News: Artists

Richard Montoya and Roger Guenveur Smith Excavate ‘American Venice’

On June 5, 1951, a Latino African-American surfer named Nick Gabaldon paddled 12 or 13 miles north from the Santa Monica-Venice border to the Malibu Pier—a journey that cost him his life. Gabaldon had taught himself to surf at the Ink Well, a section of beach at the end of the Santa Monica Pier reserved for African-Americans; he couldn't sim...

Richard Montoya and Roger Guenveur Smith Excavate ‘American Venice’

Will the Real Samuel Beckett Please Stand Up?

Samuel Beckett once wrote, Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness So it might be a little odd to imagine him joking with a friend about translating his book Pour finir encore et autres foirades “Wet Fart” (It was published in English as Fizzles). However, even a cursory glance at Beckett’s life will reveal a man of...

Will the Real Samuel Beckett Please Stand Up?

Alan Mandell and Barry McGovern on Playing Beckett, Past and Present

Alan Mandell and Barry McGovern on Playing Beckett, Past and Present

Famous Actors Who Have Played Beckett's "Endgame"

In Endgame, which plays the Kirk Douglas Theatre April 24 – May 22, 2016, one character is blind and unable to stand, one is unable to sit, and two spend the entirety of the play squatting in ash bins. One would expect actors to be less than excited by the prospect of performing any of the four roles in Samuel Beckett’s famous tragicomedy,...

Famous Actors Who Have Played Beckett's "Endgame"

Suzan-Lori Parks’ Journey from a New York Bar to Household Name

Since the late 1980s, Suzan-Lori Parks’ plays have graced stages in every major American city. She is a recipient of the coveted MacArthur “Genius” Award, the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and the first Master Writer Chair at New York City’s Public Theater. Her newest play, Father Comes Home From The W...

Suzan-Lori Parks’ Journey from a New York Bar to Household Name

Jo Bonney Directs an Intimate Epic, a Contemporary History

Historical and contemporary. Dramatic and vaudevillian. A big show and a personal story. The words Jo Bonney uses to describe Father Comes Home From The Wars by Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks are full of contradictions. As is the production itself—and with good reason—said Bonney, who is directing the show’s run at the Mark Tape...

Jo Bonney Directs an Intimate Epic, a Contemporary History