Part II of my series on funeral rites originally published on www.alternet.org.

Naturally preserved. Photo credit: www.sacredcrossings.com

Unlike Lenin, Lincoln and Rudy Valentino, you don’t need to show proof that you ignited revolutions, civil wars and extra-marital affairs in order to be embalmed. You just need to reside in America and be pronounced dead. If, on the other hand, you wish to remain intact until burial or cremation but you fail to communicate this information to your loved ones, your family will probably hand over the care of your body to a funeral home which will strongly advise that you be disinfected, preserved, cosmetized and deodorized for your going-away party.

Since it’s become imperative that we confront the hidden costs of our modern lifestyle and reevaluate whether our needs are truly needs and not just wants, it’s no surprise that our death industry and its standardized practice of embalming is getting a second look. Formaldehyde, the main preserving agent, has been classified as a human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and as a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Improper disposition of embalming fluids has also come under scrutiny for its violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act. “Formaldehyde and phenol,” notes the EPA, “present human health risks, if ingested in drinking water.”

If Canada and England show a penchant for the posthumous makeover, the United States is the only country in the world where chemical conservation of our dead is common practice even though embalming is not required in most states. “Embalming is an option,” says Shun Newbern, quality control embalming supervisor at Rose Hills Memorial Park & Mortuary in Southern California. “With that option come procedures to make people presentable and assure that during the service there is no odor. It’s only temporary. It only lasts 100 years.” Only?

For the full story, click here.

www.sacredcrossings.com

My new Alternet story delves into the world of after-death care and our legal rights to choose a home funeral over sending the body of our loved one to a funeral home to be “bled and pickled” by strangers. Here is an excerpt:

“When Beth Knox lost her 7-year-old daughter in a car accident, she was told the hospital could only release her body to a funeral home. At the time, Knox didn’t know she had the legal right to drive her daughter’s body from the hospital to her house in the same van in which she took her to school every day. What she knew was that her family needed time.

“I was required by law to care well for her,” she writes on her Web site, “but now that her heart had stopped beating, I was being told that her care was no longer my concern.” Finding it unacceptable, she found a funeral home that agreed to bring her daughter’s body back to her house. “I cared for her at home for three days, bathing her, watching her, taking in slowly the painful reality that she had passed from this life, and sharing my grief with her classmates and brothers and grandparents and our wonderful community of friends, before finally letting go of her body.”

For more than a decade, a growing number of Americans have resurrected the ancient practice of “do-it-yourself” funerals. Like Beth Knox, now a funeral rights educator in Maryland, these home funeral guides and educators are spreading the word that after-death care is not the funeral industry’s birthright. You have the legal authority, in most states, to care for your loved ones after they die. It will transform your life, with the added bonus of saving you money.”

Click here for the full story.

A message from a friend of the Towers:

Dear friends,

The fiscal crisis in the government of the City of Los Angeles has led its Department of Cultural Affairs to ignore its fundamental mission.  It is directing its available funds away from its community arts centers, ending years of educational classes and programming vital to the communities it serves.  Most of the arts centers will be forced to shut down.  Those remaining open will not be able to maintain their arts classes.

As of Friday, March 26, the employment of the educational coordinator of the Watts Towers Arts Center will be terminated.  Eight on-going educational programs that serve over 6,000 individuals—many of whom are at-risk youth—will be forced to close down.  This will effectively dismantle the functioning of a community cultural gathering place and a vital host to the world renowned Watts Towers .

The local City Council representative has cynically called for the privatization of the Watts Towers Arts Center while she is actively working with the Wasserman Media Group and the Tony Hawk Foundation to develop funding for a Skateboard Park to be built immediately adjacent to the Watts Towers themselves.  This construction would deprive visitors of a full view of Rodia’s monumental work of architectural sculpture and destroy the aesthetic ambience of a National Historical Landmark.  This is like building a skateboard park on the steps below the Lincoln Memorial or at the entrance of the Statue of Liberty .  Requests for this Skateboard Park to be placed farther away from the Watts Towers have been ignored.

Please help us save the Watts Towers , the Watts Towers Arts Center and the arts of Los Angeles .

WRITE and CALL these public officials in support of the continuing integrity of the Watts Towers and its Arts Center :

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

Los Angeles City Hall

200 N. Spring Street, Rm 303

Los Angeles , CA 90012

(213) 978-0600

mayor@lacity.org

Councilwoman Janice Hahn, District 15

Los Angeles City Hall

200 N. Spring Street, Rm 435

Los Angeles , CA 90012

(213)-473-7015

councilmember.hahn@lacity.org

Olga Garay, General Manager

Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA)

City of Los Angeles

201 N. Figueroa Street, Ste 1400

Los Angeles , CA 90012

(213) 202-5500

Olga.Garay@lacity.org

ALSO please click onto this site to sign a petition in support of the Watts Towers Arts Center :

www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stopculturalgenocide

AND click on to this site to help support all of the affected Cultural Affairs arts sites:

http://www.artsforla.org/take_action/culturalcenters

Dear Readers,

I am in the process of submitting stories to online and print magazines. I have enjoyed blogging tremendously and will continue supporting all the terrific Los Angeles artists and activits I’ve been writing about on LA Taco and on The Smiling Spider as often as I can.

I will post links to my new stories as they get published. My first one “How Can We Talk About Transformational Change Without Losing Hope?” was featured today on www.alternet.org.

Hope you will enjoy it.

Thank you.

LODESTONE THEATRE ENSEMBLE

under the artistic direction of Philip W. Chung & Chil Kong
proudly presents our final production

The World Premiere of

GRACE KIM & THE SPIDERS FROM MARS

A new comedy for anyone who’s ever felt like they were born on the wrong planet…

Written by Philip W. Chung
Directed by Jeff Liu
Produced by Stephanie Chang, Michael Chih Ming Hornbuckle & Peter J. Wong

Starring: Feodor Chin, Elizabeth Ho, Elaine Kao, Jully Lee, Rachel Morihiro, Hanson Tse, Kelvin Han Yee, Junko Goda, Dan Jyung, Christopher Takemoto-Gentile and Tina Tong.

Inspired by classic screwball comedies, GRACE KIM & THE SPIDERS FROM MARS tells the story of Grace, a young Korean American woman, who has withdrawn from the world after the death of her mother ten years ago. But Grace’s life is thrown upside down when she meets her sister’s fiancé and falls in love with him. This play was written to be Lodestone’s last show of its tenth and final “Beginnings and Endings” season and will be permanently retired after this run.

November 14-December 20, 2009
Thursday-Saturday 8pm, Sunday 2pm (NO SHOW THANKSGIVING, NOV. 26)

ALL THURS. SHOWS: 2-for-1 general admission tickets if you say the codeword “Ziggy Stardust” at box office

$12 general admission (Special Low 1999 Ticket Price)
$10 (groups of 10+)
$25 Opening Night Gala (Nov. 14)–SOLD-OUT
All Sunday matinees (except Dec. 20) are pay-what-you-can ($1 minimum)

GTC Burbank
1111-B W. Olive Ave.
Burbank, CA 91506

The theatre is in George Izay Park between S. Victory Bl. and N. Griffith Park Bl. Park near the jet plane at 1111 W. Olive and walk past the Olive Recreation Center. The theatre is behind the rec center; the entrance faces the softball fields.

RSVP: (323) 993-7245 or go to www.lodestonetheatre.org for more info.

Chil Kong and Philip W. Chung.

More than a few months ago I had the pleasure to sit with two of the co-founders of Lodestone Theatre Ensemble and breathe in the trademark passion that has fueled the company’s 10-year body of work. Researching their production history (I only discovered them in 2006) triggered a genuine sense of loss for the plays I had missed and the realization that 2009 is it! Their last play, GRACE KIM & THE SPIDERS FROM MARS opened November 14th (see separate post) and will be running through December 20th. Suffice to say this is your last chance to be touched by the courageous and fiery duo who lost their funding after their first play all because of a bare bottom.

SS: Let’s go back to the beginning. After the L.A. riots, veteran actor Soon-Tek Oh urges the new generation of Asian American playwrights to tell their own stories to counteract the media’s tendency to portray Asian Americans as immigrant store owners who fall victim to violence.

Chil Kong: Yes. Soon-Tek Oh mobilized us. But it was more about the energy between Phil, Tim Lounibos, Bokyun Chun and I. We were passionate about our vision of the future of Asian American theater and we each had our own ideas about how we wanted to see a theater function in Los Angeles and we talked and talked and talked about it for four months. A lot of it had to do with timing for us; we were at the right place at the right time. We started forming when East West Players was moving from their small black box to their big theater so there was a gap. We filled that vacuum. We’ve been very lucky. From that Lodestone was born.

SS: What is the meaning of the word Lodestone?

Chil Kong: We had so many names. Tim Lounibos did some research and he found out about those magnetic compasses which Chinese explorers used to guide them.

SS: What did you set up to explore?

Philip W. Chung: Up until that point and to a certain degree now a lot of Asian American theater revolves around certain themes, certain subjects; it has to address the Asian American experience. Are we doing plays by South Asians? Are we doing plays by Vietnamese? They have to be inclusive. Because those theaters already existed, we didn’t feel we needed to do that. It gave us a chance to not be confined by those kinds of criteria. If we wanted to do a new play by a White writer then we could do it and we have. If we wanted to do Tennessee Williams, we could. That was the only philosophy and it hasn’t really evolved.

Season 4: 2002-2003

SS: Lodestone, like many small theater companies in LA, has not-for-profit status. Does it influence the choices you make? Do you have to do plays that are community oriented to get grants?

Chil Kong: Yes and No. Yes for certain things we will definitely go after those grants. No because we never wanted to pick the material that we wanted to do based on financial consideration. We didn’t want our choices based on “now we have to get this grant so we have to do a play about this issue.” We always had to stay at a certain level but that’s fine because it gave us creative control.

SS: What do you mean by “a certain level”?

Philip W. Chung: The smaller you are the lower your budget, the more creative control you have. The idea is to work from that model, which represents a lot of theaters in LA, where you don’t have to be depending on those grants. We have picked materials where we thought no one was going to come and see this. But it was ok because artistically it was something we wanted to do and that was more important. If it’s artistically sound, that’s the first criteria.

Chil Kong: It is very dangerous for a company to let their choices be directed by grants, it’s a wag the dog contest. Now, instead of your artistic vision driving your company, it is a commitment to different funders. Now it’s propaganda, now you’re doing things for money. Ultimately the good artistic material will have an audience. After 10 years we’ve been accustomed to that.

Philip W. Chung: We lost most of our funders after our second play LAUGHTER, JOY & LONELINESS & SEX & SEX & SEX & SEX, which I wrote. The subject matter turned them off.

Chil Kong: At the end of the run, I spent a week on the phone with two of our biggest funders screaming at me about betraying them. They were upset because there was a man’s naked butt on stage. I remember being very frustrated and yet laughing. The worst times are also the best times. That experience told us we were doing the right thing.

Philip W. Chung: The play actually ended up doing very well with our audience.

SS: Who is the Lodestone audience?

Chil Kong: Young Asian Americans in their 20′s and 30′s. We wanted to find plays that spoke not only to the founders but to our peers.

SS: Have they been a faithful audience?

Philip W. Chung: It’s still a hard audience to get. We’ve obviously made it this far, we wouldn’t if we didn’t have that audience backing what we did. It’s been enough to sustain us. Also, 30 to 40% of our audience is non-Asian. Old White ladies came to see our recent production of Tennessee Williams’ SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER but I doubt they’ll come back.

Chil Kong: We committed to a market that time and time again theater has never been able to draw, you’re talking about the college and post college demographics and they’re just very difficult to get. If you look at the average theatergoer, they’re in their 50′s.

SS: How did you reach them?

Philip W. Chung: From the beginning we really emphasized that our energy was different. It was reflected in the plays we produced. At the time, they weren’t the type of material that Asian American theater was tackling. That energy was thoroughly new.

SS: Can you describe how different you were?

Philip W. Chung: We put on plays that spoke to our generation.

Chil Kong: Traditional Asian American theater has some reference to an immigrant story. Even though I wasn’t born here, I was here since I was young. I was tired of those stories about our parents’ generation and their angst about being Asians. It wasn’t an issue for us, we wanted to move on. Our function was aesthetics over ethnicity.

Philip W. Chung: We are dealing with being Asian Americans in a lot of our work, but in a different way. Previous generations of Asian American theater were about justifying that they were Americans. A lot of the stories dealt with being immigrants and the internment of Japanese Americans. Now reclaiming that history was important. But our generation doesn’t need to prove that we are American anymore – that’s a given – the plays that we do start from a place where we ARE American. So the question becomes, what are the other issues that we’re dealing with?

Season 7: 2005-2006

SS: Some of the plays you’ve produced, like TEXAS by Judy Soo Hoo, have nothing to do with ethnicity.

Philip W. Chung: It’s true. In Annette Lee’s comedy A DIRTY SECRET BETWEEN THE TOES, which Chil directed, the two main characters have to be Asian Americans but the story is about class and moving into this new neighborhood and being outsiders. It would have worked if they were Black or Latinos, the energy would have been different though because it was written about Asian American kind of yuppies. But these are the kinds of plays we’re interested in.

Chil Kong: Even with Angela Kang’s WHEN TIGERS SMOKED LONG PIPES, which was inspired by traditional Korean folk tales, we made them very contemporary, we did it as a co-production with the Orphans’ Theater Company; we had a mixed cast. In the style of the directing, the costumes, the set, in the way that the script was written with contemporary references, it felt like a uniquely American theme even though it was based on Korean folk stories.

SS: You say you don’t have any angst but a lot of the plays that you have produced were very violent whether they were about romance or politics.

Chil Kong: We have a reputation for doing work that’s dark but I don’t think that’s completely true. Violence and sex are topics we like to visit, because traditional Asian American theater hasn’t dealt with these subject matters. They have the reputation to produce work that is nice and not really challenging. Most of our early violent plays were about formulating that new identity. We were going to create plays that would be challenging, edgy, uncomfortable.

TERMINUS AMERICANA, about American gun violence, written by Matt Pelfrey, who is a white writer, was one of our early productions. We were in rehearsals when 09/11 happened. We were scheduled to open a few weeks after the attack. The cast and crew got together to discuss if we wanted to continue with the play. It’s the story of this guy who’s involved in an office shooting where all his co-workers get shot and it sends him on this journey across America where, in the end, he himself turns into an office shooter. It very much resonated with what was happening on 09/11 because the main character was acting like a religious fundamentalist. Everyone agreed that we wanted to reflect on things that were happening right now. We moved forward with the play and it ended up being at that time our big critical success. We got rave reviews, people were commenting on how timely it was even though it wasn’t intended.

Philip W. Chung: But it wasn’t a commercial success. People didn’t want to go see a play after 09/11 about some guy going crazy and killing people. But the critical success reinforced our desire to tackle this kind of material. We were not going to be afraid and yes we accepted that sometimes the audience was not going to be there for it. But the audience that did come got a lot out of it. It was still kind of funny, it wasn’t a downer.

More theaters are doing Matt’s plays now. Back then none of the white mainstream theaters did because he was ahead of the curve. We live in a world that is more violent after 09/11. People are more aware of that. I feel very proud that we were one of the few people who did a production of Matt’s and that it wasn’t an Asian play yet it spoke to our generation.

When playwrights like Matt Pelfrey or Judy Soo Hoo write work for you, then their style is going to define the company to a certain extent. Another one of Matt’s plays we did was FREAK STORM which was about a guy getting married and one of his buddies comes to see him and it turns out they raped a girl back in high school. It deals with how these guys who did a very violent act against another person, think it’s forgotten but it comes back to haunt them in the most inopportune time.

Season 3: 2001-2002

SS: What is your relationship to the city of Los Angeles? How has the city informed or influenced your work?

Chil Kong: Because of Hollywood, of film, you have access to a higher level of talent in Los Angeles, with the possible exception of NY, even though I feel we are ahead of them here. You talk to people in other cities like Seattle and they are always complaining that they don’t have enough Asian American talent.

Philip W. Chung: There is no other city in America that has this large number of Asian Americans. You have so much diversity and still there are a lot of walls and boundaries and misunderstandings. The whole world’s here in a way. It does create a specific kind of identity, tension and unity as well.

SS: What were the surprises over those 10 years?

Chil Kong: Having been around for 10 years. We were thinking more like 5 years.

Philip W. Chung: One thing that you learn is that you never know how something’s going to turn out. You can think one way but you have no control. You can think something’s great and people don’t get into it. Or some plays do well that we didn’t expect, like my play THE GOLDEN HOUR. I thought it would do poorly because it was about faith and loss and all these sort of downer subjects but it ended up being a big commercial and critical success. Our audience may have just been in a receptive place to accept a play that reflected what they may have been feeling in a post 9/11 world.

SS: On your website you posted a message saying you’re not ending Lodestone because you hate each other.

Philip W. Chung: What has sustained us has been mutual respect. There was a time when we talked about going to the next level and becoming an institution, buying our own theater. But that’s not artistically rewarding. I don’t think we’re going to get better. We’ve peaked in terms of what we’ve done. Everything we’ve produced has at least been interesting. It’s really hard to continue doing the same thing.

For example the Group Theater in the 1930′s, they did hard hitting socially relevant work. They had an impact, I’m not comparing myself to them but they lasted about 10 years. After they ended, some of the members like Elia Kazan, Clifford Odets and John Garfield went on to do their best work but I would argue that that was the direct result of the 10 years they put in as a group.

Conversely, if the group still existed, they would have been tied down. At some point you have to move beyond that and into a different artistic mind-set, even if at times you work with the same people. It’s the natural evolution.

SS: What is it you want to do that you couldn’t have done with Lodestone?

Chil Kong: I’m in the middle of editing my first feature as a director. I had to stop all of it. I had to do Lodestone’s taxes and we had a major problem with our website so I’m revamping all of it. It’s a 40-hour week job that doesn’t pay. We can also move on and do work that has different aesthetics. I’d like to do light comedies, but at Lodestone we do dark comedies. We can now start thinking differently; we don’t have to concentrate on how we would present our work for Lodestone.

Philip W. Chung: I knew from the beginning the plays I wanted to write for Lodestone. My last play, MY MAN KONO, is not appropriate for Lodestone. That play will be produced in the near future. You’re still working with some of the same people but you’re doing something different.

SS: Do you know who might succeed you?

Chil Kong: There are a lot of smaller companies coming up. There are more people doing it than when we started. There are more resources and opportunities now. If you have passion, you can do it. I’m glad we kept to our commitment to always move forward. I am ecstatic about our last season.

SS: It’s interesting that in the kick-off show, TEN TO LIFE, one of the founding members, Tim Lounibos, is making his debut as a writer. It’s an end but also a beginning.

Philip W. Chung: It is. The pieces were developed knowing that it was our last season by some of our veteran writers and Tim. It is directed by Alberto Isaac who also directed CLAIM TO FAME and THE TROJAN WOMEN for us. It’s four twisted one-acts touching on the bizarre and unnatural.

Chil Kong: I directed the second play, CLOSER THAN EVER. It’s a musical about a group of friends who become closer as they get older. But it’s also about the frustrating and weird things that happen to us like friends changing and lost love…and getting old, yes! There’s a beautiful song about getting old!!! (laughs)

SS: Tell me about the closing play?

Philip W. Chung: I wrote it, it’s called GRACE KIM AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS. It will be directed by a Lodestone regular, Jeff Liu. It’s one of those plays I knew I wanted to write from the beginning. I wanted it to reflect our identity and our history. It’s very much inspired by old screwball comedies but it’s a comedy/drama. It’s a gift to our audience. But it’s so specifically for Lodestone that it will never be performed again. It’s your one and only chance!

Season 8: 2006-2007

The Smiling Spider will be taking a break for the rest of the summer but I wanted to leave you with a few shows worth seeing. First, the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors are taking over the city with their new sketch comedy “Bow Down to your Asian Masters”:

July 31th-August 23th. Thurs., Fri., Sat., & Sun. @ 8pm, 4 WEEK LIMITED ENGAGEMENT! (July 30th PREVIEW $5) @ THE COMPLEX (Dorie Theater) , 6476 Santa Monica Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90038, (East of Highland Ave.) Reservations: 818-754-4500 (vm) or purchase tickets online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/70969 . Information: email 18mmw.mail@gmail.com or go to http://www.18mmw.com.

At CASA 0101, you can enjoy the latest episode of EL VERDE, the super hero on an everlasting quest to discover what his super power is… August 7th-30th. For more information go to www.casa0101.org.

LODESTONE THEATRE ENSEMBLE, under the artistic direction of Philip W. Chung & Chil Kong, proudly presents CLOSER THAN EVER, a musical revue in two acts with words by Richard Maltby, Jr. and music by David Shire. Directed by Chil Kong. Music Direction by Akira Nakano. Starring: Sharline Liu, DT Matias, Blythe Matsui, Paul Na kauchi, Erin Quill, EJ Arriola, Jully Lee, Jiehae Park, & Miley Yamamoto.

An all Asian American revival of CLOSER THAN EVER, the classic 1989 musical revue which won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical and was nominated for multiple Drama Desk Awards. CLOSER THAN EVER features self-contained songs which deal with such diverse topics as aging, mid-life crisis, second marriages and unrequited love. This is the second mainstage production of Lodestone’s tenth and final “Beginnings and Endings” season.

Thursday-Saturday 8pm, Sunday 2pm. ALL THURS. SHOWS: 2-for-1 general admission tickets if you say the codeword “Doors” at box office. NOTE: Thurs., August 13 performance is SOLD-OUT. To RSVP: (323) 993-7245. For more more information, go to: www.lodestonetheatre.org.

www.backstage.com

I would also like to acknowledge R. Ernie Silva whose solo show, Heavy Like the Weight of  A Flame, has been extended at  the Odyssey Theatre through September 5th. R. Ernie Silva prances about the stage with uncommon grace and power in this autobiographical journey written by Silva and novelist James Gabriel. The show is deftly choreographed and directed by Mary Joan Negro with special mention to Bosco Flanagan whose lighting design subtly evokes the dark places visited by Silva and reflected off of his unsually expressive face.

The following review was found on http://theguide.latimes.com: “Watching R. Ernie Silva in his autobiographical ‘Heavy Like the Weight of a Flame” is like listening to exquisite poetry, music both classical and jazz all wrapped in the true life experience of the urban jungles of New York. His movement, lovely guitar riffs and impersonations of the players in his life story add to a profoundly satisfying evening of performance art. This is special theater, well worth going to.” By mypetard.

Like El Verde, I hope Ernie Silva will treat us to more episodes of his identity quest. Click here for more information.

Jolted in the night, San Francisco’s East Bay residents attempted to shield themselves from shattering windows as the sky blazed.  320 people were killed, 400 more were injured, and everything within a one mile radius was destroyed in a flash.  50 survivors were imprisoned for mutiny.  If you have not heard about the worst home front military disaster in our history, you will now know why.  If you had already known about it, you will find out that there is still much more to the story. The worst home front military disaster in US history has been one of our best kept secrets, until now.

After 6 decades (July 17, 2009 marks the 65^th anniversary of the tragedy), the story known as the MUTINY AT PORT CHICAGO is finally brought to the stage in this WORLD PREMIERE production at Ruskin Group Theatre July 10-August 15, 2009.

Ruskin Group Theatre has been making an impact on the Los Angeles theatrical scene with an eclectic mix of thought provoking plays and programs.  Their ‘Fostering Imagination’ program sponsors foster kids in theatre & film classes that produce several original shows each year.  The CAFÉ PLAYS, created by RGT are produced monthly and are the culmination of writers, actors, and directors who meet at 9am, where they are given a theme.  They then write, produce, and perform a show by 7pm the same day.  Recently celebrating their 5^th anniversary, RGT supporters Ed Asner, Dylan McDermott, Chris Malkey, Olivia d’Abo, and other industry celebrities joined to produce the Best of Café Plays (both shows sold out within hours).  Anthony Hopkins and Anthony Franciosa were some of the Ruskin School of Theatre’s first teachers.

Written and directed by: Paul Leaf. Produced by: Mike Myers and Dana Lynn Bennett

Ruskin Group Theatre, 3000 Airport Road, Santa Monica, CA 90405. Tickets (310) 397-3244.  Running: Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm. Sundays at 2 pm. Closing performance: Saturday, August 15, 2009. All Seats are $20 ($15.00 for students, seniors, and guild members.)

With J. Teddy Garces, Maury Sterling, Josh Drennen, Cris DAnnunzio, Durant Fowler, Eric Bivens Bush.

For more information on the mutiny itself, go to www.portchicagomutiny.com.

J. Teddy Garces as Ed.

The consequences of love can be horrifying, yet miraculously tender.  Callie meets Sara and an astonishing chain of events is set into motion.  This story pays homage to life’s abrupt and unexpected transformations…to romance, and to the search for personal identity.

STOP KISS will run Friday, July 10 and then every Thursday-Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 7pm through July 26^th.  Afterwards, August 2^nd & 3^rd and continuing Fridays & Mondays at 8pm and Sundays at 7pm in rep with TREEFALL thru August 23, 2009.  Check dates on website or call (323) 930-0747.  ROGUE MACHINE in Theatre Theater is located at 5041 Pico Blvd., LA, CA 90019. Tickets are $25 and may be purchased by calling (323) 960-7774 or at www.roguemachinetheatre.com.

ROGUE MACHINE draws upon the diverse and extensive experience of its collective while creating high-quality productions by contemporary playwrights who specifically address our culture and time.  The ROGUE MACHINE mission includes building a theatre of ideas and nurturing the development of plays from contemporary writers while manifesting current culture, and consciousness.  ROGUE MACHINE projects will exhibit a strong emphasis on presenting new plays or plays new to Los Angeles.

Written by Diana Son. Directed by Elina de Santos. With Deborah Puette, Kristina Harrison, Inger Tudor, Joerge Watson and Christian Anderson.

The calendar on the Venice Beach Drum Circle website hasn’t been updated since 2007 but I believe dancers and performers gather every Sunday. I walked along Venice Beach yesterday late afternoon and at 6:30pm the drum circle was well under way.

The web site is still a great place to get information about the history of the Drum Circle and the many controversies surrounding it since the year 2000 when the site was created, including the Boardwalk Lottery, which sadly resulted in the exodus of true artists selling their work and the arrival of junk arts and crafts. I hadn’t been to Venice Beach in a long time and was truly saddened by the mediocrity of the art and jewelry on display.

According to DrumsOnTheWeb.com, which lists Drum Circles in the US and around the world, the Venice Beach drum circle dates back to the 1960′s.

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