June | 2018 | Intimate Excellent
By Dave Eggers
This White House has been, and is likely to remain, home to the first presidency in American history that is almost completely devoid of culture. In the 17 months that Donald Trump has been in office, he has hosted only a few artists of any kind. One was the gun fetishist Ted Nugent. Another was Kid Rock. They went together (and with Sarah Palin). Neither performed.
Since his inauguration in January 2017, there have been no official concerts at the White House (the Reagans had one every few weeks). No poetry readings (the Obamas regularly celebrated young poets). The Carters began a televised series, “In Performance at the White House,” which last aired in 2016, where artists as varied as Mikhail Baryshnikov and Patricia McBride performed in the East Room. The Clintons continued the series with Aretha Franklin and B. B. King, Alison Krauss and Linda Ronstadt.
But aside from occasional performances by “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, the White House is now virtually free of music. Never have we had a president not just indifferent to the arts, but actively oppositional to artists. Mr. Trump disparaged the play “Hamilton” and a few weeks later attacked Meryl Streep. He has said he does not have time to read books (“I read passages, I read areas, I read chapters”). Outside of recommending books by his acolytes, Mr. Trump has tweeted about only one work of literature since the beginning of his presidency: Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury.” It was not an endorsement.
Every great civilization has fostered great art, while authoritarian regimes customarily see artists as either nuisances, enemies of the state or tools for the creation of propaganda. The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev asserted that “the highest duty of the Soviet writer, artist and composer, of every creative worker” is to “fight for the triumph of the ideas of Marxism-Leninism.”
When John Kennedy took office, his policies reacted against both the Soviet Union’s approach to the arts and that of Joseph McCarthy, who had worked hard to create in the United States an atmosphere where artists were required to be allegiant and where dissent was called treason. Pivoting hard, Kennedy’s White House made support of the avant-garde a priority. The artists Franz Kline and Mark Rothko came to the inauguration, and at a state dinner for France’s minister of cultural affairs, André Malraux, the guests included Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Robert Lowell, Geraldine Page and George Balanchine. Kennedy gave the Spanish cellist Pablo Casals, who had exiled himself to France and then Puerto Rico to protest Franco’s fascism, a forum in the East Room. Casals had performed in the White House once before, at the young age of 27. Now 84, and a man without a country, he played a mournful version of “The Song of the Birds.”
Pablo Casals at the Kennedy White House.
It’s crucial to note that the White House’s support of the arts has never been partisan. No matter their political differences, presidents and artists have been able to find common ground in the celebration of American art and in the artists’ respect for the office of the presidency. This mutual respect, even if measured, made for the occasional odd photo-op. George H. W. Bush met Michael Jackson, who wore faux-military garb, including two medals he seemed to have given himself. Richard Nixon heartily shook the hand of Elvis Presley, whose jacket hung over his shoulders like a cape.
George W. Bush widened the partisan rift, but culturally, Mr. Bush — the future figurative painter — was open-minded and active. He met Bono in the Oval Office. He hosted a wide range of musicians, from Itzhak Perlman to Destiny’s Child. He was an avid reader — he maintained a long-running contest with Karl Rove to see who could read more books in a year. Laura Bush has long been a crucial figure in the book world, having co-founded the Texas Book Festival and the National Book Festival in Washington, now one of the country’s largest literary gatherings.
But perhaps no Republican could match the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose guest list was a relentless celebration of the diversity of American culture. He and Nancy Reagan hosted Lionel Hampton. Then the Statler Brothers. Then Ella Fitzgerald. Then Benny Goodman. Then a night with Beverly Sills, Rudolf Serkin and Ida Levin. That was all in the fall of 1981. The Reagans did much to highlight uniquely American forms, especially jazz. One night in 1982, the White House hosted Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea and Stan Getz. When Reagan visited Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow in 1988, he brought along the Dave Brubeck Quartet.
But that kind of thing is inconceivable now. Admittedly, at a time when Mr. Trump’s policies have forcibly separated children from their asylum-seeking parents — taking the most vulnerable children from the most vulnerable adults — the White House’s attitude toward the arts seems relatively unimportant. But with art comes empathy. It allows us to look through someone else’s eyes and know their strivings and struggles. It expands the moral imagination and makes it impossible to accept the dehumanization of others. When we are without art, we are a diminished people — myopic, unlearned and cruel.
This post originally appeared in the NY Times. Dave Eggers is the author, most recently, of “The Monk of Mokha” and co-founder of The International Congress of Youth Voices.
Posted in Art, Arts, Books, creativity, Drama, Fountain Theatre, government, Los Angeles, movies, Music, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, poetry, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged art, artists, Barack Obama, Carter, Dave Eggers, Fire and Fury, George W. Bush, Hamilton, Kid Rock, Michael jackson, Michael Wolff, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Ted Nugent, theater, theatre, Trump, White House
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Posted in Acting, actors, Arts, arts organizations, creativity, Deaf, director, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, playwright, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged actors, Adam Burch, Arrival & Departure, Aurelia Myers, Brian Robert Burns, Brief Encounter, deaf, Deanne Bray, Fountain Theatre, Jessica Jade Andres, Los Angeles, reahearsal, Shon Fuller, Stasha Surdyke, Stephen Sachs, theater, theatre, Troy Kotsur
Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson in ‘Brief Encounter.’
Everyone has their most-cherished romantic movie. Even the professionals who make movies. When Time Out London recently polled 101 motion picture experts to select the 100 Best Romantic Films of all time, the panel voted the 1945 classic film Brief Encounter as #1, declaring it “the most romantic film ever made.” They’re not the only ones who think so. The Film Society of Lincoln Center named it “one of the most achingly romantic films ever made.”
What makes Brief Encounter so beloved and unforgettable? Have you seen it? No?
Directed by David Lean with a screenplay by Noël Coward and starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, Brief Encounter is a passionate film about a chance meeting, forbidden love, and finding one’s soul mate.
Now, seventy-three years after the release of the romantic masterpiece, Fountain Co-Artistic Director Stephen Sachs has been awarded exclusive permission by the Noel Coward Estate to transform the film Brief Encounter into his innovative new play, Arrival & Departure, opening July 14.
Brief Encounter is a classic romantic drama set in 1945 during WWII in and around a London railway station. A married woman, with children, Laura (Celia Johnson), meets a stranger, a doctor (Trevor Howard) named Alec in the train station’s tea room, who kindly removes a piece of grit from her eye then leaves to catch his train. During her subsequent shopping trips every Thursday, Laura bumps into Alec and a friendship develops. Soon, the weekly meetings become an arranged rendezvous. Finally, they confess that they are deeply, overwhelmingly in love.
With its evocatively fog-enshrouded setting, swooning Rachmaninoff score, and pair of remarkable performances (Johnson was nominated for an Oscar), the film explores the thrill, pain, and tenderness of an illicit romance, and has influenced many a cinematic brief encounter since its release.
The screenplay was adapted and based on playwright Noel Coward’s 1935 short one-act (half-hour) stage play Still Life. It was expanded from five short scenes in a train station to include action in other settings (Laura’s house, the apartment of the married man’s friend, restaurants, parks, train compartments, shops, a car, a boating lake and at the cinema).
The central action of the film, the romance, takes place entirely in flashback, confessed via Laura’s voice-over narration, within Laura’s mind. She simultaneously recounts the story and lives it.
Brief Encounter is unlike other films of this era in its treatment of love and adultery. The honest portrayal of Laura and Alec make them both sympathetic. The two characters, both well-meaning commuters thrown into the rush of wrongful temptation, remain unpunished for their sins. Although Brief Encounter has been labeled as “the British Casablanca”, the two masterpieces have different views of adultery. Casablanca carefully sides against it, the two lovers acknowledging that in times of war the needs of two people “don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.” Brief Encounter is far more ambiguous, offering both empathy to the characters’ plight and no clear conclusion on the morality of love and passion. They are just two ordinary people who live ordinary lives, but for a brief span of Thursdays, stand on the edge of something extraordinary.
Deanne Bray and Troy Kotsur in ‘Arrival & Departure.’
In Sachs’ new theatrical spin, Arrival & Departure, a Deaf man and a hard-of-hearing woman, two married strangers, meet accidentally in a New York City subway station. As their casual friendship develops into something deeper, each is forced to confront how their simmering relationship could forever change their lives and the lives of those they love.
The play is performed simultaneously in spoken English and American Sign Language with additional use of open captioning, so that both Deaf and hearing audiences can enjoy the production. Proving that whether it’s a movie transformed into a stage play, a screenplay adapted into a theatre script, or spoken English translated into American Sign Language, in matters of the heart, love is a universal language.
To watch David Lean’s classic romantic film, Brief Encounter, click here. To experience Stephen Sachs’ funny and heart-rending stage adaptation, Arrival & Departure, click here and come to the Fountain Theatre.
For both, bring a box of tissues and someone you love.
Posted in actors, arts organizations, Deaf, film, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, love, movies, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, playwright, Theater, theatre
Tagged Arrival & Departure, ASL, Brief Encounter, Casablanca, Celia Johnson, David Lean, deaf, Deanne Bray, film, love story, movie, Noel Coward, romantic, sign language, Stephen Sachs, Still Life, theater, theatre, Trevor Howard, Troy Kotsur
Saif Saigol
Hello Fountain community! My name is Saif Saigol and I am the new Development Intern at The Fountain Theatre this summer.
A little bit about me: I am an Indian-Pakistani-Canadian raised in Montreal, Quebec. I came to the US in 2012 to pursue my high school studies at a boarding school in Connecticut. Currently, I’m an undergrad student with a Music Major and Gender & Sexuality Studies Sequence, and I’ll be graduating from Claremont McKenna College next Spring, in 2019. Music, theater, and all performing arts are my passion and source of comfort in life. As a performer, I’ve trained classically as a vocalist for 6 years, and specialize in the Lied and operatic traditions. I’m also a proud member of the Claremont Shades, a co-ed a cappella group of the Claremont Colleges.
My love for the theatre began at a young age, but truly blossomed in high school, where I gained significant experience both on and off the stage. While I continue to be enamored by the subtleties and complexities of performance itself, I am equally excited about the variety of resources and behind-the-scenes processes that go into producing and staging a professional production.
I could not be more excited to join the Fountain Theatre team this summer! This position has given me the chance to join a community that shares not only my love for the theatre, but also my other passion: social activism. The Fountain’s commitment to telling the stories of marginalized and under-represented identities is both unique and sorely needed in this industry. Everyone deserves the chance to see themselves represented on stage, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or any other identity factor. The Fountain is doing powerful work and breaking cultural barriers and norms by using art as a tool for larger change – I am honored to be a part of their narrative.
I’m looking forward to a summer filled with community, activism, learning, and simply put: good theatre. In my time so far, I have seen that I have much to learn about the industry and I am excited to become better-versed in the goings on of the LA Arts scene. I am also eager to learn more about the Deaf Community and ASL as we move forward with Arrival & Departure. As an arts student, the future is unpredictable and the realities of employment often daunting. I am hoping my time here will help me gain knowledge and experience in the LA arts industry, and ultimately help solidify my future in the arts.
The Fountain Theatre thanks the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors and the LA County Arts Commission for their support through the Summer Arts Internship program.
Posted in Arts, Arts education, arts organizations, Drama, Education, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, internship, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, Social justice, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged Arrival & Departure, Claremont McKenna College, development, Fountain Theatre, intern, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Saif Saigol, social activism, summer intern, theater, theatre
Our upcoming world premiere of Arrival & Departure is performed by a company of Deaf and hearing actors with an innovative blend of Spoken English, American Sign Language and open captioning. All audiences will fully understand and enjoy this funny and romantic love story set in modern-day New York City.
American Sign Language is not a mimed approximation of English. It is its own language unto itself. Complicated and nuanced, ASL has its own syntax and sentence structure and modes of expression. In Arrival & Departure, as Deaf actors sign their lines, the written dialogue is simultaneously spoken aloud by a hearing actor on stage. Two languages become one.
Take a look at Deanne Bray and Stasha Surdyke as they work through their lines in the play, combining both their talents to become the lead character of Emily.
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Posted in actors, arts organizations, Deaf, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, love, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged actors, American Sign Language, Arrival & Departure, ASL, deaf, Deanne Bray, Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, Stasha Surdyke, theater, theatre
An unforgettable love story inspired by one of the most romantic movies of all time. Stephen Sachs directs Deaf actors Deanne Bray (Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye, Heroes) and Troy Kotsur (title role in Cyrano at the Fountain, Big River on Broadway) in Sachs’ newest play, inspired by the screenplay for Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter. The world premiere of Arrival & Departure will open on July 14 and continue through September 30 at the Fountain Theatre. The cast also features hearing actors Jessica Jade Andres, Adam Burch, Brian Robert Burns, Shon Fuller, Kyra Kotsur, Aurelia Myersand Stasha Surdyke.
In Sachs’ new spin on the classic 1945 British film, a Deaf man (Kotsur) and a hard-of-hearing woman (Bray), two married strangers, meet accidentally in a New York City subway station. As their casual friendship develops into something deeper, each is forced to confront how their simmering relationship could forever change their lives and the lives of those they love.
“A train station is a place of transition, a place people go when they’re on their way to someplace else,” notes Sachs. “‘Arrival & Departure’ is not only a travel term. It expresses the journey of change that the people in this play are experiencing. What happens when you find your soul mate, but the circumstances of life get in the way?”
Kostsur and Bray are married in real life, and Sachs wrote the play with them in mind.
Deanne Bray and Troy Kotsur
“This is my valentine to the two of them,” he says. “But the characters they portray aren’t the only ones seeking human connection in the play. Other storylines interweave through the piece. Each character has a reason to reach out to someone.”
The 1945 classic film Brief Encounter, directed by David Lean with a screenplay by Noël Coward and starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, was named “the most romantic film ever made” according to 101 industry experts polled by Time Out London. The Film Society of Lincoln Center named it “one of the most achingly romantic films ever made.”
The play is performed simultaneously in spoken English and American Sign Language with additional use of open captioning, so that both Deaf and hearing audiences can enjoy the production.
The creative team for Arrival & Departure includes set designer Matthew G. Hill, lighting designer Donny Jackson, video designer Nick Santiago, composer and sound designer Peter Bayne, costume designer Michael Mullen, prop master Michael Navarro, movement director Gary Franco and ASL masters Lisa Hermatz and Jevon Whetter. The production stage manager is Emily Lehrer. Simon Levy, Deborah Culver and James Bennett produce for the Fountain Theatre. Executive producers are Karen Kondazian; Diana Buckhantz and The Vladimir and Araxia Buckhantz Foundation; and Carrie Chassin and Jochen Haber. Producing underwriters include Dorothy and Stanley Wolpert; Suzanne and Don Zachary; Lois Tandy; Debbi and Ashley Posner; and The Howard and Helen Family Foundation.
Arrival & Departure is supported, in part, by generous grants from the David Lee Foundation, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
Deanne Bray was born deaf and has been bilingual in American Sign Language and English since the age of two. She kicked off her acting career in 1991 at the Fountain Theatre, where Stephen Sachs directed her in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Bray is best known for the title role in Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye, which ran for three seasons on the PAX network. She has appeared in numerous TV shows, including a recurring role on NBC’s Heroes alongside Milo Ventimiglia and Masi Oka. On stage, Deanne has been seen in Deaf West Theatre productions of Big River, Sleeping Beauty Wakes and My Sister in This House. A graduate of Gallaudet University, she has a Masters in Sign Language Education and a California K-12 Teaching Credential from CSUN. She currently teaches ASL at Oak Park High School.
Troy Kotsur has been acting and directing for over 24 years, earning multiple awards for his work on stage. Deaf since birth, he attended Gallaudet University, where he played basketball for three years before leaving to become a professional actor with the National Theatre of the Deaf. In 1994, Troy moved to Los Angeles and joined the company of Deaf West Theatre, where he has performed in countless productions. His television guest-starring roles include Criminal Minds, Scrubs, CSI: NY and Sue Thomas F.B.Eye in a recurring role (starring alongside Deanne Bray) that became a fan-favorite. In film, he stars in Wild Prairie Rose and in the upcoming Inside Track, and he has had notable supporting roles in The Number 23 with Jim Carrey, Universal Signs and Father’s Day Breakfast. He directed the award-winning independent film No Ordinary Hero: The Superdeafy Movie, the first film in the history of SAG commercial feature films to be directed by a Deaf director and to be executive-produced exclusively by Deaf executive producers. Troy’s stage credits include the Tony Award-winning run of Big River on Broadway, as well as starring roles in Deaf West Theatre productions of American Buffalo (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award nominee), Our Town at The Pasadena Playhouse, Cyrano at the Fountain (L.A. Drama Critic’s Circle Award for best actor, Ovation Award nominee), A Streetcar Named Desire (L.A. Drama Critics Circle and LA Weekly awards) and Of Mice and Men (LA Weekly Award for best actor).
Stephen Sachs is an award-winning playwright, director, producer and the co-artistic director of the Fountain Theatre, which he co-founded with Deborah Culver in 1990. He recently adapted and directed a celebrity reading of the screenplay for All the President’s Men at Los Angeles City Hall starring Bradley Whitford, Joshua Malina and Jeff Perry. His stage adaptation of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric (Stage Raw Award at Fountain Theatre) inaugurated Center Theatre Group’s Block Party at the Kirk Douglas Theatre and was chosen to represent Los Angeles theater for Grand Park’s new Our L.A. Voices Arts Festival. His play Bakersfield Mist enjoyed a three-month run on London’s West End starring Kathleen Turner and is now being produced in regional theaters across the country, translated into other languages and performed worldwide. Other plays include Cyrano (L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award, Best Adaptation), Miss Julie: Freedom Summer (Fountain Theatre, Vancouver Playhouse, Canadian Stage Company, L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award), Central Avenue (PEN USA Literary Award finalist), Sweet Nothing in My Ear (PEN USA Literary Award finalist) and several others. He wrote the teleplay for Sweet Nothing in My Ear for Hallmark Hall of Fame which aired on CBS starring Marlee Matlin and Jeff Daniels. Sachs’ directing credits My Name is Asher Lev (L.A. premiere); Athol Fugard’s The Blue Iris (U.S. premiere); Bakersfield Mist (world premiere); Completeness by Itamar Moses, starring Jason Ritter; Side Man starring Christine Lahti; The Train Driver by Athol Fugard (U.S. premiere); Conor McPherson’s Shining City (L.A. premiere); the world premiere of Fugard’s Exits and Entrances at the Fountain (Ovation Award, L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award) and off-Broadway at Primary Stages; Fugard’s The Road to Mecca (L.A. premiere); Arthur Miller’s After the Fall (Ovation Award); Sweet Nothing in My Ear (world premiere); Hippolytos, inaugurating the outdoor classical theater at the Getty Villa in Malibu; and many others. Sachs was recently honored with a Certificate of Commendation from the Los Angeles City Council for “his visionary contributions to the cultural life of Los Angeles.”
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 over 225 awards, and Fountain projects have been seen across the U.S. and internationally. Recent highlights include being honored for its acclaimed 25th Anniversary Season in 2015 by Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Los Angeles City Council; the inclusion of the Fountain’s Citizen: An American Lyric in Center Theatre Group’s Block Party at the Kirk Douglas Theatre and again, this year, as the centerpiece of Our L.A. Voices at Grand Park; and an all-star reading of All The President’s Men at Los Angeles City Hall. The Fountain’s most recent production, The Chosen, enjoyed rave reviews and ran for five sold-out months.
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Posted in actors, Arts, arts organizations, Deaf, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, love, movies, new plays, performing arts, plays, playwright, Theater, theatre
Tagged Adam Burch, American Sign Language, Arrival & Departure, ASL, Aurelia Myers, Big River, Brian Robert Burns, Brief Encounter, David Lean, David Lee Foundation, deaf, Deanne Bray, Diana Buckhantz, Donny jackson, Fountain Theatre, Gary Franco, James Bennett, Jessica Jade Andres, Jevon Whetter, Kyra Kotsur, Lisa Hermatz, Los Angeles, love story, Matthew G. Hill, Michael Navarro, Nick Santiago, Shon Fuller, Simon Levy, Stasha Surdyke, Stephen Sachs, Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye, theater, theatre lover, Troy Kotsur
The cast of ‘The Chosen’ take final bows on closing weekend.
by Stephen Sachs
Our six-month sold-out run of The Chosen came to an end on Sunday. In the opening moment of Aaron Posner’s stage adaptation of Chaim Potok’s classic novel, Reuven Malter faces the audience and asks, can two conflicting ideas or realities be true at the same time even if they directly contradict each other? From the cross-current of feelings still swirling within me after Sunday’s final performance at the Fountain Theatre, the answer is clearly yes. As with any closure, even those we know are coming, I felt sadness and the ache of letting go. Yet, in direct opposition, my heart soared with joy. Two conflicting perceptions. Both true.
I glowed with fulfillment at the closing of The Chosen not because our production earned rave reviews, including being highlighted as the LA Times Critic’s Choice. Not because it ran for six months and every performance was sold-out. Not because it joined the echelon of other top box-office champions at the Fountain Theatre.
It was because of the people. The talented artists and dedicated production team members who brought our production of the play to life, for the sole purpose of emotionally moving and spiritually inspiring other human beings, our audiences. It’s the interchange between people, from our stage to our patrons, that gives me the deepest satisfaction. Fountain folk connected with this play and this production like kindred at a family gathering. For the two-hour length of each performance, we laughed together, wept together, were reminded of our fathers, our sons and ourselves, together.
Why do we do theatre? Why do people come? This is why.
One of my favorite passages in the novel is when Reuven’s father, David Malter, tells his young son:
“Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So, it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye?
I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning Do you understand what I am saying? A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life.
It is hard work to fill one’s life with meaning. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here.”
This is my purpose for the Fountain Theatre and the guiding principle behind dedicating my life to starting and running a non-profit arts organization. To create art that is meaningful. A life filled with meaning is well lived.
The title of Potok’s novel and play, “The Chosen”, obviously refers to the belief in Judaism that the Jews are the chosen people, chosen to be in a covenant with God. The word “chosen” is an adjective. To “choose”, however, is a verb, an action word. At the Fountain Theatre, we take action to choose to create, to develop and produce work that is meaningful. We choose plays that hold the promise to touch hearts and open eyes and challenge minds. To make the world a better place. As David Malter warns his son, it is hard work to fill one’s life with meaning. But no matter the struggle, this is the mission we choose at the Fountain. When we produce a play that is specific to the Jewish faith yet can uplift the soul and spark the minds of audiences of all faiths, we fulfill our agreement with that which is sacred and holy. And that is a good thing.
So, when the run is over, we are worthy of rest.
Posted in actors, Arts, arts organizations, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Jewish, Los Angeles, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, Theater, theatre
Tagged Aaron Posner, arts, Chaim Potok, Fountain Theatre, Jewish, Judaism, Los Angeles, novel, stage adaptation, The Chosen, theater, theatyre
The cast and director of ‘The Chosen’.
After a critically-acclaimed, six month sold-out run, our production of Chaim Potok’s The Chosen celebrated its final performance yesterday to another full house and a standing ovation. The Chosen has earned its place as one of the most successful productions in recent Fountain Theatre history. Equally important, it touched many hearts, moving and inspiring audiences.
Adapted for the stage by Aaron Posner and directed by directed by Simon Levy, the production featured Jonathan Arkin, Alan Blumenfeld, Steve B. Green, Dor Gvirtsman, and Sam Mandel.
Following Sunday’s final performance, the company toasted the long, gratifying run with the audience in our upstairs cafe.
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Fountain Co-Artistic Director Stephen Sachs announced from the stage Sunday that Fountain Theatre will bring its acclaimed production of The Chosen to the Oshman Family JCC Arts Center in Palo Alto in October.
Posted in actors, arts organizations, director, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Jewish, performing arts, plays, Theater, theatre
Tagged Aaron Posner, Alan Blumenfeld, Chaim Potok, Dor Gvirtsman, Jewish, Jonathan Arkin, Oshman Family JCC, Palo Alto, Rabbi Daniel Bouskila, Sam mandel, Simon Levy, Stephen Sachs, Steve B. Green, The Chosen, theater, theatre
Excitement was high and fingers were flying as the company of Deaf and hearing theatre artists gathered at the Fountain Theatre for the first rehearsal of Arrival & Departure, a new play combining spoken English and American Sign Language. The world premiere opens July 14.
The world premiere of a re-imagined modern-day stage adaptation of the classic 1945 film, Brief Encounter. A Deaf man and a hard-of-hearing woman, married to different people, meet accidentally in a New York City subway station. Their casual friendship soon develops into deeper feelings they never expected, forcing both to confront how their simmering relationship will change their lives and damage the lives of those they love forever. An unforgettable love story inspired by one of the most beloved romantic movies of all time.
Written and directed by Stephen Sachs, Arrival & Departure stars Deaf actors Deanne Bray and Troy Kotsur, with Jessica Jade Andres, Adam Burch, Brian Robert Burns, Shon Fuller, Kyra Kotsur, Aurelia Myers, and Stasha Surdyke.
The play is performed simultaneously in American Sign Language, Spoken English, and open captioning so that all audiences can enjoy the production.
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Posted in actors, Arts, Deaf, director, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, love, movies, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, playwright, Theater, theatre
Tagged actors, Adam Burch, American Sign Language, Arrival & Departure, ASL, Aurelia Myers, Brian Robert Burns, Brief Encounter, deaf, Deanne Bray, Fountain Theatre, Jessica Jade Andres, Kyra Kotsur, Los Angeles, love story, Shon Fuller, sign language, Stasha Surdyke, Stephen Sachs, theater, theatre, Troy Kotsur
Deanne Bray and Troy Kotsur
Love is in the air this summer with the world premiere of Stephen Sachs’ new play, Arrival & Departure, inspired by the screenplay for Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter. Sachs directs his new romantic comedy/drama, opening July 14.
In this re-imagined modern-day stage adaptation of Coward’s classic 1945 film, a Deaf man and a hard-of-hearing woman, married to different people, meet accidentally in a New York City subway station. Their casual friendship soon develops into deeper feelings they never expected, forcing both to confront how their simmering relationship will change their lives the lives of those they love forever. An unforgettable love story inspired by one of the most beloved romantic movies of all time.
The play is performed simultaneously in American Sign Language, Spoken English, and open captioning so that all audiences can enjoy the production.
Joining the previously announced Deanne Bray (“Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye”, “Heroes”) and Troy Kotsur (“Cyrano”) are Jessica Jade Andres, Adam Burch, Brian Robert Burns, Shon Fuller, Kyra Kotsur, Aurelia Myers, and Stasha Surdyke.
This innovative production is supported, in part, by the David Lee Foundation and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
Arrival & Departure runs July 14 – September 30 at the Fountain Theatre. More Info/Get Tickets
Posted in actors, Arts, arts organizations, Deaf, director, Drama, film, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, playwright, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged Adam Burch, Arrival & Departure, Aurelia Myers, Brian Robert Burns, Brief Encounter, David Lee Foundation, deaf, Deanne Bray, Fountain Theatre, Jessica Jade Andres, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, love story, Noel Coward, romantic, Shon Fuller, Stasha Surdyke, Stephen Sachs, theater, theatre, Troy Kotsur