Derrick McDaniel News

Pulitzer Prize nominee Tanya Barfield’s brilliant BRIGHT HALF LIFE is smartly and artfully realized by director Amy K. Harmon, adding up to another solid project from The Road Theatre, which consistently stages challenging and rewarding productions.

THE ROAD THEATRE COMPANY and Taylor Gilbert, Founder/Artistic Director together with Sam Anderson, Artistic Director, announce the second show of its 30th Anniversary Repertory Season, the Los Angeles premiere of BRIGHT HALF LIFE, written by Pulitzer Prize nominee Tanya Barfield and directed by Amy K. Harmon.  BRIGHT HALF LIFE will begin previews on Monday, April 4; will open on Friday, April 8 at 8pm and run through Sunday, May 22 at the Road Theatre, located in The NoHo Senior Arts Colony, 10747 Magnolia Blvd. in North Hollywood.

Every Brilliant Thing was a short story written by Duncan MacMillan. Actor and comedian Jonny Donahoe work-shopped it into a play with MacMillan before they took it off-Broadway. It is about suicide, and, surprisingly, it is not dark nor morose. It is, in fact, funny, touching and, in the broadest sense of the word, joyful.

The satirical juices flow through Michael John Garces’ production of THE PLAY YOU WANT. Set in the present day, the play offers a bunch of well-known, real-life figures who are sent up and ultimately knocked down to make Cubria’s point.

On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a march on Washington and gave a speech: 'I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.'

THE ROAD THEATRE COMPANY and Taylor Gilbert, Founder/Artistic Director together with Sam Anderson, Artistic Director, will celebrate Black History Month with an encore stream presentation of THIS BITTER EARTH, written by Harrison David Rivers and directed by Gregg T. Daniel.

Silent Sky, a play by Lauren Gunderson, will run at Theatre 40 from March 17th through April 17th, 2022. The show will play Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m, with Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m. The production is directed by Ann Hearn Tobolowsky and produced for Theatre 40 by David Hunt Stafford. Silent Sky is the story of a real woman whose life and discoveries were significant in their impact on Man's (and Woman's) next steps into the universe at large.

Theatre 40 world premieres John Strysik’s DEATH, WITH BENEFITS January 27, 2022. Jeff G. Rack directs this dark comedy cast of Susan Damante, Cheryl David, Kevin Dulude, Larry Eisenberg and Philip Sokoloff. I had the opportunity to interrogate John on the reasons behind his DEATH.

Theatre 40 presents Death, with Benefits. This world premiere engagement of a dark comedy, by John Strysik is directed by Jeff G. Rack. 

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.

The Road Theatre Company has begun streaming playwright Steve Yockey’s REYKJAVÍK, their second show of their 2021 virtual season. Set in Reykjavík, Iceland, Ann Hearn Tobolowsky directs the REYKJAVÍK cast of Stephen Tyler Howell, Alaska Jackson, Carlos Lacamara, Brian Ibsen, Danny Lee Gomez and Jacqueline Misaye. Ann managed to find some time between REYKJAVÍK rehearsals, and being half of a beloved Los Angeles theatre acting/directing couple, to answer a few of my enquiries.

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.

At the crossroads of cutting-edge digital technology and kinetic live theatre, this season will be presented as fully staged theatre productions recorded on a COVID-guideline compliant set, and then streamed — guaranteeing everyone who buys a ticket the best seat in the house!

Go behind the scenes at one of @PalmSprings most acclaimed theater companies.

THE ROAD THEATRE COMPANY and Taylor Gilbert, Founder/Artistic Director together with Sam Anderson, Artistic Director, present the third show of the Road's 2019-2020 season, the world premiere of SCINTILLA, written by Alessandro Camon (Time Alone) and directed by Ann Hearn Tobolowsky (Through the Eye of A Needle). 

There are plenty of couples that eschew the institution of marriage. Ricky Gervais and Jane Fallon have been together for 37 years, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell for 35, Robin Roberts and Amber Laign have 14, and none have ever walked down the aisle together and said 'I do'.

a??a??a??a??a??a??a??LA playwright/filmmaker Julien Nitzberg announced here today the complete cast of his new work for the theater, FOR THE LOVE OF A GLOVE, AN UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL FABLE ABOUT THE LIFE OF MICHAEL JACKSON AS TOLD BY HIS GLOVE. The 12 person cast and 20 original, life sized puppets will revisit the thrilling years of Motown and the rise of the Jackson 5, portraying the myriad of people who influenced young Michael and his brothers, including a stable of Motown artists, Dick Clark, Brooke Shields, and Donny Osmond.

THE ROAD THEATRE COMPANY and Taylor Gilbert, Founder/Artistic Director together with Sam Anderson, Artistic Director,  present the second show of the Road's 2019-2020 season, a newly revised and re-written production of NOWHERE ON THE BORDER, written by Carlos Lacámara and directed by Stewart J. Zully. 

THE ROAD THEATRE COMPANY and Taylor Gilbert, Founder/Artistic Director together with Sam Anderson, Artistic Director, present the second show of the Road's 2019-2020 season, a newly revised and re-written production of NOWHERE ON THE BORDER, written by Carlos Lacámara and directed by Stewart J. Zully. NOWHERE ON THE BORDER will preview on Tuesday, January 14; Wednesday, January 15 & Thursday, January 16 at 8pm; will open on Friday, January 17, 2020 at 8pm and run through Sunday, March 8 at the Road Theatre on Magnolia, located in The NoHo Senior Arts Colony, 10747 Magnolia Blvd. in North Hollywood.

Dezart Performs high-octane production of Robert Askins' Obie Award-winning Hand To God isn't preachy, it's just the opposite; it's rip-roaring, devilish fun that's non-stop laughs.