Tag Archives: Ron Bottitta

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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Interview: Fountain Theatre’s Simon Levy Shares His LIFESPAN OF A FACT

Posted on February 8, 2023 | Leave a comment

The following interview with The Lifespan of a Fact director Simon Levy originally appeared on BroadwayWorld.com on Feb. 7, 2023. Written by Gil Kaan.

Simon Levy, director, The Lifespan of a Fact

The Fountain Theatre west coast premieres Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell & Gordon Farrell’s The Lifespan of a Fact, opening February 18th.

Thank you for taking the time for this interview, Simon! I am so glad I finally get the chance to interview you after seeing so many of your incredible, tear-jerking productions, especially Daniel’s Husband and The Normal Heart. So, what factors influenced you to west coast premiere The Lifespan of a Fact?

The plays I’m attracted to wrestle with contemporary societal issues. I’d been looking for a project that theatricalized this “post-factual” world we’re living in. What is Truth, and is it negotiable? But I didn’t want something politically on-the-nose. When I read Lifespan, I fell in love with it because it’s based on a true story and tackles these issues through three wonderfully contrasting, funny, smart, and compulsive/obsessive characters who have vastly differing takes on this question of “truth” and “artistic freedom” in publishing. As we watch the play, we can’t help but think about what’s going on in politics, journalism, and social media today.

Had you seen the 2018 production with Bobby Cannavale, Cherry Jones and Daniel Radcliffe?
I did not see the Broadway production but heard wonderful things about it from friends who did see it.

What would your three-line pitch for Lifespan be?
Based on a true story. When a renowned essayist writes a literary nonfiction essay about a teenager who commits suicide by jumping off the top of the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, are “facts” and “truth” about his life and what happened negotiable? Or is it okay to make stuff up, change some details, for the sake of a good story? Where is the line between accuracy and fiction? (Think of all the “biographical” movies that play loosely with the “facts” to make the story more dramatic.)

You’ve directed and produced over 120 productions in Los Angeles and San Francisco, directing Ron Bottitta in The Children at The Fountain. Who have you worked with before of the other Lifespan cast or creatives?
Working with Ron Bottitta again is a delight. Such a gifted, organic actor. And it’s great to work again with Marc Antonio Pritchett, who’s doing Sound; and Michael Mullen, who’s doing Costumes. The rest of the team are new to me.

With all the actors you’ve directed or produced, do you even need to audition any for your productions?
I prefer to make offers to actors I’ve either already worked with or have seen in other productions. For this project I immediately saw Ron as John and Inger as Emily (who I’ve seen in shows around town). I auditioned the younger role of Jim (the fact-checker), but knew Jonah personally and asked him to come in and read.

What aspects of a script attract you to want to direct it?
I’m attracted to plays that resonate with contemporary issues, especially in a poetic/realistic way. Plays that make us think about something in a different way. That open our heart. That “change” us, no matter how slightly. Plays that wake us up or re-awaken us. I’m always looking for that poetic gesture, that opportunity to use all the tools of theatre (lighting, video, sound) to draw the audience into the inner lives of the characters and the world of the play. I believe in using those tools and being bold about it. And I love plays that have complex characters – characters that are messy, with deep secrets and deep wells – characters who surprise us and reflect back to us who we are. We are such messed up, beautiful, complex beings, we humans. I love plays that “hold that mirror up to nature.”

What originally convinced you to join The Fountain Theatre as its producing director in 1993, three years after its inception?
When I first joined the Fountain to help “rescue” a show nearly 30 years ago, I knew immediately it was my artistic home because the people there – Stephen, Deborah, Scott, and all the others over the years – are people of the heart; people who do theatre for the right reasons. They are artists who love this art form. It’s not about their ego. It’s about the art. They are family.

What aspects of a script attract you to include it in The Fountain Theatre season?
Socially/politically-conscious plays that wrestle with contemporary issues and have a deep heart.

This is a Sophie’s Choice question: what is The Fountain Theatre production closest to your heart?
Like a father, you love all your children, for various reasons. So many of the productions I’ve done at the Fountain stand out for me, but I would have to say The Normal Heart holds a special place in my heart for very personal reasons.

You are now a successful theatre director, producer, playwright and screenwriter. What did you want to be growing up?
Hmmm? First, I wanted to be a Marine. Then a fighter pilot. Then a spy. Then a poet. Then a writer. Then a sax player. Then an actor. Then a director. I didn’t achieve the first three, but I’ve dabbled in the others.

If you had to choose just one of your four professions to pursue for the rest of your life, which one would it be? And why?
A director. I love being in rehearsal, playing in the playground, creating with gifted people.

You have earned countless awards and honors in your career. Is there one particular one that stands up above the rest? And why?
Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing. It’s nice to know your work has been affective and noticed.

What is the status of your latest writing projects Two Hearts and Heartland, America?
Both are doing the rounds, though I’ve moved on to other writing projects.

What do you have planned for The Fountain’s upcoming season?
After Lifespan, we’ll be doing a 40th-anniversary production of Last Summer at Bluefish Cove this summer. Our fall show is still TBA. (We’re waiting to see which direction our country is going in). We’ll also be doing a Chamber Music Series, a Jazz at the Fountain Series, and Flamenco. Some of these will be on our outdoor stage. And we’ll continue our Education Outreach Program, Fountain Voices, introducing and teaching the next generation the beauty and thrill of live theatre.

Will you be directing any of these shows?
No plans at the moment.

What is in the near future for Simon Levy?
I’m supposed to go on a long-delayed world cruise in early 2024. There is much to see and explore out there… if the COVID gods (and world events) are kind.

Thank you again, Simon! I look forward to checking out your Lifespan.
For tickets to the live performances of The Lifespan of a Fact through April 2, 2023; click here.

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Posted in actors, arts organizations, David Murrell, designers, Fountain Theatre, Gordon Farrell, Jeremy Kareken, Journalism, Los Angeles, The Lifespan of a Fact, Theater, theatre, truth, truth vs. fiction, West Coast premiere

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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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West Coast premiere of ‘The Lifespan of a Fact’
explores truth in journalism at the Fountain

Posted on January 29, 2023 | Leave a comment

What happens when telling the truth gets in the way of a good story? The Fountain Theatre presents the West Coast premiere of the Broadway hit play, The Lifespan of a Fact, by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell and Gordon Farrell. Simon Levy directs for a February 18 opening, with performances continuing through April 2 on the Fountain’s indoor stage. Previews begin February 15.

Based on the nonfiction book by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal, this highly entertaining, very funny new play follows Fingal (Jonah Robinson), a young intern at an elite New York magazine. Fingal’s first assignment from his editor (Inger Tudor) is to fact-check an essay written by a highly celebrated and cantankerous author (Ron Bottitta as John D’Agata). What Jim finds turns his world upside down. Thought-provoking, with zinging one-liners, The Lifespan of a Fact explodes into a hilarious slugfest between “facts” and “truth,” making it hard to imagine a play ever being more timely.

“The play urges us to take a harder look at the content we read and the stories we’re told — even from sources we trust,” says Fountain artistic director Stephen Sachs.

“What I love about this play is that it’s based on a true story and that it tackles the concepts of ‘fact’ and ‘truth’ in a theatrical context through three wonderfully contrasting, funny and compulsive/obsessive characters,” says Levy. “When you’re writing a nonfiction piece about a real person, are ‘facts’ and ‘truth’ negotiable? Or is it okay to make stuff up for the sake of a good story?”

D’Agata and Fingal’s book received critical attention from multiple publications, including NPR, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. It was subsequently named a “Top 10 Most Crucial Book” by the editors of Slate, a “Best Book of the Year” by the Huffington Post, and an “Editor’s Choice” by The New York Times Book Review. The stage adaptation, which opened on Broadway in 2018 starring Daniel Radcliffe, Bobby Cannavale, and Cherry Jones, was called “terrifically engaging” by The New York Times in its “Critic’s Pick” review.

The Fountain’s creative team includes scenic designer Joel Daavid, lighting designer Alison Brummer, sound designer Marc Antonio Pritchett, costume designer Michael Mullen, video designer Nicholas Santiago and properties designer Joyce Hutter. The production stage manager is Hannah Raymond. Stephen Sachs and James Bennett produce for the Fountain Theatre.

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Posted in Arts, Fountain Theatre, Journalism, new plays, non-profit organization, plays, Theater, theatre

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Fountain Theatre earns 9 L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award nominations for excellence in 2020/21

Posted on June 10, 2022 | Leave a comment

The Fountain Theatre earned nine award nominations from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for excellence in 2020/21, it was announced yesterday. The Fountain’s Los Angeles premiere of An Octoroon on its Outdoor Stage, its groundbreaking livestream presentation of The Ballad of Emmett Till, and the L.A. debut of The Children were chosen for recognition.

LADCC nominations for the Fountain Theatre for 2020-2021:

  • Lead Performance – Matthew Hancock – An Octoroon
  • Featured Performance – Rob Nagle – An Octoroon
  • Writing Adaptation – Branden Jacobs-Jenkins – An Octoroon
  • Set Design – Frederica Nascimento – An Octoroon
  • Costume Design – Naila Aladdin-Sanders – An Octoroon
  • Fight Direction – Jen Albert – An Octoroon
  • Props – Michael Allen Angel – An Octoroon
  • Streaming Design & CGI – The Ballad of Emmett Till – Andrew Schmedake
  • Ensemble Performance – Ron Bottitta, Elizabeth Elias Huffman, Lily Knight – The Children

Out of an abundance of COVID caution, there will be no in-person ceremony. Instead, the award recipients will be named in a future press release in the upcoming weeks.

Congratulations to all of the nominees! Click here for the complete list.

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Posted in Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, theatre

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We’re back! The Children returns for its final 3 weeks of performances

Posted on January 7, 2022 | Leave a comment

by Terri Roberts

Happy New Year! After a long and tumultuous 2021, the hope and promise of the first calendar page of 2022 has arrived.

At the Fountain, we have much to look forward to in the months ahead. New, exciting productions are already in the works (more news on them to come), but first we wrap up our LA premiere presentation of Lucy Kirkwood’s Tony-nominated drama, The Children. This critically-acclaimed production returns to our indoor stage on Saturday, January 8th, to begin the countdown of its final seven performances.

Directed by Simon Levy, The Children stars Ron Bottitta, Elizabeth Huffman and Lily Knight as longtime friends and work colleagues at a British nuclear power plant who are reunited after decades apart when one of the trio surprises the other two with an unplanned visit and an unthinkable request. Kirkwood’s funny and astonishing play is a taut and disquieting thriller about responsibility, reparation and moral accountability. The Children is a provocative legacy drama that asks the big questions we often try to avoid but ultimately must always face: what is our responsibility to the future? To ourselves? To our children?

Lead L.A. Times theatre critic Charles McNulty declared that, “…we hang on to every word… Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children follows the wisdom of the environmental slogan “think globally, act locally.”… What Kirkwood excels at is creating characters that audiences want to learn more about… The Fountain bravely continues to bring L.A. audiences important contemporary works the larger theaters in town still haven’t the courage or vision to produce.” (CLICK HERE for links to reviews and to read pull quotes from them.)

If you haven’t yet seen the show, you still have time. The Children runs through Sunday, January 23rd, with performances Saturdays and Monday the 10th at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm. (Dark on Monday, the 17th, in observance of Martin Luther King Day.)

CLICK HERE to make reservations.

Please Note: All Covid protocols are followed and enforced. Audience members will be temperature checked and must show proof of full vaccination to be admitted. Masks are mandated and must be worn at all times inside the theatre, except when eating or drinking. Our upstairs café is open and waiting for you.

Terri Roberts is a freelance writer and the Coordinator of Fountain Friends, the Fountain Theatre’s volunteer program. She also manages the Fountain Theatre Café.

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Posted in actors, COVID-19, creativity, Drama, environment, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, plays, reviews, stage, The Children, Theater, theatre

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Rave reviews for L.A. Premiere of THE CHILDREN

Posted on December 8, 2021 | Leave a comment

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The LA premiere of The Children opens at the Fountain Theatre

Posted on November 9, 2021 | Leave a comment

Photo by Jenny Graham

by Terri Roberts

Twenty months ago, the Fountain Theatre was forced to close in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Downstairs our stage was dark. Upstairs the café was empty. It was an unimaginable time.

All of that has changed now. The success of preventatives (vaccines, masks, etc.) have allowed theatres to finally re-open with safety measures in place, and so last week the Fountain flung open its brand new double front doors to accept audiences back to our beloved indoor stage. There, on Andrew Hammer’s picturesque set for a British seaside cottage — beautifully lit by Christian Mejia, detailed by props designer Shen Heckel and sound designer Marc Antonio Pritchett, and costumed by Naila Aladdin Sanders — we introduced Lucy Kirkwood’s 2018 Tony-nominated play, The Children, to Los Angeles theatre-goers. Twenty months is a long time…and when the pre-show recording welcomed everyone back, the audience erupted in spontaneous cheers and applause!

The Children, directed by Simon Levy, is set in the afterworld of a life-threatening, and wholly preventable, environmental disaster. Also an unimaginable time. Long-married Hazel (Lily Knight) and Robin (Ron Bottitta), both retired nuclear engineers who worked at the local power plant, have moved to this isolated cottage following an explosion at their former workplace. Their pick-up-the-pieces quiet coastal life is upended, however, by the arrival of Rose (Elizabeth Elias Huffman), an old friend and fellow co-worker, who arrives with secrets and surprises that bring even more upheaval and fireworks.

Saturday, November 6th, was the official Opening Night for The Children. Following a thrilling performance, folks headed upstairs to our charming café for a tasty reception courtesy of Butler Pantry Catering. The entire building was filled with joyous embraces, vibrant conversation, and laughter and gratitude for being back together again.

Please enjoy these photos from our LA premiere production of The Children and the Opening Night reception. For information and to make reservations, CLICK HERE.

Production photos by Jenny Graham

  • Pre-show at the Fountain Theatre Cafe
  • Opening Night guests
  • Yummy treats from Butler Pantry Catering
  • Debbie and Ashley Posner
  • Actor Ron Bottitta
  • Conversation on the deck
  • Director of Development Barbara Goodhill, Director Simon Levy, Executive Producer Karen Kondazian, Jacqueline Schultz

Terri Roberts is a freelance writer and the Coordinator of Fountain Friends, the Fountain Theatre’s volunteer program. She also manages the Fountain Theatre Café.

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Posted in actors, cafe, designers, director, environment, Executive Producer, Fountain Theatre, nuclear engineers, The Children, Theater, theatre

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L.A. Premiere of Lucy Kirkwood’s ‘The Children’ opens Nov. 6 on the Fountain’s indoor stage

Posted on September 27, 2021 | Leave a comment

What is our responsibility to the future? What legacy do we want to leave? The Los Angeles premiere of The Children, written by Lucy Kirkwood and directed by Simon Levy, asks those questions and more in its Los Angeles premiere at the Fountain Theatre. Performances begin on the Fountain’s indoor stage (with all health and safety guidelines strictly adhered to) on Saturday, Nov. 6. The run continues through Jan. 23.

Kirkwood’s funny and astonishing Tony-nominated play is a taut and disquieting thriller about responsibility, reparation and what one generation owes the next. With the outside world in chaos following a devastating environmental disaster, two retired nuclear engineers live a quiet life in a remote cottage on the lonely British coast — until a surprise visit from a former colleague upends the couple’s equilibrium and trust.

The cast includes Ron Bottitta (Hir, Faith Healer, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Arsonists at the Odyssey Theatre; Superior Donuts, Yes, Prime Minister at the Geffen; Oppenheimer, Honky, Razorback at Rogue Machine Theatre, where he also hosts the company’s Rant and Rave spoken word series); Elizabeth Elias Huffman (artistic director of Chain Reaction Theatre in Pittsburgh, most recently seen on stage in The Oldest Profession by Paula Vogel at Portland’s Profile Theatre); and Lily Knight (Ovation, LADCC and Stage Raw award nominee for A Small Fire at the Echo Theater Company; A Delicate Balance at the Odyssey; Three Days in the Country, The Crucible, Peace in Our Time, The Autumn Garden at Antaeus, where she is a member).

“What I love about the play,” says Levy, “is that it tackles these enormously important contemporary issues about our responsibility to the planet, to each other, to future generations, and grounds them in funny, complex, identifiable characters grappling with a moral dilemma that, quite frankly, all of us are confronting, right now, in real time.”

“The nuclear disaster the town is struggling to survive could be anything — it could be COVID, or climate change,” says Fountain artistic director Stephen Sachs. “The moral dilemma is: what world are we leaving to our children?”

The Children premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 2016, then transferred to the Manhattan Theatre Club on Broadway the following year. In 2019, The Guardian placed The Children on its list of “greatest theatrical works since 2000.” London’s The Independent called millennial playwright Kirkwood “the most rewarding dramatist of her generation.”

The Fountain creative team includes scenic designer Andrew G. Hammer; lighting designer Christian V. Mejia; sound designer Marc Antonio Pritchett; costume designer Naila Aladdin Sanders; choreographer Annie Yee; and dialect coach Nike Doukas. The production stage manager is Gina DeLuca. Stephen Sachs and James Bennett produce for the Fountain Theatre. Producing underwriters include Sheila and Alan Lamson, and Carrie Chassin and Jochen Haber. The executive producer is Karen Kondazian.

Proof of vaccination and mask-wearing will be required of all patrons. Admittance limited to ages 12+. All current CDC and local guidelines regarding seating and masks will be followed at each performance.

For reservations and information.

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Posted in Acting, actors, Climate Change, environment, Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, nuclear engineers, The Children

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