 Mark your calendar – Racket Doctor here in Atwater Village is holding its semi-annual half off sale in February. Better yet, head over there today before everyone else does!
Click here to sign-up for the Racket Doctor email list to get reminders and these sales.
The Racket Doctor is located at 3214 Glendale Blvd. Phone is (323) 663-6601.
Usher and see a show for free!
If anyone wants to see EST-LA’s new show MLLE. GOD for free or their late night rock-n-roll comedy show Crack Whore Galore. Contact Laura at info@ensemblestudiotheatre.org to usher or work Concessions.
Thursday
8:00pm (Preview)*
EST-LA kicks off the adventurous season of new work with a world premiere by Oscar-nominated writer Nicholas Kazan, who reinvents Franz Wedekind’s Lulu with Mlle. God (January 29 – March 26). Scott Paulin directs Kazan’s outrageous tragic-farce, a paean to sex, art, and living in the millisecond. Not for the faint of trousers! Mature audiences only. Click here for tickets.
Friday
8:00pm Opening Night
EST-LA Mlle. God Performance. See above.
Saturday
9:00 am Special Event! Scarcity to Abundance: Capturing the Moment for the New Work Sector.
Click here for our coverage.
Circle X Theatre Company and Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA, with the partnership of LA Stage Alliance, will host the New Play Los Angeles theater satellite meetup to coincide with the final day of the national convening. Satellite Participants will view the pre-recorded round table discussions from the national convening, and discuss the themes within the context of the Los Angeles theater community.
8:00pm Opening Night
EST-LA Mlle. God Performance. See above.
Sunday
2:00 pm Opening Night
EST-LA Mlle. God Performance. See above.
Ongoing,etc.
Atwater Playhouse holds ongoing classes in Method Acting.
Writing center Wordspace, also located along Casitas Avenue, holds a series of writing workshops practically every day of the week. Click here for the calendar.
Mutineer Theatre Company, in residence at Atwater Playhouse, is holding a fundraiser called “Full Speed Ahead” at KPCC’s Crawford Family Forum (474 S. Raymond Avenue). Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Click here to purchase tickets.
If we are missing any events on this notification, please let us know.
*Previews are performances held before opening night, to allow the actors time in front of an audience before making their final tweaks to a show. Tickets are usually at a reduced rate because all of the design elements may not be present.
With Broadway focused on revivals and musicals based on movies and star vehicles, new plays often go by the wayside. If you are an unknown playwright, it’s nearly impossible to be produced.
Not so at The Arena Stage, however, and they’ve been working intensely for a national dialogue that includes all voices – new playwrights, established playwrights, and the people who decide which plays are produced. Arena Stagey began a New Plays Convening yesterday in DC, and Los Angeles participates on Saturday, in our brand new Atwater Village Theatre!
Circle X Theatre Company and Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA, with the partnership of LA Stage Alliance, will host the New Play Los Angeles theater satellite meetup to coincide with the final day of the national convening, entitled Scarcity to Abundance: Capturing the Moment for the New Work Sector, organized by the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage in Washington, DC.
The Los Angeles event will be held Saturday, January 29 from 9:00 am-1:00 pm. Participants will view the pre-recorded round table discussions from the national convening, and discuss the themes within the context of the Los Angeles theater community.
 Dennis Baker, a local actor asked by Arena Stage and 2amtheatre to organize the LA meetup, believes this convening can “continue to bring the LA Theater community together in discussion. Any time there is a reason to dialogue and share, I think it is a good thing.”
Baker highlights more ways people can prepare ahead of Saturday morning:
“There are various degrees participants can prepare. The national convening is four days long, with most, if not all, the round table discussions being live streamed through out the four days.” Click here for the full schedule of those discussions.
Watching any of these will bring context to the two round table discussions, and “Endings” event that we will be watching on January 29.
You can also read the institute’s blog by clicking here.
If you want to dig even deeper, the recent book from the Theater Development Fund, Outrageous Fortune: the Life and Times of the New American Play, has the most up-to-date research on the topic.
The national convening will focus on the following: identifying the rich and vital activity that already exists in the new play sector, exploring the gaps and challenges facing the field and strategizing the means of continued and closer collaboration to advance the new work infrastructure moving forward. This convening will build upon the outcomes and initiatives that grew out of last year’s convenings: Defining Diversity, Black Playwrights: the Stories We Tell, and Devised Work.
Circle X Theatre Company and Ensemble Studio Theatre-L is located at the Atwater Village Theater, 3269 Casitas Ave. There is street parking.
Click here for more information from the Dennis Baker website.
Portions of this article appeared on 1/25/11 in Bitter Lemons.
Cindy Marie Jenkins is a Storyteller and Coach based in Atwater Village. She also contributes to The Inspired Classroom, Bitter Lemons,and the LA Stage Times.
Friday-Sunday
Nothing scheduled. Theaters on hiatus for the holidays.
Ongoing,etc.
Atwater Playhouse holds ongoing classes in Method Acting.
Writing center Wordspace, also located along Casitas Avenue, holds a series of writing workshops practically every day of the week. Click here for the calendar.
If we are missing any events on this notification, please let us know.
Joint Season of New Plays
 Theaters await an audience for the 2011 season of new plays Despite the hiatus for the holidays, January 2011 looks to be a very promising year for Awater Village theater. Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA and Circle X Theatre Co. will inaugurate the new performing arts center at the Atwater Village with a new joint season in 2011.
See our article about EST-LA here. Stay tuned for our Circle X feature coming in January.
Related articles about Atwater Village arts and theater:
For the weekend of Friday, December 3 through Sunday, December 5
Friday
Micro-Fest Los Angeles: Tickets include six performances, full access to workshops, panels, opening reception and a Sunday morning pancake breakfast. Presented by the The Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET) at the Atwater Village Theater. See schedule after the jump.
Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights (ALAP) Director/Dramatist Exchange: Bringing together ALAP member playwrights with area directors for short presentations and networking. Email danb@laplaywrights.org for more info. Saturday, December 4, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm (location TBA).
Saturday
Micro-Fest Los Angeles: Day two. See schedule after the jump.
Sunday
Micro-Fest Los Angeles: Day three. See schedule after the jump.
Ongoing,etc.
Atwater Playhouse holds ongoing classes in Method Acting.
Click here to continue reading Atwater Village’s Weekend in Theater »
 Live in Atwater Village? Are you aware that the Community Redevelop Agency of Los Angeles are looking to “redevelop” parts of Atwater Village, including North Atwater? Not sure what that means? Go to the open house tonight at the Library, where CRA representatives will (hopefully) help you understand the intricacies of redevelopment and how it will affect our community. Here are the details from the email announcement:
The Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (CRA/LA) is exploring the possibility of adopting a new redevelopment project area that overlaps with portions of four communities: Atwater Village, Cypress Park, Elysian Valley and Glassell Park.
If you did not have a chance to attend a CRA/LA Community Open House this past week in Glassell Park and Elysian Valley, please join us at one of our last two scheduled Community Open Houses to learn more about the work we do and how redevelopment could benefit your community. For more information on the study please visit www.crala.org/nela
Times and dates are as follows:
Community Open House: Atwater Village
Thursday, November 18, 2010 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm
Atwater Branch Library, 3379 Glendale Boulevard
Community Open House: Cypress Park
Saturday, November 20, 2010 from 10:00 am – 12 :00 pm
Cypress Park Recreation Center, 2630 Pepper Ave, Los Angeles, 90065
As previously reported, Casitas Avenue now hosts a handful of new theaters. The Mutineer Company recently joined the crowd after Jamie Paolinetti invited them to be in residence at The Atwater Playhouse. In September they remounted a work from last summer’s The Hollywood Fringe Festival, called Shaked and Speared, and will close their production of THE MILL this Sunday, October 31.
Founding Artistic Director Jon Cohn describes how he’d like Mutineer to work with the community:
 Mutineer Theatre Company “The neighborhood has been great. I have long been a fan of Atwater Village’s Club Tee Yee, Canele, Kaldi, and Baracoa and am eager to continue the exploration of venues for pre- and post-show celebration venues as well as recommendations to our audiences for must-do destinations on performance nights.”
Cohn continues to explain how the move will affect Mutineer, founded in 2007, on the basis of collaboration:
“Up until this point, Mutineer has been nomadic so Atwater Village (and Playhouse) does represent our first ‘home.’ Having a venue ups the ante for us considerably in terms of content creation, development, and infrastructure. It also serves as the catalyst for taking us to the next level as an arts organization while keeping us focused on our mission. We are incredibly grateful to Jamie and the rest of the company at the Atwater Playhouse for affording us this opportunity and sharing their home with us.”
Click here to continue reading Nomadic Mutineers find a home in Atwater Village »
 For the kiddies in Atwater Village tonight, we have Trick of Treat on the Boolevard, where families can go from business to business along Glendale Boulevard for treats and candies.
But maybe after the sun sets and the little ones have pillaged Glendale Boulevard, you want to get a little more adventurous in the scary department. While not technically in Atwater Village, it seems like a great time for some of the older kids!
The 8th Annual “The Haunting” at the LA River Center and Gardens promises a haunted maze, trick-or-treating, and spooky creatures!
LA River Center and Gardens
570 West Ave. 26,
October 29-31
7:00 pm to midnight
Admission is free, but donations encouraged (supports the local MRCA Ranger Explorers youth program)
For more information, email luke.mcjimpson@mrca.ca.gov
 Mourning Tours, 2008. Flickr Photo by Jodi K. This promises to be a spooky time at Heritage Square – already kind of a creepy (but awesome!) place, Heritage Square Museum is hosting its 7th Annual Halloween and Mourning Tours, as well as a Scary Movie Night, all starting this weekend.
Saturday and Sunday (October 23 and 24) kicks off the Halloween and Mourning Tours, where you can “discover the very different traditions surrounding death and mourning as they were practiced 100 years ago.”
This living history program puts you in the middle of a superstitious Victorian-era society where death was never far behind. Witness a funeral procession as they bury a loved one, visit a fortune teller, learn about hair jewelry and mourning attire and even join two men in arguing the merits of spirit photography!
Also on hand for this year’s festivities will be author Mark Daniel Wood. Mark is the Author of several titles, most recently Halloween Crafts-Eerily Elegant Décor (2001) and Create a Bewitched Fall-o-ween: 45 Projects for Decorating and Entertaining (2006). Mark will transform the 1887 John J. Ford residence into an authentic Victorian-esque haunted house. In so doing, he will demonstrate to visitors how to make period decorations. Mark will be on-hand to sign books.
Movie Night takes place on Saturday, they’ll be showing Body Snatcher. Guests are invited to bring a picnic, blankets, chairs, and candy, and don’t forget to wear warm clothing. Beverages and popcorn will be available for purchase, while admission is free for Museum members and $10.00 for the general public. The gates will open at 7:00 pm for picnics with the show starting at dusk.
On Sunday, October 24, the event adds family activities where children can dress in costume, make period crafts, get a free pumpkin, and listen to spooky stories.
Fan of the paranormal? Also on Sunday:
Paranormal Investigators will share the results of their study of Heritage Square Museum. After all, for more than 40 years, people have claimed to hear, see and feel all manner of mysterious happenings at Heritage Square Museum. Whether it is the nature of the Victorian architecture, the historic furnishings and paintings on display or something all-together different, “ghost sightings” have occurred at the museum since its inception. …those “sightings” will be denied…or confirmed!
Admission is $10.00 for adults, $8.00 for Seniors over 65, $5.00 for Children 6 to 12 years, and free for Children under 6.
Halloween activities:
Also on Halloween, they’ll host “Safe Haven Trick or Treating” where kids can hunt for candy in side the museum grounds. Children 1 to 12 years of age, with parent accompaniment, may come in costume and receive sweet treats from costumed interpreters stationed at each building.
Safe Haven will take place from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Admission price is $5 for Adults and $2 for children 6 to 12. Children under 6 and members are free.
For more information about the program, call the museum offices from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at (323) 225-2700. Click here for directions to the museum.
DON’T FORGET! Caltrans is closing the 110 Pasadena Freeway periodically, so you might want to take public transportation. If you ride the Metro Gold Line or ride your bicycle, Heritage Square will give you a free poster.
 Flickr photo via chrisdabao The 4th Annual Atwater Village K-9 HOWLoween benefit parade and contest is coming up this weekend on Sunday, October 17 from 3:00 – 4:00 pm. K-ABC Channel 7 News will also be joining in to film those cute cuddly dogs in costume.
Here’s the scoop:
Free Yappy Hour, gifts for all registered guests, Friends of Hermon Dog Park, dog and cat food vendors, and much more! The contest will include small and big dog categories.
Yappy Hour and registration begins at 3:00 pm. Your $5 registration fee goes directly to D.A.W.S. of Atwater Village-Director of Animal Welfare Services.
You can register the same day or pre-register at Woof Dog Boutique. Get 20% off all Halloween costumes at the boutique!
Woof Dog Boutique is located at 3172 Glendale Blvd. in Atwater Village.
Call (323) 661-7722 with questions.
|
|
