Put a Little Drama in your Life
1/10/11 Big Sky, Big Tragedy, Big Learning Experience Patch.com Coronado By Pat Launer It was bittersweet to revisit “The Laramie Project” at Coronado School for the Arts. While the play is powerful and the well-executed production is extremely well done, the story it tells is horrific and its Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: December 08, 2006 Ahhh… the classics. When heroes were admirable men with values and principles…. played by admirable actors like Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart. No trace of irony, sarcasm or cynicism. Just good stories and raw emotion. Well, those days are back, on San Diego stages. Ion Theatre is presenting a searing version of “The Grapes of Wrath” and Cygnet Theatre has lovingly re-created “It’s Read More →
Aired on KSDS-FM on 5/31/19 VENUE: Theaters around San Diego County What’s new in San Diego theater this summer? Nearly everything. There are world premieres everywhere: two at The Old Globe, three at the La Jolla Playhouse, one at the San Diego Rep and one at North Coast Rep. Plus, lots of San Diego premieres. The Globe just opened “Ken Ludwig’s The Gods of Comedy,” in which modern-day classics professors and college coeds are confronted by screwball Greek deities Read More →
Posted at TimesofSanDiego.com on 11/22/19 RUN DATES: 11/14/19 - 12/8/19 VENUE: San Diego Repertory Theatre There couldn’t be a better time to see “Hold These Truths.” The real-life story of a man who believed so strongly in the U.S. Constitution that he was willing to go to prison—more than once—to defend the document and its contents. Gordon Hirabayashi was only a college student in 1942 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He was a nisei (second generation Japanese American) who Read More →
Aired on KSDS-FM on 7/19/19 RUN DATES: 60/30/19 - 7/28/19 VENUE: La Jolla Playhouse You walk away from ”The Luckiest” thinking deep thoughts – like, how you want to live and how you want to die. The world premiere drama by Melissa Ross may sound dark, but it’s often very funny. The action begins nearly at the end, and leapfrogs back in time, as it reveals the evolution of a deep friendship and the devolution of a young woman’s health. Straight, Read More →
Aired on KSDS-FM on 6/14/19 RUN DATES: 5/3019 - 6/30/19 VENUE: The Old Globe The ground beneath our feet is shifting. Things are changing at an alarming rate. Instability leads to uncertainty, and poses a threat to identity, dignity and self-worth. Behold the white working-class American male. Everything he believed was right, was his due, is slipping away. His long-term employment loyalty counts for little. Technology is making his job obsolete. Fear, frustration and anger are roiling just beneath Read More →
“San Diego is a hotbed of theater. Every year, I see 200-250 productions. This is fertile ground for new work. In addition to the prodigious local talent, theatermakers from around the country come here to premiere their latest creations. San Diego sends more shows to Broadway than nearly any other city in the U.S.”
-Pat Launer