AN OCTOROON (Hollywood)
This Obie Award-winning
play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins will launch live performances on Fountain
Theatre’s new outdoor stage in June. Judith Moreland directs this outrageous
deconstruction of a moustache-twirling melodrama by 19th century playwright
Dion Boucicault. Matthew Hancock stars
as a modern-day Black playwright struggling to find his voice among a chorus of
people telling him what he should and should not be writing. He decides to
adapt his favorite play, Boucicault’s 'The
Octoroon' - an 1859 melodrama about illicit interracial love. The
Black playwright quickly realizes that getting White, male actors of today to
play evil slave owners will not be easy, so he decides to play the White male
roles himself - in whiteface. What ensues is an upside down, topsy-turvy world
where race and morality are challenged, mocked and savagely intensified.
 |
| Mara Klein |
This
theatrical melodrama tells the story of an octoroon woman - a person who is
one-eighth Black - and her quest for identity and love. The cast includes Rob Nagle as playwright Boucicault; Mara Klein (photo) as Zoe the Octoroon; Hazel Lozano as a production
assistant, and Vanessa Claire Stewart
as a Southern belle in love with the plantation owner (Hancock in whiteface).
Meanwhile, Leea Ayers,
Kacie Rogers and Pam Trotter portray three
startlingly modern slave women. The play
satirizes racial stereotypes in a whirlwind of images and dialogue that forces
audiences to look at America’s racist history exposed.
Production
manager for the Fountain’s outdoor stage is Shawna Voragen, with scenic design by Frederica Nascimento. Stephen Sachs and
Simon Levy co-produce;
associate producer is James Bennett,
while Barbara Herman and
Susan Stockel are
executive producers. Theatre is
at 5060 Fountain Avenue (at
Normandie) in Los Angeles. For
information call (323)
663-1525 or go to www.FountainTheatre.com.
TEVYE IN NEW YORK (Beverly Hills)
Wallis
Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts re-opens in June with an outdoor
performance space with tiered seating, creative lighting and sound. With a firm
commitment to the health and safety of staff, artists and patrons, it
accommodates 100 socially distanced audience members each night. This Return of
In-Person Audiences to The Wallis launches with the World Premiere performance
of a one-man show written, co-directed and performed by Tom Dugan
and co-directed and designed by Michael Vale.
Ever wonder what happened to Tevye, wife Golde,
and their daughters, after the curtain came down in Fiddler on the Roof? Tevye
in New York finally answers this decades-old question. Follow Tevye as he
fights for his piece of the American dream - his journey with his family across
the Atlantic Ocean, through Ellis Island, and into the crowded streets of
Manhattan’s Lower East Side. You’ll fall in love with Tevye all over again in
this funny and poignant one-man show. For
performance dates and ticket information: 310-746-4000 or https://thewallis.org.
Best
known for presenting lively and engaging renditions of the works of William Shakespeare, Will Geer's Theatricum
Botanicum will open the season on Saturday,
July 10 at 7:30 p.m. with a fresh look at Shakespeare’s
iconic thriller about power, politics and the elusive nature of truth through a
different lens. Director Ellen Geer
tells the tale from the vantage point of the Soothsayer. Audiences yearning for
live theater after a year-long drought can satisfy their cravings by returning
the next day, Sunday, July 11 at 4 p.m., for the opening of 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream'. This version
infuses the Bard’s beautiful language with music and song to heighten the
pleasure. For tickets call (310)
455–3723, or go to www.theatricum.com.
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