Out West Arts: Performance at the end of the world

Sandra Bernhard

August is all about theater here at Out West Arts. And while there are still music-oriented events for the calendar, stages both at home and away will occupy much of the coming month. And what better way to start than the return to L.A. of one of the greats of comedy and performance, Sandra Bernhard. She’ll be performing her latest work I Love Being Me, Don’t You? at REDCAT beginning on August 11 for a two week run. (There is a recording of a prior run of this show currently available on iTunes if you're interested.) It’s a great venue for her show and it should be a blast. There are plenty of plays to see as well. I’ll be catching Guy Hollingworth’s The Expert at the Card Table at the Broad Stage on Aug 5, and Pasadena’s Boston Court will continue with performances of Steve Yockey's Heavier Than… through Aug 21. The Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City will open up Melissa Jane Gibson’s This, which should be worth a look, through Aug 28. In Santa Monica, the itinerant City Garage troupe will continue at Bergamot Station with two productions in repertory – Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis through Sep 9 and Moliere’s Sganarelle through Sep 4. I would also make a point in getting over to the Theater Banshee in the valley if you’ve yet to see Enda Walsh’s The Walsworth Farce which is making another local appearance.

Derrick Lee Weeden, Christopher Liam Moore, Tyler James Myers, and Danielle Chaves. Photo: Jenny Graham

There is a lot going on out of town as well. If you haven’t been up to Ashland, Oregon yet this year for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, now would be a great time for a getaway. The festival has had quite a summer after a main supporting beam in the Angus Bowmer Theater broke on June 18 forcing the company to scramble for 6 weeks while repairs were made. The theater, one of three stages at OSF, reopens today with great performances of Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County and Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure among other highlights. The company’s perseverance through this crisis should serve as a model for any arts organization in such a crisis. Quick thinking led to performances being transferred to a number of local alternative spaces including a tent in adjacent Lithia Park where the show definitely went on. What’s more, the company’s communication with festival goers was frequent, comprehensive, and transparent. Day-to-day updates including photos were constantly available on their website about the damage and progress toward repairs. I’ll be back in Ashland on August 27 and 28 for Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance and Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part II in the outdoor Elizabethan Stage, and for Jonathan Moscone and Tony Taccone’s Ghost Light about his reflections on the relationship with his father, former San Francisco mayor George Moscone.

From RSC's The Winter's Tale

I’ll also be out of town for a weekend to the East Coast where I’ll catch Cate Blanchett’s Sydney Theater Company at The Kennedy Center in DC with Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. This will be rapidly followed by the closing weekend of the Lincoln Center Festival’s residents the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Park Avenue Armory where I’ll be reporting on all five Shakespeare productions: As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, The Winter’s Tale, and King Lear.

The musical part of the month has two major attraction for Out West Arts. Sade will come to Los Angeles for two shows on Aug 19, 20, and 21. And one shouldn’t forget the Hollywood Bowl. This month’s highlight will be the Philip Glass Ensemble’s return to the Bowl to perform live accompaniment to a screening of Powaqqatsi on August 30. So with all this heat, there’s plenty of reason to be inside this month.

Labels: In the Wings