Steven Leigh Morris

A video image within the stage play Properties of Silence, a new work presented by About Productions at 2100 Square Feet, shows Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (Rose Portillo) -- the 17th-century Mexican poet-nun-naturalist known as “the Phoenix of the Americas” -- pricking her finger in order to seal......

Photo by Larry HirshowitzIN THOMAS GIBBONS' THOUGHTFUL COMEDY BEE-LUTHER-Hatchee, young African-American book editor Shelita Burns (Anne-Marie Johnson), rising in the New York publishing world, is still haunted by memories of staring up at the tomes in bookstores and libraries, and noting the exclusion of minority authors. What is any culture......

Photo by Debra DiPaoloAT THE LATE-AFTERNOON CUSP OF THE DINNER hour, Steven Berkoff slips into Tommy Tang's on Melrose, addressing the staff with a rolling Texas accent -- a bit strange coming from a fellow who grew up in London's East End. ("I love the robust American sounds," he says,......

Photo by Craig SchwartzI'VE HATED MUSICALS EVER SINCE THE 10TH GRADE, when my high school's drama department plugged its upcoming production of Dames at Sea by crooning excerpts over the intercom -- during an algebra quiz, no less -- with the quasi-neurotic belligerence that seems to characterize so many musical-theater......

Courtesy University of Texas at AustinFame is a bee. It has a song -- It has a sting -- Ah, too, it has a wing. --Emily Dickinson IS IT MERE COINCIDENCE THAT TENNESSEE Williams' Summer and Smoke (in a strong production at the Fountain Theater) and The Two-Character Play (at......

SO THIS YEAR, THE RATS (REGIONAL ALTERNATIVE Theaters) are scuttling to L.A. from all corners of the country for a conference that will no doubt come together, somehow -- for rigid organization, and the hierarchy it engenders, is contrary to the RAT ethos. This presents something of a paradox when......

IN 1997, WHEN BOBS WATSON CALLED THE WEEKLY to inquire about directions to the paper's Theater Awards -- he had received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor, as Candy in Of Mice and Men at the Egyptian Arena Theater -- the crusty voice on the other end of the line......

Photo by Craig SchwartzTHOUGH OUR CITY HAS MANY VIRTUES, THERE ARE REAsons why Los Angeles in general, and Los Angeles theater in particular, can be so embarrassing. Topping the list is a well-known penchant in this town to leap to one's feet at the curtain-call of just about anything. Ostensibly......

Photo by Craig SchwartzHERE'S AN IDEA: AMERICAN ACTORS ARE GENERALLY credited for their passion, so why not choose a company of America's finest and put them in the hands of a language-oriented Brit -- say, two-time Tony Award recipient Sir Peter Hall, founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, helmsman for......