Category Archives: Theatre

Antaeus Announces Leadership Transition

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Antaeus Announces Leadership Transition: Bill Brochtrup Steps Down, Nike Doukas Named New Artistic Director

GLENDALE, Calif. (June 28, 2024) — Antaeus Theatre Company is pleased to announce that Nike Doukas, a long-time company member, will be the new artistic director. Doukas will assume the role on September 4, succeeding current artistic director and company member Bill Brochtrup.

Brochtrup, a member of Antaeus since 2005 and part of its artistic leadership since 2012, has been instrumental in the company’s success. Under his leadership, Antaeus has produced critically-acclaimed seasons featuring works by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Shaw, Ibsen, Brecht, Pinter, and Churchill, as well as American classics by Miller, Williams, Inge, Hellman, Kaufman & Hart, Childress, and Jacobs-Jenkins. His tenure also saw new adaptations of Sophocles and Wright, new plays developed in the Antaeus Playwrights Lab, and three seasons of original audio plays, which earned a 2022 Ambie Award nomination for Best Fiction Podcast. Additionally, Brochtrup helped lead the company’s $3 million capital campaign, culminating in the move to the Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center in 2017.

Reflecting on his time at Antaeus, Brochtrup said, “When I started doing community theater plays in Tacoma as a 12-year-old, the thing I loved most was the community of artists coming together to tell a great story. Antaeus has offered me the chance to continue living that dream. It has been a real honor to lead Antaeus through steady growth for over a dozen years — both artistic and financial. Nike is the perfect person to lead Antaeus to the next level. She has exquisite artistic taste, a commitment to the Company’s vision, and the tenacity and know-how to get the job done.”

Doukas brings a wealth of experience to her new position. She began her professional theater career in the Bay Area, earning her MFA and serving as a company member at the American Conservatory Theatre. Most of her professional life has been based in Los Angeles; she has appeared in 20 productions and countless workshops and readings at the South Coast Repertory Theatre, and has performed at The Mark Taper Forum, The Old Globe, The Pasadena Playhouse, and Shakespeare Festival LA. Her other theater credits include the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, ACT (Seattle), Shakespeare Santa Cruz, The Jewel Theatre, and Pittsburgh’s PICT Classical Theatre and Kinetic Theatre. Doukas is a 2012 Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship recipient. Her Los Angeles directorial debut with Harold Pinter’s The Hothouse at Antaeus garnered 10 Ovation Award nominations and four LA Drama Critic Circle awards. Other directing credits include The Tempest at Antaeus, and productions at A Noise Within, The Ensemble Theatre (Santa Barbara), North Coast Rep (San Diego), The Jewel (Santa Cruz), and Playwright’s Arena (Los Angeles), and PICT Classical Theatre.

Expressing her excitement about the new role, Doukas said, “I am looking forward to this transition in Antaeus with great pleasure and a deep sense of responsibility. I plan to build and expand on what makes Antaeus special: world class actors making classical theater come to life in an intimate space. I plan to continue with Bill’s work; inspiring, surprising and delighting our audiences.”

Board chair Evie DiCiaccio expressed gratitude for Brochtrup’s contributions, saying, “We are deeply grateful for Bill’s tremendous contributions to Antaeus during his tenure. His leadership has firmly established Antaeus as a creative cornerstone in Los Angeles, and we are delighted that he will remain an active member of our ensemble. We are equally thrilled to welcome Nike as our new artistic director. Her cohesive vision, unwavering passion for Antaeus, and exceptional artistic sensibility will guide us as we continue to grow and thrive.”

Antaeus is an actor-driven theater company dedicated to exploring and producing timeless works, grounded in a passion for the classics. The company illuminates diverse human experiences through performance, training, and outreach, believing in the transformative power of live theater.

For more information about the Antaeus Theatre Company, visit www.antaeus.org.

 

Fringe Review: Magic for Animals

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Magic for Animals. Written and performed by Liz Toonkel.

The stage is set for some amazing magic tricks. Liz Toonkel delivers a show where magic is the catharsis for broken human relationships and broken human-animal relationships. By the way, no animals were hurt during the show. That’s expected, as Liz is an animals’ rights activist.

With audience participation, the show becomes more interactive and dynamic. The participation is mainly to establish an important message: Animals suffer, and the meat and luxury goods industries couldn’t care less about animal welfare. Liz is straight forward about it and her show revolves around it.

Another compelling fact is Liz’s story about broken human relationships with a best friend and a school crush. Film school and a few years later, she experienced even more human connections struggles. It is then that magic became a tool to transform those negative aspects in her life to positive outcomes; holding a grudge was no longer an option.

Magic for Animals has plenty of positive theatrical elements to make this show a great hit. Her costume, magic tricks, audience engagement, animal rights advocacy, and a general positive message. If she works more on the pacing, the show will be even more attractive. Mixing comedy and magic is always a winning combination.

Magic for Animals

Los Angeles LGBT Center
Davidson / Valentini Theatre
1125 North McCadden Place
Los Angeles, CA 90038

Friday Jun 28 2024 @ 10:30 PM

Sunday Jun 30 2024 @ 3:30 PM

Tickets: hollywoodfringe.org/projects/10508

Written and performed by Liz Toonkel.

Fringe Review: Brainwashed

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Brainwashed. Written and performed by Alina Konon. Directed by Nathan Mohebbi.

Alina Konon explains the hardships of living under a communist and totalitarian government using humor and clowning in her solo show Brainwashed.

Born in Belarus, she grew up with scarce resources and limited freedom, always under the spell of the radiation fallout from the Chernobyl disaster. Her childhood was influenced by Lenin and the fear of persecution. Friends and family members’ arrests and beatings were a constant reminder of the dangers of dissent. Until she moved to the land of the free, America.

Alina uses elements of clowning in her show and plenty of audience participation to keep the engagement alive. This combination creates a highly energetic performance and the audience becomes a part of the show.

Fringe is an excellent platform for actors and comedians to polish off their storytelling techniques. Performers like Alina make great use of the stage working with minimal props, concentrating mainly in their ability to tell a story with humor and engagement.

Alina is ceative and entertaing, and she’s not shy about mixing her comedic skills with her vulnerabilities to add a human touch to her performance. And let’s not forget her flash lesson on Eastern European cooking. Soup, anyone?

Brainwashed

Actors Company (The Little Theatre)
916 N. Formosa Ave.
Los Angeles, Ca 90046

Thursday June 27 2024, 5:30 PM

Saturday June 29 2024, 10:00 PM

Tickets: hollywoodfringe.org/projects/10475

Written and performed by Alina Konon. Directed by Nathan Mohebbi.

Fringe Review: A Transcriber’s Tale

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A Transcriber’s Tale. Written by Joanna Parson. Directed by Aimee Todoroff. Produced by Michael Blaha of Fringe Management and Lee Costello. Music Direction by Drew Wutke.

From Connecticut to the Big Apple, Joanna Parson arrived to fulfill her New York dreams. But like everyone else, she needed money to survive. That’s when she found a job as a transcriber. This type of job requires listening to video or audio recordings and turning it into text. News, fashion, TV shows, good news, bad news, and everything in between needed to be transcribed. Being in the front line of information was great, except for a caveat. Salary raises were basically non-existent.

Back in 2001, transcribing, performing at comedy clubs, writing music, auditioning for musicals, and dating an interesting guy named Justin sounded amazing for Joanna. Until 9/11 happened. This event changed many people’s perceptions and made them re-evaluate their lives, especially for the ones living in New York. One of them was Justin, who decided to move to Minneapolis. The whole ordeal took a toll on Joanna, who found a new companionship: Whisky. No, not a dog or a cat, but the liquor. From there on, it was a journey of self-discovery.

A Transcriber’s Tale is a minimalist show, the main ingredients are Joanna’s ability as a storyteller and her musical skills. Joanna’s story is a testament of the chaotic environment of the late 1990s and early 2000s during the dotcom bubble and its disastrous burst. In addition to that, living the 9/11 experience transcribing the local, national, and international turmoil that ensued, was an experience like no other. At the end of the day, Joanna had to decide what to do with her life. Did New York make her thrive, or was she consumed by the big city lights? Music, comedy, and a transcriber job tells the story.

A Transcriber’s Tale

The Broadwater (Black Box)
6322 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90038

Wednesday June 26 2024, 8:00 PM

Saturday June 29 2024, 3:00 PM

Tickets: hollywoodfringe.org/projects/10852

Written and performed by Joanna Parson. Directed by Aimee Todoroff. Produced by Michael Blaha of Fringe Management and Lee Costello. Music Direction by Drew Wutke.

Brian Otaño named recipiemt of IAMA’s Shonda Rhimes-sponsored ‘Unsung Voices Playwriting Commission’

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IAMA Theatre Company names Brian Otaño as 2024 recipient of
Shonda Rhimes–sponsored ‘Unsung Voices Playwriting Commission’
 

LOS ANGELES (June 25, 2024) — IAMA Theatre Company has selected ensemble member Brian Otaño as the 2024 recipient of the company’s Rhimes Unsung Voices Playwriting Commission, sponsored by award-winning writer and producer Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, Inventing Anna).

Now in its seventh year, the annual Rhimes commission was created to help grow and nourish budding playwrights and artists with an emphasis on cultural inclusion, and to showcase fresh, creative, thought-provoking work. The commission helps foster long-lasting relationships with the diverse voices that IAMA is committed to developing; by incorporating the talent and inspiration of IAMA’s acting ensemble into the development of writers and their work, IAMA continues to create a dynamic family of artists.

Past recipients include Brooklyn-based playwright and activist Geraldine Inoa; Iranian-American playwright Sanaz Toosi, who went on to receive a Pulitzer Prize; Obie-winning performer/playwright Ryan J. Haddad; Emmy-nominated writer, director and producer Larry Powell; celebrated actor, director and playwright Jule Carryl; and Chinese-Canadian playwright, TV writer, screenwriter Chloé Hung. Otaño is the first IAMA ensemble member to be honored with the award.

“We’re so lucky to be able to extend this opportunity to a writer from our ensemble for the first time,” says IAMA artistic director Stefanie Black. We’ve been invested in Brian’s work for years, helping early on to develop his ambitious Dooley Street Trilogy. We can’t wait to see what he’s been dreaming up next that we can build from the ground up together.”

A Brooklyn-born playwright and screenwriter, Otaño’s full-length plays include Dolores Slayborne: A Grand Guignol Drag Fantasia (Atlantic Theater Company Launch Commission), Under Normal Circumstances (UCSB), The Dust (2019 MCC Theater PlayLab), Tara, Zero Feet Away (Roundabout Underground Series) and The Dooley Street Trilogy. In television, Otaño developed numerous projects and served as writer-producer for The Horror of Dolores Roach while under a two-year overall deal with Amazon Studios. Other TV credits include Goosebumps: Gravesend (Disney+, upcoming) and the first season of Cruel Summer (Hulu). Otaño is a two-time alumnus of National Hispanic Media Coalition Writers Program, as well as Echo Playwrights Lab, CTG LA Writers Workshop, Geffen Playhouse Writers Room, Ars Nova Playgroup and Page 73’s Interstate 73 Writers Group. He is the recipient of the New Dramatists Van Lier Fellowship and the New York Theater Workshop 2050 Fellowship. He currently lives in LA, where he is an IAMA Theatre Company member playwright and a participant in the Rogue Machine Playwrights Roundtable. Otaño is represented by William Morris Endeavor, Grandview Management and Jackoway Austen et al.

IAMA has been dedicated to developing new plays and musicals by emerging and established playwrights since 2007. Rhimes, a frequent IAMA audience member, came on board in March 2017 as the company’s first-ever “Patron of the Arts,” committing funds for the commission as well as tangible support for IAMA’s mission and operations through her Rhimes Foundation. The Rhimes Foundation was established in 2016 to support arts, education and activism with a focus on promoting cultural inclusion and fighting inequality.

Fringe Review: Hold Me Down

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Jackie Yangyuen presents Hold Me Down. Produced by Cooper Edgren.

Bad experiences in life can have tragic consequences for some people. For Jackie Yangyuen, however, traumatic events led her to unleash her creativity. In Hold Me Down, she finds a safe place to express and share her own narrative.

A mother with gambling issues and a supportive, but distant father, exacerbated Jackie’s struggles. Furthermore, she developed mental health issues that just added more pressure to the already critical situation. Fortunately, Jackie found avenues to channel the pain towards a positive outcome. Music was one of those avenues. The other one was more of a surprise: BDSM.

Rope play became a healing paradox, one that only people that have experienced the world of BDSM can understand. Submission and pain, as degrading as they can sound, are powerful elements to unlock freedom. Obviously, BDSM is more than Fifty Shades of Grey; the practice, in Jackie’s case ropes and suspension, can heighten the senses to an orgasmic level, liberating insecurities and traumas, deepening the Dom-Sub relationship. The adrenaline of pain can be powerful and healing.

Getting professional help and having a supportive BDSM partner were essential to stop Jackie’s darker intentions. Hold Me Down delivers a critical message of hope, compassion, and self-acceptance. For Jackie, finding an artistic expression to process and overcome her struggles was pivotal. She is busy working on several projects, so her mind is occupied with creative endeavors. For sure, we will hear more from her in the near future.

Her play contains reference to sexual abuse, gambling, and mental health issues, all presented with tact and in an engaging manner. Jackie also debunks some taboos about BDSM and the dynamics among its practitioners, something that always triggers interesting conversations. Jackie uses pop music, lighting, and comedy to lighten up the darker side of her story, but they’re also elements that signify that there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Hold Me Down

Asylum @ Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre
5636 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90038

Fri June 28, 9:00 PM – NEWLY ADDED!

Sun June 30, 2:30 PM

Tickets: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/10490

Written and performed by Jackie Yangyuen.

Producer: Cooper Edgren. Music Director: Paul Kirz Jr. Movement Director: Shyamala Moorty. Script Director: D’Lo. Set Designer: Mario Aguirre. Costume Designer: Sam O’Neul.

Theatre Review: Psycho Beach Party

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HorseChart Theatre presents Psycho Beach Party. Written by Charles Busch. Directed by Tom DeTrinis and Ryan Bergmann. Produced by Brett Aune and Steven Luff.

Teenage tomboy Chicklet Forrest (Drew Droege) wants to join the surfer crowd on Malibu Beach, but her multiple personalities become a concern. Her alter egos are a checkout girl, an elderly radio talk show hostess, a male model named Steve, the accounting firm of Edelman and Edelman, and the most dangerous one—sexually voracious vixen Ann Bowman.

In her quest to learn from the master surfer Kanaka (Karen Maruyama), Chicklet meets an array of peculiar characters. Yo-Yo (Adrián González) and Provolone (Daniel Montgomery) are friends who grow closer and closer until…well, you have to see it. Also in the crowd are diva extraordinaire Bettina (Chase Rosenberg/Roz Hernandez), Swing (Michael P. McDonald), Swing (Harrison Meloeny), Marvel Ann (Pete Zias), and Starcat (Thomas Hobson). Supporting Chicklet in good and bad times is her best friend Berdine (Daniele Gaither). And, of course, don’t forget about Chicklet’s mom, the stern Mrs. Forrest (Sam Pancake).

The play is fun, silly, and upbeat. Playwright Charles Busch wrote Psycho Beach Party in 1987, so the play is somehow anti-establishment. The 80s were especially tough for the LGBT community in America. The Family Protection Act tried to ban the federal funding to any organization accepting a gay lifestyle as an alternative. The Act was defeated, but it was endorsed by Ronald Reagan. Paul Cameron published bogus studies trying to prove that gay people have more tendencies to commit murder, child molestations, and the intentional spreading of diseases. The U.S Department of Defense discharged around 17,000 gay soldiers, stating that homosexuality was incompatible with military service. Pat Buchanan said that AIDS was nature’s revenge on gay men. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Bowers v. Hardwick held that state anti-sodomy statutes were constitutional. There were many more to mention, but the point is that Busch used this play to push back against the anti-gay sentiment of the time. As the fight continues, Psycho Beach Party is still relevant in reaffirming the pride of the LGBT community.

The set design and the costumes fit the intentional campiness of the story. The lighting is mostly high key, reflecting the upbeat tone of the play. The acting is superb, stressing the comedic nature of the script. The co-direction by Tom DeTrinis and Ryan Bergmann is excellent, the blocking and the use of space allow the actors to move freely, with enough room for physical comedy.

Psycho Beach Party is a crazy dream, a fantasy, and a menagerie of eccentric characters that celebrate the pride of the LGBT community and the diversity of society.

Psycho Beach Party

Matrix Theatre
7657 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90046

Opening: 7pm Friday, June 14, 2024
Schedule: 7pm Thursdays – Sundays
(added performance on Monday, July 1; no performance on Thursday, July 4).
Closing: Sunday, July 7, 2024
Written by Charles Busch. Directed by Tom DeTrinis and Ryan Bergmann. Produced by Brett Aune and Steven Luff. Associate Producers: Brian Nesbitt and Sami Klein.
Cast: Adrián González, Chase Rosenberg, Daniel Montgomery, Daniele Gaither, Drew Droege, Harrison Meloeny, Karen Maruyama, Michael P. McDonald, Pete Zias, Sam Pancake, Thomas Hobson, Roz Hernandez.
Creative team: Yuri Okahana-Benson, Nicole Bernardini (Scenic Design), Nicole Bernardini (Scenic Painting and Properties), RS Buck (Lighting Design), Andrea “Slim” Allmond
Composer/Sound Design), Alexis Carrie (Costume Design), Jenni Gilbert (Wigs).

Interview with Roger Q. Mason about their play Night Cities

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Acclaimed Black Filipinx playwright and Kilroys List honoree Roger Q. Mason will receive an industry reading of Night Cities, a new play about Queer civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, as part of the Not a Moment, But a Movement Festival presented by Center Theatre Group In collaboration with The Fire This Time Festival and Watts Village Theater Company. The reading, directed by Nancy Keystone, will take place on Sunday, June 23 at 7pm at the Kirk Douglas Theatre (9820 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232) in Los Angeles. Tickets ($15) are available for advance purchase at www.centertheatregroup.org.

Below is an interview with Roger Q. Mason.

Are you approaching Night Cities from a fictionalized or documentary perspective?

This is a work of poetic expressionism extracted from fact, but aimed at getting to a deeper emotional truth about young Bayard Rustin’s struggles with personal desire versus public duty.

The Cold War was raging during Bayard Rustin’s life. How do you think that affected his activist vision?

In the 1930s, the Communist Party supported Civil Rights work, particularly centering on labor reform. World War II found a shift in interest within the Party, less focus on activism and resistance within the US, particularly military desegregation – a focus of Bayard’s in the 1940s.  He left the Communist Party around 1941. Our dramaturg, Dylan Southard, opined in rehearsal that, “The Cold War and the fear of Communists provided another obstacle for Rustin because his dissidents could always tie him to Communism, even if he had dropped it years ago. Much of the fear around homosexuality was tied to Communism and the idea that Communists could blackmail people like Rustin, threatening to out them.”

Rustin traveled to India to learn about Ghandi’s non-violent resistance. Do you think Rustin’s pacific activism in America achieved the same impact as Ghandi’s in India?

It is difficult to directly compare Ghandi’s tear down of the British Empire in India with Rustin’s various efforts to provide labor reform, civil rights, and later desegregation (and its legal ramifications) in the United States. However, in the play, we allude to the notion that Gandhi’s vision of nonviolent protest provided strong reinforcements to Rustin’s pacifist ideals – he was certainly a possibility model for him. Later on, he became a master strategist of logistical and social coordination for protests. I think his experiences in the theatre, and the coordination that producing a show entails, had a significant impact on his work in the movement. Those rallies were indeed a show!

He also traveled to Africa, where he met with leaders of the independent movement. What lessons do think he learned during those travels?

In the play, we feature a quote from his time in Africa, wherein he praises the cultural and robust civic infrastructure that various African countries possessed. This information was suppressed to favor the superiority of the white West. I am sure this information fortified Rustin, particularly later when organizing Black America around finding the bounty they are due in America.

How important was jazz music for a young Rusting living in America?

Rustin was a devotee of gospel and spiritual music. There are recordings of him performing such genres.  In the 1930s, he was hanging out at Cafe Society in downtown New York and living in Harlem in the early 1940s, so jazz was an inevitable part of his life.

For your research, did you talk to surviving people that were part of Rustin’s life?

When building a new play, I reserve conversations with surviving persons for later in the process so that my own narrative impulses are articulated first before they are influenced and amended by survivors’ lived experiences.  However, those points of view are essential, and I look forward to talking with folks in the next iteration of the piece.

Rustin was arrested for having sex with other men. How do you think that incident shaped or reinforced his activism?

Rustin was arrested quite a few times for sex with men, and it is something that marked his visibility within the Civil Rights Movement for the remainder of his career.  It is easy to draw a line between Rustin’s queerness and his activism, but the facts are a bit more complicated than that.  It is this tension between private life and public duty that inspired my play.

Being gay and a civil rights activist was dangerous back then. Is it still dangerous today?

It is just as dangerous, if not more, because certain leaders have emboldened our dissidents to feel that they are above the law and beyond reproach.

What is the most important legacy of Rustin’s work that has inspired your own work?

Rustin presents the complex, multivalent, intersectional civil rights leader that we need as a guiding light now.

How did you get involved with Not a Moment, but a Movement Festival?

My champion, hero and constant friend Cezar Williams collaborated with Los Angeles theatre legends Tyrone Davis and Bruce Lemon to bring me into the Festival – and the rest is history.

What can people take away from Night Cities?

We all need to embrace the complexity and contradictions of our desires.  How do we balance who we are for others with our private selves?  And how do we live honestly and fully along the way.  That’s the only way we’ll truly be free.

Dido of Idaho

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WHAT:
The Echo Theater Company presents Dido of Idaho, a very dark comedy about the lengths to which a woman might go for the love of a good man. Nora, a lovelorn baroque musicologist with a drinking problem, is head-over-heels for Michael, an English professor. Unfortunately, this particular good man has already been claimed by Crystal, a former Miss Idaho with a penchant for home manicures. When the extramarital hijinks go brutally awry, Nora flees to the Rocky Mountains to seek comfort from her estranged mother, Julie, and Julie’s new partner, Esther. In her desperate bid to find compassion, Nora risks losing the only family she’s ever had — maybe forever.

WHO:
• Written by Abby Rosebrock
• Directed by Abigail Dreser
• Starring Alana Dietz, Julie Dretzin, Nicole Duport, Joby Earle, Elissa Middleton
• Presented by The Echo Theater Company, Chris Fields artistic director

WHEN:
Previews: July 17, July 18, July 19
Performances: July 20 – August 26
• Wednesday at 8 p.m.: July 17 ONLY (preview)
• Thursday at 8 p.m.: July 18 ONLY (preview)
• Fridays at 8 p.m.: July 19 (preview), July 26, Aug. 2, Aug. 9, Aug. 16, Aug. 23
• Saturdays at 8 p.m.: July 20 (opening night), July 27, Aug. 3, Aug. 10, Aug. 17, Aug. 24
• Sundays at 4 p.m.: July 21, July 28, Aug. 4, Aug. 11, Aug. 18, Aug. 25
• Mondays at 8 p.m.: July 22, July 29, Aug. 5, Aug. 12, Aug. 19, Aug. 26

WHERE:
Echo Theater Company
Atwater Village Theatre
3269 Casitas Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90039

PARKING:
FREE in the Atwater Crossing (AXT) lot one block south of the theater

TICKET PRICES:
Fridays/Saturdays/Sundays: $34
Mondays: Pay–What–You–Want
Previews: Pay–What–You–Want

HOW:
www.EchoTheaterCompany.com
(747) 350-8066

Fringe Review: Grape Culture

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Grape Culture. Written by Toni Nagy and Sarah Buckner. Produced by Mike Blaha of Fringe Management and Lee Costello.

One of the reasons theatre has survived for more than 2,000 years is the fact that this artistic expression reflects society in all of its beauty and ugliness. In Grape Culture, performers Toni Nagy and Sarah Buckner take the audience out of their comfort zone to explore the struggles of coping with rape in a society that stills puts the blame on the victims.

From sexual remarks to a little girl to harassment in the workplace, this play conveys the uncomfortable situations faced by many women as a result of society’s objectification and ownership of the female body. In some instances, the non-consensual ownership of the body is exercised in medical settings, like when sedated women are used to practice gynecological procedures by medical students.

The stage serves as a platform to emphasize the fact that women own their bodies, and only them can use and manage them as they please. Whether is sex or medical procedures, the woman should be in control to avoid sexual abuse, even in relationships with sexual partners. The key is consent.

Even though the show presents the traumas generated by rape, one positive element is finding the way to heal. For Nagy and Buckner, this can be achieved by somatics and sharing the experiences with the audience to break the cycle of complicit silence. Grape Culture is an effort to dig deep and find the root cause of the toxic attitudes that promote and celebrate abuse.

One of the messages that comes across is that when women expose their bodies, it is not a permit to use them for exploitation, it might be just a way to regain ownership and the narrative about their bodies and womanhood.

For this radical, funny, and entertaining show, Nagy and Buckner use tap, modern dance, film, comedy, and storytelling to represent the challenges of being a woman and the opportunities to heal and find peace. The material might be uneasy for some, but shows like this one present an opportunity to start a meaningful and empathetic conversation.

Grape Culture

Broadwater (Second Stage)
6320 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90038

Dates:

Monday June 17 2024, 6:30 PM

Friday June 21 2024, 9:00 PM

Wednesday June 26 2024, 9:30 PM

Saturday June 29 2024, 5:00 PM

Sunday June 30 2024, 12:30 PM

Tickets: hollywoodfringe.org/projects/10853

Written and performed by Toni Nagy and Sarah Buckner. Produced by Mike Blaha of Fringe Management and Lee Costello.