Los Angeles Theater

When Hollywood offers New York novelist Stine the opportunity to adapt his books into a film for the silver screen, he packs up and moves to the home of perennial sunshine, palm trees, and stars. Tony award-winning City of Angels moves between the beautiful Technicolor world of Hollywood and Stine’s glamorous film noir-in-progress of the same title. While Stine’s movie plays out in black and white, Stine finds the dangerous temptations of the world of Los Angeles – the distraction of women, the lure of fame, and the artistic compromises being made right and left – all too colorful. Witty and glamorous, City of Angels features a sensational jazz score, including popular songs, “You Can Always Count on Me,” “Tennis Song,” and “I’m Nothing Without You.”

Sally lives with her mysterious family in a cavernous home overlooking Los Angeles. When a visitor arrives, Sally's dark secrets-- and the secrets of those around her-- threaten to come to light.

Set in California in 1941 and 1951, HOLLYWOOD ARMS is the funny and moving story of three generations of women living on welfare in a one-room apartment, one block north of Hollywood Boulevard. The cast of characters includes a tough, funny yet tender pill-popping Christian Scientist grandmother; a beautiful, wide-eyed and distant mother who is struggling to be a writer, only to drown her ambitions in a bottle; a loving but absent and alcoholic father; and a young girl whose only escape is up on the roof of their rundown apartment house, where she creates her own magical world at the foot of the Hollywood Hills. Finally, it’s a story about shattered hopes and realized dreams.

Alex Smith, a young boy who has recently lost both his parents in the tragedy of 9/11, is forced to move to Los Angeles to live with his only living relative, his grandmother: a strong-willed Chicana named Marta Torres. Both Alex and Marta struggle to navigate their feelings after this loss. Ultimately, Alex and Marta acknowledge, for the first time, their mutual love for each other and come to the understanding that their journey as a family is just beginning. It is a journey with no easy answers, but they are both willing to try to find their way…together.

The first collection of plays by one of the most moving and astonishing writers of the last 15 years. Though critics reflexively class his work as “magical realism,” Rivera’s extravagant, original imagery always serves to illuminate the gritty realities and touching longings of our daily lives. Also includes: Each Day Dies with Sleep and Cloud Tectonics.

1955. A housekeeping contest sponsored by the Southern California Gas Company pits four housewives against each other in sewing, cooking, ironing and "My Proudest Moment" in evening gown. Dot, an ex Navy WAVE enters the contest with the help of her neighbor Babs an ex-aircraft electrician. As the competition increases, Dot has to choose between the advice of her male Gas Company sponsor or her female best friend, and discovers her strength and dignity at the very last moment.

In this trio of plays, Culture Clash rewrites California's past in the performance troupe's own irreverent comic style, interweaving pop culture with their home state's local history. Includes plays: Chavez Ravine, Water & Power and Zorro in Hell.

This is a knockabout satiric tale of three on-the-skids vaudeville troupers -- Jerry, Mae, and George -- who decide to head for Hollywood and try their luck at the newest craze: "talkies." After a hilarious series of consistent blunders, the unassuming George is carried to fame and fortune becoming (for a short time, at least) a captain of The Industry. This fast-paced, wild romp offers marvelous character opportunities, while spoofing the absurdities of Tinsel Town.

Five well known plays by well known playwright and screenwriter Josefina Lopez presented with a detailed introduction from Dr. Jorge A. Huerta. Real Women Have Curves explores the politics of beauty and the power women have when working together. Simply Maria or the American Dream deals with the struggle of a young Mexican girl to find her identity and stay true to her self and her dreams. Confessions of Women from East L.A. shatters stereotypes of Latina women by providing complex explorations into to the Latina experience. Food for the Dead is a satirical look at machismo while celebrating Mexican cultural traditions and sexual liberation. Unconquered Spirits explores the legend of "La Llorona" from a Chicana feminist perspective retelling the spiritual conquest of Mexico and celebrating the unbeatable spirit of the indigenous and Chicanos.

TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992 is a stunning new work of “documentary theatre” in which Anna Deavere Smith uses the verbatim words of people who experienced the Los Angeles riots to expose and explore the devastating human impact of that event. From nine months of interviews with more than two hundred people, Smith has chosen the voices that best reflect the diversity and tension of a city in turmoil: a disabled Korean man, a white male Hollywood talent agent, a Panamanian immigrant mother, a teenage black gang member, a macho Mexican-American artist, Rodney King’s aunt, beaten truck driver Reginald Denny, former Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates and other witnesses, participants and victims.

This anthology includes three of playwright and screenwriter Luis Valdez's most important and recognized plays, Zoot Suit, Bandido! and I Don't Have to Show You No Stinking Badges, and an introduction by noted theater critic Dr. Jorge Huerta of the University of California-San Diego. Valdez is the director of the famous farm-worker theater, El Teatro Campesino.