Stephen Sachs News

The Fountain Theatre’s critically acclaimed, award-winning stage adaptation of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric has joined this summer’s Grand Performances line-up. Two free, outdoor performances are set to take place on Friday, Sept. 9 and Saturday, Sept. 10 at California Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles.

Next up at the Fountain Theatre, the L.A. premiere of Tony Award-winner Steven Levenson’s If I Forget beginning July 23, 2022 (with previews starting July 20th). Jason Alexander (also a Tony Award-winner) directs the cast of Síle Bermingham, Caribay Franke, Matt Gottlieb, Samantha Klein, Leo Marks, Valerie Perri, Jerry Weil and Jacob Zelonky. I had the opportune occasion to throw out a few queries to Jason, the well-known TV actor and respected L.A. Theatre community denizen.

The Fountain Theatre will livestream the final performance of Roe by Lisa Loomer on Sunday, July 10 beginning at 8 p.m. PT/11 p.m. ET. The event will be made available free of charge as a public service to audiences abound the country.

The Fountain Theatre will once again jump into action with a “hyper-staged” reading of Roe, a powerful, poignant and often humorous play by Lisa Loomer that cuts through the headlines to reveal the real-life women behind Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that gave women the right to safe, legal abortion. 

 How do families stay together, even when they are kept apart? Performances of Detained at Fountain Theatre will continue through April 10.

Certainly, almost every American can talk about how we are descendants of immigrants who dreamed of living in a free country and did whatever was necessary to arrive on our shores. As a direct descendant of four grandparents and one parent who escaped from Eastern Europe in the early 20th Century, when I read about the Fountain Theatre presenting the world premiere of DETAINED, written by The Lily's 2021 Lorraine Hansberry Award-winning playwright France-Luce Benson, 'a gripping new docudrama composed of a compilation of true stories that explores the rippling impact of mass deportations on families,' I knew I wanted to speak with her about her inspiration and vision for the play.

How do families stay together, even when they are kept apart? The Fountain Theatre presents a gripping new docudrama, a compilation of true stories that explores the rippling impact of mass deportations on families. The world premiere of Detained, written by 2021 Lorraine Hansberry Award-winning playwright France-Luce Benson and directed by Mark Valdez, winner of the 2021 Zelda Fichandler Award, opens February 19 at the Fountain Theatre.

What is our responsibility to the future? What legacy do we want to leave? The Los Angeles premiere of The Children, written by Lucy Kirkwood and directed by Simon Levy, asks those questions and more in its Los Angeles premiere at the Fountain Theatre.

The Fountain Theatre has been awarded a WarnerMedia Arts and Culture grant funded by the AT&T Foundation to support Walking the Beat Los Angeles, a pioneering arts education program for inner city high school youth and police officers.

After more than 15 months of a darkened stage as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Coachella Valley Repertory is welcoming back live audiences. “Welcoming patrons back to the Playhouse is an incredible feeling. Live arts are so important to the community, and the entire board, staff and volunteers are so excited to return,” said Ron Celona, Artistic Director.

The Fountain Theatre will inaugurate their new outdoor stage with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ 2014 Obie Award-winning AN OCTOROON, with previews beginning June 11, 2021. Judith Moreland directs the cast of Leea Ayers, Matthew Hancock, Mara Klein, Hazel Lozano, Rob Nagle, Kacie Rogers, Vanessa Claire Stewart and Pam Trotter. Between final rehearsals, Matthew, who plays the playwright’s alter-ego among other characters, made some time to answer a few of my inquiries.

Casting is complete and rehearsals begin this week for the Los Angeles premiere of a radical, incendiary and subversively funny Obie award-winning play by MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” recipient Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

The Los Angeles premiere of An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins will inaugurate the new outdoor stage at the Fountain Theatre later this spring. Judith Moreland will direct.

The Fountain Theatre will host “L.A. Theatre Pays Tribute to Ed Krieger,” a virtual memorial for longtime theater photographer Ed Krieger, on Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021 at 2 p.m. PT. Krieger passed away on Dec. 16, 2020.

The Fountain Theatre has received approval from the City of Los Angeles to install a temporary outdoor stage for the purpose of presenting live performances and other events during the pandemic.

The Fountain Theatre is readying Raise Your Voice a?" Vote!, a guerrilla style, immersive theater event set to take place over the course of two days at six locations throughout the City of Los Angeles. Watch the live-stream every hour on the hour beginning at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, Oct. 24 and Sunday, Oct. 25 at www.FountainTheatre.com.

LAMB Theatre has announced its upcoming lineup including live and online streaming productions.

Part history, part mystery and part ghost story, Bayezaa??s lyrical integration of past, present, fact and legend turns Emmetta??s story into a soaring work of music, poetic language and riveting theatricality, transformed into an online format that breaks the notion of what a virtual performance can be. With the actors seen as cut-outs inserted into backdrops to fit each scene, characters move about each other in cars, on a living room couch, or while riding on a Ferris Wheel as if they really are in the scene together at the same time.

The original director and cast of the Fountain Theatre's 2010, multiple award-winning production of The Ballad of Emmett Till by Ifa Bayeza will reunite for a live-streamed reading of the play on Friday, Aug. 28, which marks the 65th anniversary of Till's murder.

In these pandemic times, The Fountain Theatre has been Zooming their SATURDAY MATINEE series, the latest on June 27 being France-Luce Benson's SHOWTIME BLUES. The cast of this reading includes Cecil Blutcher, Suzette Azariah Gunn and Matt Kirkwood. I had the socially distant opportunity to pose a few questions to this prolific playwright.