Photo by Deborah Robinson/SCR

Theresa Rebeck's dramatic essay on the many layers of conflict in the Middle East - political, religious, cultural and diplomatic - is a deftly drawn piece of Shavian drama that satisfies on several levels. Under the light hand...

British playwright Mike Bartlett's play (whose actual title is less family-friendly) about the ambivalence of love and sexuality, which won the Olivier Award in its 2010 production in London, has both the rewards and the shortcomings of a traditional "problem...

Beyond the medical questions about transmission, treatment and protocols for dealing with the Ebola virus, there are bigger questions that remain unanswered. For example, when the virus spreads to the Middle East, Latin America or Asia -- and it appears this is a matter of when rather than if --...

Photo by Lisa Tomasetti

Tchaikovsky's classic ballet has a triumphal outing in its Los Angeles production featuring the innovative and masterful choreography of Graeme Murphy and inspiring performances by the principals and troupe of the Australian Ballet, now one of the leading international...

Horton Foote's enchanting tale of an old woman's single-minded quest to return to her childhood home gets a memorable production under the deft direction of Michael Wilson and featuring thrilling performances by Cicely Tyson, Vanessa Williams and Blair Underwood....

Well, I did it. A whole weekend -- plus Monday night -- without football. No Sunday NFL, no Saturday college (non-pro) football, no Monday night football. None. Zero. Nada. And here I am to tell the tale. I can't really...

President Obama's speech to the nation on ISIL and the follow-up statements by the White House and administration officials reveal the political bind that American policy makers find themselves in when dealing with the chaos in the Middle East, or in the Ukraine and Sudan for that matter. Beginning with...

A couple of provocative stories were in the news over the past week. The first was about the study authored by professors Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page that concluded that America was no longer a democracy in any meaningful sense. In an interview with TalkingPointsMemo, Professor Gilens summed...

While most of us are aware of community access television -- those cable channels that are reserved for local government and public access programming -- few people recognize what an important resource this is for communities throughout the nation. More than 3,000 Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) cable channels are...

Mickey Birnbaum, one of LA's most gifted playwrights, returns with the stunningly brilliant and hilarious tale of teenage backyard wrestling in the wasteland of San Diego's border suburbs. Birnbaum's gift for dialogue and unsentimental character portrayal is on full display here, as he...

photo by Jessica Sherman Photography

Benjamin Brand's play, based on the 2001 incident in Germany in which a man agreed to be killed and eaten by another man (dubbed the Rotenberg Cannibal) has been justifiably praised for impeccable performances by Donal Thoms-Cappello...

Photo by Teresa Wood

Maurice Hines is rocking the house at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills. After more than sixty years in show business, Hines still has the juice, performing great standards from Frank Loesser, Cole...

Photo by Lynn Lane

A Coffin in Egypt, a rarely produced 1980 play by Horton Foote would seem an unlikely subject for an opera, but in the hands of the marvelous Frederica von Stade and the talented composer and librettist team of...

photo by T. Charles Erickson

Even in this subdued and somber rendering of a pair of Chekhov stories, Mikhail Baryshnikov and his creative partners from the Big Dance Theater display a magical grace and style that transcends the bleakness of Chekhov's tales. Big...

Australian Theater co-founder Nick Hardcastle and Consul-General Karen Lanyon
Photo by Michelle Day

Over the past couple of decades, Australia has produced a bumper crop of movie icons, from Mel Gibson and Nicole Kidman to Hugh Jackman and Cate Blanchett. But what...

In the wake of Citizens United decision, and the more recent McCutcheon case, there has been lots of discussion about campaign finance reform and the impact of money on American politics. But there is a very simple solution to this controversy that is staring us right in the face. Let...

Beginning with the trial and conviction of schoolteacher Mary Kay Letourneau for having an affair with an underage student, the national media have taken a predictably salacious view of affairs between female teachers and male students. But in his world premiere play, Firemen...

A recent essay in The Economist examines what's gone wrong with democracy. The last quarter of the twentieth century was a heyday for democracy as new democracies were created in Africa and Asia, and autocratic regimes in Greece, Spain and Latin America were replaced by elected governments. But...

photo by Craig Schwartz

Who knew that Christopher Plummer could do brilliant standup comedy? One could be confident that the 84-year old lion of stage and screen could perform dramatic renditions of the great works of literature. And one might expect...

photo by Joan Marcus

Denis O'Hare gives a bravura solo performance in his Obie-award winning adaptation with collaborator and director Lisa Peterson of Homer's Iliad. While the script is overlong and weak in spots, and O'Hare's acting is occasionally overblown, the effect...