Featured Column

"Yes, it is the same old story of rising rent causing the exodus of a theater company — except it isn’t quite the same, as Rogue already had been making plans to move on and up to Theater Row. So when MET owner Paul Koslo approached Flynn and offered him a year’s lease at a substantially lower rent, it allowed the company to create an “interim” season before moving to the space on Cahuenga." -- By PAUL BIRCHALL

"One thing folks love at the end of the year is a nice end-of-the-year list, and I am perfectly delighted to look through my “Desk Calendar of Fun” to recall the several comparatively most important stories in Los Angeles in 2015. " -- By PAUL BIRCHALL

"The reason for the get-together was both to make merry and to raise money to support Stage Raw. In the last few weeks of December, Stage Raw critic Myron Meisel generously stepped forward with an offer to match any tax-deductible donation up to $5,000. The site’s bean counters (I think there’s at least one bean who does the counting), reports that we reached the desired total of $10,000. " -- By PAUL BIRCHALL

"The five-theater complex, which includes the Lillian, Asylum and Elephant theaters, had closed in September after the building’s owner completed a deal to sell the property that subsequently fell through." -- By PAUL BIRCHALL

"The Alliance urges interested parties to weigh in by posting comments to the IRS on the PAA’s Action Alert page. The responses need to be filed by Wednesday, so there isn’t much time." -- by PAUL BIRCHALL

'Petrakova’s manifesto undeniably boasts an “artist” sensibility, and steadfastly favors loyalty to a particular theater company over branding oneself as an individual performer. Her other ideas include curtailing the conventional roles of director, producer, and writer, along with transforming the concept of place. “We don't need traditional theatre space to create theatre, and spend thousands of dollars maintaining one, padding the pockets of greedy landlords. We need space to train, to meet, to work. When the good piece of theatre is born, it will find the place to be shown. I will watch it on the streets, on the roofs, in the abandoned houses, and pay for it.”' -- by PAUL BIRCHALL

Although the note goes on to assure us that the people who make up Theatre Banshee will continue to create, it is not as clear where this will happen. I also can’t say this is the first time that a well respected theater company has been forced to move because a neighborhood is becoming gentrified due, in great part, to the existence of the very theater company that now can’t afford the rent. -- BY PAUL BIRCHALL

It’s been a week of hauntingly familiar trauma in the news. All of us must feel great compassion for the people of Paris following the appalling attacks that claimed 129 lives. That the targets were mostly entertainment and leisure activities — a rock concert, a Cambodian restaurant, a shopping mall, a football stadium — underscores that the attacks were deliberate aggressions against core Western values and freedoms. --BY PAUL BIRCHALL

However, one thing I am assured of is that Stage Raw will continue its venerable tradition of almost two years. Morris says he’s withdrawing from the day-to-day operations of the website – assigning, editing, posting, etc – and will delegate those roles to staff, and will guide the more general direction of Stage Raw from afar. --BY PAUL BIRCHALL