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L.A. Theatre Works returns to live performance
with 3 original, commissioned audio plays in 2023
LOS ANGELES (February 16, 2023) — L.A. Theatre Works, the world’s premier producer of audio theater, bursts back onto the live theater scene for the first time since the onset of the pandemic with a season of three original, commissioned plays. Each new audio work will be recorded at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater in front of a live audience for future radio broadcast, digital download and online streaming.
“Short, but very sweet and tangy is how I would describe our return to UCLA and our superb lineup of three original commissions recorded in front of live audiences,” says LATW producing artistic director Susan Loewenberg. “We promise an unusual and highly entertaining peek into what it takes to make an outstanding audio recording.”
Kicking off the season, April 14 through April 16, will be the world premiere of The Confession of Henry Jekyll, M.D., by David Rambo, a new adaptation that looks at Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic horror novel, “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,” through a whole new lens. On the last night of his life, Henry Jekyll is recording the harrowing story of his years-long struggle to maintain his high-profile, esteemed reputation as a physician, venture capitalist and philanthropist while secretly attempting to suppress a voracious beast he had long felt lurking within his psyche.
Next up, May 19 through May 21, the world premiere of The Great Gatsby brings the roaring twenties to vivid audio life in a new theatrical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel by LATW associate producer Anna Lyse Erikson. Set in Jazz Age New York, self-made millionaire Jay Gatsby is consumed with desire for Daisy Buchanan, drawing new neighbor Nick Carraway into their world of lavish wealth, wild parties and free-flowing liquor.
From June 23 through June 25, audiences will experience an original docudrama by the BBC’s Kate McCall. In the world premiere of Exodus: The Shanghai Jews, Jewish refugees recount their true stories of escaping Nazi persecution in Europe to settle in Shanghai between 1938 and 1941. There, they established synagogues and businesses, living side-by-side with their new Chinese neighbors in harsh conditions under the Japanese occupation.
L.A. Theatre Works stands apart in its approach to making great theater widely accessible and affordable, bringing plays into homes and classrooms of millions of theater lovers, teachers and students each year. The company’s syndicated audio theater series broadcasts weekly on public radio stations across the U.S. (locally, in Southern California, on KPFK 90.7 FM); can be downloaded as a podcast via iTunes, NPR One, or wherever you get your podcasts; and can be streamed on demand at latw.org. The L.A. Theatre Works catalog of over 600 recorded plays is the largest archive of its kind in the world, featuring classics by William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Henrik Ibsen and Lillian Hellman, as well as new works by Lynn Nottage, Charlayne Woodard and Jeanne Sakata, to name a few. Audiofile magazine calls L.A. Theatre Works productions “the gold standard for fine audio theater recordings.”
All performances in the L.A. Theatre Works season take place at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with matinees on Saturdays at 3 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m., and are recorded live-in-performance. The James Bridges Theater is located in Melnitz Hall on the campus of UCLA, at 235 Charles E. Young Dr., Los Angeles CA 90095. Enter UCLA off Sunset Blvd. and Hilgard, and park in Lot 3 on the lower level. Tickets range from $15–$65. Assisted listening devices are available
For more information and to purchase season subscriptions (on sale now) or single tickets (on sale beginning February 28), call 310-827-0889 or go to latw.org.
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