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

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated outside of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. What happened inside room 306 on the evening of April 3 is the subject of Katori Hall's The Mountaintop. Hours after King's final speech, punctuated by his immortal line "I've been to the mountaintop", the celebrated reverend forms an unlikely friendship with a motel maid as they talk into the early hours of what will be his final day.

Anna Ziegler's Boy is a powerful statement about sexual identity and the mystery of what makes us who we are. After a baby boy is seriously injured in an accident, a doctor persuades his parents to raise the child as a girl. As the child grows up, the child - known as Samantha and Adam at different times - faces an extraordinary challenge to carve out a place in the world.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia believed that the United States Constitution is the most reliable source for a fair interpretation of the law as it is applied today. He was, in other words, an "originalist". But aren't the laws written over 200 years ago subject to interpretation - or even guesswork? Edward Gero stars as the late Justice Scalia in John Strand's insightful look at Scalia's life and legal philosophy.

The story of two single mothers - one Japanese, the other Appalachian - who struggle to raise their mixed-race children in a Chicago tenement. An L.A. Theatre Works full cast performance featuring Lira Angel as Penny, Takayo Fischer as Grandmother/Others, Lynn Hamilton as Momma Rainey, John Herzog as Judge/Others, Lyvingston Holmes as Mrs. Ellis, Dorothy Lyman as Jean, Jeanne Mori as Mariko, Gina Ravarra as Tami, Monte Russell as Terrence/Others, and Brenda Varda as Donna/Barbara.

Orphaned Jane journeys from a harsh childhood to become the loving caregiver of a child at the mysterious manor of Mr. Rochester. Jane is drawn to her enigmatic employer, but as dark secrets emerge, she must choose between her newfound security and the uncertainty of a life lived for oneself.

In the mid-1950s, the House Un-American Activities Committee began investigating the communist influence in the entertainment industry. This searing docudrama from actual transcripts of the hearings reveals how decent people were persuaded to "name names", and the steep price paid by those who refused.

The acclaimed Scottish playwright Rona Munro has created a remarkable story about a man who wakes up from a car crash with brain damage. Now, he sees the world as the person he was three years ago, when his life and loves were in a very different place. This play is part of L.A. Theatre Works’ Relativity Series featuring science-themed plays.

In Pittsburgh in the 1980s, a young man falls in love with an older woman, and their lives are changed forever.

Tensions run high as Caleb de Leon, a young Jewish Confederate soldier, celebrates Passover with his family's newly freed slaves in the de Leons' crumbling antebellum mansion. This gripping drama explores a little-known aspect of the Civil War, unearthing dark family secrets on the way to a shocking climax.

The complicated relationship between the poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell is revealed in nearly 30 years' worth of correspondence. Taken from their exchange of letters, Dear Elizabeth is a study in friendship, intimacy, and the power of words.

Velina Hasu Houston's Tea uses history and poetic writing to weave a drama about Japanese "war brides" living in Kansas.

A portrait of one of the greatest American food writers of the 20th century, Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, whose writing transcended recipes and reviews to probe our deep-seated relationship to our appetites. Assembled from diaries, journalism, and short stories, Kelly Nespor's play creates a vivid tableau of the life of this preeminent and influential gourmet.

A young divorcee named Keiko moves from Hiroshima to America to start a new life with her ambitious husband. But when he takes a mistress and leaves her, Keiko takes drastic and irreversible actions to preserve her dignity and that of her children.

You Never Can Tell was originally born out of a bet that Shaw couldn't write a "seaside comedy" (a popular theatrical genre at that time). The result is perhaps the most surprising of Shaw's plays, complete with marital mayhem, tangled romance, and even doubtful dentistry. Despite the play's lighthearted tone, it's really another of Shaw's brilliantly observed social treatises, this time in the guise of a light comedy.

Billy has been deaf since birth, but his family has never learned sign language. In fact, until he meets Sylvia, who is fluent in ASL, Billy has never in his life been understood by anyone. This critically acclaimed sensation from Nina Raine will awaken all of your senses as it boldly asks some of life’s hardest questions: what is communication and understanding, and can we truly have it - with anyone?

The story of Curt Herzstark, an Austrian industrialist and concentration camp prisoner who was sent by the Nazis to an underground salt mine during the war. While in captivity he continued his experiments with a device that would eventually become the hand-held calculator.

A bright and politically engaged college student goes missing after a demonstration turns violent. But as her grieving mother begins her search, she uncovers a dark side to her daughter that she never knew existed.

Mickey and Gina are a blue-collar couple with the whole world ahead of them until Mickey's drinking and Gina's unrealized dreams tear them apart. Set against a backdrop of American history from the turbulent '60s through the '80s AIDS crisis, Northeast Local is a bittersweet journey through marriage, divorce, and its aftermath.

What do fast-talking New York octogenarians Abe and Mabel do when their lifelong grocery store, Pepperstein Produce, is driven out of business by Wonder Food? They embark on the ultimate road trip with a 19-year-old stoner, Wisdom, to Los Angeles to become actors.

Set in a South African traveling amusement park on New Year’s Eve, Athol Fugard’s Playland explores the possibilities for blacks and whites to find understanding in a racially divided world. A volatile dialogue begins when two men - a former soldier and a night watchman - delve into their sordid pasts. A Steppenwolf Theatre Company production.