Share: Pasadena Playhouse’s ‘Sanctuary City’ unflinchingly examines the devastation wrought by unkept promises. In 2001, in Newark, New Jersey a high school girl, known only to the audience as G bangs desperately on the window of her best friend, B, begging to be let in. Something happened at home, something that’s happened a hundred times before and is going to happen a hundred times again. But, in spite of the late hour, his Mother sleeping in the other room, B lets G in where she …
‘Head Over Heels’ gives Pasadena Playhouse a lively return to theater
Share: Pasadena Playhouse rolled out the red carpet last Sunday for the Premier of the vibrant Head Over Heels, an Elizabethen play adapted with the music of The Go-Go’s. The play was originally written in the 16th century by Sir Philip Sidney and adapted into a musical with the pop magic music of the Go Go’s in 2018. It managed to successfully take new wave and bring it into a new age, with all sorts of gleeful nostalgia. Fluid gender identity and sexuality that normally …
Student souls take flight through Tuskegee history
Share: The production “Fly” follows four Tuskegee Airmen—the first African-American aviators in the U.S. military—from their initial squad training and education and through the often thinly veiled racist oppression by their superior officers, their comrades and even their subordinates. But the play also largely focuses on their bonding as a team and as men of mission, their triumphs as fighter pilots, and their losses in wartime. Follow:
Playhouse lighting designer enters limelight of his own design
Share: Gossamer drapes tinged with blue, lavender and gold framed the bandstand center stage. The 2014 Ovation Awards circular sequined logo splashed on the screen above, while stage dressers, technicians and set crew performed that unique dance that is a show tech rehearsal. Follow:
Stopping the hate with laughter and a kiss at the Playhouse
Share: A single woman stands silent amongst a backdrop of looming brick apartments and the oppressive soundtrack of New York city din. It is the aftermath of an unknown trauma, and there begins the play’s series of time jumping vignettes that tell the story of when Callie met Sara. Follow:
Día del los Muertos honors many in the Playhouse District
Share: Bright golden marigolds lined the sidewalks, stairways, art displays. Children gazed longingly at cupcakes, sugar skulls, and a giant skull cake that centered around the vast array of ornate and creative family altars and artwork displayed in the courtyard. And hundreds of families gathered to celebrate, remember and honor their loved ones gone at the Día de los Muertos arts festival at the Zona Rosa Caffe and Pasadena Playhouse Plaza. The event featured children’s calaca face painting, papier-mâché skulls, flowers and mask art made at …
Dr. West “talks back” on “Kiss Me, Kate” and the history of black theater
PCC instructor Dr. Christopher Jimenez y West was featured in last week’s “Talkback Tuesday” at the Pasadena Playhouse following a dazzling performance of Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me, Kate” starring Wayne Brady and directed by Sheldon Epps.