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Herbert Siguenza and Ric Salinas are Todd and Francis in Culture Clash in AmeriCCA.

CULTURE CLASH IS A SMASH!

03/28/08 • Due to popular demand, four additional performances have been added to the run of Culture Clash in AmeriCCa. Both Orange County audiences and critics are howling at the irreverent and insightful humor by the acclaimed comedy collective of Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza. The Orange County Register’s Paul Hodgins writes: “the audience loved it – especially the Latino comedy trio’s gentle but deft skewering of life in the O.C.”

The added performances are as follows:
Thursday, April 10 at 7:45 p.m.
Friday, April 11 at 7:45 p.m.
Saturday, April 12 at 7:45 p.m.
Sunday, April 13 at 2:00 p.m.

Broadway World proclaims the show “SUPER TRANNY FIERCE.” Don’t miss out!

View the Culture Clash in AmeriCCa slideshow and video clip.

Learn more about Culture Clash in AmeriCCa

Culture Clash members (Richard Montoya, left, Herbert Siguenza, center and Ric Salinas, right) with Honorary Producers Socorro and Ernesto Vasquez.

“THE BOYS ARE BACK!” — Orange County Register

03/27/08 • The ‘boys’ are Culture Clash (Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza), and they’re back at SCR—after a 10-year absence—in Culture Clash in AmeriCCa.

(l. to r.) Ric Salinas, Richard Montoya and Herbert Siguenza are Culture Clash in AmeriCCa.

The fun began...
with a standing ovation from the First Nights audience, after which everyone gathered at Scott’s Seafood for a reception with the cast, who graciously posed for photo after photo and tried not to blush at the praise.

Then came the reviews and more praise, including:
“Startling, Funny and Revelatory” — Los Angeles Times
“A pyrotechnic display that is wondrous and enlightening” — Long Beach Press Telegram
“Anything these guys do is genius, and this show is no different” — OC Weekly
“The talent shines” — Variety

The fun continues...
through April 6.

View the Culture Clash in AmeriCCa slideshow and video clip.

Learn more about Culture Clash in AmeriCCa

(l. to r.) Alana Canann as the Mother Wolf, Mason Acevedo as Mowgli and Matt Pancoe as Shere Kahn in SCR's Junior Players production of The Jungle Book.

1 HUMAN, 15 ANIMALS:
SCR’S JUNIOR PLAYERS PRESENT THE JUNGLE BOOK

03/19/08 • Among SCR’s most dedicated young thespians are the Junior Players, students in grades 3-6, who are chosen by audition and attend class twice weekly during the school year. In the spring, class time becomes rehearsal time, as they prepare to step onstage for their annual production in the Nicholas Studio.

According to Theatre Conservatory Director Hisa Takakuwa, “Our Junior Players are serious students, who are always attentive and focused in their classwork. But once rehearsals begin, the excitement builds. This time the challenge is even greater because the play is The Jungle Book, and all but one of our young actors portray animals!”

Director Joseph Alanas adds, “In the fall, class time included detailed character studies. After The Jungle Book was chosen as this spring’s production, we began exploring how animal behavior colors characters’ movements and voices. Now, in rehearsals, the actors are creating human versions of their animal characters and looking for a good combination of both these interpretations.”

For the 14 members of the Junior Players who comprise the cast of The Jungle Book rehearsal expands to every day during “tech” week, when lights and sound are added.

“I love tech week,” says Mason Acevedo, who portrays Mowgli, the boy who is raised by a family of wolves, “because you get to see what other people (besides the actors) do to tell the story.”  As for being the only ‘human’ in the cast, “That’s really interesting because I get to explore what a human would be like in an animal world. By the time he’s eleven—his age in the play—Mowgli fits in, but he’s sometimes scared because, after all, he’s a boy, and it’s really risky for a boy in the jungle.”

Mason speaks for everyone in the Junior Players when he says, “I love acting because with acting you can be a person (or animal) you’re not in reality, and you can go all out and use your imagination.”

And that’s exactly what the cast of The Jungle Book does, to perfection.

Learn more about The Jungle Book

Misty Cotton and Joe Farrell in A Little Night Music.

LADCC AWARD NOMS

03/11/08 • Congratulations to Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award nominees Gregory Itzin and Misty Cotton. Itzin was cited for his Lead Performance in Shipwrecked! An Entertainment and Cotton for Featured Performance in A Little Night Music. Audiences won't soon forget Itzin's star turn in Donald Margulies' rip-roaring adventure, or Cotton's thrilling rendition of Stephen Sondheim's 'The Miller's Son.'

Brooke Bloom in A Feminine Ending.

AN ENDING IN PORTLAND

03/11/08 • SCR's West Coast Premiere of Sarah Treem's A Feminine Ending journeyed up the coast to Portland Center Stage immediately after its Costa Mesa engagement. Welcomed with standing ovations, The Willamette Week called the show 'an enjoyable comedy' and The Oregonian praised Brooke Bloom's 'charm and spirit 'as central character Amanda Blue. Kudos to all for a great run.

Jennifer Elise Cox and Marin Hinkle in the NewSCRipts reading of Incendiary.

ELIZABETH GEORGE COMMISSIONS

03/11/08 • The Elizabeth George Foundation, which underwrites commissions for promising writers at the very outset of their careers, will fund commissions for three promising new playwrights: Adam Szymkowicz, trained at Columbia University and the Juilliard School, whose hilarious Incendiary was a hit in the 2006-07 NewSCRipts series; Jenny Schwartz, whose play God's Ear made a splash in New York last season; and Rachel Axler, a graduate of UCSD's playwriting program whose 'day job' now consists of writing for the Emmy Award-winning 'The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.'

Culture Clash (Ric Salinas, Richard Montoya and Herbert Siguenza)

CLUTURE CLASH HONORED

02/21/08 • Veteran actor, humanitarian and social activist, Edward James Olmos will present the Outstanding Achievement in Theatre award to Culture Clash at the National Hispanic Media Coalition‘s 11th Annual Impact Awards Gala. The most well-known Chicano/Latino performance troupe in the country, Culture Clash is comprised of Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza. The NHMC will honor the trio for “utilizing their unique comedic perspective to entertain and provoke American audiences since 1984.”  The Gala will be held on February 22 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills with Ugly Betty stars Tony Plana and Ana Ortiz as hosts. The NHMC Annual Impact Awards celebrates outstanding Latino performances and achievements with the goal of improving and promoting more positive images of American Latinos both in front of, and behind the camera, and throughout all mediums.

Culture Clash will bring their unique blend of irreverent humor to South Coast Repertory from March 16 through April 6 with Culture Clash in AmeriCCa.

Learn more about Culture Clash in AmeriCCa

Elise Hunt as Cecily and Michael Gotch as Algernon

HEARTS A-FLUTTER AT EARNEST

2/20/08 • It was one day after Valentine’s Day, but Cupid was still hanging around when The Importance of Being Earnest opened on the Segerstrom Stage and three delightful couples found love. And that was just on-stage. Who knows how many hearts were a-flutter as the First Nighters cheered the show before strolling to Park Center for a celebratory party.

The on-stage couples earned praise from the critics:

Michael Gotch (Algernon): “This gifted actor...bounces when he walks, as if there are coiled springs in his heels, and takes a small leap every time he alights on a fainting couch like an acrobat mounting a moving horse.” – Orange County Register
and Elise Hunt (Cecily): “Her fetchingly pre-Raphaelite Cecily remains lightly droll.” – Variety

Tommy Schrider as Jack and Christine Marie Brown as Gwendolen

Tommy Schrider (Jack): Tommy Schrider is equally good as Jack, uptight and reserved ...” – LAStageScene and Christine Marie Brown (Gwendolen): “Her comic talents—she has a supple and expressive face and wonderful timing—are well deployed...” – Orange County Register

“Also notable are Amelia White, who plays Cecily’s tutor...with a delightful post-menopausal lustiness, and Richard Doyle, who turns the Rev. Chasuble into an adorable turtle completely deserving of Prism’s animal worship.” – The Los Angeles Times

On her own, Kandis Chappell won raves as Lady Bracknell: “With her rich, plummy voice, mastery of upper-crust British manners, naturally regal bearing and affinity for imperious characters, Chappell seemed an ideal choice ... (she) doesn’t disappoint. – Orange County Register

Richard Doyle as Rev. Chausable and Amelia White as Ms. Prism

And the final twosome, both butlers: “Making the crispest and most hilarious choices, albeit on the periphery, is John-David Keller pulling double valet duty. Endowing Algy’s manservant Lane with a thin smirk, subtly conveying a world of meaning about his self-delight and opinion of the upper classes, he later ages 20 years to make every entrance count as the fussy, put-upon Merriman. – Variety

The Importance of Being Earnest runs on the Segerstrom Stage through March 9. Be a part of the action by viewing the Oscar Wilde comedy’s slideshow and video clip.

Visit SCR Party Play with Ann Conway to read more about The Importance of Being Earnest and see more photos of the First Night fun.

Learn more about The Importance of Being Earnest

SCR’s ANNUAL SPRING THEATRE TOUR

02/14/08 • South Coast Repertory joins Break-Away Tours to present SCR’s annual Spring Theatre Tour to New York City. You, and your family and friends, will travel in style, adding the hottest Broadway shows to your big city activities.

Springtime in New York! Awakening from winter, a city in full bloom brings the return of rowboats to Central Park Lake and the re-emergence of street performers throughout the city. It’s the perfect time to join our annual theatre trip to New York City, May 22-28.

New York is BROADWAY … and the curtain is always up. Trip participants will enjoy three Broadway productions, including howling at Nathan Lane in David Mamet’s new comedy, November, and being among the first to see the revival of Clifford Odets’ drama, The Country Girl, directed by Mike Nichols with the all-star cast of Morgan Freeman, Francis McDormand and Peter Gallagher.

New York is ART… from the Metropolitan and Guggenheim to the artist colony of SoHo.

New York is the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island… the Brooklyn Bridge… strolls down Fifth Avenue… shopping at Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s… a revitalized Times Square… dim sum in Chinatown… pizza in Little Italy… and around every corner a world of entertainment and discovery. Last but not least, you'll take an excursion to the historic Hudson River Valley for a visit to Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate, now a historic site of the National Trust.

Join us for this whirlwind excursion to New York City and discover for yourself why it’s called “The Big Apple.”

“Isn’t it about time you took a bite?”

Learn more about SCR’s Spring Theatre Tour

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