Email Author Steven Mikulan

Awards

• 2007 - Southern California Journalism Awards/LA Press Club

  "Rage Against the Sex Machine"

• 2007 - Southern California Journalism Awards/LA Press Club

  "Tet Offensive"

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2007 Stories by Steven Mikulan

• 2007 in the Rearview Mirror

  published December 27, 2007

  Why are they here? I wonder, every time I notice a theatergoer scrolling down his messages on a cell phone during a performance, his... More >>

• A Noir Gift From Phil Spector

  published December 27, 2007

  As 2007 wound down, our thoughts once more turned to Phil Spector, thanks to radio play of A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector,... More >>

• A Charlie James Brown Christmas

  published December 27, 2007

  This new holiday effort by the Troubadour Theater Company is a loving poke at Charles Schulz's TV cartoon classic featuring characters from his... More >>

• Purple Rain

  published December 20, 2007

  Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel went Broadway two years ago and, in an adaptation market besotted with fleecy... More >>

• Harm's Way: Shem Bitterman’s Wartime Nightmare

  published December 13, 2007

  Harm’s Way,Shem Bitterman’s new play, now receiving its world premiere at Circus Theatricals, centers on a father-daughter... More >>

• Luis Alfaro’s New War Story

  published November 29, 2007

  Iraq war vets haven’t gotten their parade yet, but they didn’t have to wait long for their plays. It feels as though there has been... More >>

• Loyal Women and The Glory of Living: Double Negatives

  published November 15, 2007

  In theater, there’s never a cop around when you need one. Such is the case in two harrowing plays currently running at Burbank venues. By... More >>

• Download This!

  published November 8, 2007

  “It’s not going to be as much fun in two months, I’ll tell you that,” says John Carlen, a veteran Writers Guild member... More >>

• Anon and Mustang Sally: Beneath Therapy

  published November 1, 2007

  If it’s true that most art is the expression of male fantasies, then two plays running concurrently buck the grain by offering rare... More >>

• Like Wildfire

  published November 1, 2007

  Flood and fire. New Orleans and San Diego. Superdome and Qualcomm. Black and white. The juxtaposition of class opposites is... More >>

• Canned Peaches in Syrup: Eat Me

  published October 18, 2007

  The postapocalyptic landscape in Alex Jones’ new play is a tortured terrain whose barren earth meets an arid horizon aflame with orange... More >>

• Phil Noir: Phil Spector’s Dark Victory

  published October 11, 2007

  IF PHIL SPECTOR’S SEPTEMBER 26 mistrial was a stunning setback for the D.A.’s Office, it was a more ambiguous victory for... More >>

• Evel Knievel's Leaps of Faith

  published October 11, 2007

  My Uncle Jim was the first man I knew with false teeth. The dentures were only one thing that made him freakish to me. He was a Southerner... More >>

• Mr. Wilson's War

  published October 11, 2007

  It was between Vivaldi and “Moon River” that Joe Wilson strode into the ballroom of the La Cañada–Flintridge Country... More >>

• Phil Noir: Fidler Out of Tune

  published October 4, 2007

  ONCE HE DECLARED A MISTRIAL in the murder case against Phil Spector and the jury left Department 106 for the last time, Judge Larry Paul... More >>

• Last Wet Dream

  published October 4, 2007

  Where else but in a desert city facing inexorable drought can you find such a profligate gesture of civic hubris? The Will fountain —... More >>

• The Last Laugh

  published October 4, 2007

  It’s so easy to become cynical about comedy. “Make me laugh” is the defiant challenge of visitors to improv clubs from... More >>

• The Last Supper (or Breakfast or Lunch)

  published October 4, 2007

  It’s a groundless myth that the older the restaurant the better the food, or that folksy atmosphere means generous servings and a helpful... More >>

• Phil Noir: Strangers On a Train Wreck

  published September 27, 2007

  At 11:25 a.m. WEDNESday the jury buzzed the court clerk twice. A long second followed as media and court spectators awaited a third buzz that... More >>

• Phil Noir: Killing Time

  published September 20, 2007

  “THE JURY BELIEVES THEY ARE HUNG.”The air suddenly went out of Department 106 when Judge Larry Paul Fidler told the... More >>

• Phil Noir Bulletin: Deadlock

  published September 20, 2007

  “THE JURY BELIEVES THEY ARE HUNG.” The air suddenly went out of Department 106 when Judge Larry Paul Fidler told the courtro... More >>

• The Death of Africa

  published September 20, 2007

  After watching the first minutes of Butterflies of Uganda, I realized that its story of African child soldiers wasn’t set in... More >>

• Phil Noir Bulletin: Deadlock

  published September 20, 2007

  “THE JURY BELIEVES THEY ARE HUNG.” The air suddenly went out of Department 106 when Judge Larry Paul Fidler told the courtroom Tuesd... More >>

• Phil Noir: The Dark at the Top of the Stare

  published September 13, 2007

  FOR THREE YEARS, MUSIC LEGEND Phil Spector, now 67, has stood accused of a crime more heinous even than his production of Leonard... More >>

• Spook Night: Laugh Ghetto

  published September 13, 2007

  Monday evenings at Fletch’s House of Laffs is “Urban Night,” the contemporary, politically correct moniker for a program of... More >>