I’m still in L.A. The pop-up Engine 28, for which I and 20 fellow Fellows from USC Annenberg’s NEA Arts Journalism Institute for Theater been working all week, has popped back down and won’t be adding any new stories or posts. The site was a purposefully short-lived thing, which we loaded up with hundreds of articles, posts and videos in a mere five days. Those stories will remain up, so go read ‘em and let us know how we did. Some of the shows reviewed by us, particularly at the Hollywood Fringe, are still running for another week, and the The National Asian American Theater Festival is just getting started. The Theatre Communications Group conference and the Radar L.A. festival—the main events we covered at Engine28—finished up over the weekend.
I’ve seen 11 shows since I’ve been here. Links below are to my own writings, but there are plenty of others weighing in on most of these shows at Engine28:
Tuesday: Travis Preston & Poor Dog Group’s stage adaptation of Gertrude Stein’s Brewsie & Willie in a loft space downtown.
Wednesday: Rude Mechs’ The Method Gun at the Kirk Douglas Theater in L.A. (part of the Radar L.A. festival).
Thursday: Teatro Linea de Sombra’s Amarillo at Redcat (Radar L.A.)
Friday: Three Hollywood Fringe pieces: Cynthia Glucksman’s one-act comp CODA: The Debut Album at Complex Theatre, the gay glam rock murder mystery Charlie! The Death of Nancy Fullhouse and Girl Band in the Men’s Room (both at Fringe Annex).
Saturday: Paul F. Tompkin’s live Pod F. Tompkast at Largo at the Coronet.
Sunday: Back to the Fringe for Larry Blum’s idiosyncratic stageside career retrospective BLINK and You’ll Miss Me (Theatre Asylum), the musical comedy karma of Lost Moon Radio Episode 10 (Fringe Mainstage) and Hungry River Theatre Co.’s credulity-challenged Cowboy Mouth (back to Theatre Asylum). Then I caught the calming if kinetic coda of Chelfitsch’s Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech at L.A. Theatre Center (Radar L.A.).
Not to mention all those lectures, symposia, parties, pitch proposal round tables and late-night HBO in the hotel room.
On the other hand, I missed The Fleshtones at Cafe Nine back in New Haven.
So glad to see you found Mabel Normand’s star!