Human Interest Story at The Fountain Theatre

Fountain Theatre to Present 'Hyper-Staged' Reading of Lisa Loomer's ROE

June 02, 2022

The Fountain Theatre will once again jump into action with a “hyper-staged” reading of Roe, a powerful, poignant and often humorous play by Lisa Loomer that cuts through the headlines to reveal the real-life women behind Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that gave women the right to safe, legal abortion. 

BWW Interview: NEA Four Artist John Fleck Is So ALIVE & Still Kicking Up A Storm

September 10, 2021

Performance artist John Fleck will present four live, work-in-progress performances of his musical cabaret/special event it’s alive, IT’S ALIVE! at the Odyssey Theatre starting September 18th. Had the chance to chat up this infamous NEA FOUR artist on his creativity, his patience in the makeup chair and his creative history with David Schweizer.

BWW Interview: Director Reena Dutt's Keeping Real Busy with THE SITAYANA & Many Other Projects

September 08, 2021

East West Players, in partnership with San Francisco’s EnActe Arts and New York City’s Hypokrit Productions, presents the virtual world premiere of Lavina Jadhwani’s THE SITAYANA (OR HOW TO MAKE AN EXIT) beginning September 25, 2021. Lavina’s updated, upending take on the Hindu epic The Ramayana recounts the story through Sita’s eyes, rather than Ram’s eyes as in the original. Audiences attending the livestreams will be given a choice to one of the three unique incarnations of Sita. Had the chance to pose a few questions to THE SITAYANA’s director Reena Dutt on her history with THE SITAYANA and what she’s been doing the last pandemic months to keep creatively sane.  

AN OCTOROON Casting Complete, Dates Set For On Fountain Theatre Outdoor Stage

May 11, 2021

Casting is complete and rehearsals begin this week for the Los Angeles premiere of a radical, incendiary and subversively funny Obie award-winning play by MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” recipient Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

BWW Review: THE BALLAD OF EMMETT TILL at Fountain Theatre

September 06, 2020

Part history, part mystery and part ghost story, Bayezaa??s lyrical integration of past, present, fact and legend turns Emmetta??s story into a soaring work of music, poetic language and riveting theatricality, transformed into an online format that breaks the notion of what a virtual performance can be. With the actors seen as cut-outs inserted into backdrops to fit each scene, characters move about each other in cars, on a living room couch, or while riding on a Ferris Wheel as if they really are in the scene together at the same time.

BWW Interview: Playwright France-Luce Benson's Been Ready For SHOWTIME - BLUES

June 26, 2020

In these pandemic times, The Fountain Theatre has been Zooming their SATURDAY MATINEE series, the latest on June 27 being France-Luce Benson's SHOWTIME BLUES. The cast of this reading includes Cecil Blutcher, Suzette Azariah Gunn and Matt Kirkwood. I had the socially distant opportunity to pose a few questions to this prolific playwright.

BAKERSFIELD MIST Virtual Staged Reading Rescheduled for June 22

June 19, 2020

Due to technical difficulties, a virtual staged reading of the play Bakersfield Mist originally scheduled for June 15 had to be postponed. The new date and time will be Monday, June 22 at 7:30 p.m.

BAKERSFIELD MIST Virtual Staged Reading Announced June 15

June 01, 2020

The next event in Off the Page, the ongoing series of staged play readings presented by Sierra Madre Playhouse, is Bakersfield Mist. This was originally intended as a live event earlier this year, but will now be presented as a virtual staged reding (online) on Monday, June 15, 2020 at 7:30 p.m. This event will be the first in a projected series of Sierra Madre Playhouse Virtual Online events.

BWW Spotlight Series: Meet Simon Levy Who Began His Directing Career in San Francisco and Now Calls The Fountain Theatre His Home

April 20, 2020

This Spotlight focuses on Simon Levy who began his directing career in San Francisco, then moved to Los Angeles in 1990 where he has been the Producing Director for the Fountain Theatre since 1993. His directing and producing credits are numerous, with over 100 productions in Los Angeles and San Francisco that have won more than 200 awards. His journey has been blessed with having wonderful mentors along the way, which has enabled the talented director to earn his living doing theatre and earned him great respect from the entire L.A. Theatre community.

BWW Spotlight Series: Meet Actor Rob Nagle from “Human Interest Story” at the Fountain Theatre

April 02, 2020

With the current theatre world on hiatus, I have created a Spotlight Series on Broadway World Los Angeles which features interviews with some of the many talented artists who make our Los Angeles theatre community so exciting and vibrant thanks to their ongoing contribution to keeping the arts alive in the City of the Angels. And like all of us, how are they dealing with the abrupt end of productions in which they were involved? This Spotlight focuses on Rob Nagle, a proud member of the Antaeus Theatre Company and the Troubadour Theater Company, who was in the fourth week of performances of the world premiere of Human Interest Story at the Fountain Theatre when the production was forced to postpone the run.

BWW Spotlight Series: Meet Tanya Alexander – Spoken Word Artist and Lead Actor in HUMAN INTEREST STORY at the Fountain Theatre

March 27, 2020

With the current theatre world on hiatus, I have created a Spotlight Series on Broadway World Los Angeles which features interviews with some of the many talented artists who make our Los Angeles theatre community so exciting and vibrant thanks to their ongoing contribution to keeping the arts alive in the City of the Angels. And like all of us, how are they dealing with the abrupt end of productions in which they were involved? This Spotlight focuses on Tanya Alexander, a spoken word artist and writer of poetry and music, who I recently reviewed in her leading role in HUMAN INTEREST STORY at the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood, in which she plays Jane Doe, an anonymous homeless woman plucked from a park bench and made a media celebrity.

BAKERSFIELD MIST is Coming to Sierra Madre Playhouse

March 06, 2020

The next event in Off the Page, the ongoing series of staged play readings at Sierra Madre Playhouse, is Bakersfield Mist.

BWW Review: Timely New Play HUMAN INTEREST STORY Focuses on Homelessness, Celebrity Worship and Truth in American Journalism

February 24, 2020

This thought-provoking testament to the universal struggle of living day-to-day in a society whose apathy seems to know no bounds for the down-and-out will grab your attention and keep you at the edge of your seat as Jane Doe's story unfolds. Tanya Alexander's magnificent ability to morph herself from a homeless woman in dirty clothing, sitting on a park bench holding a sign stating a?oeI am NOT Invisiblea?? allows us to see where she has been and how much she really desires to pick herself up by her bootstraps and do whatever is necessary to survive. As she achieves celebrity status, Alexander opens to heart and soul and lets us see into Jane Doe's guilt of having survived when others have not. And as Jane Doe's fortunes rise, Alexander is costumed to perfection in lovely, form-fitting dresses designed by Shon LeBlanc that would allow Jane Doe to shine anywhere.

Photo Flash: World Premiere of HUMAN INTEREST STORY at the Fountain Theatre

February 17, 2020

The Fountain Theatre presents the world premiere of a timely new play, written and directed by Stephen Sachs (Arrival & Departure, Citizen: An American Lyric, Bakersfield Mist), about homelessness, celebrity worship and truth in American journalism. Human Interest Story opens at the Fountain on Feb. 15, where performances continue through April 5.

Fountain Announces 2020 30th Anniversary Season

February 04, 2020

Deborah Culver and Stephen Sachs founded the Fountain Theatre in an intimate, Spanish-style, East Hollywood building that belies the sizable local impact and international reach of the company's acclaimed and award-winning productions. Now entering its 30th year as one of the most highly regarded theaters in Los Angeles, the Fountain is announcing a celebratory 2020 season of dynamic premieres and events.