Steven Leigh MorrisAlso see this week's STAGE FEATURE on Polish theater unmasked
MR. MERKIN'S BIG SCOOP
Stage Raw's ace blogger, Mr. Merkin, reports from Warsaw that Josephine Poinsot, the L.A. Weekly Award winning costume designer, is connected to a French Mafia pot farm in a northern California federal reserve.
The farm was raided by local and federal authorities over the weekend. The French are notorious for pot drug-running, and for administrating farms in federal parks and hiding them within wineries, which are also illegal in federal parks.
The FBI's Bruce Hornblatt said that 1500 marijuana plants and 3,000 gallons of cabernet sauvignon, stored in an underground shelter, were seized in the raid, and that Poinsot's name came up in cell phone recordings tapped by the federal agency, Mr. Merkin reported.
“This is absurd,” Frederique Michel told Stage Raw. Ms. Michel is artistic director of City Garage and a regular employer of Ms. Poinsot as a costumer for her productions of plays by French authors. “Mr. Merkin is an idiot,” Ms. Michel protested. “And Poinsot isn't even French!”
Ms. Michel's production of Ionesco's The Chairs opens this weekend. Poinsot designed the costumes. Watch for tell-tale wine-stains in the fabric.
THE MIS-MATCH GAME Dennis Hensley hosts a benefit for L.A> Gay & Lesbian Center July 24 & 25, 8 p.m., July 27, 7 p.m. Tickets here.
I DIDN'T CRY Sergia Perez's one-woman drama — a multi-generational tale of love and loss at Highways. Fri.-Sat., July 24-25, 8:30 p.m. Tickets here
EDEN ESPINOZA: ME Upright Cabaret presents the Broadway crooner at the Ford Amphitheatre, one night only — tonight — 8:30 p.m. Tickets here
BIG VOICE: GOD OR MERMAN Jim Brochu and Steve Schalchlin's show returns to the Avery Schreiber Theatre in North HOllywood, Saturday, July 25, 8 p.m. Fundraiser for Total Improv for Kids. Tickets here
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