“I’m an actor and a coach.” OK. What else? After teaching acting on Hollywood Row for years, Anthony Gilardi of Anthony Gilardi Acting Studio wanted to do more. He did. He created HIPPOLife, a non-profit dedicated to using art as a means of rehabilitation, social awareness, creative expression, empowerment, and helping his fellow man/woman. I recently sat down with Anthony to find out more. Forming a nonprofit and creating active ...
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Beyond The Hollywood Fringe
Is there life after the Hollywood Fringe Festival? Yes! Of course! Last season Hollywood Fringe founder Ben Hill spoke to the excitement and changes with each HFF season, including some of the How To’s for international shows participating in the local scene . But a next step for productions who want to go further than a 2-week run once the #fringeproms, Twitter chats and regular ...
Read More »Rare Vonnegut Comes To Sacred Fools
Ben Rock (Blair Witch Project, Alien Raiders, Baal, Occupation, Taste) laying out his Sirens of Titan Show & Tell – script, program, tattered teen tome and set design specs – was like discovering ancient artifacts that were going to change the course of human history. “I brought some visual aids to show you. One of them is the original script that I got from the ...
Read More »Native American Voices at The Autry
Native Voices at the Autry Museum in Los Angeles, CA is giving a loud voice to the stories of Native American people in Fairly Traceable a romantic dramedy, currently being presented as a world premiere, written by Mary Kathryn Nagle, Cherokee citizen, playwright and partner at Pipestem Law, a firm specializing in the sovereignty of Native tribes and peoples. The story follows two law students ...
Read More »There’s No Place Like Home
Creating a home in the arts is a common occurrence. The camaraderie and shared experiences. Common ground and common goals. Hours and hours spent talking, planning, designing and performing. Building something that will last. It’s no surprise that any kid on his or her own might be drawn to all that dynamic energy and open creativity. For Road Theatre Company Resident Director Andre Barron, theater ...
Read More »Little Children Dream of God at the Road
Who doesn’t love a good story? A woman’s desperate escape fomented by mysticism, a violent past, dark magic, a baby who doesn’t cry, an assemblage of outlandish, urban characters and dreams… vivid, terrifying, portentous, hopeful. Just a taste of what’s in store at The Road Theatre’s February 2017 West Coast premiere of Little Children Dream of God, by playwright Jeff Augustin, about a Haitian immigrant ...
Read More »Practical Coeurage
A Saturday afternoon lunch with Jeremy Lelliot, founding artistic director of Coeurage Theatre Company, immediately erupted into a snowball of hilarious storytelling in which Jeremy also revealed an intriguing insight about himself. “I love baseball. I played baseball for one inning. Second base. I’d been on the bench the whole time pre-season. In the first game, the ball hit my glove, jumped up, hit my ...
Read More »Burt Young’s Last Vig? Not Quite
Walking in at the tail end of rehearsal to interview Academy Award-nominated actor Burt Young (Rocky, Chinatown, The Pope of Greenwich Village), starring this month in The Last Vig, a new comedy by David Varriale at the Zephyr Theatre, was like stepping into my dad’s old social club where many a film, tv and music star, played and lost at poker at one time or ...
Read More »Opening the Dialog for Women in Theater
Summer 2015 was the genesis of a thought: Write about powerful women in Los Angeles Theater. Focus upon a more cohesive picture of theater culture. Open up a dialog about what the landscape really looked like for women. And discuss their integration in the performing arts. There was this temptation of course to be the underdog. In the last year alone, I’ve read article after ...
Read More »Diverse Culture at Towne Street Theatre
This month Towne Street Theatre hit the Hollywood radar with Passing Solo, a memory play set in the 1920s about two African American women who share a secret: Their birth certificates read “Negro” but both can – and do – pass as white. Footlights took the opportunity to speak with company co-founder, artistic director, and star, Nancy Cheryll Davis-Bellamy, to get some insight about this ...
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