UCLA Live and EdgeFest: friends or foes?

Two theater festivals, both alike in dignity, in fair Los Angeles, where we lay our scene “¦ Unlike the star-crossed lovers of Shakespeare’s tragic play, the Edge of the World Theater Festival and UCLA Performing Arts’ first International Theater Festival are not explicit rivals, but rather are working together to bring a cutting-edge collection of […]

“˜Junebug Symphony’ presents audience with night of surprises

Mimes and contortionists and sopranos, oh my! James Thiérrée’s “The Junebug Symphony” employs everything from carnies to Spanish opera singers in a dream-like extravaganza at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse. Born into a family of circus folk with a prominent lineage including grandfather Charlie Chaplin and great-grandfather Eugene O’Neill, Thiérrée began performing as a “walking suitcase” (managed […]

With “˜Genesi’, viewers can reinterpret Biblical creation tale

Step aside, Adam and Eve, here comes a new version of creation. Romeo Castellucci directs the Societas Raffaello Sanzio group’s “Genesi: From the Museum of Sleep,” loosely based on the biblical book of Genesis, which reveals a different view of creation. Born in Cesena, Italy, a small town in the mountains, Castellucci was trained in […]

Birth of the Punk

No, “Lipstick Traces” is definitely not about make-up. In fact, it’s about the punk revolutionary Johnny Rotten and the aftershocks of the Sex Pistols. It’s a time-travel play exploring the punk movement through the ages. The journey is traced from 16th-century heretic John of Leyden (whose name is a precursor to John Lydon, Rotten’s real […]

Birth of the Punk

No, “Lipstick Traces” is definitely not about make-up. In fact, it’s about the punk revolutionary Johnny Rotten and the aftershocks of the Sex Pistols. It’s a time-travel play exploring the punk movement through the ages. The journey is traced from 16th-century heretic John of Leyden (whose name is a precursor to John Lydon, Rotten’s real […]