In "Sweet Air," playwright Matt Morillo strips away the typical romantic comedy scaffolding to expose something more authentic: the raw possibility that emerges when strangers connect without pretense. Set in a frozen subway limbo on Valentine's night, the play positions itself at the intersection of isolation and connection in our post-pandemic world. Morillo, whose previous works have earned festival accolades, here crafts a deceptively simple premise - two stranded strangers talking - that serves as... Read more →
Suzanne Dean's "As You Like It" transforms Shakespeare's forest into a psychological journey. Her subtitle, "Find Yourself in Arden," shows what matters in this production: the forest as a place of self-discovery. Dean preserves Shakespeare's language while making both its wit and wisdom accessible. She finds contemporary relevance through emotional truth rather than gimmicks. Rosalind's journey becomes a universal story of self-discovery that speaks to audiences of all backgrounds. Dean emphasizes how characters build new... Read more →
Bashir Makhoul, a Palestinian-British artist and academic, has spent decades exploring how displacement, identity and political resistance intersect. Born in Galilee in 1963 and based in the UK since the 1990s, Makhoul works across painting, installation, photography and sculpture, alongside his roles as university administrator and scholar. His artistic journey began in Galilee, where the landscape and political realities of the region first influenced his work. After moving to the UK, Makhoul developed a visual... Read more →
Davidson balances parental anxiety and psychedelic revelation in his solo performance. He asks a universal question: what wisdom can a flawed father offer his daughter? Instead of offering tidy moral lessons, Davidson explores personal reckoning through plant medicine. The show centers on a desperate father turning to ayahuasca (a powerful psychedelic brew used in traditional South American ceremonies) the day before his daughter's wedding. This creates tension through the collision of sacred ceremonies, one ancient... Read more →
New Swan Shakespeare Festival's production of "Much Ado About Nothing" arrives this summer as a Wild West reinvention that transplants Shakespeare's romantic warfare to the American frontier. Founding artistic director Eli Simon transforms Messina into a dusty frontier town where Beatrice and Benedick's verbal duels carry the lethal precision of gunfights at high noon. Simon's bold concept naturally suits Shakespeare's military comedy. The returning soldiers become cavalry officers fresh from frontier conflicts. The courtly intrigue... Read more →
Hollis Hart’s set designer for "Holy Holy: The Birth of Disco" serves as both canvas and catalyst, transforming the Broadwater's Black Box and dissolving conventional boundaries. Unlike standard theatrical settings that merely frame action, Hart’s work actively participates in the storytelling. The design refuses to remain static. The space shifts between practical function and abstract form, mirroring the production's contrast between work and play. Hart uses vertical elements for performers to climb, horizontal planes that... Read more →
"Holy Holy: The Birth of Disco" rebels against our culture's obsession with productivity. This ensemble-created work transforms the Broadwater's Black Box into what director Natasha Mercado calls a "surreal playground" – apt for a piece that defies conventional theatrical categories. Part physical comedy, part fever dream, the production shows women rejecting capitalism for play. The ensemble's physical commitment impresses throughout. When one character succumbs to work's appeal, her companions drag her back to anarchic revelry,... Read more →
History works best when it upsets cozy stories. "Greenwood 1964" shows the Civil Rights Movement plainly, revealing courage at its rawest. Mohammed Ali Ojarigi’s work doesn't just document Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte's dangerous journey through Mississippi; it turns their search for Fannie Lou Hamer into an urgent look at the risks of standing against systematic brutality. The play wisely doesn’t turn its characters into simple heroes. Instead, we see cultural icons facing terrifying uncertainty... Read more →
Few plays tackle human trafficking with such directness. Yolande Boyom's "The Road to Freedom," adapted from her documentary film, presents harsh realities on stage without dilution. The production works both as drama and as activism. Boyom's background in nursing and social work gives the project clinical precision. Co-directed with Billie King, the play draws on true accounts of women trafficked across borders. Unlike conventional issue-based theater, this work refuses to separate art from action. The... Read more →
Elena Martinez's "FUNERAL SHOW" explores mourning relationships with the living. In this one-woman dark comedy, Martinez dissects rather than merely acknowledges emotional wounds. She turns complicated parental relationships into a theatrical wake for people who are alive but absent from her life. The premise is both provocative and psychologically astute: how do we process the grief of estrangement? Martinez answers through musical performance, drag aesthetics, and clown work—forms that blend appearance with emotional truth. Under... Read more →
Hosni Radwan's "Lines in Motion" works through simple means. Where other artists might overcomplicate, his watercolors create emotion through restraint. His flowing lines show human forms in states of thought, joy and quiet sadness, making poetry from minimal marks. The exhibition shows an artist tackling displacement. Born in Baghdad, having worked in Beirut and Palestine, Radwan creates figures that exist in between spaces, neither fully present nor absent. Women predominate his compositions, their bodies fragmented... Read more →
The Ruskin Group Theatre is moving from a converted airplane hangar to a purpose-built arts complex at 2800 Airport Avenue in Santa Monica. This marks a significant step for a company that has, for 23 years, produced world premieres that later transferred to venues from La Jolla to London's West End. The new Ruskin Arts Center, built in a former armory and flying museum, will house two theaters. This development comes as coastal Los Angeles... Read more →
In "Best. Dad. NEVER." Haig Chahinian defies expectations of both parenthood stories and one-person shows. His performance explores his overlapping identities - gay, Armenian-American, adoptive father to a biracial Black daughter - with refreshing clarity and honesty. Rather than relying on sentiment, Chahinian builds his story through well-observed moments of cultural clash and parental confusion that reveal universal truths about family-making. What sets this piece apart from standard parenting tales is how Chahinian questions his... Read more →
As LGBTQ+ visibility faces new threats, the Hollywood Queer Short Film Festival opens in October with a sense of urgency. Under Jim Hoffman's direction, this year's theme - “Visibility is Resistance" - serves as both rallying cry and curatorial theme. The festival offers substantial submission discounts to film students, framing participation as an act of cultural preservation. This places HQSFF in a tradition of queer film festivals that have long defended cultural expression. Hoffman explicitly... Read more →
In "Ophelia's Refrain," Sheila-Joon Azim brings Shakespeare's Ophelia into the realm of contemporary identity politics. This solo performance follows a half-Iranian woman's journey from Seattle's streets to Amazonian ceremonies. Azim's work defies categorization, combining theatre, movement, song and punk rock to explore identity breakdown. The production challenges modern ideas about belonging through classical references. Under Shyamala Moorty's direction, Azim turns personal confession into universal questions. The show asks, "What if Ophelia took acid?”, reframing psychological... Read more →
Shelley Cooper's solo musical "Rag Doll on a Bomb Site" brings to life a crucial moment in theatre history clearly and purposefully. Set in 1928 Berlin, the piece shows Lotte Lenya facing a crisis minutes before the premiere of "The Threepenny Opera." Her name is missing from the playbill, and her husband Kurt Weill demands the show be cancelled. The drama unfolds in Lenya's dressing room as she tries to calm Weill while revealing fragments... Read more →
In the intimate setting of The Zephyr Theatre, Maria Fagan Hassani becomes Marilynn, an educational therapist whose weekly support group reveals struggle, resilience, and unexpected connection. "Atypical Grace" avoids the tearful sentimentality that often spoils single-performer shows about disability, instead offering a clear-eyed look at how learning differences affect entire families. Hassani's performance works on two levels: as Marilynn, she guides and participates, helping parents face their children's challenges while confronting her own unresolved issues.... Read more →
Catalina Swinburn's "Devotional Landscapes" explores the spiritual terrain of Zawiyas - Sufi sanctuaries that dot North Africa's religious landscape. Through her precise paper weavings, she turns archaeological fieldwork into art that connects physical materials with spiritual experience. Swinburn's exhibition stands out through her skillful blend of cultural research and artistic creativity. Her sculptural works don't merely represent Zawiya sites; they embody the meditative processes inherent in both Sufi spiritual practice and traditional craftsmanship. Her collaboration... Read more →
"Corktown '39" thrusts audiences into a taut political thriller rooted in a little-known chapter of history: an Irish Republican Army plot to assassinate the King of England in 1939. The play unfolds over just four days, creating an intense environment where ideals, loyalties, and personal relationships collide. The production rises above mere historical curiosity by confronting thorny ethical questions about political violence. When does resistance become terrorism? Can morally questionable tactics serve the pursuit of... Read more →
In "Earth, Wind & Car Fire," Janora McDuffie turns her personal story into universal insights in a tight 60-minute solo performance. McDuffie, known for her television work and as the voice announcer for the 94th Academy Awards, brings her storytelling talents to the intimate stage of El Centro's Main Space. The show explores Black and queer identity skillfully, mixing humor with serious moments. Building on her work with No More Down Low TV - an... Read more →