One of Los Angeles’ most talented groups of classical musicians is also one of it’s most playful. For people with very serious job descriptions that celebrate the world’s most revered classical composers, the members of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra are borderline goofy. They’re also incredibly knowledgeable and are interested in telling Los Angeles (and the world beyond) what makes chamber music so unique and exciting.
In an effort to reach everyone, they perform at venues all across this sprawling metropolis and even perform in a series of half-concert-half-lectures to bring everyone in the audience up to speed on how instruments have changed since the days when Bach, for example, was composing. These aren’t, to be clear, the kind of lectures you avoided in college – these redefine what you know about lectures and they come with live music.
Performing February 20 and 21 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale and Royce Hall, respectively, the LA Chamber Orchestra are exploring the world of Baroque music with a concert that includes compositions by Purcell, Vivaldi, Bach, and Mendelssohn. We caught up with Assistant Concertmaster Tereza Stanislav and got to chat with her about Baroque music, playing violin, and her favorite place in Los Angeles. (See? Serious job description. Smiling, giggling interview. Go figure.)
Not only did we get a chance to talk to them and get some insider info, we also begged and pleaded for some tickets to give to our readers for the February 20 performance at the Alex Theatre. Check out our video interview and enter this installment of our Extra! Extra! giveaway!
Some details you’ll want to remember: by entering into this giveaway, you’re automatically entered into the next three we’ve got going on. All we need is your first name, last name, and email address and voila – you’re headed downtown for a first class look at LA’s most charismatic orchestra. Just make sure you’re on your best behavior – no fooling around.
(Click hereif you’d rather buy your own tickets – it’s not worth the risk!)
Angelenos seem to be taking quite a shine to the Guy Fawkes story. Unsurprisingly, I guess, we’re always fond of taking apart truths and showing them for what they are – fiction. Bill Cain’s Equivocation, on now at the Geffen Playhouse, has gotten rave reviews from both Variety and the LA Times recently and it prompted us to remind you, our dear readers, that Fine Arts LA has got an exclusive ticket discount for a number of remaining Sunday evening performances of the show starring Shakespeare and his troupe.
For $35, you get your ticket and an invitation to one of the Geffen’s Wine Down Sundays – i.e. drink delicious wines and see some theatre worthy of a standing ovation or two. The secret password is: FAE35. All you have to do is call up the Geffen box office at (310) 208-5454, choose a date (Nov, 22, 29, Dec 6, 12, or 20), tell them you’ve got connections (ahem, us!), and let us know if you’ll be celebrating Guy Fawkes Day after you see this play – the cast of the show had quite a bit to say about that when we interviewed them, too!
Whenever you set on a path to do something restrictive, isn’t it always the case that all you end up doing is exactly what you were trying to avoid? Any time you tell yourself to cut down on sugar, you end up eating dessert after every meal and as soon as you decide to stay focused and study, your web browser mysteriously makes its way to Facebook and there go three hours. You’re not alone and this is nothing new – even Shakespeare knew the perils of setting on a task and then just giving into digression or temptation instead.
With Love’s Labour’s Lost, one of Shakespeare’s early comedies, you’re faced with a King and three cohorts who have all devoted themselves to studying for three years without the (inevitable) distraction of women. (What was that Bob Marley said? No woman, no cry?) As you can ascertain, the gentle lads fall for the princess and her three ladies in waiting who happen to have moved to court just as the men crack open their history books. A raucous comedy that revolves around the awkward, electric, fumbling world that is young love, Love’s Labour’s Lost is timeless and more so when performed by Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
They’re at the The Broad Stage now through November 29 bringing you all of the moments you will find so familiar about trying to resist what you want and failing miserably at it. And what’s better than giving in when it’s free? We’ve got tickets to give away to the Globe Theatre’s performance at the Broad Stage on Monday, November 23 at 7:30pm!
Some Extra! Extra! details you’ll want to remember: by entering into this raffle, you’re automatically entered to win the next three we’ve got hidden behind our backs. All we need is your first name, last name, and your email address and voila – it will make you think before you say “no” to that next beau!
(Click hereif you’d rather just buy your own tickets – playing is for kids.)
This past week, I saw four plays in two nights, all within a one mile radius of each other—a combined cast of ten, but at least twenty roles to fill—five-and-a-half hours in all (intermissions included), yet just two titles. Stumped?
On one evening, I journeyed to the Freud Playhouse for UCLA Live’s newest production of Enda Walsh’s The Walworth Farce. This prize-winning, Irish madhouse of a play, which has scored high praise from audiences in both Europe and the U.S., tests the ability of the viewer to keep up with its fast-paced, absurdist antics. Under the direction of Mikel Murfi—who’s been with the show since its inception at The Druid Theatre Company in Galway, Ireland—the three main characters of the four-person play go about their daily routine amidst the cramped, London flat they call home. Yet the daily routine of this trio (father and two grown sons) involves the obsessive reenactment of the exact events—beat-for-beat, line-for-line—of the day they last saw their long-lost wife/mother. Traipsing around the three-room flat at lightning speed, swapping wigs, drag-dressing, imitating two characters at once (not to mention murdering a couple) are just some of the elements involved in this highly dysfunctional family’s farce. It’s what happens when the characters are dropped, however, when the real roles are revealed, that the farce belies the true tragedy beneath the surface.
I traveled back to the Westwood area to the Geffen Playhouse for a preview of Equivocation. Written by Bill Cain and directed by David Esbjornson, the play concerns itself with modern-tongued playwright William “Shag” Shakespeare, circa 1605-1606. Shag and his band of “Globe-trotters” are commissioned by Sir Robert Cecil to write a play based on the events of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Shakespeare delves deeper into the “true” events of the plot and finds more damning information than he could ever perform on a stage, let alone in front of the King. The question of the play, as well as the play within the play, becomes how to successfully equivocate, how to tell the truth in the face of grave danger, and still come out alive. Check out our video interview with the cast and our special Equivocation ticket discount here.
The Walworth Farce ends this Sunday, November 15 and is playing at UCLA Live’s Freud Playhouse. For more information, please call (310) 825-2101 or click here.
Equivocation is playing at the Geffen Playhouse through November 29, 2009. For more information, please call (310) 208-5454 orclick here.
Contrary to what we all might think, political dramas and fabled truths didn’t start with George W. Bush. Those in power have long controlled the versions of the truth that end up in our news reports or history books. Back in the day, Shakespeare’s day to be precise, there was once a foiled plot against the established government, known as the Gunpowder Plot, in which the houses of Parliament would be blown up while King James and his largely Protestant cabinet were inside. Brits now celebrate the day as Guy Fawkes Day because it was Guy Fawkes who was sent late at night on November 5, 1605 to light the fuse beneath the house of Parliament. It was also he who was captured and killed on behalf of his team. It seems that we can all relate to the events that followed…
King James told his emissary, Robert Cecil, to hire the best playwright around to tell the story of the Gunpowder Plot. Shakespeare, who was currently rehearsing King Lear with his troupe, was approached and accepted the challenge of telling the world King James’ version of the truth. As he and his troupe struggled with the difference between fact and fiction, they come to realize the real power of the establishment. And so did playwright Bill Cain in his Equivocation opening this week at the Geffen Playhouse.
All about this storied event (in more ways than one), Equivocation touches on Shakespeare himself, his troupe, and his relationship with his daughter. We were recently lucky enough to sit down with the entire cast of the show. Our video interview is chock full of the cast’s favorite scenes, how they feel about Guy Fawkes Day, and how they feel about yours truly…
We’re not the only lucky ones, though. The Geffen Playhouse is offering Fine Arts LA readers an exclusive ticket offer! In the interest of killing two birds with one stone (drinking wine, seeing the play) our readers can purchase tickets for $35 to see the play on one of the Geffen’s Wine Down Sundays – you get tickets to the show and a chance to enjoy complimentary wines beforehand. Talk about enhancing your theatre-going experience!
The following Sundays are eligible for this sweet, wine-soaked deal: Nov 22, Nov 29, Dec 6, Dec 13, and Dec 20. To enjoy this offer, call the Geffen box office and mention this code: FAE35 – enjoy!
Bill Cain’s Equivocationruns at the Geffen Playhouse from November 10 – December 20, 2009. For more information, pleaseclick hereor call (310) 208-5454.
Enlightenment comes in many forms, especially in Los Angeles.Depending on the weather, the day of the week, or the current passing trend, enlightenment can be found in a yoga class, in a martini shaker, or at the movies.Where some need to sweat out their worries on a treadmill, others are of the school of thought that meditation, silence, and breathing are the ticket.Personally, one thing that works every time is good music, played loud and up close.I’m not talking about the ‘jump on your bed while listening to Pearl Jam’ kind of loud and up close, I’m talking about the kind of music that moves you to your core – Yo-Yo Ma on the violin or Ravi Shankar on the sitar, for example.
This weekend at the Broad Stage, you’ll find another musician bringing enlightenment in bulk – Rajeev Taranath.One of the world’s leading Sarod players, Taranath will grace the stage on Saturday evening with tabla virtuoso Abhiman Kaushal for a performance guaranteed to shift your perspective for the better.The Sarod is a stringed instrument similar to the sitar that has long been used in classical Indian music, while the tabla is a classical Indian drum that has been featured in both traditional and popular music around the world.
What’s more is… Fine Arts LA has got tickets for you!The lucky winner of today’s Extra! Extra! raffle will win tickets to see Rajeev and Abhiman enlighten Santa Monica on Saturday night at the Broad Stage at 7:30pm.Some Extra! Extra! details you’ll need to remember: by entering into this raffle, you’re also eligible to win the next three (3!) raffles!All we need is your first name, last name, and email address and voila – you’re a newly enlightened guru!
(Click here if you don’t want to risk it and you’re just gonna buy your own tickets.)
What can we say about Nikolai Gogol that hasn’t already been said? He was a realist (a Russian one), but was fantastical and satirical enough that a nose could have a life of its own and was influential enough that Dostoyevsky was quoted saying “we all come out from Gogol’s ‘Overcoat.’” Needless to say, he was the kind of guy you wish you could have seen in person; the kind of guy who would have left you with stories to tell your grandkids. If harkening back to 19th Century Russia is your thing or if you’re looking for the live, performed “Cliffs notes” of Gogol’s “Diary of a Madwoman,” “The Nose,” and “The Overcoat,” The Gogol Project is for you. And you know what else is for you? Free tickets to the Gogol Project!
Yes, your friends at Fine Arts LA are here to tell you again that by entering into our Extra! Extra! raffle (via that form below), you and a date/friend/parent will be heading to see the Rogue Artists Ensemble’s production of the Gogol Project this Saturday night! On at the Bootleg Theatre on Beverly Blvd., this play is nothing less than what Gogol might have produced himself in this day and age. With the use of puppetry, masks, music, and digital media, you’ll get a whirlwind tour of three of Gogol’s most famed works. Put it this way, this isn’t how Gogol is normally read by Lit majors in college – they wish!
Some Extra! Extra! details you’ll want to remember: by entering your name into this raffle, you’re automatically entered into our next three (3!) raffles. Considering the goods we’ve been giving away lately, that’s a sweet deal. All we need is your first name, last name, and email address and voila – you’re practically a Russian Lit scholar!
So that girl you asked out the other day who mentioned her love of the theatre… Where do you plan on going? Of course there’s August Osage County at the Mark Taper Forum and Madea over at Royce Hall, but let’s just say you’re not sure you’re that into her and dropping $80 per ticket, plus dinner, and parking wasn’t really what you’d planned on.Your friends at Fine Arts LA are coming through for you yet again!
This Extra! Extra! is your ticket (literally) to see the Tony-nominated Shining City now playing at the Fountain Theatre!Directed by Stephen Sachs and written by Conor McPherson, Shining City is a modern-day ghost story (she’ll have to snuggle up when she gets scared, no?) set in Ireland and focuses on a businessman who has just seen the ghost of his recently deceased wife.When he seeks out a therapist, you and your date will find out pretty quickly if this is gonna work or not.
Here are the details on how Extra! Extra! works – when you enter into this raffle (by filling out the form below), you’re automatically entered into the next three (count ‘em 3!) raffles we do!And considering the tickets we’ve been handed lately, that’s a pretty sweet deal.All we need is your first and last name and your email address and voila! You and you’re date are practically VIPs.
Not to in any way demean the incredible hardships most Americans have had to endure — and are still enduring — due to the ongoing, economic disaster of the past two years, but I do believe at least one good thing has come out it. And that, in the words of Matthew Modine (who is played accordingly by Matthew Modine) in the most recent Geffen Playhouse production, Matthew Modine Saves The Alpacas, is “significant theatre.” Or, at the very least, cheap theatre that is significant in terms of my own youthful sensibilities.
I don’t want to pay $80 a pop to see aging, unknown theatre vets duke it out for who can do the best Elizabethan accent. I want to see TV stars and movie stars live in the flesh testing out their true acting chops in material I can understand. And I want it all under $30. Before this recession and before the creation of such youth-outreach programs as the Geffen’s ‘Fourth Wall’ events, such dreams were laughable. But now, with television and film actors looking elsewhere for dough and a new generation of theatre producers in bloom, shows like Blair Singer’s Matthew Modine Saves The Alpacas, starring the likes of Modine, French Stuart, and Peri Gilpin of Frasier fame, are making the live stage fun again, not to mention affordable.
I for one was able to enjoy Tuesday night’s preview of Matthew Modine, which opens officially on September 16th and runs until October 18th, for only $25. All thanks, of course, to the aforementioned ‘Fourth Wall,’ which, “in partnership with the Geffen Playhouse, provides and encourages experiences that enrich, challenge, inspire, and motivate young Hollywood in both creation and patronage of the arts.” Other ‘Fourth Wall’ events have included a Q&A session with filmmaker and playwright Neil LaBute, Connor McPherson’s The Seafarer, and Beau Willimon’s Farragut North. But if you’ve missed these, don’t fret: the innovative, youth-run program, which formed in February of 2009, plans to host events for every Geffen main-stage show of the remaining season.
So in the midst of this awful economy, when a bad movie is the same price as a half a tank of gas and the TV seems to be re-hashing the same shows over and over, sometimes literally (CSI, Parks and Recreation, Melrose Place, 90210, etc.) there is at least one thing to look forward to and it involves French Stuart, llama-looking puppets, and a wig-wearing Matthew Modine. That’s right, it’s “significant theatre.”
Blair Singer’s Matthew Modine Saves The Alpacas runs from September 16th to October 18th at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood Village, located at 10886 Le Conte Avenue. For the box office, call (310) 208-8383 or visit www.geffenplayhouse.com. To contact the Fourth Wall, call (310) 208-5454.
I have some music for your ears! The GRAMMY Museum has generously donated a pair of tickets to tonight’s screening of DIRTY: One Word Can Change The World and will feature a Q+A and possible performance with the Brooklyn Zu (ODB’s crew) and various members of the Wu-Tang Clan. This film is part of a collaboration between the Downtown Film Festival and the GRAMMY Museum to bring a film festival dedicated to music documentaries.
Be the first person to email the phrase:Wu-Tang Clan — and those tickets are yours! Send your name and phrase to: info@fineartsla.com. We are waiting!
Whenever you set on a path to do something restrictive, isn’t it always the case that all you end up doing is exactly what you were trying to avoid? Any time you tell yourself to cut down on sugar, you end up eating dessert after every meal and as soon as you decide to stay focused and study, your web browser mysteriously makes its way to 
So that girl you asked out the other day who mentioned her love of the theatre… Where do you plan on going? Of course there’s August Osage County
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