Shari Barrett - Page 6

Ever wonder what it's like to be blind? Find out on Thursday, July 29, at 8PM when you join an online/virtual performance, 'Private Eyes: A Blind Experience,' an unforgettable event in which audience members become detectives who must use their senses to help solve a mystery case - all while blindfolded! This hour-long interactive audio drama will be performed entirely by blind actors from ArtsUp! LA's nationally recognized program, Theatre By The Blind.

Are you ready to get back onstage in front of a live, indoor audience at the newly renovated Westchester Playhouse?  Kentwood Players is casting the role of CASSANDRA in Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, directed by Susan Stangl and produced by Alison Boole and Myron Klafter. Now is your chance to join in the fun!

It's been quite a year and our new Board of Directors looks forward to an exciting 2021-22 Season with our continuing YouTube Channel programming including KP Live Interviews, Special Events and our Virtual Theater Series. And most importantly, the re-launch of our home theater, THE WESTCHESTER PLAYHOUSE, this Fall.

With live theatre slowly returning to Los Angeles, Theatre Palisades veteran director Sherman Wayne is presenting 'When Shakespeare's Ladies Meet' by Charles George, which was safely recorded live on April 24th on the Theatre Palisades stage. The one-act 30-minute play is now streaming on the Broadway on Demand platform June 1 through June 5. And the group's Youth Theatre Program is presenting 'Disney's Aladdin Jr.' this summer.

During the past year's pandemic shutdown, Kentwood Players has been working on very necessary upgrades to their home, the Westchester Playhouse, so that when the time is right to reopen it will be totally up-to-date and compliant with all necessary safety protocols to ensure the enjoyment of live indoor theatre again! To assist in raising funds for the ongoing and much-needed major renovations, the public is invited to attend A NIGHT WITH GILBERT & SULLIVAN, a very special online benefit event of music and entertainment written by the Kings of Patter, presented on the Kentwood Players You Tube channel on Friday, May 28 at 7pm at youtube.com/kentwoodplayers

Here is my interview with Gloria Gifford about presenting LOVERS AND OTHER STRANGERS live-streamed online as well as her Gloria Gifford Conservatory and how she is managing to keep her students active during the past year.

I have been following talented writer/director Michael Leoni who so brilliantly tells stories about young people struggling to find their place in the world from his World Premiere play FAMOUS at the 11:11 Experience in WeHo (now his next film in post-production), to his first film AMERICAN STREET KID, and now WHEN TODAY ENDS. Here are some thoughts he shared about the creation of his latest film.

How a director envisions a production makes all the difference in its prestation to an audience, starting with casting and continuing through rehearsals and all technical aspects of the show. I spoke with Branda Lock on bringing her vivid imagination and directing skills to George Bernard Show’s PYGMALION, filled with unique Lock-inspired changes to the casting which promise to shed new light on this classic tale of class struggles in Shaw’s time.

Antaeus Theatre Company highlights the culture and history of six additional Los Angeles neighborhoods with Season Two of its popular 'The Zip Code Plays: Los Angeles' podcast series, set to launch May 20. Here are my interviews with the four female directors who discuss their own personal histories within the Zip Code Plays they direct. (Gigi Bermingham, Jennifer Chang, Saundra McClain, and Bernadette Speakes)

A BINTEL BRIEF, comprised of a selection of sixty years of letters from the lower East Side of New York to The Jewish Daily Forward, a popular local paper among the Yiddish speaking immigrants, is being presented online by Pacific Resident Theatre, I wanted to find out more about how the production was conceived, directed and produced to find out if anyone on the team also shares a family story similar to mine. Here is what producer Marilyn Fox shared with me.

The non-profit Kentwood Players, founded more than 70 years ago, is one of the longest-lasting community theatre companies in Los Angeles (and the nation.) Through the decades, Kentwood Players has staged more than 400 productions, touching the lives of tens of thousands of people throughout the region and beyond. It has been a haven for artists, a home for creativity and expression, and a reliable resource for high-quality community theatre in the southland, now showcased on the Kentwood Players Virtual Theater Series on You Tube.

Stu James answers questions about his virtual theatre appearance in SLOW FOOD, a tender, uproarious comedy by Wendy MacLeod and directed by Marya Mazor for International City Theatre. In this uproarious comedy, a vacationing couple heads to a Greek restaurant in Palm Springs for their anniversary dinner, only to be confronted with the worst service imaginable by a waiter who knows no limits to his meddling.

LEGENDS AND BRIDGE is a comedy imagining former, silver-screen legend Joan Crawford (matronly, washed-up, and pickled on spiked Pepsi) who invites Judy Garland (recently fired from her CBS TV show) and Bette Davis (bitter at no longer being the “Queen of Hollywood”) up to her Manhattan apartment in 1964 to live with her as they work on a “secret” film project. I find it difficult to believe anyone reading this does not already know about the three screen legends featured in the show. But just to be sure, I decided to interview the three actors portraying them to find out more about what it was like to portray such well-known personalities.

Two solo explorations of female identity, written and performed by two funny Latinx-American women, are being presented by IAMA Theatre Company: ANYONE BUT ME, written and performed by Sheila Carrasco, directed by Margaux Susi; and THE OXY COMPLEX, written and performed by Anna LaMadrid, directed by Michelle Bossy. While following strict Covid-19 guidelines, both were filmed live at L.A.’s Pico Playhouse and will premiere virtually on March 21 at www.iamatheatre.com, where each will continue streaming through April 18. Sheila Carrasco, a resident of Santa Monica, just wrapped filming ANYONE BUT ME. As a fellow Westsider, I decided to speak with her about that experience prior to seeing her show.

Founded in 2002 as an artists' ensemble, Little Fish Theatre presents classic and contemporary plays in an intimate setting on Centre Street in the Arts District of downtown San Pedro. With the pandemic forcing the shutdown of live theatre, Little Fish Theatre’s 2021 Virtual Season offers up a tasty serving of this year’s best short plays with Pick of the Vine.

I recently spoke with writer/performer Mitch Feinstein on this autobiographical journey in FOR LOVE OR MONEY that invites all of us to consider: Can we learn lessons and make changes, or is it too late? Set at the onset of the pandemic, a successful 76-year-old businessman is forced to examine his choices in life, what he thinks he has achieved, and what he feels he has lost. Why did he so fervently quest for money and security at the expense of his own happiness and the trampling of his artistic soul?

Kentwood Players Virtual Theater Series Continues in 2021 with “Three Syllables of Shame,” “Surf’s Up,” “State of Independence” and “Happy and Gay.” Also seeking new Zoom-formatted plays and directors interested in helming future VTS plays, as well as graphic artists interested in submitting a new logo design!

Dogs Are Better Than People, written and performed by Sarah Hunter, and developed and directed by Jessica Lynn Johnson, is an eccentric romp through drinking, bad men, and fabulous dogs who each tell Sarah’s story. But why, you may ask, does Sarah Hunter truly believe that Dogs are better than people? I spoke with her to find out

AUDITIONS for STATE OF INDEPENDENCE, a Part of Kentwood Players Virtual Theater Series, Written for Zoom by Paul Koster and Directed by Susan Goldman Weisbarth, will be held via Zoom on Saturday, January 23, 2021, from 12pm – 4pm PST, by appointment only or Sunday, January 24, 2021, 7pm-9pm PST, by appointment only

It's going to be a very busy weekend on December 19 and 20 for Kentwood Players with our 8th Annual Coat Drive, Auditions for 'Surf's Up,' Virtual Theater Series plays 'Recipe' and 'Together, Apart' along with our KP Live interview series on the Kentwood Players You Tube channel. Join us at youtube.com/kentwoodplayers