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The Arts Blog ~ News and notes on Orange County's world of arts, from Tim Mangan (classical music), Laura Bleiberg (dance), Paul Hodgins (theater) and Richard Chang (visual art).

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SCR founders Benson, Emmes announce they’ll step down

February 4th, 2010, 4:34 pm by PAUL HODGINS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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David Emmes, far left, and Martin Benson, far right

South Coast Repertory’s cofounders David Emmes and Martin Benson, among the longest-serving leaders in American regional theater, have announced they will step down from their present roles by September. They will remain on staff for as long as five years to help their successor master the intricacies of managing the nationally respected Costa Mesa theater company, which has three stages, two major seasons and an annual budget of $9 million.

The announcement came in a press release issued earlier today.

“Martin and I talked about the idea of being able to have … an ongoing relationship with the theater,” said Emmes, who started SCR with Benson in 1964 as an itinerant company that operated out of a station wagon. Emmes holds the title of SCR’s producing artistic director; Benson is artistic director.

“Those ideas we brought to a board retreat in 2008. It was wonderful that the board has been very enthusiastic about the idea that there could be a continuing relationship with us so that we could provide a continuity that would be strong.”

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3D Theatricals gets ready to unleash “All Shook Up” on O.C.

February 4th, 2010, 11:29 am by PAUL HODGINS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

allshookup

The flu laid me low for a few days, but I’m back.

3D Theatricals, the new theater company operating out of Santa Ana’s OC Pavilion, is ready to launch its second production, “All Shook Up,” this weekend. You might recall that the group announced its existence with an ambitious production of “Peter Pan” late last year.

I conducted an e-mail interview with one of 3D’s sibling-founders, T.J. Dawson, who’s directing “All Shook Up,” a musical set in the Eisenhower era about an Elvis-like teen angel and his effect on a small town.

Watch for my review of “All Shook Up” to post online this weekend.

THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER: Why did you decide on “All Shook Up” as your second production?

T.J. DAWSON: While this is our 2nd production, it’s the first official show in our season and we chose this one because the venue is used to doing tribute shows.  We thought, why not open with a show that will help their current audience base ease into attending theatre.  I believe the show to be among the strongest of the juke box musicals with a great score of all the best Elvis hits, as well as some of his lesser-known songs.  We plan including at least one show of this type in each season.

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Posted in: Theater by Paul Hodgins • musicals • • • | 2 Comments »

Venerable Pasadena Playhouse to close

January 30th, 2010, 8:28 am by PAUL HODGINS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

pasadenaplayhouseThe troubled Pasadena Playhouse, which first opened its doors in 1917, is closing.

On Thursday, 37 employees were told that they were being let go soon after the current production of “Camelot ” ends Feb. 7. There has been no announcement regarding how or if the playhouse’s 8,000 subscribers would be reimbursed.

The playhouse has had a troubled history, including past closures and bankruptcies. It owes $500,000 in immediate bills and another $1.5 million to banks and other long-term creditors. About $6 million raised to renovate the facility was earmarked for that purpose only and cannot be used to dig the company out of its financial hole, according to playhouse executive director Steven Eich.

Eich said there is a plan to come back if the company’s precarious finances can be stabilized.

In September, 2009, the playhouse joined a long list of southern California arts institutions asking for the public’s help in extraordinary economic times. Eich said then that the company was looking for $500,000-$600,000 in immediate donations to help service an ongoing debt of $1.4 million on the property, an obligation it has been saddled with since its 1994 bankruptcy. A $3 million naming donation for the main theater was sought.

Despite its checkered past, the playhouse has trained and featured some of the most familiar names in acting over the decades: Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Raymond Burr, David Niven. At one point it was a well-regarded proving ground for Hollywood talent. Its artistic director, Sheldon Epps, a popular TV director, had brought some Hollywood talent to the institution over the last decade, including everal people involved with the hit citcom “Frasier.”

More theater stories on the Arts Blog:

Posted in: Theater by Paul Hodgins • | 2 Comments »

Dwyer: OCPAC and UCI could collaborate

January 29th, 2010, 10:04 am by PAUL HODGINS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

I ran into Orange County Performing Arts Center president Terry Dwyer last weekend at UC Irvine. Dwyer and I were catching a concert by master jazz pianist Kei Akagi, who was performing one of his “Kai and friends” gigs with trombonist and fellow UCI faculty member Michael Dessen and bassist Darek Oles.

They were wonderful. It’s nice to see that UCI’s jazz program is finally clicking after many troubled years of stop/start development.

Dwyer wasn’t there just for recreation. He told me he’s interested in future collaboration between the Center and UC Irvine. While he was tantaliziingly vague, Dwyer said he can envision faculty members from the university’s arts school playing in the Samueli Theater.

I’ve got a call in to Dwyer for more details.

The move isn’t surprising. Since he arrived in 2006, Dwyer has been quietly but determinedly expanding the Center’s taste horizons.

Co-producing a daring new musical, spicing up its dance and cabaret seasons with challenging and unorthodox artists, offering free movies and other activities on the outdoor plaza — the Center has been transforming its somewhat stodgy image under Dwyer’s leadership, even as it has struggled like every other arts organization with declining revenues during the recession.

I hope Dwyer continues down this road and pray his wings don’t get clipped by bottom-liners.

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Talented actress brings new meaning to ‘Carousel’

January 28th, 2010, 11:43 am by PAUL HODGINS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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CLICK ON PHOTO TO SEE SLIDE SHOW

In its first few minutes, the Reprise production of “Carousel” looks more like “Our Town” than a Rodgers and Hammerstein warhorse.

The actors slowly assemble on a bare stage, carrying simple props. There’s a lot of wood – chairs, posts and beams, boxes – but little else. Grizzled character actor M. Emmet Walsh even does a passable imitation of “Our Town’s” Stage Manager. His plain-spoken narrator sets the scene, delivering stage directions written by Oscar Hammerstein II for the original production.

Make no mistake. The Reprise production, which opened Wednesday for a two-week run, doesn’t clean up this hot mess of a musical. By the time Billy Bigelow, the wife-beating carnival barker and all-around lout, botches a murder-robbery attempt, commits suicide and meets his maker, we’re at the two-and-a-half hour mark. Then there’s another 30 minutes of Billy’s ghost trying to make things right with his widow, Julie, and daughter Louise. Tidy it ain’t.

But even “Carousel’s” detractors have to admit it has one shining asset: its songs. And the Reprise production is blessed with performers who can sing them – lustily, gloriously, from the bottom of their hearts.

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‘Hair,’ two other O.C. productions nominated for LADCC awards

January 27th, 2010, 1:45 pm by PAUL HODGINS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The Chance Theater’s production of “Hair” received nominations in six categories, including best revival and best ensemble performance, by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle. Two South Coast Repertory productions, Julie Marie Myatt’s “The Happy Ones” and Richard Greenberg’s “Our Mother’s Brief Affair,”  also received multiple nominations. “The Happy Ones” will receive the Ted Schmitt Award for the world premiere of an outstanding new play.

The LADCC awards, which honor productions staged in 2009, will be presented March 22 at the Colony Theatre.

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At Sacramento retreat, wondering how to make the arts matter

January 26th, 2010, 11:53 am by PAUL HODGINS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Earlier this month I attended a two-day ”Visioning Retreat” in Sacramento convened by California Arts Advocates, a group that represents the interests of the arts and lobbies state lawmakers on matters that affect culture in California.

What is a “Visioning Retreat,” you ask? I posed the same question when I was invited to be one of 100 “artists, thinkers and advocates” who would convene in Sacramento.

The main goal of this disparate and talkative group, it turns out,was nothing less than figuring out how to revitalize public interest and government support for the arts at a difficult time when Sacramento and the state are overwhelmed by serious issues.

The get-together had a practical purpose as well. Participants were encouraged to meet with their state representatives and urge them to vote for a pending bill, AB 700, which would help replenish the budget of the California Arts Council, a grant-giving body that has seen its mandate devastated in recent years by successive cutbacks.

AB 700 is not a new-tax bill. It proposes diverting 20 percent of sales and use taxes on arts-related businesses — picture framing shops and music stores, for example — to the Creative Industries and Community Economic Revitalization Fund. The California Arts Council would be authorized to use that money to donate to arts endeavors throughout the state.

But that was a side show to the main event, which was two long days of batting around a familiar subject: What ails the arts?

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Posted in: Dance by Paul Hodgins • Theater by Paul Hodgins • • • • | 5 Comments »

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