Tag Archives: Los Angeles

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

Posted on March 29, 2023 | Leave a comment

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

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Posted in actors, audition, Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, Queer

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

Posted on March 24, 2023 | Leave a comment

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.

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Posted in Arts, Arts education, community engagement, connection, creativity, Drama, Education, Fountain Voices, Hollywood, Los Angeles, performing arts, The Lifespan of a Fact

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Intermezzo: Chamber Music at the Fountain Theatre launches on March 16

Posted on March 14, 2023 | Leave a comment

This Thursday, March 16, the Fountain Theatre launches another new entry in its celebrated lineup of dance and music offerings. Intermezzo: Chamber Music at the Fountain is a bi-monthly series curated by vioIinist/violist Connie Kupka, formerly with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, together with cellist David Speltz, previously a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under Sir Neville Marriner and principal cellist of the California Chamber Orchestra under Henri Temianka. Speltz has also worked with such Hollywood luminaries as John Williams and Barbara Streisand.

In the first performance in the series, Kupka and Speltz will be joined by violinist Adam Barnett-Hart for an evening of Schubert (string trio on Bb in one movement), Mozart (duo for violin and Viola in G major) and Beethoven (string trio in C minor.)

“Our new chamber music series is a rare opportunity to experience music played by world-class musicians up close and personal,” says Fountain Theatre Artistic Director Stephen Sachs.

Guest artist Adam Barnett-Hart is the founding first violinist of the Escher String Quartet, and a season artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Listen to Connie and David discuss Intermezzo on KXLU 88.9 FM.

As a soloist, Mr. Barnett-Hart made his debut with the Juilliard Symphony at 19, performing the Brahms concerto in Alice Tully Hall. He has since performed with such orchestras as the Colorado Symphony, the Wichita Falls Symphony, the Riverside Symphony, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Jefferson Symphony. He began studying with Pinchas Zukerman after graduating from the Juilliard School, where he completed his bachelor’s degree with Joel Smirnoff. Prior to attending Juilliard, he studied with James Maurer, Paul Kantor, and Donald Weilerstein.

Join us on Thursday, March 16, for the inaugural performance Intermezzzo in our intimate indoor stage. Additional performances will takes place on Thursday, May 18 (indoor stage) and Thursday, May 20 (outdoor stage.) All shows are at 8pm. Masks are recommended, but are not required.

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Posted in Chamber Music, Fountain Theatre, Indoor Stage, Intermezzo, Los Angeles, Music, performing arts

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France-Luce Benson honored for arts education program, Fountain Voices

Posted on February 13, 2023 | Leave a comment

France-Luce Benson has been honored by the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly the Actors Fund) with the 2023 Teaching Artist Award for Innovative Curriculum. France-Luce was recognized for pioneering Fountain Voices, the Fountain Theatre’s arts education program serving students in schools throughout Southern California. The award is supported by the generosity of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The majority of students in the Fountain Voices program have never seen a play, read a play, or know much about theatre at all. Ms. Benson observed in her thank-you remarks, “They are completely unaware of the power of theatre – which is that it is a space for us to use our voices. Many of the students have never been given that kind of space. They don’t know they have a voice, or that what they have to say matters. Many of them have never been asked to think about what matters to them, what is important to them – let alone write about it. And it’s exciting to watch them come alive when they begin to discover that, to discover who they are, what they care about. And the most exciting thing is not to see them use their voices, but to experience their desire to be heard, to step into the belief that they have a right to be heard.”

Congratulations, France-Luce! We’re proud of the educational outreach work we do at the Fountain. Thanks for laying out the blueprint to help make it happen.

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Fountain Theatre welcomes journalist Erin Aubry Kaplan to its Board of Directors

Posted on February 7, 2023 | Leave a comment
Erin Aubry Kaplan

The Fountain Theatre is pleased and honored to welcome award-winning journalist Erin Aubry Kaplan to its Board of Directors. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Ms. Kaplan brings a longtime passion for theater and culture to the Fountain organization. She says, “I like to think that the narrative of theater, its goal of illuminating humanity in full without shying away from its most challenging aspects, informs what I do as a writer.” Plus, she’s a dog lover. What’s not to like?

Ms. Kaplan is a journalist, essayist and author who has been writing about race, politics, culture, individuality, and the confluence of all those things since 1992. She has been a weekly op-ed columnist for the Los Angeles Times (the first Black person to hold the position), staff writer and columnist for the LA Weekly, and contributing writer to the New York Times opinion, Politico and HuffPost.

She is the author of two books, ‘Black Talk, Blue Thoughts and Walking the Color Line: Dispatches From a Black Journalista‘ (2011) and ‘I Heart Obama’ (2016). In 2001 she won the PEN USA West Award for Journalism for her essay, ‘Blue Like Me.’  Her work has been widely anthologized in essay collections, notably ‘Rise Up Singing: Black Women Writers on Motherhood,’ which won an American Book Award in 2004. She serves on the board of Capital & Main, an investigative news website that focuses on economic inequality and injustice.

“When my friend Diana Buchhantz invited me to join the Fountain board last year,” she explains. “I was honored and thrilled. I had been looking for a way to reconnect with theater. As a journalist I chiefly write about politics, race and culture, but I’ve always been equally passionate about theater; I have an MFA in acting, and spent years writing theater reviews and features for the LA Weekly when I was a staff writer there. That experience allowed me to experience the breadth and depth of the theater scene in greater L.A., and it was a revelation. Especially at the Fountain, whose shows were uniformly excellent. “

What are her goals as a board member?

“I hope to help the Fountain continue its tradition of mounting great productions that are highly entertaining, thought-provoking and, most importantly, fearless and forward-thinking. I hope also to be a benefit to Fountain Voices and other educational programs that seek to grow and diversify theater audiences, as well as cultivate talent that doesn’t necessarily have access to the traditionally cloistered world of theater. Arts are what we urgently need in these turbulent political times, and theater is a voice that can best speak to them.”

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How ‘Lifespan of a Fact’ grew from a compelling book to a funny and timely stage play

Posted on February 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

by Thomas Floyd

When Jeremy Kareken and David Murrell set out to adapt the 2012 book “The Lifespan of a Fact” for the Broadway stage, the longtime creative partners thought they were tackling an auspiciously straightforward assignment.

The source material, for one, came in at a relatively slim 128 pages. But more notably, the text was entirely composed of pithy exchanges between essayist John D’Agata and fact-checker Jim Fingal as they worked their way, sentence by sentence, through the former’s nonfiction piece for Believer magazine about the 2002 suicide of a Las Vegas teenager.

“It seemed almost designed to be adapted into a play,” Murrell says during a recent video chat alongside Kareken, “because it’s just dialogue.”

“Emphasis,” Kareken interjects, “on the word ‘seems.’”

Kareken and Murrell soon came to realize that the task was more imposing than they anticipated. Between March 2012, when they first discussed adapting the book, and October 2018, when “The Lifespan of a Fact” opened on Broadway, the duo traded countless drafts, welcomed Gordon Farrell as a third co-writer, and incorporated the ideas of director Leigh Silverman and original stars Daniel Radcliffe, Bobby Cannavale and Cherry Jones.

Along the way, the “fake news” phenomenon had begun to permeate the political discourse. The play’s central debate — about how a larger truth can sometimes be at odds with factual accuracy — remains remarkably resonant.

“At what point are the facts irrelevant to the essence of the story?” Farrell asks in a phone interview. “That turned out to be a topic of national and global concern. None of the three of us knew or expected that. So somehow or other, we just stumbled onto the zeitgeist.”

Murrell first came across “Lifespan” when he read a scathing review of the book and sent it Kareken’s way, leaving both playwrights curious enough to read D’Agata and Fingal’s work for themselves. Struck by the partly true, partly fictionalized back-and-forth between the artistically inclined D’Agata and the comically meticulous Fingal, they considered penning a movie version or an experimental off-Broadway play before producer Norman Twain acquired the rights and suggested they write for a Broadway audience.

The playwrights decided early on to condense the years-long fact-checking process that played out in real life and add the ticking clock of a deadline, as the character of Fingal is assigned to work on D’Agata’s essay over one weekend. Kareken and Murrell also turned the essay’s editor — heard from only briefly in the book — into a fully fleshed out character who functions as an arbiter between D’Agata and Fingal. And they largely narrowed the play’s focus to the disputes over D’Agata’s opening paragraph in the name of brevity.

“Norman Twain said, ‘Guys, this is an abstract intellectual argument, so this play has got to move’ — and he literally said this — ‘like the Jesus lizard,’” Kareken recalls. “You know, that lizard that runs so quickly over the surface of the river that it doesn’t sink.”

Some realizations, however, took longer than others. Kareken and Murrell were well into the writing process before they came upon one crucial epiphany: They had to get the characters of D’Agata and Fingal in the same room. Although the book depicts a series of long-distance exchanges between the two, the play puts Fingal on a cross-country trip to D’Agata’s Las Vegas home as their Socratic dialogue unfolds in person.

“We were providing dud after dud of drafts — it just wasn’t going anywhere,” Kareken says. “There is such an invasive force of Jim’s character. I mean, he is the engine behind the whole play. By making that physical, that was kind of the thing that finally made us think that this was a possibility.”

In the fall of 2015, Twain floated the possibility of asking another writer to tackle an ending that Kareken and Murrell agreed wasn’t clicking. That’s when Farrell, a veteran playwright who had provided notes on previous drafts, formally boarded the project. After attending a fall 2013 reading, Farrell remembers sharing “strong words” with Kareken and Murrell about that conclusion.

“There was a lot of genius writing, and so much of it was so, so funny and so sharp through the first two-thirds of the play,” Farrell says. “Then they maintained that tone right up to the end, and that’s where it went awry.”

Specifically, Farrell was struck by the poignancy of D’Agata’s essay and perplexed that the play didn’t include more of the writer’s text, especially when it came to the suicide at its core. Upon joining the team, Farrell recalls, “It didn’t take me very long to get into it” and rewrite the final third to dwell more on the human side of the story.

After Twain’s death at age 85 in August 2016, Jeffrey Richards took the lead in producing the project. A November 2017 reading with Radcliffe gave Richards the confidence to forge ahead as the play made its way to Broadway. With Farrell tied up with his teaching duties at New York University, Kareken and Murrell worked with the director Silverman, dramaturge John Dias and the play’s stars to polish the script during rehearsals in the summer of 2018.

By that time, Donald Trump had risen to the presidency and was making false or misleading claims by the thousands. In January 2017, his counselor Kellyanne Conway infamously coined the phrase “alternative facts.” But as Kareken, Murrell and Farrell all emphasized, that topicality was no more than a happy coincidence. With “Lifespan” now being staged at regional theaters across the country, stories such as the spread of coronavirus misinformation and Rep. George Santos’s (R-N.Y.) résumé fabrications underscore the play’s enduring relevance.

“We’re the luckiest playwrights in the world because we look like geniuses,” Murrell says. “But it had absolutely nothing to do with Trump or Kellyanne or anything like that. We started in 2012, and then things happened in the world. It just happened to converge in a very fortunate way.”

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This post is reprinted from a Washington Post story by Thomas Floyd on the opening of The Lifespan of a Fact at the Keegan Theatre.

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

Posted on December 13, 2022 | Leave a comment

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

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How one woman shows us that our lives do not end

Posted on December 8, 2022 | 1 comment

by Stephen Sachs

Lois Tandy may have been in her nineties, but she could be shrewd and mischievous. In the many years I knew her, and Lois was a Fountain friend and supporter for over a decade, every encounter was a delightful mix of droll repartee and honest affection. We enjoyed each other’s company.      

Lois passed away one year ago this month, on December 4, 2021. Not long after, I was moved to learn that she had bequeathed some money from her estate to the Fountain Theatre. I had no idea she had arranged to make this gift. But I was not surprised.

By Los Angeles standards, Lois was not supremely wealthy. She lived alone in a modest three-bedroom house at the end of a street in Alta Dena. She dressed simply, wore little jewelry, and even less makeup. She had money in the bank, a comfortable sum. The marvelous thing about Lois was that she didn’t wait until the end of her life to give it away. She gave while she was living. She donated her time and her money to many.         

She volunteered everywhere and showed up for everything, particularly if it had to do with politics, human rights, animals, the environment, or the arts. Lois was a docent at the Huntington Library and gave tours of its sumptuous gardens. She often volunteered at the Gene Autry Museum. She gave her money to the World Wildlife Fund and the Audubon Society. To Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union. To the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the L.A. Chamber Orchestra. And to the Fountain Theatre.

None of us like to think about the end of our lives. I sure don’t. But the older I get, the more I’m reminded. I’m now getting marketing postcards from Pierce Brothers Mortuary and Forest Lawn. My wife and I have made our will and laid out our financial planning. As John Lennon sang, “you don’t take nothing with you but your soul.” But I think maybe you don’t even take that. I think your soul stays behind, too. In the people you love, the causes you help, and the lives you change. I believe there’s some measure of Lois’ soul in every play she supported at the Fountain, in the heart of each student in the arts education programs she helped fund. To me, that’s a legacy. That is immortality. Maybe, the kind we only get.

Stephen Sachs is the Artistic Director of the Fountain Theatre.

For information on how you can leave a bequest to The Fountain, please contact our development department at 323-663-1525 X 307.

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Coming out of our caves to be together again

Posted on November 29, 2022 | Leave a comment

by Stephen Sachs

When I was eighteen, I saw Anthony Hopkins onstage as Dr. Martin Dysart in Equus at the Huntington Hartford Theatre on Vine Street in Hollywood. A section of the audience was seated on the stage. I sat there, just a few feet away from Hopkins’ colossal, jaw-dropping performance. It remains seared in my soul to this day. I would not have had that struck-by-lightning experience if I were sitting thirty feet away.

1976 – An “Equus” photo from the Richard Wojcik collection on Vintage Los Angeles. 

You never need to worry about that at the Fountain. We believe closeness, to art and to people, is everything. After two years of forced separation, you and I are back together and going strong. Now with two busy theaters, inside and outdoors, we are leading the way with new plays, music and dance concerts, and life-changing arts education programs for young people.

Yes, our theatre seats inside are outdated (more on that in a moment). Still, it sure feels good to sit collectively at the Fountain once again, just a few feet from the stage, being transported by an urgent, meaningful story expressed by actual human beings. Not on a screen.

That means coming out of our caves. Like Elijah. When he isolated himself in a mountain to retreat from the world, a Divine Voice said to him, “What are you doing in here, Elijah? Get out!” As Joan Didion urged, our task in the world isn’t to suffer in it, not to just pass through it, but to live in it. To live recklessly, take chances. To jump into the deep end of life and swim in it.

Like an embrace, theatre is a collaborative act. It takes away the aloneness of the world. It repairs. Think about it. What happens when you hold someone close? You feel them. The in-out of their breathing, the beat of their heart on your chest. That is what good intimate theatre does.

The Fountain’s heart keeps beating strong because of large and small donations from people like you. Private giving like yours is essential. Your year-end contribution of $100 or more today will help lift us into the coming year as we march forward into 2023. So, what’s coming? A smart comedy from Broadway, a summer musical outdoors, a thought-provoking drama in the fall. Plus chamber music, jazz, and flamenco. And here’s the kicker: we are installing NEW SEATS indoors! Brand-new comfy chairs, which you’re going to love.

Like a hug, we can’t do it alone. We need you to give of yourself. As a nonprofit, 80% of our income comes from contributions from good people like you. Seize the moment. Jump back into life. Support what you see on our stage, in a classroom, and/or be part of our history by having your name engraved on a plaque on a seat. Click here to find out how.

Wherever you wish to direct your giving, whatever the amount, your donation and friendship are priceless.

Give Now

Onward!

Stephen Sachs is the Founding Artistic Director of the Fountain Theatre.

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Fountain Theatre to livestream final ‘hyper-staged’ reading of ‘Roe’ as free, public service

Posted on July 7, 2022 | 1 comment

The Fountain Theatre will live stream the final performance of Roe by Lisa Loomer on Sunday, July 10 beginning at 8 p.m. PT/11 p.m. ET. The event will be made available free of charge as a public service to audiences around the country. To receive a link, go to www.fountaintheatre.com.

Part outdoor rally, part call to action, part guerrilla theater, Roe is concluding a 3-week, sold-out run on the Fountain’s outdoor stage, where it is being presented as a “hyper-staged” reading.

Powerful, poignant and often humorous, Loomer’s play cuts through the headlines to reveal the real-life women—Norma McCorvey, known as “Jane Roe” and Sarah Weddington, the lawyer who argued the case—behind Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that gave women the right to safe, legal abortion. Fast-moving and fair-minded, Roe brings these two complicated human beings, the challenging years following the court’s fateful decision, and the polarization around the issue in America today into sharp focus.

“This live stream broadcast of our final performance will be the crowning event of this remarkable journey that started only one month ago,” says Fountain Theatre artistic director Stephen Sachs.“It is happening because people are passionate about this issue and care deeply about supporting the Fountain in our effort to give it a voice.”

The live stream is sponsored by The Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy at the UCLA School of Law. The center is an innovative new division engaging with community organizations, scholars, lawmakers, practitioners and advocates on reproductive health, law and policy. For more information or to get involved, go to law.ucla.edu/academics/centers/center-reproductive-health-law-and-policy.

The seven-camera live stream will be directed by award-winning filmmaker, director and editor Jeff Richter of Beautiful Pictures Inc. and produced by Barbara Jacobs of Barbara Jacobs Events & Consulting. The director of photography is Chuck Ozeas. Equipment is being donated by Kemp Curly and Transition Productions. The camera crew is also donating their services, time and equipment to support this event.

CounterPunch calls Roe “a powerful, compelling, topical work of political theater about a pressing issue of the day presented by a talented ensemble,” and local L.A. theater site Stage Raw named it “One of the most vitally important pieces of theater in Los Angeles.”

For more information, call (323) 663-1525 or go to www.FountainTheatre.com.

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