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🎭 LA Shows and Events: Week of June 24 2024

Author

Jess Esa
June 24, 2024

Thank you for subscribing to Ensemble LA, where we celebrate and share LA’s exciting and scrappy theatre scene.

Please share with anyone creative in LA, anyone who is in a show, and anyone who wants to see shows! ✨

It’s the final week of June, and the first full month of this newsletter is over! Thank you for subscribing, reading and supporting. It’s been super exciting and a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to July! 🦊 

This weekend, my wife and I continued our NT Live kick and watched Under Milk Wood, starring Michael Sheen. Originally produced as a radio drama in 1954, the play was written by Dylan Thomas and has become a national treasure in Wales. Growing up in Swansea, where Thomas was also from, I’ve always felt a strong connection with his poetry, and I (along with every Welsh person alive) studied the play in school.

As you can imagine, the script is intensely poetic: a tender portrait of the fictional town of Llareggub through extremely heightened language and theatricality. (Imagine if James Joyce wrote Our Town.)

This production added a framing device: Michael Sheen, playing a troubled alcoholic writer, goes to visit his father (Karl Johnson) in the retirement home. When his father’s memory starts to fail, Sheen dives into the text of the play, unfolding memories of this town like treasures in a music box to try to bring his father back to himself.

My wife and I adored this production. Although we were unsure of the framing device at the beginning, we were won over when the elderly residents of the retirement home became the players who portrayed every character in the town—from a blind old sailor, to a sinister widow, to a pair of impassioned young lovers. Sheen’s charisma carried the show, and his masterful handling of poetry brought Thomas’s words to life effortlessly.

I was particularly moved by Johnson, who had the fewest lines of the entire cast, but made the most impact with his compassionate portrayal of a man near the end of his life.

With that said, on to this week’s clowns, performers, and all-out entertainers. Here are some shows you shouldn’t miss!

🎭 THIS WEEK’S PERFORMANCES 🎭

  • Things In My Childhood Bedroom That Screamed "I'm Queer! | June 24 | The Glendale Room | Glendale
    Dig into the nostalgia and uncomfortable questioning queer people ask themselves when they are part of a community.

  • Dance At the Odyssey Summer Festival | Jun 29 – Jul 14 | Odyssey | Sawtelle

    Summer dance festival celebrating. the work of some of LA’s best and boldest choreographers. Kicking off with Mark.

  • Habla Y Te Salvas | June 30 | Eastwood Performing Arts Center | Hollywood

    Christopher Moncayo-Torres invites you to meet the elusive Ecuadorian Paul Bunyan of his childhood: his dad.

  • Delusions and Grandeur | June 26 30 | The Broadwater | Hollywood
    A solo cello recital meets clown show contemplating perfectionism, expectations, and success.

  • Lost Angels: A Night of One Act Plays | June 27 | The Elysian | Frogtown
    Two one-act plays about life in the city of angels.

  • Astro Cabaret | June 28 30 | The Three Clubs | Hollywood
    Embark on a journey through Emma Irene’s natal chart one drag character at a time.

  • The Suplex: A Wrestling & Poetry Show | June 25 | The Lyric Hyperion | Silverlake
    LA’s best poets, slam poets, spoken word artists, improvisers, sketch comedians, and clowns take the stage to face off.

  • The Sandwich Ministry | June 24 - July 7 | Skylight Theatre Company | Los Feliz
    Three women gather to make sandwiches for neighbors who’ve been displaced from their homes by floods.

  • .Tierra Indígena – Indigenous Land | June 28 | Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center 
    A performance celebrating 10 years of bringing Mexican folklore to the LA LGBTQIA+ scene.

  • The Year Without Summer | June 28 - July 21 | Loft Ensemble | N Hollywood
    A queer period piece about being trapped.

  • The Sphere of Fixed Stars in the Heavens | June 25 27 | The Broadwater | Hollywood
    Owen and Elodie meet at a friend’s birthday party. Then they meet again. And again. And again.

  •  The Rocky Horror Shadow Cabaret | June 29 | Illusion Magic Lounge | Santa Monica
    The screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show combines burlesque, aerial, fire performers, variety acts, and more.

Still Playing

Special Mention

My wife’s theatre company, Living Room Shakespeare, is hard at work on their next show! They create micro-scale, immersive productions that take place in living rooms, backyards, or anywhere you can imagine!

They’re looking for venues in August and September for their summer production, RICHARD 2! This two-actor adaptation captures the political intrigue and pathos of this divisive king, with vibrant and creative storytelling that makes history more accessible than ever.

If you are interested in hosting and have a living room, patio, or yard that could safely hold 15-30 people, please reach out to us at [email protected] 

All of these theatres have other shows running that might interest you! This is just a small selection that piqued my own interest 🦊 

The Hollywood Fringe Festival is on from June 24 - 30th

Shakespeare by The Sea is on from June 24 - Aug 3 in multiple locations.

P.S. If you want to submit your own event for this newsletter, fill in this form!

🕺OTHER COOL CREATIVE STUFF 🕺

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