Sorted by date Results 1115 - 1139 of 1157
The Culver City High School Academy of Visual and Performing Arts (AVPA) Theatre Department presents their first production of the season production calendar: Nicholas Nickleby, based on the novel by Charles Dickens and directed by AVPA’s new Creative Director of theatre, Sheila Silver. The show runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, November 12 to November 21 at 7 p.m. with 1 p.m. matinees Sundays, November 15 and 22 at the Sony Pictures Theatre (The Blackbox), behind the Robert Frost Auditorium, 4401 Elenda Street in Culver City. Tickets a...
Ten years ago a cult phenomena was borne from the fertile imagination of Troy Duffy. Essentially an ode to vigilante justice, a topic on which Duffy speaks quite passionately (as he does about filmmaking) harkening back to the Bible and certain circumstances which warrant “an eye for an eye”, the stories of Duffy and the Boondock Saints are themselves the things on which Hollywood legend is made. A bartender/barback, the magical light of Harvey Weinstein shone down from above, blessing Duf...
Kentwood Announces Auditions for “SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION” Kentwood Players announces auditions for "Six Degrees of Separation" by John Guare on Saturday, November 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m, and Sunday, November 8 from 7 p.m. to 10 at the Westchester Playhouse located at 8301 Hindry Avenue in Westchester. The production is directed by Don Schlossman and produced by Jordan Bland and Meredith M. Sweeney. Performance dates are January 8 to February 13, 2010 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2. Six Degrees of Separation refers to...
Tim Robbins nonchalantly sauntered on stage at the Actor’s Gang Theatre last Saturday night and welcomed the packed house as if he were inviting them into his living room. The crowd loved it and responded as if they were dear friends at a guitar pull in Nashville. Tim started several songs over, laughing at his mistakes and endearing himself even more to the audience. He did three songs solo and then was joined by his son, Miles, his brother, guitarist David Robbins, accordion player Chris S...
In addition to my love and mesmerization with movies from small on, a key visual element in my youth was cartoons - and not just your standard Bugs, Tweety, Taz or Tom & Jerry. No I went full bore along with my brothers for the early Japanese anime complete with dubbed voices. Part and parcel of a 60's era Philadelphia tradition, Wee Willie’s Cartoon Corners was the only place to get your afternoon fix of futuristic adventure complete with Speed Racer and my fave, the 1960's black & white Osuma...
In this time where "change" is the word of the year, artist Elana Mann and 30 art students from the Culver City High School Academy of Visual and Performing Arts (AVPA) program will be throwing "Retirement Bash," an interactive performance event, in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA). AVPA art students will present, "Retirement Bash," on Saturday from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 at The Culver City Senior Center located at 4095 Overland Avenue in Culver City. The event is free and open to the public. During a ten-week...
The Actors' Gang WTF?! Festival is in its second week of a two-month special time. Known for plays, the Actor’s Gang is presenting music, film, dance, poetry and more to raise funds. Scheduled events include Documentary Tuesdays, Film Wednesdays, Theater Thursdays, Fun Fridays, and Music Saturdays. All proceeds benefit The Actors' Gang's community outreach programs. Visit the website at www.wtffestival.comfor the most up-to-date schedule and line-up. Upcoming events: Saturday, October 24 at 8:30 pm (Bar opens at 7 pm) - 89.9 KCRW Presents JACKS...
In the United States funding for the arts has always been one of the first things to go in tough economic times as evidenced by the decline of the Harlem Renaissance. Now all artistic venues are having financial difficulties. Actor’s Gang founder Tim Robbins was told that the theatre would have to be dark until January due to lack of funding, and two writing programs, one for students and another to combat recidivism in prisons, would have to go. His reply, “WTF?!” became the title of the new se...
I have often reminded you that some of the best films come from the theatre. And although it’s been awhile since our last stage to screen incarnations, the drought is now over with the delightful, introspective and even voyeuristic character study, PETER AND VANDY. Written and directed by playwright Jay DiPietro, who makes his film directorial debut here, PETER AND VANDY is an adaptation of DiPietro’s 2002 smash hit of the same name. Critically and publicly acclaimed, including a Drama Desk nom...
As the school bell rings the start of another day, let me say this - AN EDUCATION is some kind of education! Jenny is your average 16 year old schoolgirl. Attending a private school in the London suburb of Twickenham, her father pushes her to be the best, get those straight “A’s”, study, study, study, earn that scholarship to Oxford. And after all, you need to go to college to find a husband. (I know, I know. What do you expect in 1961?) Between classes all day and cello practice every after...
Need to know is the phrase used by the government to describe the restriction of data that is considered sensitive. Even if one has the necessary clearance, such information would be given only as one has a ”need to know.” Winner of the Culver City Artist Award in 2008 and current Culver City resident April Fitzsimmons takes the audience at the Actor’s Gang on an untypical American journey in her one-woman show with that title. Her performance begins with her upbringing in a large, Irish Catho...
The Actors’ Gang will branch out from plays to a variey of entertainment in the next three months known as The WTF?! Festival. "The name of this festival came to me after a recent board meeting where I was told that due to the economic downswing and recent reduction in donations that we can no longer afford to produce theater," explains Actors' Gang Artistic Director, Academy Award-winning actor Tim Robbins. "I was told it would be less expensive to do nothing." The WTF?! Festival was Robbins answer to the board. "We're not very good at d...
Want to double your fun? Easy, with TWO iconic Tito's determined to provide a Taco Tuesday that is truly olé-worthy. It's that serendipitous time again, Oct. 4, not only National Taco Day AND National Vodka Day -- and during National Hispanic Heritage Month, no less. This fifth annual Tito's Fiesta Mexicana is a wonderful fundraiser that benefits the Culver City Arts Foundation (https://culverarts.org/) and is put on by Tito's Tacos (https://www.titostacos.com/) and Tito's Handmade Vodka...
Santa Monica College presents the SMC Jazz Ensemble - with renowned percussionist and bandleader Christian Moraga as special guest artist - in a concert on Monday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m. in the Music Hall at the SMC Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th Street (at Santa Monica Boulevard), Santa Monica. Led by conductor Frederick Keith Fiddmont, the accomplished musical group will explore "Swing to Sabor," a program featuring music from Quincy Jones, Benny Golson, Paul Lopez, and Michael Mossman....
How many of you out there remember the Golden Ages of roller derby in the 50's, the 70's or even during the depression in the 30's. For me, coming from Philly, roller derby in the 70's was a staple of entertainment - particularly for viewing on UHF television. And while roller derby and the Philadelphia Warriors were banking those turns and jamming their way into the hearts of the crowd, my dad was reminding me of derby back in the 50's. But roller derby wasn't just in Philly. It was reigning...
A very recognizable face to those in the theater community, Michael Stuhlbarg is now making his mark on film with his first leading feature film role for none other than the Coen Brothers. Already a Tony nominee for his performance in “The Pillowman”, followed by a multiple award winning turn in David Mamet’s adaptation of “The Voysey Inheritance”, Stuhlbarg is no stranger to the concept of embodiment of a character. And with Stuhlbarg, each interpretation is more dazzling than the last. Now, as...
In “Eclipsed,” a tormenting yet humorous new play by Danai Gurira ("In the Continuum") at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, the theme of survival during the bleakest of circumstances is driven home. Gurira's revelatory work, set during the brutal 2003 Liberian civil war, takes a powerful look at the travails of African women treated as human chattel. Based on interviews that Gurira conducted in Africa, "Eclipsed" examines the plights of women captured and held in a battlefront camp as...
On Saturday, September 19, 15 students from Culver City High School's (CCHS) Academy of Visual and Performing Arts (AVPA) Film Department met at the Big Bear Lake International Film Festival, where they won top prize in the High School Film category. The student film, “The Harry Hastings Method,” was directed by 2009 graduate Josh Blake and produced by current Culver City High senior Duncan Ballantine, who was also the film’s cinematographer. The film was created during the 2008-2009 school year and premiered at Culver City High Schoo...
We are so used to seeing films with a predictable plot line of mother wrangling unruly child or lonely miserable single mother trying to befriend her single child that we forget there are single dads out there, too. However, when we do see them, they are generally divorced, a part-time only dad, and a girlfriend inevitably enters into the mix. Which is exactly what makes THE BOYS ARE BACK so refreshing, so enjoyable, so emotional and so entertaining, as it is the complete antithesis of these...
In partnership with MOCA’s education department, artist Elana Mann and students from Culver City Academy of Visual and Performing Arts (AVPA) will present an interactive performance entitled Retirement Bash on Saturday, October 24 at the Culver City Senior Center. The culminating event of a 10-week workshop, Retirement Bash performatively “retires” outdated paradigms by introducing/inventing new sayings, symbols, images, and mottos. Having examined the ways in which the contemporary artists represented in MOCA’s "Collecting History: Highlig...
Akron, Ohio native turned long time Culver City resident, Kristopher Belman is a filmmaker with ethics, integrity, humility and talent. Always wanting to make movies, Kris had long been interested in a story that began in Akron, Ohio. A story involving legendary high school basketball coach, Dru Joyce, and some young, once unknown basketball players named Sian Cotton, Dru Joyce III, Willie McGee, Romeo Travis and a guy named LeBron. As little kids, Sian, Little Dru, Willie and LeBron played...
What man writes a script - a comedy no less - that has a character who gets his testicles blown off? A woman writing it, I would believe. But a guy? Well, leave it to Mike Judge, the brains behind "Beavis & Butthead", "Office Space" and "Idiocracy", to do just that. A man who you might call obsessed with the thought of his own testicles being blown off, to hear Mike Judge tell it, seems a perfectly normal concept. "When I was in high school, for science fair I actually made an x-ray machine,...
Charlize Theron: Oscar Winner. Kim Basinger: Oscar Winner. Guillermo Arriaga: Golden Globe Winner and Oscar Nominee. Robert Elswit: Oscar Winner. John Toll: Double Oscar Winner. It is the collaborative effort of these great talents and more, that bring emotion, depth, intrigue and life to Guillermo Arriaga’s latest story of love and redemption. Probably best known as the Oscar nominated screenwriter of “Babel”, “21 Grams” and “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada”, Arriaga now steps behind th...
Nothing warms the heart like a good laugh, and there are laughs aplenty in the Kentwood Players’ handsome new production of Charles Busch's Tale of the Allergist's Wife. Busch built his reputation writing cutting-edge off-Broadway spoofs that showcased his brilliant drag performances, so it was a surprise to many when he cooked-up this mainstream comedy almost a decade ago. It wowed the critics, moved to Broadway, racked up a slew of Tony nominations and ran for well over 700 performances. T...
The West Coast premiere of Danai Gurira’s “Eclipsed” opens Sunday at 6:30 p.m. at Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City Directed by Robert O’Hara, “Eclipsed,” continues through October 18. “Eclipsed,” a compelling portrait of transformation and renewal, is set in 2003 during Liberia’s vicious civil war and follows the lives of a rebel commanding officer’s “wives” as the women form a tightly-knit community and struggle for a degree of humanity in a hostile war zone. Their world is soon affected, however, by the arrival o...
