Deanne Bray and Troy Kotsur, “Arrival & Departure.”
Two acclaimed Fountain Theatre premieres — Arrival & Departure and Cost of Living — have been named Best Production of a Play in 2018 by veteran LA theatre critic Travis Michael Holder on TicketHoldersLA.com. Now in its 27th year, Travis’ Ticketholder Awards celebrate the 100+ Los Angeles theatre productions reviewed by Holder in 2018 in large houses and intimate.
Our Deaf/hearing world premiere of Arrival & Departure, written and directed by Stephen Sachs, won Best Production, Best Adaptation (Sachs) and a Special Achievement Award to movement director, Gary Franco.
Katy Sullivan and Felix Solis, “Cost of Living.”
Cost of Living by Martyna Majok was also named Best Production, and Tobias Forrest was awarded Best Supporting Actor.
The following were also acknowledged as a runner-up:
Arrival & Departure
Runner-Up, Best Actor – Troy Kotsur
Runner-Up, Best Actress – Deanne Bray
Runner-Up, Best Supporting Actor – Shon Fuller
Runner-Up, Best Supporting Actress – Jessica Jade Andres
Runner-Up, Best Supporting Actress – Stasha Surdyke
Runner-Up, New Discovery 2018 – Aurelia Myers
Runner-Up, Best Direction – Stephen Sachs
Runner-Up, Best Set Design – Matthew G. Hill
Runner-Up, Best Sound Design – Peter Bayne
Runner-Up, Best CGI/Video Design – Nicholas E. Santiago
As the year draws to an end, the Fountain Theatre is delighted to be highlighted on many of the annual “Best of 2015” lists that are starting to appear.
Los Angeles Times theatre critic Charles McNulty selected our west coast premiere of Athol Fugard’s The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek to his Best Theater of 2015, hailing it as “Another in the Fountain Theatre’s series of expertly acted productions of the great South African playwright.”
The LA Theatre website Bitter Lemons named The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek as its Top Rated Production of 2015.
A Wonderful Sold-Out Performance Followed by Good Times in the Fountain Cafe
Last night was another magical evening at the Fountain Theatre: a terrific performance followed by fun in the cafe.
A sold-out house enjoyed the special one-night-only performance of The Katrina Comedy Fest, a funny and touching piece telling the true stories of folks in New Orleans who survived the flooding of hurricane Katrina. The play is written by Rob Florence and directed by Misty Carlisle. The fabulous cast included Judy Jean Berns, Deidrie Henry, Travis Michael Holder, Jan Munroe and L. Trey Wilson.
After the performance, the cast and audience gathered upstairs in the Fountain cafe for a night of food, drinks and celebration.
The Katrina Comedy Festis based on the true experiences of 5 separate lives who survived the hurricane of 2005. It’s still a relevant story. Natural disasters and catastrophes, like waves lapping on the beach, erase the tracks of lives imprinted on the sand.
I’ve visited New Orleans twice. The first time was in in 1991 when I got married in a small town called Buras. It’s about an hour south of the Big Easy. On August 29, 2005, the eye of Hurricane Katrina made its first landfall in the Buras-Triumph district, and the area is still in the process of rebuilding. On my second visit in 2010, I wanted to see the effects of the BP disaster upon the environment and the people. It’s unbelievable to see the ant work it took to watch people and helicopters putting up barriers to keep the oil slick at bay.
I sought out the old fire hall station where I was married by the JP with his deputy as witness. Like my marriage, the white-washed concrete building didn’t withstand the forces of wind and rain. I sought out Camp’s, the restaurant that served big bowls heaped with rice and oyster gumbo. That one had closed too, or the owners decided not to rebuild it after the storm. My memories of Louisiana linger, like the waft of good soul food that beckons. It was at Camp’s where I learned how to eat a crawfish properly as demonstrated by the happy waitress. She took one mini-lobster from the heap on the newspaper and used her thumb and index to flick the head off, and she sucked out the ‘best part’, followed by forcing the meat from the body with the same fingers. This technique ensures “less mess” and allows for continues eating, because there are plenty of hands going into that heap.
The story telling captures the sensitivity, nostalgia and steely guts of survivors in the face of a natural disaster and caught in the web of bureaucratic foibles. The stories of five characters, from different walks of life, belie a spirit of humor and a soul of surrender. New Orleans, historically, has always been at the mercy of nature because of its geography – it sits on the soft silt of the Mississippi River delta, and it opens up to the Gulf of Mexico. This relationship has grown more tenuous with the industrial revolution. The coast of Louisiana and Texas has been identified as dead zone, and is the largest hypoxic zone in the United States (source: Wikipedia.) Last week two explosions erupted in two chemical plants on Thursday and Friday. If the investigation comes up with any likeness to negligence that led to the BP disaster, then this reinforces some themes common woven into the lives of the people.
The Katrina Comedy Fest, refreshingly, does not focus on the politics. The play brings the event to a tangible level that can be digested as a languorous 5 course meal, beginning with the rising waters and ending with sobering shot of reality. It becomes a speculation game as to the strength of “this one” compared to the “last one” when the levees didn’t breach.
The Katrina Comedy Fest
The stories are narrated through the voice of …
Raymond, a homeless, begins his story in the stadium. He discovers his “air freshener” ineffective against the heavy stench of bodies locked down. He’s prepared for anything being a homeless.
Antoinette is a savvy and bold owner of “Mother-in-Law Lounge”, and widow of R&B singer Ernie K-Doe. She keeps both her 15 year old granddaughter and a shrine of her late husband afloat during the storm. The statue donned with a sawed-off shotgun keeps away would-be intruders.
Rodney is a sweet southern gentleman shoulders the responsibility of keeping his aging parents plus new comers entertained and alive during the siege of rising waters. He keeps well inebriated with whisky and at the close of the storm realizes he had spent more with his parents than he’s ever done in a long long time.
Judy is a sweet and naïve older woman who meets up with 5 young people. She wanders out in the street of her neighborhood which had already been evacuated. She receives texts from her son, “Get out now!” She meets the pot-smoking youths who takes her with them to San Antonio in her son’s unreliable car. It is a miraculous trip that opens the life of Judy to young attitudes and wider latitudes.
Sonny, a tourist guide, stays a while and ends up in Oklahoma with high-pitched voiced black woman who likes to scream. His cool logic and street-wise experience keeps the situation moving until he is investigated by the FBI, because he’s carrying a big wad of cash in a plastic bag. How else does a person whose business is cash-based supposed to flee the floods of New Orleans?
The Katrina Comedy Fest was written by playwright is Rob Florence and directed by Misty Carlisle. It stars Judy Jean Berns, Deidrie Henry, Travis Michael Holder, Jan Munroe, L. Trey Wilson. It’s showing at the Fountain Theatre this Sunday, July 28 at 7pm. (323) 663-1525MORE
