REVIEW: NATIVE GARDENS BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Karen Zacarías’ new comedy Native Gardens, now playing at the Pasadena Playhouse, is the perfect fit for this city’s perfectly tailored green lawns and gardening lifestyle that includes the celebrated Tournament of Roses Parade. The play directed by Jason Alexander proves that just how challenging it can be […]

REVIEW: STAND DOWN THE MARCH BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO In the profusion of the over 100 works in the “ensemble theatre” category at this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival, Naomi Brodkin’s play Stand Down the March is a diamond in the rough. The play was commissioned by Next Theatre of Evanston in 2011 and went on […]

REVIEW: WHITE PEOPLE DRINKING BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Joining the ranks of the over 100 ensemble theater pieces in this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival the new play White People Drinking by Daniel Sugimoto is one you should add to your must-see list. The premise of the play is simple: a billionaire and his wife have […]

REVIEW: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST  BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Immersive theatre is on the rise all over the world, and now LA’s 413 Project Theater makes its contribution with a sophisticated experience that combines high tea dinner with a performance of Oscar Wilde’s beloved comic masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest. There are no […]

REVIEW: NATIVE SON BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO In high school Richard Wright’s 1940 novel Native Son was required reading, the book about a young African American man living in poverty in 1930s Chicago who kills, rapes, and then is sentenced to death. Everything that happens in this book is heavy and dark, truth be told […]

REVIEW: A RAISIN IN THE SUN BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO A Noise Within continues its 2018 season on the theme of ‘Entertaining Courage’ with a production of Lorraine Hanberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun. The 1959 play denotes a courage of its own as it marked as the first play on Broadway to be […]

REVIEW: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Since its first performance in 1947, A Streetcar Named Desire remains among the finest plays of the 20th century and one of Tennessee Williams’ most beloved works. Of the original production, New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote: “Like ‘The Glass Menagerie’ the new play is […]

INTERVIEW: PETER RICHARDS BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO In an age when people take their cell phones everywhere, those tiny devices have much to tell about our lives. And in the West Coast premiere of emerging playwright Kevin Armento‘s play Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally, a cell phone is our narrator personified on stage by Thomas Piper. The play chronicles […]

REVIEW: A TALE OF TWO CITIES BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Whether you’ve read Charles Dicken’s epic novel A Tale of Two Cities, or not, you’re likely familiar with the novel’s opening lines: “It was the best of times. . .” and if you’re even more well versed, you may also know the last line too: […]

INTERVIEW: BYRON LANE BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO As part of its Summer of Celebration, Celebration Theatre presents the new play Tilda Swinton Answers an Ad on Craigslist by Byron Lane, directed by Tom DeTrinis. Byron Lane is an actor, writer, comedian and former personal assistant to Carrie Fisher with writing credits that include Last Will & Testicle (an award-winning […]