Tag Archives: actors

Actor Tim Cummings discusses, signs his debut YA novel, Alice the Cat, at the Fountain on June 27

by Terri Roberts

Fountain audiences know Tim Cummings as an impassioned actor who brings gritty depth and honesty to every role he undertakes. From his searing work as political activist Ned Weeks in The Normal Heart (2013), to his heart-wrenching portrayal of Mitchell, devoted and loving partner to the suddenly-stricken Daniel in Daniel’s Husband (2019), Cummings never fails to impress.

Now he has taken on a new role – that of published author. His debut young adult novel, Alice the Cat, is being celebrated at the Fountain Theatre (indoor stage) with a book signing and conversation moderated by acclaimed author Meg Howrey (They’re Going to Love You) at 7pm on Tuesday, June 27.

What was the inspiration for Alice the Cat? What was so appealing about a suicidal cat, her pre-pubescent owner and a haunted house?

I lost my mother to cancer when I was a teenager, and the family cat fell into an intense depression afterward. I came home from school one day to discover she’d been running into the street, attempting to get run over. I had terrible fights with my dad about this; I wanted him to do something, but he wasn’t able to. Eventually, the cat disappeared. I never knew what happened. One day in grad school, earning my MFA in Writing, a question detonated above my head, “What happened to the cat?” I went home and wrote the first sentence of this book.

From there, it took on a life of its own. It felt like Tess, her friends, and the ghost girl, Francine, were waiting for someone to materialize as a vessel to tell their story. It’s a really wild tale, original and strange, emotional, and intensely goofy, too. I think Tess saw in me a writer who could bring her to life based on my great admiration of so many other strong tween female protagonists, like Meg Murry, Fern Arable, Cassie Logan, Lyra Silvertongue, Chihiro Ogino (AKA Sen), Coraline, Malú (María Luisa O’Neill-Morales), and ‘Eleven.’  

Tell us a bit about your writing process.

In grad school, I felt safe and sequestered away from life. I’d spent over 35 years as an actor. I wanted to evolve as a storyteller. Writing has always felt private and intimate and open and free to me. I felt it was time to bring it into the light.

In school I just needed to write a book that I needed to read, that I needed to feel, that allowed me to insert all my wackiness, goofiness, darkness, mysticism, and spirituality into a kind of old-fashioned coming-of-age adventure with some really interesting kids who kept surprising me as I wrote them.

I never felt that Alice the Cat would put me on the map. I did it for me. I broke a lot of rules and took a lot risks, but I’m someone who doesn’t play it safe. And a mentor of mine (the astonishing Gayle Brandeis) in my final semester fell hard for the book and assisted me in purring it into the world. And here we are.

What attracts you to writing for the YA crowd?

Those formative years maintain their power over our lives forever. Adults love reading YA and middle-grade, so the readership is vast. There’s a kind of wild freedom when writing into the emotional and psychological states of tweens and teens. I think back to that age and I remember the feelings. It’s a seminal time, rife with hormonal snakings and expressive utterances. It’s great for writing!   

The characters in Alice the Cat are delightfully unique, vivid and offbeat. Are any of them based on any real people in your life, or were they completely created from your imagination?

It’s a bit of both, honestly. I grew up outside Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, with mixed-race kids and vivid personalities. I always loved the girls who were tough and strong, but quiet, fighters when they needed to be. Tess is like that. She’s also based on cool female characters from other middle-grade and YA books I love.

I was goth as a teen (still am in many ways) and I love the misfit feeling of being goth. The mystery, creativity, theatricality of it. The love of the music. Lunar Velvet and Dami Tross were always meant to end up in this story. They’re a very real extension of my own innerness. And I adore Eddie and Cotter. They were a little unwieldy to write because they are so singular, so real, so messy, so expressive, but both care about Tess and Alice so much.

You deal with some very real, very difficult situations faced by many young people: loss of a parent/loved one, depression, suicidal ideation, difficulty fitting in, etc. Did you face any of these issues growing up? How did you deal with them?

In my childhood, I was pretty mercilessly bullied for being different. I had to learn to fight back, to find my voice. Theatre and writing did that for me. And at 16, when I lost my mom…I’ve been trying to figure out what to say about that for a long time. In that respect, Alice the Cat is a gateway.

I didn’t want to play it safe with this book. Most middle-grade books play it safe. You need only see what middle-schoolers are actually facing these days to feel inspired to go a little deeper. This is a story about grief, but it also offers levity in its goofiness. And it has a hopeful, responsible ending.

Which character(s) do you personally identify with most in the book?

All of them, for different reasons, but mostly Francine. The ghost. She’s been lingering in purgatory for eons and finally finds a way out, an absolution, through Tess and Alice. She reaches across dimensions to shudder the borders of these worlds and acquire what she needs to move on. And also allows Tess and Alice to remain together in this weird kind of way. I love her. I love that she and Tess share this penchant for anger and how it manifests.

How does your work as an actor inform your writing?

I always go deep into the characters I play. This book is written in first-person—meaning, I inhabited her the way I would inhabit any character I play. I wanted it visceral, embodied, and expressive. Being an actor helps with voice, the ever-elusive magical element to writing that no one seems to be able to put their finger on. Voice in writing is so mercurial. Thankfully, so is my protagonist.

How has reader response been to Alice the Cat?

Wacky, loving, enthusiastic, powerful. Also critical, whiny, and cruel. In other words: 100% normal. It’s what happens when you brave the deep waters of life by putting something into the world. But if you’re an artist, you’re gonna ‘art’ no matter what people have to say about it. It brings me such joy. And the truth is, true joy is impenetrable. At least for me.  

Outside of your signing event at the Fountain on Tuesday, June 27, where can folks purchase Alice the Cat?

My website has all the ways you can buy it! www.timcummings.ink

What’s up next for you? Another book? Another show?

Yes, a few more books are already written, and I’m settling in to get that going. Book # 2 is about theatre kids—and epilepsy. It’s deep, magical, funny, heartbreaking, mysterious, and it features a dog. (And it has some Alice characters in it.) Not sure about the acting. Scattered tiny things here and there, but nothing major. The actor is sleeping. The actor will wake up when the actor feels rested and refreshed; we’ll see if it wants to stay in bed or for me to hand it a cup of coffee, its robe and slippers, see if it rouses and moves about.

More info/tickets

After 40 years, ‘Bluefish Cove’ is a haven at Fountain Theatre once again

Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, Fountain Theatre, 2023.

by Stephen Sachs

“Isn’t that the theatre where they did Last Summer at Bluefish Cove?” It was 1990, and I heard that a lot. My business partner, Deborah Lawlor, and I had just acquired the Fountain Theatre in East Hollywood. We had only an empty building and the dream of transforming it into an energetic artistic home that produced high-quality, meaningful theatre. As it turned out, we also took over a stage where a ground-breaking play ran for two sold-out years just a short while before.

Jean Smart, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, 1983

After an 80-performance run Off-Broadway, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove by Jane Chambers opened at the Fountain Theatre in 1983, with Jean Smart reprising the role of Lil. The ensemble, directed by Hilary Moshereece, also included Camilla Carr, Dianne Turley Travis, Shannon Kriska, Linda Cohen, Sandra J. Marshall, Nora Heflin, and Lee Carlington. Jean Smart was honored with the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. The Fountain production also received a Certificate of Outstanding Theatre from the City of Los Angeles.

That twenty-four-month run of Bluefish Cove at the Fountain Theatre was a turning point for the lesbian community in Los Angeles at the time, a benchmark achievement in L.A. theater, and a milestone in the history of the Fountain. For many queer women, it was the first time they saw themselves on stage in a play written by a lesbian. For straight audiences, it was an entertaining glimpse into a world that held many of the same needs and fears as their own. It was exhilarating.

We now live in dangerous, disturbing times. At least 417 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the United States since the start of the year — a new record. People around the country face violence and inequality because of who they love, how they look, or who they are.

The Fountain Theatre offers this play as public affirmation that we all ache for the same human connection, we all seek love and friendship, no matter our differences. Many who were here forty years ago have never forgotten how this funny, tender play changed their lives. Generations of young queer women today, born after the play was produced here on Fountain Avenue, will visit Bluefish Cove for the first time this summer and discover for themselves what all the joy and excitement was about.

INFO/TICKETS

Stephen Sachs is the Artistic Director of the Fountain Theatre.

Meet the Cast of Last Summer at Bluefish Cove

Set in 1974, a group of queer women spend their summers together in a remote oceanfront town on Long Island. Their lesbian enclave is disrupted when Eva, a naïve straight woman recently separated from her husband, stumbles unaware into their circle and falls for the charming, tough-talking Lil. This heartfelt play, a landmark in lesbian history, is bursting with friendship, laughter, love and hope, bringing well-rounded, three-dimensional characters that transcend stereotypes and preconceptions to the stage.

Check out this short video to meet the cast of our hot new summer production, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, opening June 17 on our Outdoor Stage.

More Info/Tickets

Now Casting: 40th Anniversary production of landmark play “Last Summer at Bluefish Cove”

The Fountain Theatre is now casting for all roles in its 40th Anniversary production of Jane Chambers’ landmark play, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove. The play ran for two sold-out years at the Fountain Theatre from 1981-1983 in a groundbreaking production starring Jean Smart. The 40th Anniversary production will be performed outside June 17 to August 27 as an immersive experience on the Fountain’s outdoor stage directed by Hannah Wolf.

Storyline: Set in 1980, a group of queer women spend their summers together in a remote seaside town on Long Island. Their lesbian enclave is disrupted when Eva, a naïve straight woman recently separated from her husband, stumbles unaware into their circle and falls for the charming, tough-talking Lil. This heartfelt landmark play in lesbian history, bursting with friendship, laughter, love, and hope, brings well-rounded, three-dimensional characters to the stage to transcend stereotypes and preconceptions.

NOW CASTING

LILIAN (LIL) ZALINSKI – Late 30s/early 40s, any ethnicity, woman. The only single resident of Bluefish Cove (for the moment). Lil is dry, sarcastic, headstrong and a bit of a ladies’ lady. Her lust for women equals her lust for freedom. She’s slept with most everyone in the cove. Lil is suffering from a terminal cancer that progresses throughout the show. Seeking queer and lesbian women+ performers of any ethnicity to play a group of old friends. Performers must be comfortable with same gender intimacy (there will be an intimacy director), smoking, wearing bathing suits and swearing. Role contains kissing, cuddling, hand holding, and lying in bed together (role does not contain simulated sex).

EVA MORGOLIS – Late 30s/early 40s, white (the script mentions that she has blue eyes), woman. Recently divorced after 12 years of marriage. She’s nervous, curious, worries about what others think about her and likes having a plan. She starts the play heterosexual but is willing to explore her wants and desires with Lil. Seeking queer and lesbian women+ performers of any ethnicity to play a group of old friends. Performers must be comfortable with same gender intimacy (there will be an intimacy director), smoking, wearing bathing suits and swearing. Role contains kissing, cuddling, hand holding, and lying in bed together (role does not contain simulated sex).

KITTY COCHRANE – 40s, white, woman. “Literature’s most credible women’s libber.” She’s a former OBGYN, current feminist writer and public figure in the women’s movement. She speaks before she thinks, is possessive and takes up a lot of space in any room that she’s in. She’s publicly in the closet and is partnered with Kitty (after a failed relationship with Lil). Seeking queer and lesbian women+ performers of any ethnicity to play a group of old friends. Performers must be comfortable with same gender intimacy (there will be an intimacy director), smoking, wearing bathing suits and swearing. Role contains kissing, cuddling, hand holding, and lying in bed together (role does not contain simulated sex).

ANNIE JOSEPH – Late 30s/early 40s, any ethnicity, woman. Famous sculptor, Lil’s oldest friend. She’s the core of the group, steady and patient with the others. She doesn’t care what others think about her. Annie’s married to Rae and presents as butch or stud. Seeking queer and lesbian women+ performers of any ethnicity to play a group of old friends. Performers must be comfortable with same gender intimacy (there will be an intimacy director), smoking, wearing bathing suits and swearing. Role contains kissing, hand holding, physical closeness.

RAE – Late 30s/early 40s, any ethnicity, woman. Has two grown children from a previous marriage and went through a rough divorce when she came out. Rae struggles with feminism and her love of hosting. Married to Annie for 9 years. Seeking queer and lesbian women+ performers of any ethnicity to play a group of old friends. Performers must be comfortable with same gender intimacy (there will be an intimacy director), smoking, wearing bathing suits and swearing. Role contains kissing, hand holding, physical closeness.

RITA SANDERSON – 30s, any ethnicity, woman. Trained as a teacher but was outed by her father. She’s punctual, levelheaded and to the point. She’s Kitty’s secretary and lover. Seeking queer and lesbian women+ performers of any ethnicity to play a group of old friends. Performers must be comfortable with same gender intimacy (there will be an intimacy director), smoking, wearing bathing suits and swearing. Role contains kissing, hand holding, physical closeness.

DONNA ATTERLY – 20s, any ethnicity, bisexual, woman. Donna’s newer to the group. She’s high femme and Sue’s sugar baby. She likes to gossip, is driven by her insecurity and feels like she has something to prove to the group. Seeking queer and lesbian women+ performers of any ethnicity to play a group of old friends. Performers must be comfortable with same gender intimacy (there will be an intimacy director), smoking, wearing bathing suits and swearing. Role contains kissing, hand holding, physical closeness.

SUE MCMILLAN – 50s, any ethnicity, woman. She’s the eldest of the group and remembers that in every minute. She’s insecure about the age gap, her body and herself. Sue comes from old money, she spends most of her time traveling and has never worked. She’s working through her relationship/dependence on Donna. Seeking queer and lesbian women+ performers of any ethnicity to play a group of old friends. Performers must be comfortable with same gender intimacy (there will be an intimacy director), smoking, wearing bathing suits and swearing. Role contains kissing, hand holding, physical closeness.

Producer/Theatre Company: The Fountain Theatre
Artistic Director: Stephen Sachs
Managing Director: Simon Levy
Director: Hannah Wolf
Writer: Jane Chambers
Casting Director: Stephen Sachs, The Fountain Theatre
Audition Date(s): April 7 – 10, 2023
Callback Date(s): April 14 – 15, 2023
Rehearsal Date(s): May 8 – June 13, 2023
Preview Date(s): June 14 – 16, 2023
Opening Date(s): June 17, 2023
Closing Date(s): August 27, 2023
Rate of Pay: AEA 99-Seat Contract

Submit to: Actors Access, Breakdown Express, or email casting@fountaintheatre.com

High school students enjoy special performances of The Lifespan of a Fact

By Terri Roberts

Earlier this month, eager students and their chaperones from three area high schools visited the Fountain Theatre for specially arranged morning performances of our current hit show, The Lifespan of a Fact. These kids had either been participants in Fountain Voices, the Fountain’s acclaimed theatre education program, or were recruited because they were active in their established high school theatre programs. Many of them already had an interest in the arts, some were newly exposed to it, and quite a few were even considering careers as writers and/or performers. All of them were thrilled to be seeing the show.

On Friday, March 3rd, 44 students from Hollywood High School and 15 students from Helen Bernstein High School were bussed to the Fountain to see Lifespan. A week later, on March 10th, approximately 60 students arrived from Compton Early College High School. Pre-show snacks and lunch were provided in the Fountain’s charming upstairs café, and the kids chatted excitedly about both seeing the show and the Q&A with the cast (Inger Tudor, Jonah Robinson, Ron Bottitta) and director (Simon Levy) that followed the performance.

Ali Nezu, Magnet Coordinator for the New Media Academy and the Performing Arts Magnet at Hollywood High School was also excited for the opportunity. “It’s just been a blessing to have such an amazing group of artists and board members and community people that just love and respect the arts and that understand how desperately we need the arts to create social change,” she said. “And the learning that happens in a situation like this, and the engagement level of the students in the content and their own growth is just so much more than in a situational classroom. So I love that we are inspiring students to experience that but then inspire them and empower them to do that in their own lives moving forward.”

“It’s just been a blessing to have such an amazing group of artists and board members and community people that just love and respect the arts, and that understand how desperately we need the arts to create social change,” says Ali Nezu, Magnet Coordinator for the New Media Academy and the Performing Arts Magnet at Hollywood High School.

“I really appreciate how Fountain Voices teaches students how to get into someone else’s shoes,” enthused Ebony Haywood, who teaches English and Theatre at Compton Early Collage. “To understand how someone else is thinking, to how do you put this story together? How do you present, and represent, this story on stage? It’s like an exercise in being human.”

Sherrick O’Quinn, the Fountain’s Theatre Education Manager, agrees. “Fountain Voices is instrumental in giving kids an opportunity to realize and find their voice,” he says. “The programming we are providing is giving them the tools to learn how to be change agents of the future by using the theater arts to communicate their own stories that can change lives, hearts, and minds. Whether it’s learning how to use playwriting or visiting our theater to see a show, we’re creating accessibility to the arts when we’re seeing students increasingly not being given those opportunities – especially in underserved communities.”

To learn more about Fountain Voices, contact Sherrick O’Quinn at sherrick@fountaintheatre.com.

To purchase tickets to see The Lifespan of a Fact, now extended to April 30th, call 323/663-1525 or visit www.fountaintheatre.com.

2022: What a year at the Fountain. See for yourself.

2022 was filled with acclaimed productions of plays, jazz concerts, and arts education programs. Take a look!

I sing for beloved Fountain actor Adolphus Ward

Adolphus Ward with playwright Athol Fugard at the Fountain Theatre in 2010.

by Stephen Sachs

“When you look at a fellow, if you taught yourself to look for it, you can see his song written on him. Tell you what kind of man he is in the world.” – Bynum, JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE by August Wilson


Adolphus Ward was a shaman. When you stood in his sphere, you felt it. This was a man who accessed the otherworld. A conjure man, a healer, the keeper of souls. His impish grin, twinkling eyes, the playful tone of his voice warmed the heart.

The Fountain was Adolphus’ theater home. “From the start, the Fountain Family has been like blood-family-members to me,” he said. He and Ben Bradley were friends for more than thirty years, harking back to their Milwaukee theater days. At the Fountain, they partnered on two August Wilson plays. Adolphus’ favorite moment on stage in Gem of the Ocean was going to the City of Bones. “That was a damn good trip.”

I directed him in the premieres of two plays by Athol Fugard. Both times, Adolphus was other-worldly. In Coming Home, he played the ghost-spirit of Oupa (“grandfather”). A gentle soul who tended his desert plants and called the magic pumpkin seeds in his leather pouch “little miracles.”

In Fugard’s The Train Driver, he played a gravedigger overseeing a bleak South African burial site for the unknown and unwanted, who “puts the nameless ones in the grave.” I’ll never forget the moment in the play when Adolphus, as the gravedigger, sang a Xhosa lullaby to the souls in the ground who were “sleeping.” The song floated from Adolphus like smoke on the night air. Haunting, beautiful, quietly transcendent.

Adolphus now sleeps. And I sing to him.

Adolphus Ward passed away on November 7th at the age of eighty-six.

Stephen Sachs is the Artistic Director of the Fountain Theatre.

Fountain Theatre hosts Monday press conference celebrating “Save the Performing Arts Act”

State Senator Susan Rubio in front of the set for An Octoroon at the Fountain Theatre’s Outdoor Stage

On Monday, August 16th, from 9:30-10 a.m., performing arts leaders and Hollywood celebrities will join State Senator Susan Rubio (D – Baldwin Hills) and Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell (13th District, City of Los Angeles) on the Fountain Theatre’s Outdoor Stage to celebrate Governor Gavin Newsom signing into law Senate Bill 805, entitledSave the Performing Arts Act of 2021.” Fountain Theatre Artistic Director Stephen Sachs will emcee the event.

“This bill is recognition from the State of California that intimate theater companies matter,” says Sachs. “I applaud Senator Rubio for her tireless advocacy in crafting this bill, and thank her for taking action to support the needs of small nonprofit theaters across the state.”

The “Save the Performing Arts Act of 2021,” authored by Senator Rubio and co-authored by State Senator Benjamin Allen (D – Santa Monica)and State Senator Anthony J. Portantino (D – La Canada Flintridge), provides $50 million in much-needed immediate financial aid to small performing arts organizations with annual budgets under $2 million (including the Fountain.) The bill also includes $500,000 to set up payroll services support, which will be overseen by the California Arts Council. The public is invited, and encouraged, to attend this celebratory event. Please note: mask-wearing and social distancing will be in effect.

SB 805 is the first bill in the nation that will create a critical funding infrastructure to help assist Small Nonprofit Performing Arts Companies (SNPAC) with average adjusted gross revenues equal to, or less than $1.4 million, to be adjusted every five years based on the California Consumer Price Index. SB 805 will direct the California Arts Council to establish the California Nonprofit Performing Arts Paymaster, which will provide low-cost payroll and paymaster services to SNPACs. This legislation will establish the Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund to ensure that SNPACs can pay all workers minimum wage, particularly workers in marginalized communities. Small nonprofit theaters are incubators for playwrights, actors, designers, directors and other artists. They have historically provided networking opportunities and mentorship for Black, Indigenous and People of Color artists to facilitate connections necessary for career advancement by providing performance experience that helps to open doors to larger, less accessible companies. Furthermore, SNPACs contribute to the economic growth, social well-being and cultural vitality of the local communities they serve.

Other confirmed attendees include:

Danny Glover, Co-Founder of The Robey Theatre Company; upcoming recipient of the 2022 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (an Honorary Oscar); BET Award, Cable ACE Award, NAACP Image Award and Asian Pacific Screen Awards winner, and Emmy Award-nominated actor. SB 805 Coalition Member.

Josefina López, Founding Artistic Director, CASA 0101. Theater, Emmy Award, Sundance Film Festival and Humanitas Prize Award-Winning Writer. SB 805 Coalition Member.

Ben Guillory (Co-Founder, CEO and Producing Artistic Director, The Robey Theatre Company, SB 805 Coalition Member. The Robey Theatre Company is a member of the Senate Bill 805 Coalition.

Kirsten Vangsness, tech-kitten Penelope Garcia on the Criminal Minds franchise, and a longtime member of Theatre of NOTE, which is a member of the Senate Bill 805 Coalition.

Snehal Desai, Producing Artistic Director of the award-winning East West Players, the nation’s premiere Asian-American theater company and one of the longest-running theaters of color in the United States.

Jon Imparato, Producer and Artistic Director of the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Center at Los Angeles LGBT Center

Arianna Ortiz, Western Regional Councilor for Actors’ Equity Association

Martha Demson, President of Theater Producer’s League Los Angeles and Artistic Director of the award-winning Open Fist Theatre Company, both of which are members of the Senate Bill 805 Coalition.

Simon Levy, Producing Director of the Fountain Theatre

SB 805 Coalition Members, which include: Leagues: Alliance of Desert Theatres, Arts for LA, Californians for the Arts/California Arts Advocates, San José Arts Advocates, Theatre Bay Area, Theatrical Producers League Los Angeles; Theaters: 24th Street Theatre, Actors Co-op Theatre Company, Altarena Playhouse, Breath of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble, CASA 0101 Theater, Celebration Theatre, Chance Theater, Coin & Ghost, Collaborative Artist Bloc, Company of Angels, Dezart Performs, Downey Arts Collective, El Teatro Campesino, Flat Tire Theatre Company, Fountain Theatre, IAMA Theatre Company, Infinite Jest Theatre Company, The Inkwell Theater, Inland Valley Repertory Theater, Interact Theatre Company, Invertigo Dance Theatre, Latino Theater Company, Macha Theatre Company/Films, Moving Arts, New American Theatre, Novato Theater Company, Numi Opera, Open Fist Theatre Company, Ophelia’s Jump Productions, Playwrights’ Arena, Rogue Machine Theatre, Rogues Artists Ensemble, Sacred Fools Theater Company at the Broadwater, Santa Cruz Actors’ Theatre, Sierra Madre Playhouse, Skylight Theatre Company, SkyPilot Theatre Company, The Robey Theatre Company, The Road Theater Company, The Victory Theatre Center, Theatre of NOTE, Theatre Unleashed, Teatro Máscara Mágica, Teatro Visión, Theatre West, Town Hall Theatre; Independent Artists: Producer Michaela Bulkley, Performer Devon DeGroot, Actor Robert Fancy, Actress Cristal Gonzalez, Performer Julia Sanford and Performer Christopher Sepulveda.  

Join the party! Daniel’s Husband & The Normal Heart company reunion today @ 4pm

By Terri Roberts

June is Pride month, a time of Mardi Gras-like celebration for the LGBTQ+ community that’s highlighted locally by the annual L.A. Pride Festival and Parade. The first Pride march, held June 28, 1970, was established to mark the one-year anniversary of the now infamous Stonewall uprising – an event widely seen as the launch pad for the modern gay rights movement. Fifty years later, it has become an annual, exuberant, not-to-be-missed event. (Note: The highly anticipated 50th anniversary celebration has been postponed due to COVID-19 concerns. More info)

The trouble that ignited a revolution started at 1:20am on June 28, 1969, when NYPD officers raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. Such raids were all too common at the Mafia-owned bar. But this night was different. On this night, the chronically marginalized, too-often dehumanized gay population who were drinking inside had had enough. On this night, they stood up and fought back. On this night, and in the nights and days and years that followed, gay men and women not only found their pride, they wore it boldly and shouted it out loudly for all the world to hear.

Today at 4pm, the Fountain is gathering together the casts of two of its most highly acclaimed productions – Daniel’s Husband (2018) and The Normal Heart (2013) – for a celebration not only of Pride month, but of the recent historic Supreme Court ruling that protects the civil rights of gay and transgender workers, and to honor the life of writer/activist/Normal Heart playwright Larry Kramer. Viewers can watch live on Zoom, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and on our website at http://www.fountaintheatre.com. The recording will also be posted and can be watched at a later date.

Fountain producing director Simon Levy directed both productions, and cast veteran actors Tim Cummings and Bill Brochtrup as lovers in both stories, each of which was centered on a different pivotal moment in the gay rights movement. The Normal Heart is Kramer’s clarion call to action against the emerging AIDS crisis in the mid-1980s. In it, Ned Weeks (Cummings) is a gay journalist and activist whose fight against the mysterious unnamed scourge running rampant through the gay community turns deeply personal when his lover, Felix (Brochtrup), a New York Times fashion writer, contracts the deadly disease. In Daniel’s Husband, Brochtrup is the eponymous Daniel, a successful architect who longs to be married to his partner of seven years, Mitchell, a marriage-phobic writer of gay romance novels that make him, as he says, “the 21st century gay equivalent of Barbara Cartland.”

Said Levy of the two actors, “After working with, and loving the work of, Bill Brochtrup and Tim Cummings in The Normal Heart, I consciously searched for another project for us. And when I read Daniel’s Husband, I knew I’d found our play and that they would be perfect for it.”

Both shows held a personal appeal to Levy, who spent many years living in San Francisco and working on the long-running, kitschy musical revue, Beach Blanket Babylon.

“When I had the opportunity to get the rights to The Normal Heart I grabbed them,” he explained, “because I wanted to pay a personal tribute to all the friends and colleagues I lost in San Francisco during the heyday of the AIDS crisis. Especially (performer) Bill Kendall of Beach Blanket Babylon, who was a good friend and co-worker, and someone I took the entire journey with. The show was a dedication to his memory, as well as (creator) Steve Silver, and so many others.

“When I read Daniel’s Husband I fell in love with it and knew it was right for the Fountain and L.A.’s gay community. Not only because it dealt with gay marriage, but because of its universal theme of loving and caring for one another. I wanted the production to be a reminder to hold on tight to each other, especially in these toxic political times, because we never know how long someone will be in our life. To live with regret is horrible, so love NOW!”

Both productions received passionate, widespread critical acclaim and extended runs. Audience reaction to both shows was deep and visceral. Many patrons saw both, and there were many who saw each play multiple times. It was also not uncommon for them to come back with friends and family members who they felt compelled to have experience the show.

The teeming post-show gatherings are something Levy remembers fondly.

“(I loved) seeing how deeply moved audiences were by both shows, and how they would congregate outside on the sidewalk afterwards to talk with the actors and share their stories of losing loved ones, or fighting to make gay marriage legal. I also loved the ‘love board’ that allowed people to pay tribute to the memory of loved ones and those they love now.”

The ‘love board’ was a giant, paper-covered plywood board that stood at the theatre’s double doors during The Normal Heart. On it, people would write love notes to, and about, the men and women who were no longer here with them. There were also expressions of gratitude and love for those who were still by their side. It was a powerful, cathartic act, and the paper was oft replaced during the extended run of the show.

In a LA Times interview from October 2, 2013, Levy made a comment about The Normal Heart and the AIDS crisis that now seems prophetic when taken in context of today’s COVID pandemic.

“People have fallen asleep again…Millions of people are dying from AIDS every year. But no one’s talking about it anymore. We’re all pretending that it’s yesterday’s illness.”

His resulting message to the public? “Don’t politicize pandemics! Be kind to each other. Love each other. We’re all in this together.”

Celebrate Pride with us and join us for the cast reunions of Daniel’s Husband and The Normal Heart today at 4pm. Watch on Zoom, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or on our website.

Our stage is the soul of the Fountain, but I feel the cafe is its heart

Cafe colorful May 2017by Terri Roberts

Friday, March 13th, was a very strange day.

I run the Fountain Theatre’s charming upstairs café. Normally, Fridays at the Fountain would be the start of a five-show weekend through Monday night. Six, if we had a Sunday evening Flamenco show as well. There would be a palpable energy in the air.

But on Friday, March 13th, LA’s growing COVID crisis had become critical. The public portions of the theatre – the stage and the café – had been shuttered. The offices were being closed as well.

I should have been working on Friday, March 13th. By 4pm, Pandora would have been rocking one of my favorite show tune stations, and I’d have been singing along with Wicked and A Chorus Line and Into the Woods behind the closed café door as I got the coffee going, bagged chips and cookies for sale, and chatted with local baker Tracy Green when she delivered her weekly order of scrumptious organic mini muffins. I would have caught up with staff when they wandered in for coffee or a snack. I would have arranged fresh flowers on the café tables. Watered the plants out on the deck. Set out food items, made sure the fridge was stocked, and ensured there was plenty of wine on the back counter.

By 6:30pm, actors would have been dropping by to say hello, and get a pre-show caffeine fix as they ate their dinner. If patrons had arrived early, I would have invited them to have a seat and get comfortable while I finished setting up. We would have talked about the show they had come to see and where they had traveled from to see it. Long distance drives from Orange County, Santa Barbara, and Long Beach are not uncommon (and on a Friday night, no less!) Patrons of the Fountain are extremely loyal, and LA’s notorious Friday night traffic has never stopped any of them from persevering to see a great show.

I’d have set out fresh creamer for coffee by 6:45pm and cut fresh lemon wedges for tea. I’d have changed the music to something more appropriate for the show, and turned on the video monitor to run the scroller of past Fountain Theatre productions. I’d have clicked on the twinkle lights draped around the café and the deck, and lit the votive candles that add such warmth and invitation to the space. The stage would have been set. Lights and sound would have been ready. I would have opened the door to let the audience in.

HIS Opening Night

Opening night of Human Interest Story, Feb 15, 2020.

 

It would have been another Friday night at the Fountain Theatre café. Engaging with patrons. Stepping out from behind the bar to hug a friend who had come to see the show. Getting buzzed off the buzz in the room. And answering a barrage of questions about past productions:

  • What was that wonderful play about the painting? Either Bakersfield Mist or My Name is Asher Lev. Both featured a painting and had storylines about art.
  • What was the show about the Latino restaurant workers? I couldn’t stop thinking about it. My Mañana Comes. Yes, a lot of people had that reaction.
  • What was the one about the border wall and the guy in prison? Building the Wall.
  • Do you remember the show about the Black girl who was a runner? Sure! It was In the Red and Brown Water, by Tarrell Alvin McCraney. It was the first play in his Brother/Sister trilogy. We also did the second one in that series, The Brothers Size.

Theatre. History. Story-telling. Energy. Friends. Connecting the dots. And, of course, lots of coffee. These were my Friday nights at the Fountain. Until Friday, March 13th. When everything changed.

I have happily worked at the Fountain for over a decade. I’ve been part of dozens of shows in a variety of capacities: production/assistant stage manager, props designer, casting associate, costume maintenance and more. For the past two years I have also been the manager of the charming Fountain Theatre café. I must say, I absolutely love it.

I run the café as I run a show, and I am nourished by it in the process. I am fed by the support of our devoted patrons, by sharing stories of past productions, by greeting first time visitors who inevitably want to know how long we’ve been around, what kinds of shows we do, and, ultimately, how they can become a member. And then there is the question I hear all the time, from guests old and new: will the café ever be open outside of show times? (Answer: it is a long-distance dream.) I feel gratitude every time I’m asked that, because it means they’re comfortable in this charming, funky space. They tell me how much they love the rainbow tables and walls, the gallery of production photographs, the mismatched collection of couches and chairs, the open deck with the hummingbird feeder and the little garden and the view to downtown LA. They want to hang out all day long. They feel a sense of peace, of connection in the space.

IMG_3164Kitchens are often referred to as the heart of a home, and the café is the gathering place of the Fountain Theatre. The room where we all come together to share meals, to talk, to take meetings and to rest. The stage downstairs is the soul of the Fountain. But the café, I believe, is its ever-beating, ever-welcoming, wide-open heart.

So for now, while this pandemic reigns, my Friday nights are different. It’s been nearly four months since I didn’t work that Friday night in March – and I feel it. I miss the energy, the shows, the patrons, the actors, the laughter and the hugs, the fellowship and the connection. But in time, we will tell our stories again. In time, the theatre will open up again. In time, we will gather in the café again. That charming rainbowed place of nourishment and peace and of welcoming home. And in time, we’ll re-connect to each other, again.