Dave Barton

Stephen Ludwig, in Montparnasse Cemetery, on his way to Samuel Beckett's grave

Irony is a staple of theater, so consider the irony of an indispensable member of Orange County's playrighting community, Stephen Ludwig, traveling to France for a writing vacation,only to die in the place that inspired him so much.
Yet, there is also something romantic about both dying in the place you love, and to do so while doing what you loved. Ludwig, who passed away at the age of 65 of apparently normal causes in Arles, France, May 10, was found near his laptop. He was working on a novel.

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Beautiful, young Melanie

Melanie's voice is soft and raspy at the same time. If you didn't know who you were talking to, you'd have no idea that she played alongside legends at Woodstock and toured around the world. She's immediately kind and humble in her expressions. "I sense that something has got to give, I sense that people are becoming more aware...I'm just very hopeful for humanity," she says. It carries through her stories no matter if she's talking about the music industry, touring, songwriting, or about her beloved, late husband, Peter.

The New York singer--born Melanie Anne Safka--became famous for her songs "Brand New Key," and "Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma." She performed for over 500,000 concertgoers at Woodstock in her early 20s. But well after the 60s faded, she continued to write and tour, and would you believe, with the rising of hipsters, she's gained a whole new following.

Melanie will wrap up her tour with Romancing the West, an on-stage documentary about Western music, very shortly, and while the show is running in Orange County she was lovely enough to speak with the Weekly. We're not worthy!

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Statler and Waldorf...the O.G. hecklers.

When it comes to the world of stand-up comics there is something almost all of them have in common. Hecklers. At one point or another, a comedian has shut a heckler down from the stage and now, we are calling them out. Hecklers are completely annoying but not just that, they're disruptive to the comic that's in the zone doing their job and they ruin it for the rest of the crowd that paid to see a show. Not cool. Census says that most heckling happens when someone is drunk but even if you aren't saucy and you are thinking about "getting your heckle on," you should pretty much think about shutting the fuck up. But you don't have to just take our word for it so we asked the pros what they think of hecklers and if they've ever heard of this breed of a-hole "fan boys/gals" that shout out for attention simply so they can brag about it later. Can you imagine? Maybe when you hear their side, you'll think first about adding your "two cents" in the next time you are out at a comedy show.

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Frazer Harris/Getty Images

Hardwick makes "nerd" culture BEYOND cool.

For those of you who think that "geek culture" isn't hip or cool, Chris Hardwick over at Nerdist.com is making his mark by taking what some label as "nerdy" and parlaying it into super stardom. In-between bringing in some of the most notable guests in podcasting history on the Nerdist Podcast along with his boys Jonah Ray and Matt Mira, Hardwick splits his time holding down a successful career doing stand-up, writing, acting, hosting "Talking Dead" on AMC, and traveling around to conventions to immerse himself in the culture that he truly loves whether you think it is "cool" or not. This Friday March 29th the boys from Nerdist are heading to the City National Grove of Anaheim to record a live podcast and before it all goes down, we talked to Chris about the ins and outs of convention life, why Bill Murray is so awesome, and why his podcast stands apart from the rest.

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Kirk Schenck Huff

Life X3
Stages Theatre
March 18, 2013

Yasmina Reza is the kind of playwright that makes other playwrights green with envy. Her 1995 play, Art, has been produced in more than 30 languages, and her 2007 play, God of Carnage, was turned into a film in 2012 by Roman Polanski. So, I asked a Facebook friend of mine, a stellar playwright in his own right, what he thought of her.

"It's easy theatre designed to make middle-class white people feel good about themselves," came the response from said FB friend, whose name will not be revealed in case Reza ever sneezes in his general direction and offers him her handkerchief laced with gold dust.

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What hasn't been written about "Wicked?" Since opening in New York City in 2003, the show has appeared on four continents and has generated more press than any theater production ever. (Actually, it's hard to prove that, but with the interwebz around, it seems a safe bet...)More »

Latino theater is returning to the city Santa Ana thanks to the awarding of a grant earlier this month from the James Irvine Foundation. As recipient, South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa is partnering up with acclaimed non-profit Latino Health Access to launch a community-based theater initiative called Dialogue/Diálogos SCR.

The two-year, $600,000 project can, in part, fill the artistic void that's been left in the wake of Breath of Fire Latina Theater's closure in downtown Santa Ana last year. Naturally, the partnership found an asset in the company's Artistic Director Sara Guerrero. "I'm really proud to be a part of this and helping to put it together," Guerrero says as Engagement Project Director of Dialogue/Diálogos SCR.

"Knowing my community, I'm happy to have a voice such as mine involved in the process from the beginning."
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Going on 20 years, the growth of Stages Theatre into Orange County's longest established storefront theater is a testament to the dedication and commitment to the hundreds of people who have worked there.More »

Cast members of "8"

A new theater entity opens Friday in Long Beach and rarely has a producing organization exploded from the box with a more emotionally charged subject or with such a familiar cast. The entity is the Public Theatre of Long Beach. The play is 8, which dramatizes the courtroom battle that resulted in the overturning of Proposition 8 (the ballot proposition passed by California voters in November, 2008 that banned same-sex couples the right to marriage) On Aug., 4, 2010, a U.S. District Court overturned Prop 8 on the grounds that it was unconstitutional. That 12-day trial is the basis of 8. 

 See Also: *OC Centric Puts the Spotlight on Local Playwrights

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Burning Man

See Also:
The Fantastic People of Burning Man
FYF Fest 2012: A Complex Punk Portrait of the SoCal Music Scene
Insomniac Donates $115,000 From EDC Sales

Burning Man is an annual event and temporary community based on radical self-expression and self-reliance in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Having conquered every other major music and arts festival in the US from Ultra Music Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival to Electric Daisy Carnival it seemed only natural that I was ready to embark on the journey to take on the 26th Annual Burning Man pilgrimage. On top of being a community of over 60,000 music and art aficionados it is a spiritual refuge where burners gather to reflect on their lives and mourn the loss of loved ones or other obstacles with the burning of the man (a giant wooden effigy in the shape of a man) and then the temple so beautiful it rivals many churches.

Burning Man takes place on a dry lake bed, a vast flat expanse of alkali salt called the playa. Two girl friends and I made the nine-hour drive to meet our three guy friends who drove an RV all the way down from Vancouver and another close girl friend who flew into Reno, Nevada. All sharing journeys of overheated cars and electrical problems on planes, I wish someone would have told us the journey to the playa would take an entire day. But we were finally together, brought some bad-ass army and Indian tribe outfits and stocked way too much vodka and beer with not enough tequila and Four Lokos. Living on an RV in Black Rock City made us the closest hippie family and taught us plenty of valuable life-changing lessons.

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