SAVE THE DATE - October 7 at [Inside] the Ford

SAVE THE DATE

OCTOBER 7, 2009
from 6 PM - 9 PM at the Ford Theatres in Hollywood, CA
FREE!

You and a guest are invited to the Ford Theatres for an exclusive, intimate evening at L.A.'s urban oasis as we kick-off an adventurous [Inside] the Ford winter season with Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA, TheSpyAnts Theatre Company and
Circle X Theatre Co.

Mingle and munch under the stars in the Hollywood Hills! Meet other theatre aficionados, get the [Inside] scoop on the 2009-10 season and explore the historic Ford complex.

We hope you will join us for light refreshment, lively conversation and to meet and greet with producing theatre companies of the 2009-10 Winter Season

Specific details on this event will follow by invitation only.

For more information, please email communications@arts.lacounty.gov or 213.202.5941.

For more general season information, click here.

[INSIDE] THE FORD

The 87-seat indoor theatre in the John Anson Ford Theatres Complex
2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, CA 90068
www.FordTheatres.org
323.461.3673

Post show Q & A with playwright Matt Pelfrey Sunday August 9th

Just a reminder that on Sunday August 9th at 7pm, following our performance of Terminus Americana, we will have a post show Q & A with playwright Matt Pelfrey.

It is also a pay what you can show.

We'll also be up Friday and Saturday evenings at 8pm. There are only six more shows, so call (323) 860-8786 and make your reservations now!

LA Times review of "Terminus Americana"

Theater Review: 'Terminus Americana' at Elephant Theater

The title of "Terminus Americana" refers to the tome of conspiracy theorem that drives Matt Pelfrey's coruscating satire. That volume is something of a Macguffin. The core focus of "Terminus" is the twilight of American empire, as refracted through a violence-infatuated media, which the jaggedly effective production by TheSpyAnts caustically embraces.

It begins benignly enough, as Mac Winchell (the excellent Brett Hren) takes a chirpy phone call from wife Brenda (CB Spencer). His confidential exchange with fellow employee Felix (Hal Perry) suggests the kind of corporate evisceration that Billy Wilder patented.

Then Felix goes on a shooting rampage, whispers a tacit message to Mac before killing himself, and "Terminus" barrels into pitch-black absurdist territory.

Pelfrey ("An Impending Rupture of the Belly") possesses an unflinchingly original voice. If the polemic can be overt, that seems the point, with the accuracy of Pelfrey's broadsides both hilarious and disturbing.

Barring some halting transitions, director Danny Parker-Lopes keeps the tone grimly akimbo. The designs are sparely resourceful, and the cast (with alternates) is adept, impressively centered by Hren's antihero. At the reviewed performance, John Charles Meyer's outré executive, Maria Tomas' secret-society emissary, and Justin Dabuet and Adam Dornbusch as hacking Marlboro Men stood out amid an accomplished pack.

Written well before Sept. 11, 2001, the play premiered at Lodestone Theatre Ensemble shortly afterward. Its relevance has only deepened in the wake of subsequent gun-related national tragedies. "Terminus Americana" won't be for everyone -- but perhaps it should be.

--David C. Nichols

"Terminus Americana," Elephant Theatre, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Aug. 15. $20. (323) 860-8786. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

Photo: Hal Perry and Brett Hren in "Terminus Americana." Credit: TheSpyAnts

Pay what you can shows and Q & A with playwright added

Our July 26th and August 2nd performances of Terminus - both Sunday nights at 7pm - will be pay what you can shows.

Also, we will have a Q & A with playwright Matt Pelfrey following our August 9th performance.

And discount tickets are still available. Click here for information on that.

So mark your calendars and call (323) 860-8786 for reservations now!

Thanks!

Promo video for "Terminus Americana"

Check it out!

Discount tickets available NOW for "Terminus Americana"

Discount tickets for Terminus Americana, opening July 17th, are available for a limited time online at the following sites:

Plays411, where codes for discounts are as follows: 007: $5 off 008: Half price 077: $5 off; LA Stage Alliance, where 1/2 price tickets are available, and Goldstar which also has 1/2 price tickets.

So make your plans now!

TheSpyAnts present "Terminus Americana" by Matt Pelfry

TheSpyAnts present the LA Premiere of

Terminus Americana

by Matt Pelfrey

directed by Danny Parker-Lopes

July 18th through August 15th at The Elephant Theatre

From the TheSpyAnts Theatre Company that brought you productions including the smash hit KIDNAPPED BY CRAIGSLIST, the award nominated THE BIRDS: A TAIL OF ORNITHIC PROPORTIONS, and the inter-active, long-running THE REUNION: EVERYTHING CHANGES, EVERYONE STAYS THE SAME, comes TERMINUS AMERICANA.

After barely surviving an office rampage, Mac Winchell is thrust into a nightmare landscape populated by lost Marlboro Men, psychotic vagabonds, sinister corporate thugs and a strange cult known as “The Church of Christ, Office Shooter.”  Mac attempts to escape this twisted reality by undertaking a quest that ultimately leads him into the darkest corners of the American Dream.  Terminus Americana is a surreal, visceral and challenging examination of our violence-saturated culture.

Playwright: Matt Pelfrey is the critically acclaimed and award winning playwright-in-residence at Furious Theatre Company.   His produced plays include Pure Shock Value, An Impending Rupture of the Belly, Cockroach Nation, Terminus Americana, Freak Storm, Honkies With Attitude, Monkey, Gore Hounds and many others. Mr. Pelfrey is the winner of the National 10-Minute Play Competition and his winning play, Drive Angry, was subsequently produced at the prestigious Humana Festival of New American Plays. He is winner of a 2007 Back Stage Garland Award for playwriting.  He has been nominated for an American Critics New Play Award, a PEN Center West Literary Award, an LA Ovation Award, and an LA Weekly Award for playwriting. 

Starring - Brett Hren

Eric Bunton*(1), Justin Dabuet, Adam Dornbusch, John Charles Meyer*(2), Marina Mouhibian, David Page, Hal Perry*(3), Matt J. Popham*(4), CB Spencer, Maria Tomas*(6), Alison Zatta*(6)

*Alternating cast

1) Performing July 24, 25, 26, Aug 1, 2, 13, 14, 15
2) Performing July 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 31, Aug 1, 2
3) Performing Juy 17, 18, 19, 31, Aug 7, 8, 9
4) Performing Aug 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15
5) Performing July 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, Aug. 8, 13, 15
6) Performing July 26, 31 Aug 1, 2, 7, 9, 14

Terminus Americana will run at The Elephant Theatre July 18th – August 15th, 2009 with performances on Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 7pm; including a special Thursday, August 13th at 8pm. Preview on Friday, July 17th at 8pm, tickets $10. There will be an Opening Night Gala Saturday, July 19th at 8pm with hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine provided for a $30 donation. The Elephant Lab Theatre is located at 6322 Santa Monica Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90038. Street parking is available.

General admission is $20 for all performances. Group sales rates and student discounts available.
To reserve, please call (323) 860-8786 or buy tickets online at our website.

TheSpyAnts.com • PO Box 480202, Los Angeles, CA 90028 • (323) 860-8786

TheSpyAnts to perform at [Inside] the Ford

We are thrilled to be a part of [Inside] the Ford's 2009-10 season, and you can find out about our show, bobrauschenbergamerica by Charles Mee, and the Ford's upcoming season by reading their press release below:

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[Inside] the Ford
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 15, 2009
Press Contact (for media only):Lucy Pollak
(818) 887-1499 lucy@lucypr.com

2009-10 SEASON AT [Inside] the Ford:

Three new plays from EST-LA, TheSpyAnts and Circle X

about love, loss, betrayal… and America.

LOS ANGELES, CA - Love, loss, betrayal… and America: Los Angeles County's Winter Partnership Program is back with a second season of provocative new work in 2009-10. Once again, three outstanding L.A. theater companies have been selected to present an ambitious season of premieres at [Inside] the Ford, the 87-seat state-of-the-art theater located in Hollywood's Ford Theatres complex.

"These are three beautifully written pieces, each offering a profoundly different perspective on modern America," comments Los Angeles County Arts Commission Executive Director Laura Zucker. "We're pleased to be able to help three of L.A.'s most accomplished theater companies bring this exciting new work to Los Angeles audiences."

Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA opens the season in November with a powerfully moving new work that eloquently melds realism and poetry. In the world premiere of Tree by Julie Hébert, three generations divided by race, culture and time connect when a white Southern woman discovers old love letters leading her to an African-American half-brother.

In January, TheSpyAnts presents the Los Angeles premiere of Charles L. Mee's bobrauschenbergamerica, a fantastical voyage through the heart of small town America as seen through the eyes of visionary artist Robert Rauschenberg.

Finally, Circle X Theatre Co. returns to [Inside] the Ford in March with the world premiere of Lascivious Something by Sheila Callaghan. It's 1980 and Reagan has just been elected. On a secluded Greek island, an American ex-pat pursues his passions: wine making and his breathtaking young bride. On the eve of his first tasting, an old lover reappears, and with her, a wild and violent past.

Through the Winter Partnership Program, L.A. County-based theater companies without permanent facilities submit projects for consideration. Three companies are chosen through a competitive process to present at [Inside] the Ford, where they receive significant promotional and technical support while being allowed to keep the lion's share of the box office. The season is supported by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Ford Theatre Foundation, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The first Winter Partnership season at [Inside] the Ford was a resounding critical and popular success. Song of Extinction by E.M. Lewis, which was presented by Moving Arts in the fall of 2008, was recognized with a slate of prestigious awards including the 2008 Production of the Year Award from the LA Weekly; the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle's Ted Schmitt Award for World Premiere of an Outstanding New Play; and the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, the largest national award for a new play. Circle X Theatre Company's Battle Hymn by Jim Leonard was a Los Angeles Times "Critic's Choice," an LA Weekly "GO!," and a Back Stage "Critic's Pick." The LA Weekly's Steven Leigh Morris called Home Siege Home, Ghost Road Company's ensemble-derived adaptation of Aeschylus' trilogy, The Oresteia and the final offering of the season, "a calculated blend of ancient lyricism and contemporary humor… [Katharine] Noon and company… conjure the psychological and cosmic forces that lead to the end of an era."

Embedded within a 1929 historic structure, [Inside] the Ford is an 87-seat indoor theater space at the Ford Theatres complex that boasts 21st Century lights and sound, comfortable seats, and a decades-long history of nurturing new theater. For decades it was rented by numerous groups, most notably the Mark Taper Forum which made it the home of its second stage Taper, Too from 1972 to 1997. In 1998 the space was extensively renovated and renamed [Inside] the Ford, following which a season of three productions was presented under the Los Angeles County Art Commission's subsidized rental program designed to help theater companies without permanent facilities. From 2000-01 through 2003-04, [Inside] the Ford hosted "Hot Properties," seasons of new plays and musicals produced by County-based theater companies and supported by A.S.K. Theater Projects and the James Irvine Foundation. Finally, from 2005-06 to 2007-08, [Inside] the Ford was the home of the Ensemble Theatre Collective, known as ETC@ITF, a collaboration of five L.A.-based theater companies that was supported in part by the Flintridge Foundation.

The Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Laura Zucker, Executive Director, provides leadership in cultural services of all disciplines for the largest county in the United States, encompassing 88 municipalities. In addition to programming the John Anson Ford Theatres, the Arts Commission provides leadership and staffing to support the regional blueprint for arts education, Arts for All; administers a grants program that funds more than 300 nonprofit arts organizations annually; oversees the County's Civic Art Program for capital projects, funds the largest arts internship program in the country in conjunction with the Getty Foundation, and supports the Los Angeles County Cultural Calendar on ExperienceLA.com. The Arts Commission also produces free community programs, including the L.A. Holiday Celebration broadcast nationally, and a year-round music program that funds more than 50 free concerts each year in public sites. The 2009-10 President of the Arts Commission is Araceli Ruano.

[Inside] the Ford is located in the Ford Theatres complex at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, CA 90068, just off the 101 Hollywood Freeway across from the Hollywood Bowl and south of Universal Studios. On-site, non-stacked parking is free.

Single tickets to Tree, bobrauschenbergamerica, and Lascivious Something are priced at $20 with a special price of $12 for full-time students with ID and senior citizens. A season subscription for all three plays is $45. For information go to the Ford Theatres website at www.FordTheatres.org or call 323.461.3673. Subscriptions and individual tickets go on sale July 15.

Kim Estes for Actors Reporter on "Lions"

Kim Estes (The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild, Infinite Black Suitcase, The Reunion) has posted interviews with the cast of the long running play Lions, along with it's writer Vince Melocchi, and director Guillermo Cienfuegos on Actor's Reporter, which you can see here.

Lions is currently up at the Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice, so check it out while it lasts!

Kim Estes demo reel

This is the demo reel of our longtime member Kim Estes (Infinite Black Suitcase, The Reunion, The Birds).

Have a look and enjoy!



Link