March | 2020 | Intimate Excellent
In recognition of providing outstanding productions of meaningful new plays and first-class performances spanning three decades, The Fountain Theatre has been honored with The Margaret Harford Award for sustained excellence in theatre, presented by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle.
“It is our way of thanking you for your noteworthy contribution to theater in Los Angeles,” commented Jonas Schwartz, LADCC Vice President in an email to the Fountain Theatre. “We really are so pleased to be able to recognize your work.”
Due to the current coronavirus pandemic, and in keeping with the request of state and local officials, the LADCC has been forced to forgo its annual Awards event for the public in April. Instead, the winners will be posted on the LADCC website.
“This honor from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle means a great deal to all of us at the Fountain Theatre,” says Artistic Director Stephen Sachs. “It is much-needed good news in the midst of this current crisis.”
Founded in 1969, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC) is an organization dedicated to excellence in theatrical criticism and to the encouragement and improvement of theatre in the Greater Los Angeles Area. The LADCC presents the annual Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards.
Full list of LADCC Award nominees and Special Award winners.
Posted in Arts, arts organizations, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged award, Fountain Theatre, Jonas Schwartz, LADCC, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, Margaret Harford Award, Stephen Sachs, theater, theatre
Hollywood Food Coalition
by France-Luce Benson
As we all hunker down, I’ve been thinking a lot about home. As a playwright/performer, I’ve lived a kind of gypsy lifestyle for most of my adulthood. Home is wherever the gig happens to be. For the last year and a half, home is Los Angeles. Of course, in Los Angeles, I can’t think about home without thinking of the millions of men, women, and children who are experiencing homelessness today. As our public officials urge us all to “stay home”, rightfully so, I can’t help but wonder what that means for those who don’t have a home.
Like many theatres across the country, The Fountain made the painful decision to suspend performances of Human Interest Story, which grappled with several issues around homelessness. Sadly, this also meant cancelling all of our BID events, including a panel discussion with representatives from several homeless relief organizations in our community.
Although the show cannot go on, we’ve decided to keep the conversation going with one of our esteemed panelists, John Billingsley. As the Board President of Hollywood Food Coalition, Billingsley knows firsthand about what it means to be on the front lines of the fight to end homelessness in L.A.
FLB: First, can you please tell us about Hollywood Food Coalition’s mission and what services you provide:
Billingsley: Every night of the year we serve the most immediate needs of people in our community: we provide a healthy and nutritious five course meal to all comers, no questions asked (soup, salad, choice of vegetarian or non-vegetarian entree, fruit, bread, desserts, milk, water). We also distribute shoes, blankets, sleeping bags, clothing, bus passes, laundry vouchers, toiletry kits, and etc. We have medical, dental and vision vans from UCLA visiting our campus on a regular basis. We are secular, but we serve our meal on the campus of the Salvation Army, (in one of their two dining halls) and we also help clients access way cool stuff provided by other community social service organizations (our neighbors and buds). Additionally, insofar as we rescue approximately 7000 pounds of food a week, we aim to distribute the food we cannot use to other Not For Profits serving our community.
FLB: What led you to Hollywood Food Coalition?
Billingsley: Approximately 4 years ago, apres the disastrous 2016 election, I was looking for ways to get more involved in my community. In addition to doing some political fundraising, I started making bad fruit salads at the Hollywood Food Coalition. (I washed dishes badly, as well). I was foolish enough to shoot off my mouth a bit about ways to grow the board, raise more moolah, blah blah blah . . . and now I’m the Board President! It (almost) reaffirms my faith in America. Or, perversely, makes me question the sanity of our Executive Director, Sherry Bonanno.
FLB: What has been your focus as Board President?
Billingsley: We believe food is a medium for coalition building. My specific interest revolves around what it means to build coalitions, to make pals, to get to know our non-for-profit neighbors. We’re interested in helping to bring NFP’s in our community together to collaborate, where possible, on ‘common actions’, like we’re doing with The Fountain Theatre. We’re interested in exploring mechanisms by which we can further each other’s missions: Can we help you do what you do better? Can you help us do what we do better? How?
FLB: In Stephen Sachs’ play, Human Interest Story, the Jane Doe character offers a raw look at the realities of homelessness. She talks about being assaulted, feeling invisible, and the stigma attached to homelessness. In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge homeless men and women face?
Tanya Alexander and Rob Nagle, Human Interest Story.
Billingsley: First off, and apropos of nothing – ‘people who re experiencing homelessness’ is a more artful construction, I have been taught – when we use the term ‘homeless’, and God knows we all use it, we kinda consign people to a bit of a Dante-esque ‘circle’, a ‘home’, oddly enough . . .
People go through shit.
One can say: I am going through this time in my life, I am experiencing yada yada yada . . . it’s subtly, but legitimately, different than saying: I am a this. I am a that. People ain’t homeless. They’re living a particular kind of life, they’re experiencing homelessness at this time in their life . One hopes that they will be living a different kind of life soon.
But to answer your question:
The biggest challenge homeless people face is the biggest challenge most of us face: the folks who rule our country, and many other countries around the world, actively attempt to delegitimize, if not actively dehumanize, people who don’t agree with them, or look like them, or in any way challenge their values or their hold on power. The challenge we all face, or can’t even begin to face (or intellectually recognize) is a deep and internalized acquiescence in the face of systemic and organized political disenfranchisement; perhaps to the perpetuation of our own diminution. Continue reading
Posted in Arts, arts organizations, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, Homeless, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, racism, Social justice, Theater, theatre
Tagged Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Community Engagement, coronavirus, Fountain Theatre, France-Luce Benson, Hollywood, Hollywood Food Coalition, home, homeless, homelessness, Human Interest Story, John Billingsley, Katherine Boo, Los Angeles, new play, PLAY, Rob Nagle, Stephen Sachs, Tanya Alexander, theater, theatre, virus, world premiere
Posted in actors, artist, Arts, arts organizations, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged actor, Fountain Theatre, Human Interest Story, Los Angeles, new play, Rob Nagle, Tanya Alexander, theater, theatre, world premiere
France-Luce Benson brings people together. As our Community Engagement Coordinator, she connects folks with the Fountain, and groups with each other. How can we stay engaged from our homes?
“Social distance” doesn’t mean social media distance.
Let’s stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. We will soon be sharing with you new ways we can stay engaged as we walk through this period together.
Posted in Arts, arts organizations, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, Theater, theatre
Tagged community, Community Engagement, Fountain Theatre, France-Luce Benson, Hollywood, Los Angeles, social media, theater, theatre
Mayor Garcetti has issued an order calling for “the postponement or cancellation of all non-essential public community events or group activities with 50 or more participants, or that require close contact between vulnerable individuals.” As you know, close contact is what we’re about at the Fountain. “Social distance” is not who we are.
Therefore, we are heartbroken to report that our acclaimed world premiere production of Human Interest Story has been suspended. We join our brothers and sisters in the LA Theatre Community, in venues large and small, as we take action to slow the spread of this virus.
In addition, we will delay the opening of our Los Angeles Premiere of If I Forget to a later date, to be determined. And our Forever Flamenco concert on March 29 has been canceled.
Are you a ticket buyer to Human Interest Story or Forever Flamenco? To help get us through this devastating period, we ask that you donate your ticket purchase to the Fountain. Not possible? No problem. We’ll gladly refund it. Please contact our box office at (323) 663-1525 or email us at [email protected].
These are uncertain times for all of us. The world, our country, our city, and the Fountain Theatre are in a very serious crisis. No one knows how long this pandemic will last and, once it is over, what the long-term social and economic ramifications will be.
We will get through this together. This pandemic is like a bomb dropping on our LA Theatre community. The damage it does will be significant, and we may not recognize the landscape once the smoke clears, but we will pick ourselves up after the blast and march forward together.
Onward,
The Fountain Theatre
Posted in Arts, arts organizations, Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, Theater, theatre
Tagged coronavirus, Forever Flamenco, Fountain Theatre, Human Interest Story, If I Forget, Los Angeles, theater, theatre, virus
Posted in arts organizations, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, Homeless, Los Angeles, non-profit organization, Outreach Program, performing arts, Social justice, Theater, theatre
Tagged Anthony Conley, community, Covenant House, engagement, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, homeless, Los Angeles, theater, theatre
Top: Jenna Macari, Shelly Kurtz, Roy Abramsohn. Bottom: Jonathan Fishman, Samantha Klein, Jacob Zelonky, Laura Faye Smith.
The Fountain Theatre is thrilled to announce the complete cast of the Los Angeles Premiere of Steven Levenson’s (Dear Evan Hansen) new play, If I Forget, directed by Simon Levy. The cast includes Shelly Kurtz (Lou Fischer), Jenna Macari (Holly Fischer), Roy Abramsohn (Michael Fischer), Samantha Klein (Sharon Fischer), Laura Faye Smith (Ellen Manning), Jonathan Fishman (Howard Kilberg), Jacob Zelonky (Joey Oren).
If I Forget begins preview performances on April 22, 2020 and opens officially on April 25, 2020. This is a limited engagement through June 14, 2020.
A funny and powerful tale of a family and a culture at odds with itself. In the final months before 9/11, liberal Jewish studies professor Michael Fischer reunites with his two sisters to celebrate their father’s 75th birthday. Each committed to their own version of family history, they clash over everything from Michael’s controversial book, to whether they should sell the family business. Secrets and long-held resentments bubble to the surface as the three negotiate – with biting humor and razor-sharp insight – just what they’re willing to sacrifice for a chance at a new beginning.
The creative team of If I Forget includes Andy Hammer (Set design), Jennifer Edwards (Lighting Design), Jeff Gardner (Sound Design), Michael Allen Angel (Prop Design) and Shon LeBlanc (Costume Design).
More Info/Get Tickets
Posted in actors, Arts, arts organizations, casting, director, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, Jewish, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, playwright, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged Dear Evan Hansen, Fountain Theatre, If I Forget, Israel, Jacob Zelonky, Jenna Macari, Jewish, Jonathan Fishman, Laura Faye Smith, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Premiere, Roy Abramsohn, Samantha Klein, Shelly Kurtz, Simon Levy, Steven Levenson, theater, theatre
Students can now see a Friday night play free at the Fountain.
When Artistic Director Stephen Sachs shared his thoughts on the Fountain Theatre blog last Friday, he never dreamed his post would go viral. It did, big time. His observations on the free performance of Broadway’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” at Madison Square Garden for 18,000 high school students drew 65,975 views to the Fountain blog and was shared by more than 39,000 people on Facebook, sweeping the globe in 111 countries.
Central to the Fountain is the impact the post had on one person: Sachs himself.
“I am blown away by the post’s popularity,” he says.
For Sachs, reading the avalanche of online comments the post triggered as it was shared around the world was overwhelming and eye-opening. “For me, the post became more than a feel-good story about young people experiencing live theatre. For me, it is a call to action.”
What action is the Fountain taking?
Starting this weekend with the current production of Human Interest Story, the Fountain Theatre launches a new program called Free Student Fridays. Any high school or college student may see a play at the Fountain on Friday for free. To reserve online, students use the promo code FreeStudent. A valid school ID card must be shown at the box office window on the night of the performance. Seats are subject to availability.
“This program is a modest start, but it’s a start,” admits Sachs. “We may not have 18,000 seats like Madison Square Garden, but if we can inspire the young minds and open the young hearts of 80 students on Fountain Avenue every Friday night, we’ll have humbly done our part to help make the world a better place.”
Who knows? A free performance for 20,000 students at L.A.’s Staples Center may one day be on the horizon. Until then? There’s a seat for any student at the Fountain.
Click this link to book tickets for a Free Student Friday. Info on Human Interest Story.
Posted in Arts, Arts education, arts organizations, Drama, Education, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, non-profit organization, Outreach Program, performing arts, plays, Theater, theatre
Tagged Broadway, college, educational outreach, Fountain Theatre, free, Free Student Fridays, high school, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Madison Square Garden, outreach, Stephen Sachs, student, theater, theatre, To Kill a Mockingbird