LA Fall Preview

Several of the NY Theater blogs did a bit of a fall preview post listing the shows they're most interested in seeing. Here they are (in no particular order) from Parabasis, Superfluities, Mr. Excitement, Theatre Conversation, On Theatre and Politics, Joshua James, Adam Szymkowicz, and Jamespeak. I have my own list of the things I would see if I were in NY, but for today, lets focus on LA. I have no intention of limiting myself to 3 or 10 plays - I'm just going to ramble about what sounds interesting. LA's theater scene seems a little harder to capture and summarize that New York's. The LA Times Fall Arts Preview, was fairly limited, and revolved around major articles on Doubt and Edward Scissorhands. There are so many little (and not so little) theater companies around LA that don't announce a season but program all the time that it's hard to predict what I'll see until I get an email about it and it sounds interesting. So I'll try to do a round-up of both seasons I know about and companies I'm watching.

So, first off, I'll talk for a minute about the big one, CTG. I actually purchased student season tickets for the Taper this season. To be fair, I had season tickets for the first two years I lived in LA. When Ritchie arrived and announced his unappealing (straight white male-focued) season, I chose not to renew last year and the only shows I paid for at CTG last season were Water and Power and The Black Rider (my parents bought tickets to other shows at the Ahmanson which I attended with them). For the record, I'm not any more excited about this season than about last and part of me feels I should continue to boycott. But, I do believe in subscribing to theater, they offer a student discount that makes the tickets cheaper than any other way I could get them during the year (of course, the seats are lousy, but you get what you pay for), and I feel like even if I see a bunch of bad shows, I have more right to complain as a subscriber. So, I will be seeing Doubt and Edward Scissorhands, along with Nightengale, 13! The Musical, Distracted, and Yellow Face. At the very least, two of the plays are by women and one is by David Henry Hwang, so however much I doubt these selections, there's a little more diversity. If I didn't have season tickets, I might have seen Doubt and I would definitely have seen Edward Scissorhands and Yellow Face. I will probably also see Dogeaters at the Kirk Douglas.

The Geffen has a solid season but nothing that really strikes my interest. I might pick up tickets to a preview, but generally the Geffen is too expensive for me and terrible about student discounts.

The season is already well underway at The Actor's Gang with Love's Labor's Lost, which was in my opinion far from perfect, but interesting nonetheless. I'm curious to see what they do with Brecht's Drums in the Night and Gulliver's Travels.

Highways announces its shows quarterly, and their most recent list is winding down, but Rocks in My Salsa sounds interesting and The Discount Cruise to Hell could be either scary or fun (or both).

The UCLA Live International Theater Festival has great offerings. I want to see Tale of 2Cities and I will definitely see Mabou Mines Doll House. I'm not going to devote this entire weekend to seeing The Peony Pavillion, however, even though I should. Their scheduling is particularly idiotic this year. Two multi-part performances on overlapping weekends! ARGH! If they spread these fabulous offerings out over more than just fall quarter, I would be much more likely to see them. And if they offered a student season subscription, I probably would have bought tickets to the whole series, but since I get student tickets much more cheaply by the show, why should I subscribe? And then I miss shows because it becomes less convenient if I don't plan these things in advance.

Down in Orange County, I'm excited about A Marvelous Party at The Laguna Playhouse. Nothing really strikes me as a must-see at South Coast Rep, but they generally do a good job there with whatever they've got.

At REDCAT, the big must-see for the season is probably Michael Gordon and Richard Foreman's What to Wear, which I'm going to miss because of my slowness on ticket-purchasing. I might want to see Ann Magnuson's Pretty Songs and Ugly Stories.

Fences at the Pasadena Playhouse is probably the other must-see of the season that I've already missed.

The Theatre at Boston Court is still finishing up last season with The America Play by Suzan-Lori Parks, which I'm going to try to see.

Whew. That's just the round-up of what could be called major established LA-area theaters (and performance spaces) that are on my radar. Up next (after I get some work done) will be what I can dig up about the smaller LA theater companies, whose offerings are usually as if not more exciting. You've probably learned more about me and what I find interesting than you've learned about LA, but that's OK.