I was ecstatic this morning when I saw Taco readers’ comments on the Company of Angels’ new production and I received this e-mail from CofA member Kila Kitu (see Taco story): “The response to L.A. VIEWS:Ten Minutes at a Time has been overwhelming. Three of our last shows have already sold out.”

You see, when I joined the Taco writing staff, someone up there guided my way to the world of LA’s theater groups and I was stunned by the talent I encountered. If you check the reviews posted under Taco’s Theater link, you will get a glimpse into this wonderland. L.A.’s scene of small independent theater ensembles is a treasure that still needs to be discovered by the larger public so that these intelligent, compassionate and daring artists can keep on creating the compelling body of work that I’ve been privileged to enjoy over the last year and a half. In a recent must-read article, LA Weekly’s Theater Editor Steven Leigh Morris raised the red flag on the fate of LA’s live theater: “The Purpose of Theater in Absurd L.A.”

This Friday sees the opening of a new production by the Lodestone Theatre Ensemble who has a special place in my heart for co-producing the first show I ever reviewed for Taco: the hilarious sketch-comedy TELEMONGOL, staged in collaboration with Cold Tofu, 18TH Mighty Mountain Warriors, and OPM Comedy. We all know how that first time sticks to you and sometimes with you. On that fateful night, TELEMONGOL’s veteran performers took more than one bite of my virgin reviewer self and in the name of Decency, all I can say is my ribs still hurt.

Smelling a virgin… Wanru Tseng, Greg Watanabe, July Lee and Denise Iketani in TELEMONGOL.

Founded in 1999 by Philip W. Chung, Alexandra Chun, Chil Kong and Tim Lounibos, Lodestone’s mission statement is “to provide a forum for Asian Pacific American artists in all aspects of the theatre arts. Lodestone seeks to challenge limited perceptions of Asian Pacific Americans through the creation of original theatrical productions as well as a fresh retelling of established works.” In 2007, Lodestone tackled Euripides’ “The Trojan Women” (”Where else would Asian Pacific American actors be allowed to play all the parts in a Greek tragedy written twenty-four centuries ago?” Philip Chung, co-Artistic Director) and a revamping of “The Mikado Project” (“Traditionally Asian American theatre companies have shied away from The Mikado because of the racial stereotypes that the show propagates; but what if an Asian American theatre company had no choice but to perform it? Its that sort of provocative premise that Doris and Ken explore with humor and intelligence. This is Lodestone’s first musical production and its fitting that it should be one that perfectly fits into our mission to present Asian American work in a new and challenging way.” Director Chil Kong)

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Flor de Maria Chahua and Art McDermott in “Legit” by Henry Ong.

“L.A. Views: Ten Minutes At A Time” by the Company of Angels @ The Alexandria Hotel, 501 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013. April 10th-26th, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm. $20. Reservations recommended: (323) 883-1717. Due to the overwhelming response, CofA added a performance on Sunday, APRIL 27TH at 7PM and a TALK BACK WITH THE AUTHORS will take place after the Thursday, April 24th 8pm show.

I discovered the Company of Angels last year when they performed one of Suzan Lori-Parks’ 365 days/365 plays (Taco review) and left exhilarated by their synergy, undeniable talent and dedication to the City of Angels. In their new production, “L.A. Views: Ten Minutes at a Time”, “with laughter, tears, hope, sorrow (and even 70’s music,) the eight playwrights involved in LA Views bring you 10-minute stories that leave you questioning your own understanding of community and all it encompasses.”

Protestors against anti-immigraton laws march by the Alexandria Hotel, March 2006.

Another treat is that the Company of Angels’ new black box is located inside one of our City’s landmarks, the Alexandria Hotel in Downtown L.A. Last Sunday I met with one of L.A. Views’ directors, Karen Anzoategui, and asked her about the Ghost Building and her involvement in the production:

KA: Our theater is on the third floor overlooking this beautiful ballroom where they used to have dances and parties. Mae West used to stay at the Alexandria Hotel. Charlie Chaplin and Al Capone were also frequent visitors. The room that has become our theater used to be the V.I.P. room for the ballroom where all these celebrities gathered. We moved everything out, cleaned it, we scraped it, painted it. We found a lot of interesting things like all these encrypted words on the wall. Why would people write “cheat” and “rat”? It’s so intriguing and mysterious. You wonder where it all comes from.

A lot of older residents still live at the hotel, the Hotel does things for them like movie nights. We want to get them involved with the theater. Some of them are excited about us being there. This old lady’s been coming by just to sit and watch. It’s been great also for us to come together as a company, because we had to build the theater from the ground up. We also have a great technical director, Justin Huen.

Alexandria Hotel circa 1919.

TACO: I’ve met Justin, he’s also an actor.

KA: He’s a man of many talents. With him on board, I knew we were going to have a great damn show. We wanted to ask “What is community in Los Angeles?” So the Company of Angels’ Playwrights Group came together and started writing around that theme. I really wanted to be part of something that is about LA because that’s where I want to be.

TACO: Tell me about the play you directed for LA Views, “Turning Around Mercy” by Jamison Newlander.

KA: I started reading the plays and one of them was about this hospital and at the time I was doing HIV work, I was drawing blood and maybe interested in getting certified as a Phlebotomist. So I was in the vibe of hospital settings and also finding out about what happened in the emergency room at King Drew Hospital. I talked with my peers who worked there and learned that it shut down and wondered why? Why did they let it get to that point? That’s exactly what the play “Turning Around Mercy” is exploring. It’s these women administrators trying to hold a hospital together so that it doesn’t fall apart. That’s why I wanted to direct it and Jamison Newlander is a great writer.

For descriptions of the plays and a list of cast and crew, go to www.companyofangels.org/laviews.php.

For more fascinating stories on the Alexandria Hotel, check out Damon Chua’s blog, The Ghost Building. Damon Chua is one of the playwrigts involved in LA Views. His play is called “Stuffed Grape Leaves.”

L.A. Views’ “Mass Transit” by Evangeline Ordaz. Pictured from left to right: July Evans, Nicole Ortega (back), Oscar Basulto, Richard Azuurdia (back)

Carnage: A Comedy ~ Ivy Substation ~ 9070 Venice Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232 Thursdays-Sundays until March 8th

“Carnage may be more relevant today than it was when we first did it 20 years ago. The emergence of radical right wing theology as a legitimate political force has made this a much more dangerous time than the late 80s. Recent revelations about Blackwater, a private militia owned by fundamentalist Erik Prince and funded by tax-payer dollars, was a fear we gave life to in the play-but it wasn’t a reality yet. As far as demagogues go, there are still just as many hucksters and zealots plying their wares from the Potomac to the Rio Grande.” ~ Tim Robbins

“Dooooooooooooooomed! Dooooooomed!” Standing over the fourth row of the house at the Ivy Substation in Culver City, a Southern Pentecostal televangelist named Cotton Slocum crooks his aged finger at audience members to denounce that they are sinners who will not be spared come judgment day. A grotesque creature torn from a Gerald Scarfe sketch, he is part monster grandfather, part Billy Graham snake oil salesman, with a heaping spoonful of Elvis thrown in to his mix from his voice and swagger to the gawdy belt he wears, crouching and striking fierce poses. Dark circles under his eyes betray the shadow of this supposed man of God, who soon snaps out of fire and brimstone mode while showing a young acolyte Tack (Justin Zsebe) the steps to seducing crowds through spirituality, teaching preaching as an exact science, down to the number of steps to take and the rise and fall of the voice. Do it like this, he says “…and they’re your’s.”

His fierce apocalyptic fire turns quickly to the shifting sand of manipulation. What about the end of days, his young pupil asks…”We got time…the end is not coming,” says Slocum with a sly smile, “that’s preaching son, and that’s what sells…this is a big time operation.”

So begins the re-birth of Carnage: A Comedy, written 20 years ago by the West Covina-born actor and director Tim Robbins and writer/producer/director Adam Simon. We knew Mr. Robbins was funny from repeated viewings of Bull Durham, Bob Roberts, and Anchorman, but Carnage comes so jam-packed with well-executed character-driven madness and rib-splitting lines that the perpetual laughs from the audience almost get distracting at times. Robbins and Simon apparently also have a gift for prophecy, as their tale of religious shysters, mercenaries, and holy war is certainly more apt today, the main reason the play has come back to the stage. The original version was performed in various world theaters in 1987, and the cast included J.B. and K.G. of Tenacious D (a band so hard-to-the-core that Satan drove Himself back to Hell to avoid being out-rocked).

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Keirin Brown (L,) Olya Petrakova (standing), Bryan Brown and Ilana Turner. All photos by Taso Papadakis.

After literally feeling your way to a seat in the pitch dark theater, you hear actors moving about on stage, feeling that anytime now the lights should shine. The performers sound like they’re shoveling dirt, but you really don’t know, as you can’t even see your hand one inch in front of your eyes. Strangers next to you are antsy. “Lights please!” Despite a few audience complaints, whoever is on stage goes about their dirty business, echoing machines from the dawn of the industrial era or maybe the monster hiding in your closet, whose sole purpose is to get you.

“TURN THE LIGHTS ON!” spectators are now shouting. Sharing my peers’ mounting anxiety, I also jubilate in witnessing the house stand up for its rights, holding cell phones over their heads like torches. The American Russian Theatre Ensemble Laboratory has struck again!

These 10 minutes of revolutionary theater was ARTEL’s way of kissing 2006 goodbye. Last December, the provocative ensemble folded 2007 with a two-night presentation of their work-in-progress: Variation #50 (the memorable adventures during the legendary times of Mikhail Afanesievich Bulgakov) at Highways Performance Space.

Author Mikhail Bulgakov in the hands of Stalin (Ilana Turner.)

Under ARTEL’s domination, the stage suggests a street off of Skid Row, in the early morning, when the unhoused slowly wake, stir, and start their daily routines. Clothes hang on makeshift hooks, suitcases are strewn on the floor next to buckets, shovels and the skeleton of a bed. Actors, deep in character set the stage, get dressed, and mumble. Who are these forms? What are they doing? Whose names are being written on that blackboard? Like a trusted lover, ARTEL savors blindfolding us, keeping us waiting, wanting, guessing…our senses wide awake, ready to engage.

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WICKED! @ The Pantages Theater, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood ~ Through May 8 ~ General: $35.00-$98.00. Premium seating: $177.50-$201.50. Lottery: $25.00 cash.

WARNING: This review is a major spoiler.

In 1958 Hollywood made a film version of the Broadway hit show “Bell, Book and Candle.“ In the screen adaptation, the stunning Kim Novak plays Gillian, the owner of an unconventional art gallery specializing in African art. By day, Gillian moves about her possessions sensing the protection of the spirits who once inhabited her haunting collection of African masks.

By night, Gillian lounges at the local jazz club wearing tight fitting black and red gowns. In full frontal view, Gillian’s outfits look deceivingly proper until Gillian, in true catwalk fashion, gently wiggles and a plunging decollete exposes Novak’s bare and famously gorgeous back. Gillian doesn’t leave the club with a jazz player in tow even if Kim Novak, in real life, would soon be Sammy Davis Jr.’s lover. When the famous couple contemplated tying the interracial knot a year later, their friends congratulated them on their upcoming marriage and expressed their condolences for their soon-to-be dead careers. Kim and Sammy’s relationship quickly turned to dust.

and can he marry a gorgeous White movie star?

In 1950’s Hollywood, such a single-minded gal and erotic affirmation of life as Gillian can’t really be a woman… of course not… soon we discover that Gillian is really a witch!

Enters the most sexually unthreatening male actor who ever lived:

James Stewart as Sheperd Henderson… Would you be looking at the cat?
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