointing to the pinkish birthmark on the back of its head, which can appear during birth.

“All kinds of traumatic things happen at birth,” she adds. “Newborns … can have pressure marks anywhere. Because sometimes the baby will be resting against the bottom of the tailbone [for instance],” she says, absentmindedly rubbing her lower back.

Playwright Zayd Dohrn at the Fountain Theatre

“I love that she said that,” Dohrn says. “When you hear Amy talk, you understand what humans go through [during birth], the adventure they’ve been on and how it shows up on their bodies.”

Karich, whose dolls routinely go for $1,500 apiece, might spend 150 hours creating one. The details she adds reinforce that these aren’t toys but objects meant for display, intended for serious collectors. Artists favor Genesis paints, and stuff glass or zinc beads inside the dolls to give them an authentic heft. (“Some people have been known to use kitty litter,” Karich says, turning up her nose at the idea.)

Karich fishes out handful of handcrafted eyes from beneath a crib. “These are made of mouth-blown glass, produced in Germany. They go for $30 to $40 a pair,” she says. Her newborns also come with detachable magnetic umbilical cords, made by snipping off the finger of a vinyl glove and stuffing it with cloth painted to resemble bloody tissue, before tying it off with a real medical clamp.

“It’s very relaxing to me to be able to create,” she says.

In translating her dolls to the stage, a few adjustments were necessary, such as designing a deeper mottling for the skin to render it more visible to an audience.

There is one aspect of Dohrn’s play that Karich finds not terribly realistic: The reborner allows her client far too much access. Karich doesn’t even give out her phone number, in order to set boundaries on her time. But her clients are nearly all repeat customers. Relationships inevitably form, and personal details are shared — some tragic, but mostly clients just send news about their children.

“Most collectors are mothers and perfectly normal people,” Karich stresses. “Some people could be filling some sort of void with the dolls … but it’s not a void that causes them to treat the dolls like real babies. They are just another group of people, interested in something.”

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Mindy Farabee is a writer and critic living in Los Angeles. A former LA Times staff writer, her work has also appeared in publications such as Bookforum, Los Angeles Review of Books, San Francisco Chronicle, The Millions, the Boston Globe, and LA Weekly. This post originally appeared in the LA Weekly.