Showing results by publisher "L.A. Theatre Works" in Literature & Fiction

A comedy-drama about the good-hearted workers at North Shore Fish, a seafood processing plant in Gloucester, Massachusetts. When a government inspector lays down the law, their jobs and lives face irrevocable changes. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Kristin Ace, Karen Caplan, Laura Sigrid Crook, Heidi J. Dallin, John Fiore, Melissa Fitzgerald, Mary Klug, Marina Re and M.H. Rogers. Directed by Grey Johnson. Recorded before a live audience in March 1993.

The dreary aspects of Soviet housing and one family’s attempt to “exchange” its tiny Moscow apartment for a larger one. Adapted from a novella by the respected Russian writer Yuri Trifanov, as translated by playwright Michael Frayn. Translated and adapted by Michael Frayn. Directed by Robert Robinson. Recorded before a live audience in Santa Monica, CA in April, 1992.

Featuring Steve Carell and Amy Morton, Sin is a contemporary morality play about a helicopter traffic reporter who is trying to keep herself above life's messiness. Her soon-to-be-ex-husband is a charming alcoholic, her roommate is a glutton, she's trapped daily in a helicopter with an envious coworker, and her blind dates are disasters. It takes her dying brother to make her see that pride is the deadliest of sins, and it takes an Act of God to bring her back down to Earth.

In Deborah Zoe Laufer’s End Days, a suburban family is undergoing a spiritual crisis following the September 11th attacks. Sylvia Stein has turned to Christianity to save her disaffected husband Arthur and her rebellious teenage daughter Rachel. But as Sylvia races around preparing for the Rapture, Rachel is learning that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in her philosophy.

Gregory Itzin portrays the brilliant but flawed Lee Atwater, a self-styled master of negative campaigning and a tightly wound country boy from South Carolina, who rose to the chairmanship of the Republican Party. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance starring Gregory Itzin as Lee Atwater, with Fran Adams, Ed Begley Jr., Judyann Elder, Arye Gross, Richard Masur, Daniel Passer, Harry Shearer, Fred Willard, and Kenny Williams.

Coming of age in America by way of the baseball diamond, left-hander Henry Wiggen grows to manhood in a right-handed world. From his small-town beginnings to the top of the game, Henry finds out how hard it is to please his coach, his girl, the sports page and himself - all at once. Starring Edward Asner, Amy Pietz, and a full cast!

Contemporary satirist Loh spins a darkly comic, semi-autobiographical tale of growing up middle-class Chinese-German in Southern California. This comic monologue is for sons and daughters everywhere who feel that their parents must have beamed to Earth from another planet.

Culture Clash brashly explores the San Diego-Tijuana region through satire and humor. Bordertown is based upon interviews the trio conducted with more than 100 people from both sides of the border and from every walk of life.

A timely and hauntingly beautiful new opera with libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winner Leroy Aarons and score by accomplished composer Glenn Paxton. Scandal erupts in the White House - and in the national press - when Thomas Jefferson's longtime love affair with his slave mistress Sally Hemings is revealed.

Was it a failure of imagination that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs? An inability to cope with change? In Dinosaur Dreams, a dark comedy filled with extraordinary wit and insight, Szentgyorgyi explores how we deal with change and loss.

This tale of illicit passion, set among the lush cane fields of the Hawaiian islands in 1919, was inspired by a true incident. Beautiful 16-year-old Yachiyo reluctantly leaves her impoverished parents to live with sophisticated relatives. As she acquires civilized graces, she also struggles with a passion for her hostess' husband.

This thrilling production of one of Algren’s best-known stories traces the gritty lives of Polish youths in the Chicago slums of the 1940s. A full-cast performance featuring Kurt Brocker, Richard Cotovsky, Sharon Gopfert, Andrew Hawkes, Jonathan Lavan, Loren Lazerine, Robert Maffia, Guy Massey, G. Riley Mills, Turk Muller, Lara Phillips, and Andy Roski.

Around a family dining table deep in the Heartland, where Senator Joe McCarthy once sat and discussed his fondness for beets, nothing is as it seems. Gunnar, the family patriarch, is an upstanding farmer - or is he? Why is his favorite daughter so anxious to flee to Chicago? And why does her mother want to go too? Daughter Charity, a devoted wife and mother, is clearly frightened of something. As the mysteries multiply, author Timothy Mason solves them with wit and unrelenting suspense.

Adapted directly from the actual transcripts, Unquestioned Integrity examines the notorious Senate Confirmation hearings, when law professor Anita Hill charged Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas with sexual harassment.

They may go to the same school, but misfits Solomon, Diwata and Howie have never met and their teachers and peers just don't take them seriously - until a sex scandal involving one of their teachers brings them together. Soon they realize that three voices are stronger than one. And since their school has no speech and debate squad, maybe this is their chance to be heard at last - by the school and even the world.

Fast-forward to 2076, the nation's Tri-Centennial, when guns are outlawed and displayed in the city zoo. Find out what happens when the last seven existing guns, including Billy the Kid's Colt.45 and Andrew Jackson's Dueling Pistol, escape to see what they were really made for and why they can never be free. Starring Yeardley Smith, Edward Asner, and Tyne Daly!

Jason Alexander, Mary Gross, Edward Asner, and a full cast of unforgettable characters emerge from the steam, in this hilarious supernatural bathhouse.

Winner of the Susan Smith Backburn Prize honoring women writers worldwide, Emma’s Child explores the idea of commitment in a marriage as a parent. Told gently, lovingly, and with unexpected humor, this is the story of a childless couple struggling to decide whether to continue the adoption process when the baby they had hoped for is born severely disabled.

In a thought-provoking new play, 13-year-old Lucy, who suffers from autism, moves in with her estranged, misanthropic mother. Having lived her entire life with her father, Lucy, as well as her mom, struggle with all the difficulties of such an arrangement.

American expatriate Sidney Webb and Sister Margaret, his British colleague, work tirelessly to rehabilitate Cambodian children from the nightmare of prostitution. After a surprise raid on a brothel, an eager young U.S. lawyer places three liberated orphans under Sidney and the Sister's care. The girls begin the inspirational process of recovery under the loving watch of their new protectors. An excitingly original script by an emerging American playwright.