Comedy

You’ll laugh… You’ll cry…You’ll think. Extended! The return production of Jerry Mayer’s engaging dramedy, set in 1963 St. Louis and based on a true event, explores the ripple effect in the neighborhood when a well-to-do black scientist Dan Black, wants to buy a home in an upscale, all-white mostly Jewish neighborhood from the Jewish builder, Jeff Bluestein. Bluestein always tried to be a good liberal but breaking the color barrier could break his bank account and even his marriage. Tension, conflict, prejudice, fear of plunging home values, and Jewish guilt add up to gripping drama and laugh-out- loud comedy.

“Recommended”- LA Times “Invigorating, engaging, valid.”
“A surprisingly nuanced and personal play.” – L.A. Weekly
“The recent changes on the political landscape give the piece an added punch
and relevance” –BackStage West

Announcing the 4th production in Theatre of NOTE's "SEASON OF LONGING" :

An amalgam of madness and desire presented in FOUR SHORT ACTS!

INDECENT ACTS!
Four original one-act plays

ROOM 17C by Rosalyn Drexler - West Coast Premiere!
LUNA by Jason Grote - WORLD PREMIERE!
GLANCING AT THE WAR by Coleman Hough - WORLD PREMIERE!
TRUE LOVE WAITS by Boo Killebrew - West Coast Premiere!

Theatre of NOTE is proud to present INDECENT ACTS! as a kick-off to their "Season of Longing" late-night series.
Miss America, Jesus, cocaine, cockroaches and Willy Loman's wife Linda bring various skewed perspectives to the NOTE stage for a late-night snackof comical dysfunction, bizarre obsessions and off-beat humor.

Sacred Fools' late-night serial sensation!

Each week, three continuing stories face off against two new tales.

At the end of the show, you vote for the three stories that you would like to see continue on to next Saturday night, where their subsequent episodes will then be pitted against two completely new storylines.

Each week's serials could live on for weeks... or be quietly smothered in their sleep – it’s up to you. But whichever pieces you vote for, one thing is for certain - by the end of the evening, you will be a Serial killer.

RECOMMENDED by L.A. Weekly!

THIS WEEK'S SERIALS! / READ A REVIEW!

L.A. TIMES FEATURE ARTICLE

REST assured, says "Magnum Opus" director Joe Jordan, "no puppy dogs were hurt in the making of this show."

Like everything in "Magnum Opus," that's meant to be taken literally.

"Opus" began as part of the Sacred Fools Theater Company's "Serial Killers" -- a long-running late-night show where serialized short plays competed with each other for audience favor and the right to return the next week for another installment. "Opus" presented itself as a mock "Masterpiece Theater" -- complete with theater-snob host Thurston Eberhard Hillsboro-Smythe (portrayed by actor Brandon Clark) -- and featured scrupulously faithful renditions of terribly written (hello, slush pile) screenplays, including live "dissolves," real-time montages and a handful of canine peepers (as in, "gives puppy dog eyes").

Something about the sincerely performed drivel struck a chord and "Opus" became "Serial Killers' " most popular act, racking up an unprecedented 36 episodes before finally succumbing to audiences' fickle tastes.

But now "Opus" is back...

"The comedy comes from taking these works and putting them in a theatrical context, out of translating them from screenplay to stage," Jordan says. "And that some of this stuff is so terrible, it's hilarious to hear it spoken out loud." Should one wonder how all this sounds to the authors of these works themselves, one will just have to continue wondering. "We're taking the tack that we're adapting it for the stage," Jordan explains. "It's not a strict interpretation. We haven't been in contact with the writers."

"I'm not sure they live in this country. Or speak English," Clark deadpans.

Although this lack of facility with the mother tongue can boost the humor (not even spelling errors have been corrected; "We just go with whatever the word turns into," Jordan says), people shouldn't look at "Magnum Opus" as a mere trifle, say the Fools.

"If it were just a joke, the audience would get over it," Clark says. "It's theater of the absurd, and it takes highly skilled actors. We're performing it as if it's Chekhov. The language of the production that Jordan has created is so specific and concise, it's almost a new style of acting. It could be taught, though I'm not sure who'd want to learn it."

There's also been the occasion when the Fools have forged a connection with these characters, momentarily elevating their stories.

"There's a show in there among all the silliness," Jordan says, before clarifying: "But it's mostly silliness."

-- Mindy Farabee
(c) 2007, L.A. Times

From writer Padraic Duffy and composer Bobby Stapf comes the world premiere musical based on the smash hit late night serial! Director Scott Leggett is back to lead Bunny, Beaver, Neville, and all your favorite characters in a brand new story.

Follow the story of Bunny and Beaver as they search for love and acceptance in an intolerant world. Celebrating down-home American music, from Bluegrass to Honky-tonk to Southern Rock, and everything in between, Beaverquest! takes the audience on a wonderfully absurd and comedic venture into the forest, replete with misguided communications, wacky villagers, and of course, a beaver hunt.

"...audaciously original... suggests what might result if the Dixie Chicks channeled William S. Burroughs while Ren and Stimpy stole Willie Nelson's stash... could become a toothsome cult hit." –L.A. TIMES (RECOMMENDED)

"...undeniably entrancing... the gay-rights answer to Animal Farm." - L.A. WEEKLY (GO)

More info:

http://www.SacredFools.org

http://www.BeaverquestTheMusical.com

Fafalo is a fairy tale for adults about a most unlikely candidate who is crowned king in the mythical kingdom of Galliandra. Using colorful Balinese masks and huge, spectacular puppets to conjure up the excitement and comedy of the circus, Ziggurat Theatre Ensemble creates a vibrant, topsy-turvy world that's as astonishing as it is hilarious. Fafalo is appropriate for adults and kids over the age of 8.

Fully masked throughout the play, six ensemble members - John Achorn, Julia Emelin, Anna Heinl, Li-Ann Lim, Jon Monastero and David Valdez - perform 18 roles in Fafalo. Custom-made masks have been commissioned from Bali, from master mask-maker Nyoman Setiawan.

Fafalo is led by director and playwright Stephen Legawiec, and the mask and movement coach is Dana Wieluns

"Mask is not part of the American popular theater tradition, and audiences rarely get to see fully masked productions by local companies," comments Dana Wieluns. "Mask work is physically and creatively demanding for actors because actors must use their entire bodies to make the mask come alive."

PEACHES EN REGALIA, written by Steven A. Lyons, a Bay Area playwright and a favorite of new play festivals nationwide, takes a facetious stab at how our current culture of “Self-Help” actually makes people all the more crazy. Peaches en Regalia won the Best of the Blitz ’05 award, and now L.A. audiences can reap the benefits.

SCOTT STEIN'S FIRST PLAY: A NEW PLAY BY SCOTT STEIN - by Scott Stein - is far from being Mr. Stein’s first play, but is a biting, hilarious commentary about navel-gazing playwrights and the effect that memory and imagination have on our lives.