May | 2019 | Intimate Excellent
The Fountain Theatre will host a workshop production of a new play by Leigh Curran, Body Beautiful on June 5-6 and 12-13 at 8pm.
Thayer, a 72-year-old, gay psychotherapist and his ex-wife and great friend, Emma, decide to move back in together to take care of each other through their old age. Emma is still secretly in love with Thayer but does her best to hide it until Thayer and one of his patients – a Mexican-American transman, fall in love throwing sexual orientation, gender identity and true love into question for all concerned. It’s funny, deep, thought provoking and humanizes the struggle between hatred and acceptance in very original and memorable ways.
What is a workshop production? It is the next step in a new play’s developmental process. Although still a work-in-process, the actors will be off-book with the play fully memorized. Using simple props and costumes, the play is performed on the set of our current production of Daniel’s Husband.
Body Beautiful is directed by John Achorn, with Alex Alpharaoh, Leigh Curran, Geoffrey Rivas, Marcelo Tubert.
More Info/Get Tickets
Posted in actors, Arts, arts organizations, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Gay, Los Angeles, love, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, playwright, Theater, theatre
Tagged actors, Alex Alpharaoh, Body Beautiful, Fountain Theatre, gender, Geoffrey Rivas, John Achorn, Leigh Curran, Los Angeles, love story, Marcelo Tubert, new play, new play development, theater, theatre, workshop
The Fountain Theatre is pleased to announce a grant award from the Shubert Foundation in the amount of $25,000 for general operating support to the organization. The Shubert Foundation provides grants only to organizations that have an established artistic and administrative track record, as well as a history of fiscal responsibility.
The award marks the fourth consecutive year that the Fountain Theatre has received support from the Shubert Fountain. Each year the award amount has increased.
“We are very pleased and proud of our association with the Shubert Foundation,” commented Fountain Co-Artistic Director Stephen Sachs. “The Shubert name is synonymous with excellence in the American Theatre. We sincerely thank the Shubert Foundation for its ongoing support.”
The Shubert Foundation is especially interested in providing support to professional resident theatre companies that develop and produce new American work.
“We want to help lift some of the financial burden,” said Foundation Chairman, Philip J. Smith. “So that the companies we support are able to focus on producing thought-provoking, relevant work for the widest possible audience.”
This year, The Shubert Foundation has awarded a record total of $30 million to 533 not-for-profit performing arts organizations across the nation. This marks the 38th consecutive year that the Foundation has increased its giving. The Shubert Foundation, Inc., was established in 1945 by Lee and J.J. Shubert, in memory of their brother Sam. Since the establishment of the Shubert Foundation grants program in 1977, over $443 million has been awarded to not-for-profit arts organizations throughout the United States.
Posted in Art, Arts, arts organizations, Drama, Fountain Theatre, grants, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged arts, arts organization, award, Fountain Theatre, grant, Los Angeles, new plays, Philip J. Smith, Shubert Foundation, Shubert organization, Stephen Sachs, theater, theatre
Tim Cummings, Bill Brochtrup and Jenny O’Hara in Daniel;s Husband.
The Fountain Theatre’s acclaimed Southern California Premiere of Daniel’s Husband by Michael McKeever will extend to July 28. Hailed as Critic’s Choice in the LA Times and highlighted as Ovation Award Recommended, the comedy/drama about a gay couple wrestling with the issue of marriage has earned rave reviews and sold-out houses from the night it first opened May 4.
There is the rule of law, and there are the laws of the heart. Which do we follow and when? Daniel and Mitchell are the perfect couple. What isn’t so perfect is that Daniel desperately longs to be married, but Mitchell doesn’t believe in it. Michael McKeever’s funny, passionate and poignant play takes an unflinching look at how we choose to tie the knot — or not.
Daniel’s Husband is directed by Simon Levy, starring Bill Brochtrup, Tim Cummings, Jose Fernando, Ed Martin, and Jenny O’Hara.
“CRITIC’S CHOICE…ABSORBING… THE ACTORS ARE WONDERFUL… [A] CROWD PLEASER” — Los Angeles Times
“A PERFECT 10…WITTY, REALISTIC, HEART-RENDERING” — Broadway World
“GO SEE ‘DANIEL’S HUSBAND’… THESE ARE SOME OF THE FINEST ACTORS IN L.A.” —KCRW 89.9 FM
“AS CLOSE TO PERFECT AS ONE MIGHT ENVISION…. WRENCHING, REAL, FLAWLESSLY STAGED, STIRRINGLY PERFORMED” — Cultural Weekly
“OUTSTANDING… PERFECTLY SCRIPTED. ACTED AND DIRECTED” — Culver City News
“A REMARKABLE SCRIPT… TRUE LIFE, TRUE FRIENDSHIP AND TRUE DESPAIR” —Discover Hollywood
“SUPERIOR… AN EXCITING PIECE OF QUALITY THEATRE” — Hollywood Revealed
“WOW!… [A] LAUGH-OUT-LOUD-THEN-GET-OUT-YOUR-HANKIES STUNNER… NOT-TO-BE-MISSED” — Stage Scene LA
“EXQUISITELY WRITTEN, SUPERBLY DIRECTED AND EXCELLENTLY PERFORMED” —Will Call for Theatre
“TREMENDOUSLY ENTERTAINING AND WELL-WRITTEN… A TERRIFIC SHOW” — Los Angeles Post
“RELEVANT AND AFFECTING” — Stage Raw
“ABOUT LOVE… the ABSOLUTE BEAUTY of McKeever’s story rings true” — On Stage Los Angeles
“INSISTENTLY MOVING… CRISP AND TIMELY” — People’s World
“A FINE PLAY WITH SOMETHING TO SAY… EXCELLENTLY PERFORMED” — San Diego Gay & Lesbian News
“TWO THUMBS UP” — Carol’s Reviews
“RESONATED LONG AFTER THE FINAL MOMENTS” — Showmag
“RELEVANT AND UNIVERSAL” — Stage and Cinema
“A VERY FINE PRODUCTION” — Talkin’ Broadway
“GUARANTEED TO LEAVE YOU MOVED AND EMOTIONALLY EXHAUSTED” — Ticket Holders LA
“BREATHTAKING… A TRULY EXCEPTIONAL CAST… TIMELY AND PROVOCATIVE” — Billy Masters.
More Info/Get Tickets
Posted in actors, arts organizations, director, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Gay, Hollywood, Los Angeles, love, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, playwright, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged Bill Brochtrup, comedy, Daniel’s Husband, drama, Ed Martin, extended, Fountain Theatre, gay, gay marriage, Jenny O’Hara, Jose Fernando, Los Angeles, Michael McKeever, PLAY, theater, theatre, Tim Cummings
George Roland, Paul Burt and Anna Baumgarten read “Eldritch” at Fountain Theatre.
Monsters Are Made by Hannah C. Langley was voted by audience members as the Round 2 winner in last week’s 5th Annual ‘Rapid Development Series for Young Writers. In Langley’s play, 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.
As the winning script, Monsters Are Made will receive a professional staged reading at the Fountain Theatre later this month.
Langley explains the journey of writing Monsters Are Made:
After years of telling the story of my own “bad experience” with a former friend in a hotel room as a short comic anecdote, I realized that it was anything but funny. It was terrifying, but the only way I could process that level of betrayal for a long time was by rewriting it, sanitizing it, making it into something you could talk about at a party. What I really needed to do (and what I’ve tried to do with this play) was keep rewriting it—researching and raising the stakes—until the story wasn’t about what happened to me anymore. It needed to be someone else’s. It needed to be Ricki’s and it needed to be Hunter’s. And, I hope, even though it’s no longer my story, it’s a more truthful one.”
Playwright Hannah Langley outside the Fountain Theatre.
Hannah C. Langley is an emerging playwright, screen and television writer from Valencia, California. Her plays approach political topics on a personal scale. With a mix of magic and modern technology, Langley creates protagonists who are young, female-identifying, and on the verge of finding themselves. Her USC thesis play, Losing My Religion (in 140 Characters or Less), received a workshop production at USC, staged readings at Cypress College and the Pasadena Playhouse, and was recorded as a podcast by At the Table: A Play Reading Series, featuring Broadway’s Abby Church, Max Crumm, Aneesh Sheth, and Tony nominee Isabel Keating. The play has since earned semifinalist status in both The Road and Sanguine Theatre NYC’s summer play festivals.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Created and produced in 2014 by James Bennett and Jessica Broutt, The Fountain Theatre’s Rapid Development Series is designed to showcase the work of previously unproduced, Los Angeles-based playwrights under the age of 30.
More Info
Posted in arts organizations, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, Outreach Program, performing arts, plays, playwright, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged Hannah C. Langley, James Bennett, Jessica Broutt, Monsters Are Made, new plays, playwright, Rapid Development Series, theater, theatre
More Info/Get Tickets
Posted in actors, arts organizations, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Gay, Hollywood, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, playwright, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged Bill Brochtrup, Daniel’s Husband, Ed Martin, Fountain Theatre, Jenny O’Hara, Jose Fernando, Los Angeles, Michael McKeever, reviews, Simon Levy, theater, theatre, Tim Cummings
by Stephen Sachs
It was my mother who introduced me to Emily Dickinson.
“I want to show you something,” Mom whispered one afternoon when I was boy, pulling down the thick volume of Dickinson’s poetry wedged on the family bookshelf in the den of our home. She patted the brown Naugahyde sofa, instructing me to sit beside down her.
“Listen to this,” mom smiled, opening the collection of poems, her finger hunting through its pages then hitting her target with a tap. “Here. This one. I will read this poem to you. Tell me what you think the poet is writing about.”
My mother then read to me the Dickinson poem, “I like to see it lap the Miles” When done, she looked to me. “What is she describing?”
I had no idea. It made no sense to me. I confessed my confusion.
“It’s a train,” my mother smiled. “Emily is picturing how a train glides across the countryside, chugs up a mountain, winds its way downhill, the sound it makes. Now that you know it’s a train, I’ll read it again. You’ll see and hear the train for yourself.”
She read it again. And I saw it. I heard it. And a world opened.
My mother offered more of Emily’s poetry to me. Our routine was the same. Mom would read it aloud, then explain it, then read it again. Each poem was a revelation. My mother unlocking the door to each one. “A narrow Fellow in the Grass” was a snake. “A Route of Evanescence” a hummingbird. Soon, I was yanking the hefty The Complete Poems by Emily Dickinson down from the shelf by myself. Alone in the den. My mother nowhere in sight. Perhaps she washed dishes downstairs in our kitchen or lugged a blue plastic basket of family clothes into the laundry room. I was curled up on the couch in the den clutching Emily, her words launching me like a little boat on journeys inward and outward.
There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll –
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human Soul –
My mother shared with me her green 1945 first edition of Ancestors’ Brocades, the memoir by Millicent Todd Bingham telling how her own mother, Mabel Loomis Todd, co-edited the first publishing of Dickinson’s poetry, announcing Emily to the world in 1890, four years after her death. Although Mabel Loomis Todd had visited Emily Dickinson’s home for four years by that time, she had never laid eyes on the reclusive poet in person except in her coffin.
Emily’s solitude, her expansive inner life, her monk-like self-ordination to the service of her soul has enthralled me to this day. I am as much enamored of her life as I am of her poetry. To me, they are one and the same.
My mother’s persona was more Donna Reed than Emily Dickinson. Mom was pretty, vivacious, classy. She wore pearls and black heels and Channel No. 5. She gave me her joy, her sense of style and fun. She gave me her intellect, her delight for the arts. She gave me her love and her friendship. She gave me all of herself.
And she gave me Emily.
Stephen Sachs is the Co-Artistic Director of the Fountain Theatre
Posted in Arts, Books, Fountain Theatre, poem, poetry
Tagged Books, Emily Dickinson, Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, mother, poem, poetry, Stephen Sachs
Fine art photographer Sarah Hadley
Rave reviews for our acclaimed current production of Daniel’s Husband have included hails for the beautiful living room set, designed by DeAnne Millais. The LA Times swooned over the “stylish panache of scenic designer DeAnne Millais’ Architectural Digest-ready spread.” A key element to the scenic design are the framed photographs adorning the walls. These were provided by award winning fine art photographer Sarah Hadley.
To fulfill director Simon Levy’s wish to have the set filled with beautiful high-end elements, scenic designer Millais remembered being struck by Sarah‘s ethereal photography recently seen at LA’s Brewery Art Walk. DeAnne thought it would be the perfect complement to the play and its scenic environment.
Sarah Hadley was named one of the “jeunes talents” by Paris’ Le Monde at the Fotofever Art Fair in 2015. In recent years, Hadley has been invited to exhibit at Fotofever in Paris, France, the Porto Photo Fest in Porto, Portugal, the Lishui Photo Festival in China; the Worldwide Photography Biennial in Buenos Aires, and the Ballarat Festival in Australia. She has had solo exhibitions at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Boston, the Loyola Museum of Art in Chicago, Afterimage Gallery in Dallas, and Fabrik Gallery in Los Angeles. Hadley’s work is held in many public and private collections around the world, and has been shown in many museums and galleries including the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts in Tampa, FL, the Robin Rice Gallery in NY and Building Bridges Gallery in Santa Monica.
Hadley’s work has also been featured in publications and online blogs including ELLE Italia, B+W Magazine (UK), PDN, L’Oeil de la Photographie, ArtTribune, Shots Magazine, Don’t Take Pictures, and Lenscratch.com. She has received grants from the California Center for Cultural Innovation, the Illinois Arts Council, and several fellowships from the Ragdale Foundation.
Sarah was flattered to be asked to provide her photographic artwork for the production. “I am excited to see the play,” she beams.
You can explore Sarah Hadley’s work on her website. And view it live on the set of Daniel’s Husband, now playing to June 23.
Get Tickets/More Info
Posted in Art, artist, Arts, arts organizations, designers, director, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, Theater, theatre
Tagged Daniel’s Husband, DeAnne Millais, Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, photographer, photography, Sarah Hadley, scenic design, set design, Simon Levy, theater, theatre
Jane Anderson reads message from Co-Artistic Director Stephen Sachs
The beautiful hilltop home of playwright/screenwriter Jane Anderson and author/producer Tess Ayers was the lovely location on April 14 of a special gathering of VIP donors and Fountain Friends supporting our Southern California Premiere of Daniel’s Husband. The funny and poignant new play by Michael McKeever on gay marriage is currently playing at the Fountain Theatre to rave reviews, heralded as Critic’s Choice in the Los Angeles Times.
After enjoying wine and hors d’oeuvres prepared by Alligator Pear Catering, the group assembled to hear director Simon Levy speak about his vision for the play.
“There is a commitment to tell these stories on our Fountain stage,” said Jane Anderson, reading a letter from Co-Artistic Director Stephen Sachs, who was in New York that evening. “Stories of struggle in the gay community as they fight for the most fundamental of all human rights: to be who we are and love whom we choose. In these dark, hateful times, Daniel’s Husband invigorates us with this one simple truth: love is worth fighting for.”
Cast members from Daniel’s Husband then read selections from the play.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
The entertaining event, hosted by Jane Anderson and Tess Ayers, was a delightful success. Attending were Oscar Arslanian, Bill Brochtrup, Diana Buckhantz, Denis Cagna, Carrie Chassin, Deborah Culver, Tim Cummings, Ken Debie, Jose Fernando, Richard Gallegos, Jackie Goldberg, Barbara Goodhill, Ron Guzman, Jochen Haber, Karen Kondazian, Simon Levy, Ed Martin, Carlos Medina, Jenny O’Hara, Nick Ullett, Don and Suzanne Zachary, Jason and Allison Zelin.
Info on Daniel’s Husband
Posted in actors, Arts, arts organizations, Board of Directors, director, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, stage, Theater, theatre
Tagged Alligator Pear Catering, Barbara Goodhill, Daniel’s Husband, Fountain Theatre, gay, gay marriage, Jane Anderson, Los Angeles, Michael McKeever, Simon Levy, Stephen Sachs, Tess Ayers, theater, theatre
The Fountain Theatre, in association with East West Players, are seeking actors to play Korean & Korean Americans in the Southern California Premiere of Hannah and the Dread Gazebo by Jiehae Park, directed by Jennifer Chang. This whimsical and poignant play opens July 13 at the Fountain Theatre.
STORYLINE: Hannah is two weeks away from becoming a board-certified neurologist when she receives a strange package from her grandmother, who may—or may not—have just ended her life in a most flamboyant fashion. The mystery leads Hannah and her family on a surreal, funny, heartbreaking adventure back to their roots in South and North Korea and the forbidden Demilitarized Zone that divides them. This startling new comedy twists together creation myths and family histories to explore what it means to walk the edge between.
Producers: The Fountain Theatre in association with East West Players Playwright: Jiehae Park Director: Jennifer Chang
NOW CASTING:
HANNAH – 28 to 36 years old, East Asian female. about to become a board-certified pediatric neurologist. Control freak.
FATHER – 45 to 55 years old, East Asian male. professor. Keeps It Together for the Family. Emotionally clueless. Must speak Korean.
MOTHER – 48 to 56 years old, East Asian female. In a deep depression that she is hiding from her family, Gardening fanatic and HGTV addict that her family isn’t necessarily aware of. Comedic and playful sensibility a must.
TRICKSTER – 30 to 60 years old, East Asian female. Plays the following characters: Voice/Grandma/Mrs. Lee/Old Man In Coat/Official/Nurse/Mr. Kwon/Kim Jong II/Grandmother Tiger trickster-lost-soul-friend-voice-of-god. May or may not have been here since the beginning of the world. Possible memory loss. Must speak Korean.
DANG – 20 to 26 years old, East Asian male. Recent graduate and professional slacker. Has-a-band-sort-of. Good kid. Guitar playing a plus.
GIRL – 19 to 26 years old, female. Activist in search of a cause. Used-to-have-a-band-sort-of. Blunt. Comedic sensibility a must. Musical Instrument a plus.
Audition Date: 5/21/2019
Callback Date: 5/24/2019
Rehearsal Dates: 6/10 – 07/09
Preview Dates: 7/10 – 7/12
Opening Date: 07/13/2019
Closing Date: 09/01/2019
Contract/Pay Rate: AEA 99-Seat Agreement/$12 per hour for all rehearsals and performances.
Email headshot & resume: [email protected]
Posted in actors, Arts, arts organizations, audition, casting, director, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, plays, playwright, Theater, theatre
Tagged actor, audition, East West Players, Fountain Theatre, Hannah and the Dread Gazebo, Jennifer Chang, Jiehae Park, Korean, Korean american, now casting
Get Tickets/More Info
Posted in actors, Arts, arts organizations, Drama, Fountain Theatre, Gay, Hollywood, Los Angeles, new plays, non-profit organization, performing arts, playwright, Theater, theatre