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Notes from Arden
Monty Cole: An accomplished director goes back to school
“A lot of the world theater that came into town, I’d say, now that’s theater, that’s crazy, that’s cool, that’s exciting. I’d never seen work like that before. I don’t think I’d even have known how to approach ‘Etta and Ella. . .’ had I stayed in Chicago. I would never have figured that out.”
Featured Column
Our Man Sam: On Playwright Sam Shepard, Dead at age 73
“I always felt like playwriting was the thread through all of it,” Shepard said in 2011. “Says Shepard, ‘Theater really when you think about it contains everything. It can contain film. Film can’t contain theater. Music. Dance. Painting. Acting. It’s the whole deal. And it’s the most ancient. It goes back to the Druids. It was way pre-Christ. It’s the form that I feel most at home in, because of that, because of its ability to usurp everything.'” — BY VANESSA CATE
Got It Covered
“The court has still not ruled on the union’s Motion to Dismiss the lawsuit Asner, et al V. Actors’ Equity Association (filed by union actors and some producers against AEA) which aims to reboot the process by which the former 99-Seat Plan got removed. That removal was allegedly in violation of a 1989 out-of-court settlement that was ostensibly intended to protect the 99-Seat Plan and to provide local union members with fair representation over control of that Plan. There’s some speculation that the court is waiting for the outcome of two NLRB filings against AEA, before deciding whether or not to accept or dismiss the lawsuit, and that could take months.” — BY PAUL BIRCHALL AND STAGE RAW WRITERS
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Around Town
“At the age of 16,” Michel says, “I knew right away that I wanted to work as an actress on stage and then that was it. I was in love with the theater and will always be in love with the theater, and right now I am suffering, because I am not working in the theater.”
The Summer of our (Dis)Content
Our Town
Diversity Tops the Agenda at Los Angeles Theater Network
Of course, the big elephant in the room is the bitter conflict between AEA minimum wage and local actors working in the 99-seat theater scene. Any discussion of theater at this time must indeed necessarily center on the local scene’s current struggle for existence. As group chair Jon Lawrence Rivera noted, LATN is neutral on the AEA feud, on the grounds that LATN chooses to deal with issues of advocacy and marketing instead of the casting concerns of individual companies. Still, on their Facebook page, the group has hosted equally shrill diatribes from both sides of the issue. BY PAUL BIRCHALL