Showing results by publisher "L.A. Theatre Works" in United States

Pulitzer Prize-winner Sam Shepard's classic comedy is a story of estranged brothers Austin and Lee. Shepard compares and contrasts the reality of the two brothers by forcing them to come to terms with each other, with themselves, and with family.

This poignant and poetic 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning play captures 1929 Florida at a time when cigars are still rolled by hand and "lectors" are employed to educate and entertain the workers. The arrival of a new lector is a cause for celebration. But when he reads aloud from Anna Karenina, he unwittingly becomes a catalyst in the lives of his avid listeners, for whom Tolstoy, the tropics, and The American Dream prove a volatile combination.

Bad Axe is the story of a woman accused of murdering her husband at a military outpost in the Old West. Did hostile Indians force her to scalp him as revenge for his brutality, or did she kill him out of frustration with her plight as a soldier’s wife? An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring John Castellanos, Harry Hamlin, Amy Irving, Peter Jacobs, and Jessica Walter. Recorded before a live audience.

George Bernard Shaw's warm and witty play continues to challenge conventional wisdom about male/female relationships. Candida concerns a beautiful married woman's choice between the two men who love her.

Written by José Rivera, recent Academy Award Nominee for The Motorcycle Diaries, Each Day Dies with Sleep is the story of a young woman's struggle to find an identity apart from the two men in her life: her father and her husband. Written in Rivera's typical satiric and super realistic style, this fantastical tragi-comedy leaps from coast to coast, and from one outrageous moment to the next.

Harry Shearer’s parody of a presidential election. In this fantasy, Bob Dole Jr. faces off against a wrestler named Greenberg, as they fight for one family’s votes by camping out in their living room. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Fran Adams, Ed Begley Jr., Judyann Elder, Arye Gross, Daniel Passer, Richard Masur, Harry Shearer, Fred Willard, and Kenny Williams. Directed by Harry Shearer. Recorded before a live audience.

Taking Flight is a deeply compelling, humorous, and truly moving work that brings to the stage a mystical and poignant tale of a friendship tested by tragedy, and of the resilience of the human heart.

A pointed look at organized, merchandised religion; the dangers of pride and ambition; the battes for power between generations; and the redemptive power of faith. A face off for control between a legendary Baptist pastor and an ambitious young preacher.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US government sent thousands of Japanese American citizens to detention camps. In 1945, three Japanese-American sisters return to their farm in Stockton, California, after years in an internment camp, but the once prosperous family finds it’s not easy to pick up the pieces of their former lives. As the details of their deceased father’s final arrangements emerge, the sisters must work together to keep their dreams alive.

A scathing examination of a wealthy Southern family and the greed that tears them apart. Regina’s brothers have inherited their father’s wealth, while after years of neglect, her dying husband is determined to see she gets nothing. It will take every ounce of her ruthless guile to outwit her relations and assure herself a gilded future.

In April of 2010, British Petroleum gave orders to speed up production on its colossal drilling rig, the Deepwater Horizon. Despite the objections of many on the rig, safety measures were ignored or overlooked. On April 20th, the Deepwater Horizon exploded. Eleven men paid the ultimate price and countless thousands who call the Gulf Coast home found their lives irrevocably altered.

Nell Ryder is a sardonic and urbane school teacher transplanted to small-town Michigan in Joyce Carol Oates’ play. But when she gets into a dispute with an aggrieved parent, Nell finds herself accused of impropriety with one of her adolescent charges.

Angela Arden wants to be free of her suffocating marriage to film producer Sol Sussman. What better way than poison! Distraught by her father’s death and convinced of her mother’s guilt, Edith Sussman plots to get the truth out of Angela using any means necessary. Charles Busch stars in the role he originated in this camp send-up where tongues aren’t the only thing dipped in acid.

Jennifer and Jonathan, a showbiz couple, leave their ailing daughter in New York City to come to Hollywood, so Jonathan can audition for a film. And when Jennifer stays with her old friend Michael, a dancer turned social worker, past sins shed new light on the present in the age of AIDS.

Nan takes a prestigious research position working for Dr. George Papanicolaou, the inventor of the Pap smear. The doctor worries Nan's new husband might distract from their important work, but Nan has a secret that could upend everyone's plans for her.

Nya, a dedicated teacher at an inner-city school, is desperate to give her only son opportunities that her own public high school students will never have. When a controversial incident at his private school threatens to get Omari expelled, Nya must confront her own deepest fears to give her son a future.

Lyman Felt has it all: wealth, success, power, and the kind of good, solid wife he needs. Oh, and he also has another wife, the kind of earthy, sexy woman he wants. Lyman juggles his artful lie until a car accident on the slippery slope of Mt. Morgan lands him in a hospital bed—with two wives in the waiting room. But really, is there any such thing as "just an accident"?

A sheet of ice sits in the desert of New Mexico. A mad eco-terrorist plants a bomb in order to save humankind. A beleaguered film crew tries to get in one last shot before losing the light. Storytelling and science collide with hilarious and devastating consequences.

Are we stuck with our memories–or can we fix them? Pia is a neuroscientist whose research focuses on changing the way we process traumatic experiences. Will Pia’s emotionally distant mother–who survived the Khmer Rouge in 1970’s Cambodia–benefit from her daughter’s work? Or are some things just too terrible to remember?