Doug Gifford

​The Car Plays
Segerstrom Center for the Arts
Jan. 14, 2012
There's a reason audiences rush to the front of a stage during any performance. It makes a show much more real--to see sweat dripping off foreheads, the minutiae of expressions, the  brand of sneakers they're wearing. Segerstrom Center for the Arts' Car Plays--held over the weekend (and again this coming weekend) as part of the Off Center Festival--took it to the next level.
The Car Plays were set in 15 cars parked at the Center's plaza. The plays--about 10 to 15 minutes long each--took place inside the cars, which only two people could watch at a time. To watch a full set of five plays, audiences had to move from car to car.
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​UPDATE, Sept. 16 2:40 P.M.: After a successful opening weekend with packed audiences, Slip of the Tongue has added a show and a performer to close out Breath of Fire's theater space in Santa Ana.

As doors open tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m., another one-woman play joins the fray. Cristina Nava, a Los Angeles based member of the 'Slip of the Tongue' Latina artistic collective, will be coming down to OC to stage Rocks in My Salsa, described as "somewhere between Chicana and Mexican" where "self discovery happens at the bottom of a dirty martini glass."

The three solo performances originally helped to launch the Breath of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble five years ago in 2006 so it's only fitting that they help bring the space on the corner of Fifth and Broadway to a close this weekend.

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​Back in the day (like in the 1990s), Orange County was a hotbed of new playwriting. Revolving Door Productions in Fullerton, and Stages in Anaheim, were new play foundries, and a lot of good, and some not-so-good stuff came out of each theater. Playwrighting groups also flourished, with at least three operating at one time.

But most of the writers moved away (Johnna Adams), lost interest (too many to mention), grew up (William Mittler, who teaches theater at several local colleges) , or just settled into writing about theater for alternative weeklies. But at least one of the people heavily involved in those days is still passionate about the craft: Eric Eberwein, who founded the Orange County Playwrights Alliance in 1995.More >>

​It's amusingly ironic that in the same county where a theater is mounting Jerry Springer: The Opera, which has elicited more than 19,000 e-mail protests from outraged Christians, that a show written by C.S. Lewis, one of the most rational and hallowed Christian-oriented writers of the 20th Century, is on display this weekend: a theatrical version of his 1942 work The Screwtape Letters.

But though Lewis was a devout Christian, the language in his book is nothing like the shrill intolerance of the Religious Right, or the voluminous ineptitude of Left Behind. But neither is it a proselytizing sermon.

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At first thought, the notion of a one-woman show in which the entire musical West Side Story is re-enacted would seem suspect at best. After all, two of the most annoyingly overwrought theatrical genres are one-person shows and musical theater. Combining them would seem a recipe of disaster.

But West Side Terri, currently playing at Fullerton's Monkey Wrench Collective is anything but an exercise in bombastic overemoting. Conceived by and starring Terri Mowrey, one of OC's brightest theatrical talents, it's a 75-minute show that is frequently hilarious, occasionally poignant and eminently entertaining.

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Scr.org

Martin Benson and David Emmes

​It's not exactly a seismic shift, but whenever two main forces behind a major artistic institution decide to step down, it's a very big deal.More >>

Not this Slappy White...

​It's been some time since the illustrious Reverend Slappy White (not Red Foxx's old pal), the brazenly Fascist impresario behind Slappy White & his Calvacade of Comic All-Stars, has graced the county with his presence.

The driving force behind the sort-of-annual A Dolt's Only Xma$ Pageant, a no-holds-barred, wildly irreverent take on Christmas in downtown Fullerton that began some 15 years ago, White and his motley crew haven't re-assembled in at least three years.

Until now.

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​While it's an obvious nod to the fact that February is Black History Month, George Wolfe's The Colored Museum, which opens this weekend at UC Irvine, is also right in time for those who blanch at the thought of the Hallmark holiday of Feb. 14. It's all about hate.

Okay, maybe it has absolutely nothing to do with Valentine's Day, but I couldn't resist.

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RMA Photography

​South Orange County is getting its own concert hall.

Construction is complete on a $73 million performing-arts center at Soka University, a majestic college campus in Aliso Viejo. The space, anchored by a 1,034-seat auditorium, will be used for dance and orchestra productions, plays, musicals, lectures, and community events.
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The newly renovated Saigon Performing Arts Center.

​Struck by financial woes due to escalating production costs and pirated discs, the Westminster-based entertainment company that puts on the iconic Vietnamese variety show Paris By Night (which graced our cover last year) is taking a new direction.

The producers have a lease on the Saigon Performing Arts Center, a newly renovated, 18,000-square-foot theater in Fountain Valley that was converted from an Edwards Cinema. The space will be used partly as a studio for a new television channel Thuy Nga is launching, VIETFACE TV, which will be broadcast throughout Southern California on KJLA 57.2 starting in March. The Vietnamese-language programming will feature entertainment news and past Paris By Night shows.
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