Fall Preview: Part 2

I recently posted a preview of the major LA-area theaters and their upcoming seasons. What I left out was the fact that LA has a lot more theater than these major houses. To do effective LA theater coverage, you have to pay attention not only to the major companies, but to bushels of smaller ensembles. Many of these are actor and/or director focused groups that grew up around a group of people getting together and putting on a show. They are often idiosyncratic both in their play selection and their style, although some have more concrete missions than others. They usually occupy 99-seat houses (or smaller) that they rent out when they don't have a show in production. At the best, these ensembles can be groups of hard-working, dedicated theater professionals with a clear purpose and goal, creating and perfecting a vision of theater. At their worst, they can be vanity-driven cliques with no real purpose. Often they are a combination of the two, but there's always good work out there being done by talented, creative, committed people, and it is worth the effort to find it.

I will try to limit myself to only those that are established companies with their own home theaters and a consistent reputation. I haven't seen shows from all of these people, but I will try to explain what I know about them, though that may be hearsay and general impressions. This is a personal list of what's on my radar, and I make no claims to its accuracy or comprehensiveness. Anyone who knows things I've forgotten is welcome to add them in the comments. This has taken a while, but it's also a pretty big endeavor. Bear with me. I'll start with what I know.

East West Players. They should really have gone into my last posting, as they are fairly large and well established. They have a lovely new theater and they do an excellent combination of plays that address Asian and Asian-American issues and well-known mainstream plays. I saw a quite solid Sweeney Todd there last year. Their upcoming season looks reasonably strong. I'm most likely to see Surfing DNA, of which I saw a great reading a few years ago at CTG's now-defunct New Works Festival. I am skeptical about Yellow Face and exactly what kind of deal EWP and its subscribers get for this show "co-produced" with the Taper. Is this one less show in the normal EWP season, and if so, isn't that a loss rather than a gain for the Asian-American theater community?

I had a friend involved with Son of Semele Ensemble for a while, so I'm more familiar with their work than I am with a lot of other companies. They do a lot of bold, often "experimental" work with a postmodern approach to narrative. Their pieces are often visually stunning and creative, though I often feel that their play selection and aesthetic are a bit overly masculine-driven. They haven't announced their 2007 season yet, but I'm excited to see the last show of their 2006 season, Iphigenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell That Was Once Her Heart: A Rave Fable by Caridad Svich. They did a reading of this that disturbed me for its seeming-ignorance of the politics and gender issues of the play, but if they're doing some decent research to back up the full production, it could be a fascinating show.

Company of Angels doesn't have anything announced past Arlington by Garry Michael White, which just finished its run, but they reliably do interesting work and have a tendency toward political issues, so they're a good company to watch.

The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble has a solid season announced, though it has a few empty slots still. They've oddly programmed two backstage dramas, but they both sound interesting. I'm most excited about Paula Vogel's The Oldest Profession, which sounds like fun. Their Threepenny Opera last year was apparently excellent.

A Noise Within is devoted to producing works of "classical dramatic literature" including two Shakespeare plays every year. Their upcoming season doesn't excite me too much, but I will definitely see Joe Orton's Loot, which I love.

The Blank Theatre Company only has two plays in its 2006 season, and is currently mounting the second of those, Hotel C'est l'Amour, which is a world-premiere musical. The company may be most notable for having Noah Wyle as its artistic producer (he seems to be actually heavily involved in the company and not just a name). But famous actors notwithstanding, I was sad to have missed their last show, Lobster Alice, which sounded like good, intelligent fun.

The Celebration Theatre is Los Angeles' Gay and Lesbian Theater, though their 2006/07 season seems to be all gay male at the moment. They just had a turnover in their artistic directors, so it's hard to say what their work will be like, but I'm interested in seeing.

Cornerstone Theater Company is pretty unique in Los Angeles, and quite possibly in the US. They are committed to ensemble work with a multi-ethnic company who does community-based work. They tell the stories of the many communities in Los Angeles in fascinating and creative ways. Their upcoming shows include The Falls at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Personally, I'm curious about Beyond the Beyond: Gay Futureworld, which is a collaboration with gay youth and seniors. Cornerstone's co-founding artistic director, Bill Rauch, was recently appointed artistic director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which may be a loss to the LA theater scene, but should be exciting for the theater community in general.

Speaking of loss to the LA theater scene, I feel like I should mention the evidence room, which lost its space and closed its doors this summer. The evidence room did a lot of great work, and I'm hoping that something great manages to rise from the ashes of its closing, but in the meantime, we are suffering from the loss.

I hear good things about Circle X Theater Co., though I've never seen a play there. They generally do solid productions of new plays with the occasional obscure but not new play. They don't seem to want to list upcoming productions on their website, but their next play appears to be Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice, which I will definitely go see. Their myspace page has more information.

Rogue Artists is a company devoted to work with masks, puppets, projections and other creative visual elements. They are currently working on The Victorian Hotel created and written by cartoonist Angus Oblong. It sounds like a fascinating and fun piece, and I'm curious about what they'll do with it. What I'm really excited about, however, is their upcoming production of The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch, based on the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. As a serious Gaiman fan, I can't wait for this.

Theatre of Note doesn't seem to have much information on its upcoming season on its website, but their next play is The Bomba Trilogy: Illumination, F*ckjoy, Darkness by Christopher Kelley. Unfortunately, useful information is tragically lacking on their website, but here's what the LA Times has to say. I haven't been to note in over a year, but one of the plays I saw there was mind-blowingly excellent and another was intelligent, if not perfect. They do a lot of new work that is solid and well-written. Here they are on myspace.

Rude Guerilla Theater Company is a company down in Orange County. I usually like their play selections, though the quality of their productions is hit-or-miss. They tend to do an interesting selection of gay plays each year. Their 2006 season has two more plays in it: Hamletmachine by Heiner Muller and Pale Horse by Joe Penhall. I don't know anything about Pale Horse, but Hamletmachine is a bold and ambitious choice and it will be interesting to see what they do with it.

Sacred Fools Theater Company is making it difficult for me to link to their 10th season, but its most exciting element is Bukowsical, a musical based (loosely) on the life and works of Charles Bukowski. They did this as a late-night production last year, and it got great reviews. I should totally go see it.

Third Stage Theatre seems to exist mostly to be home to work by writer/director Justin Tanner, most notable for the productions Pot Mom (in which Laurie Metcalf performed) and Zombie Attack. His work is wacky, campy, and just plain fun. They're not doing anything right now, but when they do it's worth seeing.

The Attic Theatre and Film Center occasionally does some interesting shows. They are doing Closer right now. Their website is infuriating, so I'm not going to spend much time and effort on them.

I don't know anything about The Road Theatre Company, but right now they're doing Dirk, an adaptation of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams, which is awesome.

OK, these are the companies that have come to mind at the moment. I'm sure I left out many deserving recognition, but there are some exciting things going on here in LA theater.