CONTRIBUTORS
Colin Mitchell
An American Army Brat conceived in Scotland, born in Germany, a soccer fanatic, a Van Morrison disciple, a Zen-Catholic, the youngest of three brothers, son to a retired two-star general and a Scottish school teacher/painter, a writer, an actor, a director, a producer, a musician, an athlete, a husband, a father…
After graduating cum laude from Seattle University in 1988 with a degree in Psychology and English, Colin worked several years as a counselor for abused adolescents in a residential treatment home, all the while publishing poetry and fiction and acting in amateur theatrical productions.
Buoyed by a small role in the film “The Chocolate War”, he decided to to take the full “artistic-leap” and in 1991 at the tender age of 24, he moved to New York City. Colin was on Broadway at the Lincoln Center in the hit play “Six Degrees of Separation” within a month. For the next three years he was a professional actor. All the while he continued to write, playwrighting his medium of choice at the time.
Colin’s pursuits eventually led him to Los Angeles. In late 1993, broke and broken, he scampered north and set up camp on his brother’s couch in San Francisco. For a year he dug in and tried to get his bearings, working at a law firm by day and a blues club by night. All the while Colin continued to write and make theatre, starting a theatre company called “Little Brother Sam”. They quickly became the “Pinter aficionados” of San Francisco.
Then in 1995 LA came calling again.
In the Autumn of 1996 Colin decided to resurrect “Linden Arden”. He produced it by himself in a tiny West Hollywood 25-seat theatre. And lo and behold it was a huge critical success: “A testament to the capacities of storytelling.” – LA Weekly Pick of the Week. “Mesmerizing.” – LA Times Critics Choice. “A masterpiece.” – Backstage West Critics Choice.
But this was LA and the only thing people could see in his performance was “a great movie”. He was encouraged to adapt the piece into a screenplay. He did. It was his first.
The reaction was profound and instantaneous. It launched Colin’s career as a professional writer and in the last fourteen years he has written for a dozen production companies, won awards and fellowships, sold screenplays, written comic books for Marvel, adapted several of his own plays into screenplays, had one feature produced and sold to a distributor, written and directed two short films of his own, written a novel and more. And the pace has yet to slacken.
Now married to actress Salli Saffioti, and a daddy to Maxwell Henderson Mitchell, Colin lives exclusively in Los Angeles and continuse to write, direct, act and teach in both cinema and theatre.
LINKS:
http://themovinglip.com
http://cinematicmechanic.com
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Jay McAdams
Jay McAdams is a co-founder of LA’s 24th Street Theatre and has been its Executive Director since 1999. A graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, his acting work in television has included recurring work on NBC’s daytime drama, DAYS OF OUR LIVES. He is also a producer, having produced dozens of theatrical productions over the last 20 years.
Jay is a master teacher, having created acclaimed Arts Education programs for tens of thousands of children. Jay is the winner of the University of Southern California School of Education’s Innovation and Leadership Award for his work in Arts Education. Jay’s leadership training includes the LA County Arts Commission’s Arts Leadership Initiative, the Annenberg Leadership Institute, and the prestigious Stanford University Executive Program for Non-Profit Leaders, where Jay won a Center for Social Innovation fellowship. Jay has also been selected by the US State Department to serve as a Cultural Envoy to El Salvador, where he has performed and taught on two tours.
LINK:
http://24thstreet.org
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Chip & the Block
Jesse March – ( son ) – Actor, writer, student Senior at LACHSA in LA, performer, stitlwalker, juggler, all around excellent human being. I have been performing since the age of 3. I am currently in 2 professional theatre troupes, I just finished a successful run in the production of “absinthe, opium and magic” in Hollywood, as well as full-time finishing my last year of High school at a performing Arts High School, then heading towards a degree in theatre arts.
John March – ( dad ) – Session Musician/Guitarist LA/NYC, Sound Mixer, Columnist, Social activist, Buddhist, having lived and worked all around the world. I have spent my life pursuing Art and Craftsmanship as both a musician and problem solver in the fields of audio technology and sound mixing. At the heart of my artistic journey has been my involvement and study of Buddhism and the ideal of Art without ego. Current featured music project playing with Top LA session musicians here at www.ZenBluesMusic.com.
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Cindy Marie Jenkins
CINDY MARIE JENKINS is a Freelance Director, Playwright & Educator based in Los Angeles. She serves as the Education Director for The Antaeus Company, Associate Producer for the Directors Lab West 2010 and Associate Artist for The Indy Convergence.
Current directing & writing includes: IMAGINE EAST HOLLYWOOD, a theatrical installation based on interviews collected for the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council –presentations in March & April 2010 at the Barnsdall Art Gallery; THE ONE TRUE GODS, a play about the myth of Jesus and the truth of Dionysus; ANTHEM, a new musical questioning the source of patriotism; and THE AFTER-DINNER JOKE, a late-night capitalistic happening with A2 (The Antaeus Academy) March 19-21, 2010.
Her adaptation of VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL has been produced in different venues around Los Angeles since 2006as part of the Anniversary Readings Series, an annual international awareness-building event. She work-shopped the new script at The Indy Convergence in February 2009 and was invited to be a Key Note Speaker at “Remember Chernobyl,” an Annual Networking Conference for UK & Irish Chernobyl Charities, where the Demo premiered and the VFC Anniversary Readings launched. See www.voicesfromchornobyl.com for more information. The Demo is regularly screened around the world to both fund-raise and recruit host families for children in the affected zone.
She collaborated with musician Stephen GC on THE SONG OF ISADORA, (former title: TEN), a musical challenging one’s individual worth in times of war; needtheater presented a workshop production in March 2008, and segments of the play were performed among the Arlington West Vets For Peace Iraq war memorial. She was invited by E.M. Lewis to speak on a playwriting panel about this piece, the first installment of the War Plays Project.
She has adapted many stories to the stage, including KING ARTHUR for children. Other playwrighting includes: VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL, THE GREEK CYCLE: ONE TRUE GODS, and BAREFACE, an adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces (rights pending).
Cindy graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BA in Drama, where she received an award for highest achievement at the Playwrights Horizons Theatre School. She also attended the Directors Lab West 2008, hosted by the Pasadena Playhouse and trained in the Unusual Suspects Teaching Artist Training.
LINKS:
http://cindymariejenkins.wordpress.com
https://sites.google.com/site/cindymariejenkinstheatre
http://twitter.com/cindymariej
http://www.imagineeasthollywood.com
http://www.voicesfromchornobyl.com
http://www.antaeus.org
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Jordan Young
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Trevor Thomas
As a Wyoming native and son of its state geologist, Trevor was able to recite the epochs and eras of the geologic timetable before he could pronounce “proscenium.” Nevertheless he soon eschewed Ordovician invertebrates for the glamorous life of the stage and began producing theatricals in his basement including a memorable production of “Hansel and Gretel” which featured a trick oven made of cardboard into which the witch (Trevor) would be pushed, only to escape out the back and wait triumphantly in the wings for the squeals of delight from the audience when they discovered the evil hag had vanished. Always the special effects with this one.
Fast forward some years to UCLA where he received his MFA in music and served for a while on the faculty. Following that, he spent several seasons as a theater reviewer for the old Drama-Logue, to be eventually swooped up by the Los Angeles Times where he wrote reviews and feature articles for some years.
Longing to be illumed by the gorgeous glare of Broadway, he subsequently landed in New York, though the bright lights turned out to be tungsten street lamps in the Murray Hill section where he co-managed an off-off-Broadway company with a vivacious woman who liked to be called Bertha B. DeMille. That woman today is Bertha Lewis of ACORN.
A failed season of productions sent him destitute and drunk down to the Bowery to panhandle and live on rotgut gin. Well, no, not really, but it did kick off a decade long odyssey working his way down the Eastern seaboard in a variety of jobs, including a stint as a junk bond trader at Merrill Lynch. Eventually he came to his senses and returned to California.
He is the Southwest Editor and chief theater critic of Edge magazine and is otherwise busy writing stage plays, screenplays, and stuff. He can still hold forth persuasively on Permian rock formations, Baroque counterpoint, and trap doors.
Hello guys. I don’t see a “contact us” section, so I’m risking an inappropriate comment to let you know that http://www.LATheatreReview.com is back up and running with a completely new design. We’re back on a WordPress platform, so it will be easier to check in with us.
Thanks, and more apologies if this is completely inappropriate!
Geoff,
Great to hear from you and great to hear that you are back up! Thanks for letting us know! Keep up the great work! ~ Enci
Yes. I echo Enci’s sentiments. And your re-design looks great. We should maybe do some writer swap at some point. maybe you could post something from BL and we could post something from LATR?
To Madeleine Shaner-
I don’t know if this is appropriate, but I would like to thank you for your laudatory remarks about my performance and intelligent review of ‘Molly’ at the Victory Theatre, Burbank published in the LaBrea/Beverly Press on 9 December ‘09.
Subsequently, I was cast in ‘Celadine’ as Celadine at the Colony Theatre, Burbank which is opening on the 6 February 2010.
I know your review of my performance helped in my getting this role.
With much gratitude and kind regards,
Giselle Wolf
,
Of course it’s appropriate, Giselle. We encourage this kind of dialogue between the artist and the critic. This is one of our goals here at Bitter Lemons. We want both the artist and the critic to be fearless in their conversation, civil, but willing to agree AND disagree without feeling badly about it. And we want the critic to be more open and be a part of the community, not just someone passing judgment form their Ivory Tower. I know they have to have some professional distance, but neither should ever be afraid to engage the other in civil discourse.
And congrats on the old show AND the new show, Giselle!
If you don’t mind, Giselle, I’m going to re-post your regards comment in our main section as I’m not sure Madeleine will see it in this comment section. Hope that’s okay? I know Madeleine reads us and I think she’ll be very warmed by your words. Thanks!