louise on the left (coast)

Seriously, SCR's "Midsummer Night's Dream" really  rocks .  Literally.  South Coast Repertory's newest offering, " Midsummer Night's Dream ," under the masterful direction of Mark Rucker, both dazzles the eye and grabs you by the heart, spiriting the audience on a whirlwind tour of fantasy and festivities which never once fails to entertain from start to finish.  I can promise, like any great party, you'll never want this show to end. This show has truly become my new sparkle pony.  It's pure magic from the moment the lights go up, I mean, pop up.  This is a show that immediately grabs the audience and transports them far away, somewhere magical where everyone's interesting, they all do funny things, the music just gets better and better and absolutely no pharmacueticals were involved! What else can you say  that  about?  It's like a long rave at Coachella but, one where you actually care

Sometimes you see something so perfect, so comfortable and real that you have to remind yourself that parallels to your own world are entirely a coincidence. " Circle Mirror Transformation ," now running January 9th to 30th at SCR. So it was last week as I watched “ Circle Mirror Transformation ” at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa. I had to constantly remind myself that the characters on the stage do not know me. They don't know I come from a small town in Vermont (the setting of the play) or that I've also spent countless hours in wacky acting workshops, as well. Still, as this play brilliantly tapped into a goldmine of truths about the circumstances at the heart, I had moments of extreme déjà vu. But, this is a tribute to fine dramatic storytelling, not a “Twilight Zone” episode. And sadly, the playwright, Annie Baker, doesn't know me from Adam (or Eve, in this case), even though as the production unfolded on stage at the Julianne Argyros Stage, I could

“ The Language Archive ,” is currently having its world premiere at South Coast Repertory’s Segerstrom Stage running from March 26 - April 25, 2010. Julia Cho's award-winning play is a romantic comedy about the nature of communication. The production is exquisitely directed by Mark Brokaw and superbly acted by an expert ensemble featuring Leo Marks, Betsy Brandt (from one of my personal favorite shows - AMC’s “Breaking Bad”), Laura Heisler, Tony Amendola and Linda Gehringer, all of whom deliver a feast of delicious writing with a host of engaging and entertaining characters. The theme of the play is intrinsically woven around our deepest need for both love and communication. The plot illustrates the unexpectedly poetic ways our choice of communication can either nurture or kill the unique organism which is created from a love shared only between two people. Cho spotlights how important it is to cherish our "own languages," and what I found so extraordinary was how el

Recently I was fortunate enough to attend opening night of Adam Gwon ’s new musical “ Ordinary Days ,” currently enjoying its West Coast premiere at South Coast Rep in the Julianne Argyros Stage through January 24 I went with my theater buddy (and blogging guru) Prince Gomolvilas of Bamboo Nation without either of us really knowing too much about the show to start with other than it was a “Chamber Musical” (whatever that meant) about “people from New York.” I was curious how a story about New Yorkers struggling to bring meaning to their lives against a backdrop of the usual pathos and passion in the city that never sleeps could actually be something new, something that we haven’t heard before. Not only has this tale already been examined in other musicals, such as in "Rent" or "Company," I also spent my twenties in Manhattan, and felt pretty confident that this might be a theme I was all too familiar with by now. I was a bit concerned that telling this same story