LA Theatre Works March-April 2010 Schedule

3/6/10 - “A View from the Bridge”

Written By: Arthur Miller  
Cast:Harry Hamlin, Mary McDonnell, Amy Pietz, Ed O'Neill.

Synopsis:Italian-American immigrant life in the 1950s textures this searing drama of love and revenge. Longshoreman Eddie Carbone is devoted to his wife Beatrice and to his niece Catherine. When Beatrice’s impoverished Sicilian cousins enter the U.S. illegally in hope of finding work, Eddie gives them a helping hand. But when Catherine and one of the cousins fall in love, Eddie’s affection for his niece turns into obsession.The broadcast includes a piece about Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood with author Nathan Ward, and interviews with actress Mary McDonnell and director Ethan McSweeny.

 

3/13/10 - “Fallen Angels”

Written By: Noel Coward
Cast:Annette Bening, Harriet Harris, Judith Ivey, Joe Mantegna, John Rubinstein, Kristoffer Tabori
Synopsis:Jane and Julia are comfortably married to their plain and dispassionate husbands. But when a mysterious French dandy reappears from the ladies’ carefree younger days, their bland domesticity is thrown into hilarious disarray. The broadcast also includes a short monologue, “Bed Among the Lentils” by Alan Bennett, starring Martha Lavey.

 

 

3/20/10 - “The Physicists”

Written By:Friedrich Durrenmatt
Cast:Anne Gee Byrd, Matthew Patrick Davis, Bruce Davison, John de Lancie, Matt Gaydos, Harry Groener, Christopher Guilmet, Melinda Page Hamilton, Gregory Itzin, Roma Maffia, Missy Yager
Synopsis:Johann Mobius, the world’s greatest physicist, is locked away in a madhouse along with two other scientists. Why? Because he is haunted by recurring visions of King Solomon, and the other two are convinced they are Einstein and Newton. But are these three actually mad? Or are they playing a murderous game with the world at stake? This darkly comic satire probes the cost of sanity among men of science, and whether it is the mad who are truly sane.Thebroadcast includes an interview with Pulitzer-winning historian Richard Rhodes and a roundtable discussion with the cast. This play is part of L.A. Theatre Works’ RelativitySeries featuring science-themed plays. Major funding for the RelativitySeries is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to enhance public understanding of science and technology in the modern world.

 

3/27/10 - “Fake”

Written By: Eric Simonson
Cast:Kate Arrington, Coburn Goss, Francis Guinan, Alan Wilder, Larry Yando
Synopsis:Oscar-winning and Tony-nominated writer and director Eric Simonson explores the most famous archeological hoax in history. Alternating between 1914 and 1953, journalists and scientists set out to uncover who planted the Piltdown Man skull. Everyone is a suspect, including legendary Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.The broadcast includes an interview with University of Chicago anthropologist Russell Tuttle. This play is part of L.A. Theatre Works’ RelativitySeries featuring science-themed plays. Major funding for the RelativitySeries is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to enhance public understanding of science and technology in the modern world.

 

4/3/10 _ “This is Our Youth”

Written By:Kenneth Lonergan
Cast:Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hamilton, Missy Yager
Synopsis:The original cast was reunited for this exclusive L.A. Theatre Works performance. In 1982 on Manhattan's Upper West Side, three pot-smoking teenagers are resoundingly rejecting the 1960s ideals of their affluent parents. In hilarious and bittersweet detail, This is Our Youth follows forty-eight turbulent hours in the lives of three very lost souls at the dawn of the Reagan Era. The broadcast includes an interview with playwright Kenneth Lonergan, director Mark Brokaw, and the entire cast.

 

4/10/10 - “True West”

Written By: Sam Shepard
Cast:Francis Guinan, Alfred Molina, Charlotte Rae
Synopsis:Pulitzer Prize winner Sam Shepard’s classic comedy is a story of estranged brothers Austin and Lee. Shepard contrasts the reality of the two brothers by forcing them to come to terms with family, each other, and themselves. The broadcast includes an interview with actor Alfred Molina as well as a short one-act play by David Mamet, “Reunion”, starring John Mahoney and Rebecca Pidgeon.

 

 

 

4/17/10 - “Speed-the-Plow”

Written By: David Mamet
Cast:Adam Arkin, Jeff Goldblum and Dina Waters
Synopsis:Jaded Hollywood producer Bobby Gould has spent a career reaping what others sow … until the night he’s forced to choose between his loyal friend’s surefire hit and a beautiful girl’s art-house project. Over a wicked evening of seduction and manipulation, Bobby discovers that the power he exerts is more elusive than it seems. The broadcast also includes an excerpt from “Bobby Gould in Hell,”the sequel to “Speed-the-Plow."