sarah spitz - SMDP (Page 12)

Grief of a different sort

There¬ís no way to put this delicately: ¬ìThe Irish Curse¬î by Martin Casella, at West L.A.¬ís venerated Odyssey Theatre, is about grief over the size of a particular part of the male anatomy and its effect on men¬ís lives.

By Sarah A. Spitz

/ 12 Jul 2012

Bach, Cage back to back

If John Cage had not been born with his name, he would have had to invent it. It serves as a reminder of all the conventions he was trying to break free of in his music, his spirituality and his life.

By Sarah A. Spitz

/ 4 Jul 2012

Give them a hand

You might think that a play hinging on the essential nature of language would pose a challenge for deaf artists. But ¬ìCyrano,¬î a world premiere collaboration between The Fountain Theatre and Deaf West Theatre, has been extended twice, more than doubling the length of its initial run.

By Sarah A. Spitz

/ 28 Jun 2012

Sexy sirens and comedic kings

When I was a UCLA undergrad studying literature in the 1970s, the feminist movement was in full flower across the cultural spectrum. Women protested at New York¬ís Museum of Modern Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art about the lack of female artists in their collections.

By Sarah A. Spitz

/ 21 Jun 2012

Theatre on the ¬ëFringe¬í

The Hollywood Fringe Festival, an annual celebration of independently produced emerging arts across all genres, is premiering new music, film, theatre and other performance events in multiple conventional and unorthodox venues from June 14 through June 24.

By Sarah A. Spitz

/ 14 Jun 2012

L.A. Zoo has something new

Every year, students in Lincoln Middle School’s seventh grade life science class take a field trip to the Los Angeles Zoo. They’re lucky to have a teacher like Bob Seymour.

By Sarah A. Spitz

/ 24 May 2012

They love Los Angeles

Los Angeles is misunderstood. Paraphrasing Woody Allen, it’s dismissed as having no culture except for yogurt, or simply dissed as La La Land, paparazzi paradise, a city without a center — and the list goes on.

By Sarah A. Spitz

/ 17 May 2012

Going gaga over art galleries

I’ve been a bit under the weather this week. Being bedridden gave me the excuse to dig into my overstocked bookshelves. Plowing through three books in three days, I want to commend the one that stopped me in my tracks, “A Million Nightingales,” by author Susan Straight, a Riverside, Calif.

By Sarah A. Spitz

/ 10 May 2012

No strangers on the train

I use public transit in every city I’ve ever visited but seriously never expected to ride the rails around Los Angeles. I was incredibly excited to hop aboard the Expo Line on Sunday (free!) as it opened to the public, at the Jefferson/La Cienega boulevards station.

By Sarah A. Spitz

/ 3 May 2012

Anniversaries: Civic and cultural

Just over a decade ago, a Westside venue for world-class performing arts was wishful thinking for Dale Franzen, a former opera singer whose ties to the world of the arts run deep.

By Sarah A. Spitz

/ 26 Apr 2012

Misha, Mamet and good people

Last week I went to the Broad Stage at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center for the U.S. premiere of “In Paris,” a theatrical piece based on a story by Russian writer and Nobel laureate Ivan Bunin.

By Sarah A. Spitz

/ 19 Apr 2012

Engage, provoke and inspire

In an era when many arts groups have suffered a downturn in funding, Santa Monica’s 18th Street Arts Center has succeeded as an ever-evolving artist space for nearly 25 years.

By Sarah A. Spitz

/ 12 Apr 2012