April | 2019 | Intimate Excellent
You be the judge: the audience will determine which play gets a professional staged reading at the Fountain Theatre in Round 2 of the company’s 5th annual competition-style reading series, set for Thursday, May 9 at 8 p.m. Admission is free.
The contestants are Eldritch by Michael Herman, a dark fairytale set in pagan Ireland that explores human monstrosity, adolescence and, ultimately, love — vs. — Monsters Are Made by Hannah C. Langley, in which Ricki is faced with a difficult set of questions when Hunter, her rapist and former friend, forces his way back into her life a year after he’s declared not guilty in the court of public opinion.
The Fountain’s Rapid Development Series is designed to showcase the work of previously unproduced, Los Angeles-based playwrights under the age of 30. In Round 1, each of four playwrights presented a section of a new play currently in development, and the audience voted to determine which two would continue to Round 2. In Round 2, audiences will see the entire first half of each of those two plays, followed by another vote. The winning play and playwright will be announced at the end of the evening in the Fountain’s upstairs café, where complimentary refreshments will be served. The prize: two professional staged readings of the entire play on the Fountain stage at the end of May.
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Posted in Arts, arts organizations, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, Outreach Program, performing arts, plays, playwright, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged Eldritch, Fountain Theatre, Hannah C. Langley, James Bennett, Jessica Broutt, Los Angeles, Michael Herman, Monsters Are Made, new play, new play development, playwright, Rapid Development, theater, theatre, young writers
Posted in actors, Arts, arts organizations, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Gay, Los Angeles, love, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, Theater, theatre
Tagged actor, Daniel’s Husband, Fountain Theatre, gay, gay marriage, Jose Fernando, Los Angeles, theater, theatre
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Posted in actors, artist, Arts, arts organizations, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Gay, Hollywood, Los Angeles, love, new plays, performing arts, Theater, theatre
Tagged actor, Bill Brochtrup, Daniel’s Husband, Fountain Theatre, gay, gay marriage, Los Angeles, Michael McKeever, The Normal Heart, theater, theatre, Tim Cummings
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Posted in actors, artist, Arts, arts organizations, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Gay, Hollywood, Los Angeles, love, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, Theater, theatre
Tagged Bill Brochtrup, comedy, Daniel’s Husband, drama, Ed Martin, Fountain Theatre, gay, gay marriage, Jenny O’Hara, Los Angeles, Michael McKeever, same sex marriage, Simon Levy, The Boys in the Band, theater, theatre, Tim Cummings
Variety Boys & Girls Club of Los Angeles
A fabulous group of young people from Variety Boys & Girls Club enjoyed an unforgettable Saturday afternoon seeing Hype Man a few weeks ago. Today, a large hand drawn thank you card arrived at the Fountain Theatre office from the kids expressing their gratitude and describing their experience.
Variety Boys and Girls Club has a 68-year tradition of providing meaningful activities and programs to young people of the community. There are no geographical limitations to membership, although most of the members come from areas surrounding the Club in East Los Angeles.
Club Executive Director Patricia Siqueiros conveyed her appreciation to Fountain Outreach Coordinator Richard Gallegos.
“For many of our Club members, it was their first time watching a theatre production,” Siqueiros related. “I feel fortunate to connect with individuals like you who introduce our kids to a world beyond their surroundings.”
Thank you card from Variety Boys & Girls Club
The kids sent Richard a large handmade thank you card, writing to him their thoughts and feelings about experiencing the play.
“Hype Man is my first live performance.” – David (age 17)
“Hype Man touched on race and racism which I find challenging to speak about with other kids my age.” – Jessica (age 15)
“I like the changes in lighting. Helped set the scene.” – Yael (age 12)
“I loved it! I understood the sarcasm.” – Johnathan (age 15)
“Hype Man was super engaging.” – Yolanda (age 17)
“Thank you for a great show!” – Danny (age 17)
“It was good seeing the friends got together to overcome disagreements.” – Marcelo (age 13)
“I enjoyed watching Hype Man because it touched on relevant topics.” – Alaize (age 14)
“It made me very happy to witness the conversation about gender inequality.” – Evelyn (age 14)
“I liked the cast going through the audience during the social protest.” – Aimee (age 20)
“This is the first time I ever sat through a Q&A.” Aracely (age 14)
“Hype Man was very fresh and educational. The music really got my attention.” – Jesus (age 12)
“We need more plays like Hype Man!” – Jocelyn (age 18)
Posted in Art, Arts, Arts education, Drama, Education, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, Latino, Los Angeles, Mexican American, new plays, non-profit organization, Outreach Program, performing arts, plays, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged Fountain Theatre, hip hop, Hype Man, Los Angeles, Patricia Siqueiros, Richard Gallegos, theater, theatre, Variety Boys and Girls Club
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Posted in actors, Arts, Arts education, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, Theater, theatre
Tagged actor, Bill Brochtrup, Daniel’s Husband, Fountain Theatre, gay, gay marriage, Los Angeles, new play, theater, theatre, Tim Cummings
Michael McKeever on stage last night at the Amaturo Theater.
Playwright Michael McKeever was honored last night in South Florida with the George Abbott Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts, awarded to an individual who has contributed significantly to the artistic and cultural development of the region. McKeever’s play Daniel’s Husband receives its Southern California Premiere at the Fountain Theatre in May.
McKeever has been nominated four times for the Steinberg/American Theatre Critics New Play Award. He is a three-time finalist for Humana Festival’s Heideman Award, and an NEA Residency Grant recipient. McKeever and his husband, Stuart Meltzer, are co-founders of Zoetic Stage, a Miami-based theater company dedicated to developing new work and bringing different and exciting points of view to established plays.
Daniel’s Husband is witty, passionate, and deeply moving play that takes an unflinching look at how we choose to tie the knot — or not. Daniel and Mitchell are the perfect couple. Perfect house, perfect friends — even a mother who wants them married. They’d have the perfect wedding too, except that Mitchell doesn’t believe in gay marriage. A turn of events puts their perfect life in jeopardy, and Mitchell is thrust into a future in which even his love may not be enough. Daniel’s Husband is a bold reflection on love, commitment, and family in our perilous new world.
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Posted in Arts, arts organizations, Drama, Fountain Theatre, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, playwright, Theater, theatre
Tagged Carbonell Awards, Daniel’s Husband, Florida, Fountain Theatre, George Abbott Award, Los Angeles, Michael McKeever, playwright, Stuart Meltzer, theater, theatre, Zoetic Stage
2018 intern Saif Saigol (center) with Fountain staff.
Know a college student looking for a paying job this summer? A young person who likes theatre and enjoys working in a crazy, eccentric theatrical environment? Search no further. The Fountain is the place.
The Fountain Theatre is now accepting applications to hire one Development Intern for 10 weeks this summer between June 1 – August 25. It is a full-time position (40 hours per week for 10 weeks) that pays $570 per week.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors established the Arts Internship Program to provide undergraduate students with meaningful on-the-job training and experience in working in nonprofit arts organizations, while assisting arts organizations to develop future arts leaders. This is our sixth year participating in the program and we’ve had great luck with our summer interns. Each one has been incredibly helpful, has learned a great deal, and became part of our Fountain Family. We are still in contact with all of them.
2016 Arts Intern Victoria Montecillo with Director of Development Barbara Goodhill
Student eligibility for internship positions is limited to currently enrolled undergraduate college students who reside or attend college in Los Angeles County. Students must have completed at least one semester of college by June 1, 2019 or will complete their undergraduate degree between May 1 – September 1, 2019 in order to be eligible to participate. Students who have already earned a BA, BS or a higher degree are not eligible.
The Development Intern will work closely with the Director of Development to create and launch new fundraising and grant writing campaigns. The intern will assist in targeting and contacting new funding sources, creating and implementing new fundraising materials, assist in individual contribution programs, and facilitate special events for donors and community partners. Under professional guidance, he/she will learn and develop grant writing skills to create and submit new grant proposals to major foundations.
The intern candidate must have basic computer and word-processing skills (PC, Word, Excel, Internet), good communications skills and pleasant phone manner, organizational skills, be detailed oriented, and have the ability to multi-task in an intimate office environment. A sense of humor and a willingness to learn many aspects of theatre management. She/he should be self-motivated and have the ability to take initiative when required. She/he should also have a passion for theatre. Excellent writing and editing skills. An ability to work effectively both independently and cooperatively. Creativity, enthusiasm for learning, and an outgoing friendly demeanor.
Email cover letter and resume to Barbara Goodhill, Director of Development
[email protected]
Posted in Arts, Arts education, arts organizations, Drama, Education, Fountain Theatre, internship, Los Angeles, non-profit organization, performing arts, Theater, theatre
Tagged Barbara Goodhill, college, Development Intern, Fountain Theatre, intern, internship, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, student, summer internship
by Stephen Sachs
In Japanese tea ceremonies, the term Ichi-go ichi-e describes the concept of treasuring the unrepeatable nature of a moment. Translated as “for this time only” or “one opportunity, one encounter,” the phrase reminds us to cherish any gathering that we may take part in, citing the fact that any moment in life cannot be repeated; even when the same group of people get together in the same place again, a particular gathering will never be replicated, and thus each moment is always a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Treasure every encounter, for it will never recur again.
Such is also the ephemeral nature of theatre.
Each performance is alive, in that instant, never to be repeated. Like a tea ceremony and life itself, theatre is experienced in ‘each moment, only once’ and the value of each stage performance is that it happens only once in a lifetime. There is no other opportunity. Only this time.
The duality of the “one moment” reality of theatre is that it comes after endless repetition. Actors labor through weeks of rehearsal, reworking scenes dozens of times, with countless hours drilling the same lines over and over. In rehearsal, the director’s mantra is “Do it again. ” Basketball great Larry Bird said that in high school he would shoot 500 free throws every morning before his first class. Actors, like athletes, rehearse the same scene repeatedly so the mechanics of the lines and the blocking become second nature. They no longer have to think about what they’re saying and doing, so they can be “in the moment.” Repetition brings freedom. Release. As Prince once sang, “There’s joy in repetition, there’s joy in repetition.”
In film-making, it is the norm to perform a task dozens of times before you get it right. Some movie directors are notorious for shooting multiple takes. Stanley Kubrick was famous for it. He reportedly made Tom Cruise walk through a door 90 times while filming Eyes Wide Shut, and had Shelley Duvall repeat a scene 127 times for The Shining. On the set of David Fincher’s Gone Girl, each scene averaged approximately 50 takes. One scene in the first Spider Man movie with Tobey McGuire took 156 takes to get right.
In the theatre, however, there is no such thing as “getting it right.” Not ever. That film concept is foreign to theatre people because the essential essence of live performance is that it is never right, never the same, never perfect. Even in the long run of a play or musical over hundreds, even thousands of performances. Not only is each performance unique, so is each scene, each line within each scene, each moment within each line. A word, a phrase will never be uttered that same way again. A light cue, a swell of sound, the flurry of dazzling costumes, affects each audience member differently night to night. Each moment is unrepeatable and special in its own right.
The routine of theatre — the drilling of lines, the daily rehearsals, the nightly performances — are essential to its devotional life. Devotional life is deepened by repetition. A true practice is a repeated activity with no expectation of result. It’s the doing of it that matters. We do it over and over again, but it’s really not so much because we think we are going to get it perfect, or even exactly right. We do it for experiencing truth in the moment. A daily meditation practice, for example. If your purpose for meditating is “to become enlightened,” you will never achieve it. If that is your destination, you’ll be lost. There is no destination. There is only the present moment. It’s only when seeing the present moment that enlightenment may come. The origin for the word “routine” comes from route, or “way, path, course.” Therefore, routine, practice, rehearsal is a journey.
For my twenty-nine years at the Fountain Theatre, the “one opportunity, one encounter” concept of ichigo ichie is proven true over and over again with our audiences. After seeing a play in our theatre, our patrons spill out onto Fountain Avenue changed, not the same people they were going in. An alchemy happens. In that moment. That can not be repeated. For tomorrow night’s audience, it will be something else.
I have learned to embrace the truth of “one moment” as a way to understand and celebrate the impermanence of life and the art form I practice. My other art-love is jazz, and a line from a famous jazz ballad from 1949 called “Again” lays bare the same message. There is nothing Zen about the lyrics or their origins, of course, but the words remind me that life, love and theatre are all ecstasies of the moment, each instant unique and unrepeatable.
Again, this couldn’t happen again
This is that once in a lifetime
This is the thrill divineWhat’s more, this never happened before …
We’ll have this moment forever
But never, never again.
Stephen Sachs is the Co-Artistic Director of the Fountain Theatre.
Posted in Art, artist, Arts, arts organizations, creativity, Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged Fountain Theatre, Ichi-go ichi-e, Japanese tea ceremony, Los Angeles, Stephen Sachs, theater, theatre, Zen
Jenny O’Hara, Tim Cummings and Bill Brochtrup.
There is the rule of law, and there are the laws of the heart. Which do we follow and when? The Fountain Theatre presents the funny, passionate and poignant Southern California premiere of Daniel’s Husband, the 2018 off-Broadway hit play by Michael McKeever that was hailed as “compelling” by The New York Times, “emotionally charged” by the Huffington Post and “beautiful and powerful” by the Daily Beast. Opening night is set for May 4, with performances continuing through June 23. Pay-what-you-want previews begin May 1.
A bold commentary on love, commitment and family in our perilous new world, Daniel’s Husband reunites director Simon Levy, who helmed the Fountain’s 2013 award-winning production of The Normal Heart, with the stars of that production, Bill Brochtrup and Tim Cummings. This time, the two play Daniel Bixby and Mitchell Howard — a seemingly perfect couple. What isn’t so perfect is that Daniel desperately longs to be married, but Mitchell doesn’t believe in it. When an unexpected turn of events puts their perfect life in jeopardy, they are thrust into a future where love may not be enough.
“When I first read Daniel’s Husband, I fell in love with the love story and was deeply moved by it,” says Levy. “One of the central questions the play asks is, ‘How far will you go to fight for the one you love?’ The characters wrestle with what it means to be committed to someone, to be ‘married’ — and what’s legally and morally lost if we don’t tie the knot. McKeever’s play may be about gay marriage, but it’s a universal story that reminds us to grab those we love and hold them close. Love really is precious; and when we find someone we truly love, we should fight for them with everything we have.”
Also in the cast are Jenny O’Hara (the Fountain’s Bakersfield Mist) as Daniel’s mother, and Ed Martin and Jose Fernando as the couple’s good friends. The creative team includes set and props designer DeAnne Millais, lighting designer Jennifer Edwards, sound designer Peter Bayne and costume designer Michael Mullen. The production stage manager is Jessica Morataya. Stephen Sachs, Deborah Culver and James Bennett produce for the Fountain Theatre.
Daniel’s Husband premiered at South Florida’s Island City Stage in 2015 before going on to enjoy successful off-Broadway runs at New York City’s Primary Stages in 2017 and again at the Westside Theatre in 2018.
“I practically had to carry my best friend out of the theater in New York,” Los Angeles Times theater critic Charles McNulty recently noted in a spring arts preview article that highlighted the Fountain’s production.
Michael McKeever’s other plays include 37 Postcards, Suite Surrender, Charlie Cox Runs with Scissors, Stuff and Melt, and have been produced at Florida Stage (Manalapan), Marin Theatre Company (Marin County), Hudson Stage Company (New York), Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis) and Caldwell Theatre Company (Boca Raton) among many others. His comedies have played in some of the most prestigious theaters in Europe, including Komödie Dresden (Dresden), Och-Teatr (Warsaw) and Theater in der Josefstadt, Kammerspiele (Vienna). He has been honored with an NEA Residency Grant (New Theatre, Miami) and has been a three-time finalist for Humana Fest’s nationally renowned Heideman Award. He is the recipient of five Carbonell Awards; two Silver Palm Awards; and three Florida Individual Artist Fellowships. He is also an award-winning actor and designer. He is a founding member of the award-winning theatre Zoetic Stage in Miami. He resides in South Florida and is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Actors’ Equity.
The Fountain Theatre is one of the most successful intimate theaters in Los Angeles, providing a creative home for multi-ethnic theater and dance artists. The Fountain has won hundreds of awards, and Fountain projects have been seen across the U.S. and internationally. Recent highlights include all-star readings of Ms. Smith Goes to Washington and All the President’s Men at Los Angeles City Hall and the inclusion of the Fountain’s Citizen: An American Lyric in the Music Center’s Our L.A. Voices festival at Grand Park. The Fountain’s 2018 productions of The Chosen and Arrival & Departure each enjoyed months-long sold out runs and was named a Los Angeles Times “Critic’s Choice.” The company’s recent West Coast premiere of Martyna Majok’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Cost of Living, was named to the Los Angeles Times’ “Best of 2018” list.
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Posted in actors, Arts, arts organizations, designers, director, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, playwright, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged Bill Brochtrup, Daniel’s Husband, DeAnne Millais, Ed Martin, Fountain Theatre, gay, gay marriage, James Bennett, Jennifer Edwards, Jenny O’Hara, Jose Fernando, Los Angeles, love, Michael McKeever, Michael Mullen, Peter Bayne, Simon Levy, Stephen Sachs, theater, theatre, Tim Cummings