Showing results by publisher "L.A. Theatre Works" in Drama & Plays

Ken Narasaki's adaptation of the novel by Japanese American author John Okada is set during the aftermath of the US government's incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese descent during World War II and the resettlement of Japanese Americans to the West Coast. In the play, Ichiro returns to Seattle, where he struggles to transition into post-war life.

In this one-man tour-de-force based on Picasso's writings, writer/performer Herbert Sigüenza (Culture Clash) takes on the role of the legendary artist, inviting the listener into Picasso's private studio for an intimate and revealing weekend as he prepares to deliver six new works to a buyer on Monday morning.

Taut with suspense, this critically-acclaimed adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House focuses on Nora, a young wife and mother who exploits her childlike charm to survive in a man’s world. But Nora has a secret that threatens her cozy existence. Recorded before a live audience at the Doubletree Guest Suites, Santa Monica, CA, in 1997.

After 18 years of marriage, Della Doucet decides she’s had enough of life on a South Carolina military base and reinvents herself in the New York art world while reveling in a series of shallow romantic affairs. Her new life seems to be going well until she finds herself in the arms of a charming younger man.

A group of politically correct teachers are tasked with creating a Thanksgiving play for their students. They hire a Native American actor to lend authenticity to the proceedings. When it turns out she’s ethnically ambiguous the teachers are left to navigate the resulting pitfalls in this rich satire. Includes a conversation with playwright Larissa FastHorse.

A young Lithuanian immigrant, full of hope, arrives in Chicago in 1904 to work in the stockyards. He and his family soon find themselves processed like the very cattle they slaughter, by the system they dreamed would save them.

Renowned theater critic John Lahr created a bold reworking of Richard Condon’s political thriller, updating the action to the 1990s while retaining the core premise of a brainwashed war hero who’s programmed to become an assassin. Kelsey Grammer stars as Raymond Shaw in this co-production with Chicago’s Shattered Globe Theatre, starring the original cast.

One of the world’s wealthiest men has died in a plane crash. The insurance company representing the airline assigns math genius Mitch Bloom to the case to minimize their payout - but Mitch finds himself facing a formidable opponent in Ida Watkins, a small-town actuary who challenges his ideas about the value of a human life. Includes an interview with playwright Kenneth Lin.

When Claudia gets pregnant, she has a very clear plan for how she wants to give birth. Her prenatal anxieties inspire her father to create a device for safer deliveries, and Claudia realizes that nothing ever goes quite as expected. Includes a conversation with playwright Chiara Atik and Dr. Judith Reichman, an OB/GYN and longtime medical contributor to The Today Show.

A team of lawyers uses a little-known legal writ to fight and overturn the conviction of Fred Korematsu, unjustly sentenced for resisting the WWII mass incarceration of all Japanese Americans on the West Coast. The play draws much inspiration from Enduring Conviction: Fred Korematsu and His Quest for Justice by Lorraine K. Bannai (University of Washington Press 2015) and Justice Delayed by Peter Irons (Wesleyan University Press 1989).

The quiet porch of a rest home for the aged explodes with emotion when prim Fonsia Dorsey sits down to play gin rummy with the cynical Weller Martin. Fonsia is drawn to Weller, but she just can't stop winning at cards, while Weller bemoans the bad luck that is ruining his game and has dogged him throughout his life. Tragic yet uproariously funny, this Pulitzer Prize-winning drama examines themes of individual responsibility and society's mistreatment of the aged. A co-production with The Smithsonian Associates and Voice of America.

The first day of seventh grade is probably the worst day of Duncan Dougal's life. He knows that things are really bad when he finds an alien's hand in a Dumpster and then gets plugged into an alien brain fryer! Can Duncan find out which of the four new teachers in his school is an alien before his brains get fried to a pulp - or before the aliens try to fry the whole planet?

Scornful of men and the love they profess for her, Gwendolen Harleth is a beautiful but spoiled young woman, frustrated by her limited options in Victorian England. Daniel Deronda is an intelligent, handsome young man who has been raised by his guardian, Sir Hugo Mallinger, but knows nothing of his true origins. Deronda’s search leads him into the world of 19th-century Zionism, a discovery that will alter the course of his life.

A whirlwind courtship. A storybook wedding. A kiss for the bride. And suddenly everything changes. When Peter and Rita's brand-new marriage is strained by a magical twist of fate, true love will never mean quite the same thing again.

You say you want a Revolution? The story of this country's struggle for independence is told with a fresh slant and theatrical inventiveness. As Thomas Jefferson struggles to find the right words to frame a nation, a young Quaker must weigh his desire to participate in the struggle against his pacifist beliefs.

Seven women give voice to the voiceless. Seven is a documentary play created with the support of Vital Voices Global Partnership and is a collaboration between the playwrights and seven female activists from around the globe, telling inspiring stories of overcoming adversity to effect real change and improve the lives of women.

In a German industrial town, four unemployed and despondent men reenact Roald Amundsen's turn-of-the-century trek to the South Pole. An L.A. Theatre Works full cast performance.

Brian Bedford's hugely successful one-man show is both an actor's celebration of Shakespeare and an act of Shakespearean scholarship. Bedford explores the emotion and psychology behind Shakespeare the man as well as Shakespeare the playwright.

Keith Reddin's examination of the early career of Richard Nixon. Set in a suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel, a paranoid Dick Nixon is an idealistic young congressman who is ambivalent about resorting to a monumentally underhanded "dirty trick". This was orchestrated by Nixon's conniving campaign official Roy Day against his Democratic opponent, Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas - the so-called 'Pink Lady'. Nixon's victory launches his career as a politician.

For most people an afternoon trip to the dentist is the very definition of hell. When Deb's routine dentist appointment turns out to be a meeting with Lucifer himself, she bargains her way back to living with a promise to secure a certain number of souls. Naturally she begins her scavenger hunt in the corporate sector - the Disney Corporation, to be exact! Sharp and refreshing, Keith Reddin's Synergy is an uproarious and wry look at life on the corporate ladder.