New 1/2 Price Ticket Listings! Captured Aural Phantasy Theater By: Various Company of Angels  (8/15 to 8/29) Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar & Grille By: Bruce Graham Theatre Palisades  (9/5 to 10/12) Evita By: Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice The Chance Theater  (8/1 to 9/7) Little Green Men By: Scott Martin Kentwood Players  (9/12 to 10/18) Lovers and Others Strangers By: Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna 68 Cent Crew Theatre Company  (8/22 to 9/28) Made Me Nuclear, the Operetta By: Charlie Lustman Santa Monica Playhouse  (9/5 to 10/11) Ragtime, the Musical By: Terrance McNally,Stephen Flaherty,Lynn Ahrens Musical Theatre of Los Angeles Alliance  (9/12 to 10/5) The Subject Was Roses By: Frank Gilroy West Coast Ensemble  (8/26 to 9/12)   Alphabetical Listing (A - E) 12th Night By: William Shakespeare Crown City Theatre Company (9/6 to 9/28) The show is one of Shakespeare’s best comedies! 11031 Camarillo St., North Hollywood  Map Full Price: $10.00 to $20.00  Your price: $5.00 to $10.00 Click Here! 7 Redneck Cheerleaders By: Louis Jacobs Elephant Stageworks (8/4 to 8/30) An LA Times Critic's Pick, LA Weekly Critic's Pick and nominated for Best Ensemble at the LA Weekly Awards. Somewhere in Hollywood, near Santa Monica Boulevard and Vine, reality and fiction, art and life, become blurred, as a playwright directs his autobiographical play in a 99-seat theatre. 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood  Map Full Price: $20.00 to $25.00  Your price: $10.00 to $12.50 Click Here!   Alley Cat By: Caroline Marshall and Marnie Olson Roadkill Productions (7/12 to 8/31) Alley Cat is an original play about a woman’s tailspin into the dark alleys of sexual love and loathing. 3447 Motor Avenue, Los Angeles  Map Full Price: $15.00  Your price: $7.50 Click Here! American Dead By: Brett Neveu Rogue Machine (7/19 to 8/24) AMERICAN DEAD is an elegiac rendering of the death of another American small town.  5041 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles  Map Full Price: $25.00  Your price: $12.50 Click Here!   Assassins By: Music and Lyrics by Steven Sondheim and Book by John Weidman West Coast Ensemble (7/11 to 9/28) From the theatre company that brought you award-winning productions of Sunday In The Park With George, Merrily We Roll Along and Company comes Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's bold, surreal and darkly humorous Assassins. 804 N. El Centro Ave., Los Angeles  Map Full Price: $34.00  Your price: $17.00 Click Here!   Baby By: Music by David Shire, Lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr, Book by Sybille Pearson. Woodland Hills Theatre at the West Valley Playhouse (8/8 to 9/7) “Baby” The Tony nominated musical tells the story of three couples on a university campus as they deal with the painful, rewarding and agonizingly funny consequences of this universal experience. 7242 Owensmouth Ave., Canoga Park  Map Full Price: $28.00  Your price: $14.00 Click Here! Captured Aural Phantasy Theater By: Various Company of Angels  (8/15 to 8/29) Captured Aural Phantasy Theater combines the art and drama of a vintage radio program with the live entertainment of a vaudeville show. 501 S. Spring St, Los Angeles  Map Full Price: $10.00  Your price: $5.00 Click Here! The Comedy of Errors By: William Shakespeare Open Fist Theatre Company  (7/12 to 8/30) Shakespeare's zaniest play with lost twins and mistaken identities. 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood  Map Full Price: $20.00  Your price: $10.00 Click Here! deLEARious By: Ron West and Phil Swann Open Fist Theatre Company (7/17 to 8/29) A wonderful new witty musical comedy by the people who brought you The People vs Frair Laurence; the Man Who Killed Romeo and Juliet. 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood  Map Full Price: $20.00  Your price: $10.00 Click Here! Desert Sunrise By: Misha Shulman Elephant Stageworks  (7/11 to 8/23) 1076 North Lillian Way, Hollywood  Map Full Price: $25.00  Your price: $12.50 Click Here! The Divine Madness of Isabella By: Wendy Gough Write Act Repertory Company (8/14 to 8/24) "... the production...is impeccable..." Wenzel Jones, Backstage West Award winning actress Wendy Gough brings to life famous actress Isabella Andreini, against the backdrop of the rarely seen 16th Century commedia dell’Arte. 6128 Yucca St., Los Angeles  Map Full Price: $25.00  Your price: $12.50 Click Here! Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar & Grille By: Bruce Graham Theatre Palisades  (9/5 to 10/12) This ghoulish fantasy will make us laugh and cry at the same time. 941 Temescal Cyn Rd., Pacific Palisades  Map Full Price: $14.00 to $18.00  Your price: $7.00 to $9.00 Click Here! Evita By: Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice The Chance Theater  (8/1 to 9/7) In the award-winning musical "Evita", The Chance Theater explores one of the most controversial and influential political figures in modern history -- Eva Peron. 5552 E. La Palma Ave, Anaheim  Map Full Price: $30.00 to $35.00  Your price: $15.00 to $17.50 Click Here!

Alphabetical Listing (F - M) Fables Du Theatre By: Brenda Varda & Marva Lewis Unknown Theater (8/15 to 9/27) Unknown Theater is thrilled to conclude its third season the way it began, with a wild collaboration with one of Los Angeles’ most respected companies. 1110 Seward St., Los Angeles  Map Full Price: $24.00  Your price: $12.00 Click Here! Home Again- Alexandra Billings in Concert By: Alexandra Billings Sacred Fools Theatre Company  (8/22 to 8/23) Transgender cabaret star Alexandra Billings' musical night of song and story highlighting her journey coming home to the City of Angels. 660 N. Heliotrope Dr, Hollywood  Map Full Price: $20.00  Your price: $10.00 Click Here! It's The Housewives! By: Hope Juber and Ellen Guylas Juber Productions, Inc. (9/5 to 10/12) Three young moms get their humble start at the P.T.A. talent show, then go on to "clean up" as the most celebrated, yet unlikely girl group in rock 'n roll history. 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks  Map Full Price: $30.00  Your price: $15.00 Click Here! The Last Five Years By: Jason Robert Brown Musical Theatre of Los Angeles Alliance (8/1 to 8/24) The Last Five Years explores a five-year relationship between Jamie Wellerstein, a rising novelist, and "Shiksa Goddess" Cathy Hiatt, a struggling actress. 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles  Map Full Price: $34.99  Your price: $17.50 Click Here! Little Green Men By: Scott Martin Kentwood Players  (9/12 to 10/18) Fun-filled nostalgic comedy for the whole family, written in the tuneful, toe-tapping style of the classic MGM musicals. 8301 Hindry Ave., Los Angeles  Map Full Price: $20.00  Your price: $10.00 Click Here! Lost In Yonkers By: Neil Simon Theatre Forty  (7/26 to 8/28) A play rich with humor and sensitivity; Pulitzer Prize, Tony and Drama Desk Award. 241 Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills  Map Full Price: $20.00 to $22.00  Your price: $10.00 to $11.00 Click Here! Lovers and Others Strangers By: Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna 68 Cent Crew Theatre Company  (8/22 to 9/28) LOVERS is a sexy comedy set in the 1960s, which examines the impact of the women's movement. 5419 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood  Map Full Price: $20.00  Your price: $10.00 Click Here! Made Me Nuclear, the Operetta By: Charlie Lustman Santa Monica Playhouse  (9/5 to 10/11) Lustman's pop music operetta blends humor and intimacy to create a show for anyone who has faced a challenge in life.  1211 4th Street, Santa Monica  Map Full Price: $25.00  Your price: $12.50 Click Here! My Antonia By: Scott Schwartz based on the novel by Willa Cather Pacific Resident Theatre (6/28 to 8/24) "...Schwartz has a diamond here" -- Variety. "GO!" LA Weekly. Willa Cather's great American novel, adapted by Outer Critics and Lucille Lortel Award-winner SCOTT SCHWARTZ (Golda's Balcony).  703 Venice Blvd., Venice  Map Full Price: $25.00  Your price: $12.50 Click Here! My Old Friends By: Mel Mandel and Norman Sachs The Victory Theatre Center  (6/20 to 9/21) At the Golden Years retirement hotel, there's a mixed bag of guests, a little romance, songs, and dancing.  3326 W. Victory Blvd., Burbank  Map Full Price: $34.00  Your price: $17.00 Click Here!

Alphabetical Listing (N - T) Pen By: David Marshall Grant Theatre Forty  (8/2 to 8/31) West Coast Premiere -Eloquent psychological drama with fantastical twist. 241 Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills  Map Full Price: $20.00 to $22.00  Your price: $10.00 to $11.00 Click Here! Plastic Crystal By: Jason Greenfield Open Fist Theatre Company (7/30 to 8/28) Jason Greenfield's world premiere of Plastic Crystal is the story of a young man's struggle to free himself from the emotional proson of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood  Map Full Price: $15.00  Your price: $7.50 Click Here!   Proof By: David Auburn Eclectic Company Theatre (9/5 to 10/12) Proof explores the unknowability of love as much as it does the mysteries of mathematics.  5312 Laurel Canyon Blvd., North Hollywood  Map Full Price: $18.00  Your price: $9.00 Click Here!   Rabbit Hole By: David Lindsay-Abaire Camelot Artists Productions (7/12 to 9/7) A married couple deals with the grief of having lost their 4-year old son in a car accident. 1816 1/2 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles  Map Full Price: $25.00  Your price: $12.50 Click Here! Ragtime, the Musical By: Terrance McNally,Stephen Flaherty,Lynn Ahrens Musical Theatre of Los Angeles Alliance  (9/12 to 10/5) 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles  Map Full Price: $34.99  Your price: $17.50 Click Here! Rose By: Martin Sherman Odyssey Theatre Ensemble  (7/5 to 8/31) 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., W. Los Angeles  Map Full Price: $25.00  Your price: $12.50 Click Here! Sissystrata By: Allain Rochel Celebration Theatre (8/22 to 9/28) A bawdy, hilarious all-male adaptation of Lysistrata set 5 yrs in the future in West Hollywood. World premiere! 7051 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles  Map Full Price: $20.00  Your price: $10.00 Click Here! Sona Tera Roman Hess By: Dennis Miles New Perspectives Theatre Company (8/16 to 9/21) Named for its four main characters, Sona Tera Roman Hess probes the lives of a family struggling to reconstruct itself in the aftermath of a crushing infidelity. 6201 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles  Map Full Price: $20.00  Your price: $10.00 Click Here! The Sound of Murder By: William Fairchild Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Company (8/15 to 10/5) The Sound of Murder keeps everybody guessing until the last moment. Dare not reveal the ending because …in the heat of passion… someone is going to die! 10900 Burbank Blvd., N. Hollywood  Map Full Price: $20.00  Your price: $10.00 Click Here! The Subject Was Roses By: Frank Gilroy West Coast Ensemble  (8/26 to 9/12) A classic of American theater, The Subject Was Roses is an unblinking exploration of domestic warfare. 804 N. El Centro Ave., Los Angeles  Map Full Price: $15.00  Your price: $7.50 Click Here! Suddenly Last Summer By: Tennessee Williams Lodestone Theatre Ensemble (8/2 to 8/24) Williams' story revolves around the death of a beloved son and cousin (Sebastian Venable) which leads to a family conflict as Mrs. Venable and Catherine Holly fight over their memories of the dead man and push the boundaries of truth. 1111-B West Olive Ave., Burbank  Map Full Price: $16.00  Your price: $8.00 Click Here! The Tragical Comedy of Mr. Punch By: Sean T. Cawelti with Rogue Artists Ensemble Bootleg Theater   (7/18 to 8/31) Adapted from the best-selling graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, Mr. Punch is a dark fable in which the innocence of childhood and the pain of adulthood collide in the oft-fragmented recesses of memory. 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles  Map Full Price: $25.00  Your price: $12.50 Click Here!

Alphabetical Listing (U - Z) Wonder of the World By: David Lindsay-Abaire Little Fish Theatre (8/15 to 9/20) It's a wild ride to Niagara Falls in a barrel of laughs with this wacky comedy set at the famous landmark. 777 Centre Street, San Pedro  Map Full Price: $22.00  Your price: $11.00 Click Here!

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McKissic, a 2007 recipient of the Four Bridges Art Festival Emerging Artist Scholarship, is exhibiting 17 paintings. Most recently he has exhibited his work at UNUM Corporate Headquarters and WTCI PBS Studios as part of the Association for Visual Artists Corporate Lending Program. He also shows regularly at the Fine Line Gallery in Atlanta’s Grant Park and Outloud Books in Nashville, TN. Mckissic has show his work at Nashville Black Pride as well and sells to collectors throught the region.

“With this show at the Chattanooga African American Museum, I want to let people see what I’ve been doing over the past couple of years. I chose the title Root Workers and Railroad Tracks because so much of my work and my aesthetic are based on my experiences as a southern, African American, gay man.”

Three of the large scale paintings in the show celebrate the lives of Michael Sandy, Lawrence King and Ronnie Paris, three youth of color who were victims of hate crimes; others are inspired by the writings of African American LGBT writers Audre Lorde and Richard Bruce Nugent.

The exhibit runs from Friday, August 22 to October 31. The CAAM is open Monday – Friday 10:00 – 5:00. For more information, call the CAAM at 423-266-8658 or visit www.jhmckissic.artistportfolio.net or www.caamhistory.com. To bring the exhibit to your own community, e-mail James McKissic at jhmckissic@gmail.com.

For more information visit www.nycgmc.org

Looking For: a passion for singing, musicality, a good voice, openness, teamwork and a positive attitude, some level of reading skill and/or good musical memory, a commitment to the NYCGMC mission of fighting homophobia through song.

Clearly, not everyone will have all of these attributes - don't worry, you do not have to be the perfect 10. More often than not, a healthy mix of most of the above qualities will be enough to qualify for the Chorus. Whatever your skills, all we ask is that you embrace singing in all styles and we can guarantee you'll find people in the Chorus who share your interests and voices in the Chorus with whom you can blend.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind.--To create a space for black voices to be heard artistically and start a meaningful dialogue about black identity in the theatre, Indiana University Bloomington's Department of Theatre and Drama will host the university's first-ever conference (Aug. 1-3) devoted solely to black theatre projects.

The 2008 IU Mini-Conference on Black Theatre seeks to stimulate scholarship and discussion about theatre by and for people of African descent, said conference organizer Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe.

"We seek to remark on black theatre's relevance, creation and practice," said Cooper-Anifowoshe, a faculty member in IU's Department of Theatre and Drama. "We seek to create definitions of black theatre, both continental and abroad, and integrate it within the context of the black community, the nation and in relationship to other popular culture -- as well as to identify and honor black theatre artists past and present."

The three-day event marks the culmination of IU's inaugural Black Play Lab (July 18 - Aug. 3), a development workshop for black dramatic works. The conference -- which will be attended by a multiethnic array of scholars from as far away as Indonesia -- will feature a keynote address by Obie Award-winning playwright Ed Bullins, a seminal black playwright and distinguished professor at Northeastern University.

Robert Alexander

Conference highlights will include staged readings of two new, never-before performed plays by playwrights Robert Alexander and Niyi Coker Jr. and a workshop with playwright Amy Evans.

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In terms of identity, Chad Goller-Sojourner either hit the jackpot or got the short end of the stick, depending on one's perspective: a gay black man raised by a white family with a "girl's" eating disorder.

"I thought it was harder to come out as a Christian in Seattle than to be gay," he told us with a characteristic smile and hearty laugh over coffee recently. Add one more to the list.

The complexity of identity is just one of the themes that runs through Chad's writings. A poet, prose writer, and spoken word artist, Chad has always identified himself as a story-teller first and foremost, and starting tonight at the BrownBox African American Theatre at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center, Chad has transformed his diverse writings into a one-man show, Sitting in Circles With Rich White Girls: Memoirs of a Bulimic Black Boy, running through July 20.

Through poetic monologues and stories, Chad recounts his rocky coming-of-age. Predictably, the show runs the gamut of the painful and the psychologically scarring, from racial slurs to identity crises to the absurdity of eating disorder treatments. But this isn't navel gazing or misery tourism.

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Gays, lesbians and transgender people gathered in the central Connaught Place area in what was the country's largest ever display of gay pride.

Activists also marched in the cities of Calcutta, which has seen similar events in the past, and Bangalore.

The marchers were demanding an end to discrimination in a society where homosexuality is still illegal.

The gay pride marches are a global event held in the last week of June every year.

They commemorate the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York which broke out after police raided a gay bar.

'Celebrating sexuality'

Marchers in Delhi on Sunday shouted "long live queer movement" and danced merrily and waved the rainbow flag, revered by sexual minorities around the world.

"This is for the first time Delhi is organising a pride festival to celebrate sexuality and people of all sexualities," student Mario Depeno was quoted by news agency Reuters as saying.

"Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender and even straight are coming together here to talk and to celebrate, it's a party, to celebrate themselves," he said.

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Gay Pride - New Dehli

TORONTO — Hundreds of revellers danced, shimmied, and strutted their way through downtown Toronto Sunday in the Gay Pride parade - and for the first time, members of the Canadian Armed Forces were among them.

Though the parade is seen as a chance to let loose and party in Toronto's streets, it also highlighted some of the political messages that permeated Saturday's Dyke March - a smaller, more grassroots parade that included a fist-fight between several women and a papier mache version of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Many participants in the Pride parade called for more support for people living with HIV/AIDS or held signs chiding the government for cutting funding to social programing.

Gareth Henry, the International Grand Marshal of the parade who left Jamaica after being persecuted for his sexual orientation, said that the parade "is not about a party."

"Pride Toronto is very unique in having a human rights component to the whole thing, where we can highlight the human rights violations that happen in some countries," he said.

Henry decided to live in Canada because of the violence he faced as a homosexual in Jamaica. He said he'd been the victim of homophobic violence at the hands of that country's police and had received several death threats.

"Canada mirrors the experience that I want to see in Jamaica," he said.

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Director Barry Scott says, "This particular approach has an important social relevance for urban America today. This treatment fits like a glove."

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CLEVELAND – June 17, 2008 – Karamu House will posthumously induct native son Langston Hughes into its Hall of Fame on June 28 at 20/20 in the Flats. Theatergoers may not realize Hughes wrote the critically acclaimed “Black Nativity,” which Karamu has produced for 24 seasons to enthusiastic crowds.

In 1961, Hughes was commissioned to create a gospel drama for Christmas. He wanted to make African-American gospel music the heart and soul of the drama and based his play, “Wasn’t That A Mighty Day,” on the theme of the Nativity story. The musical later became known as “Black Nativity.”

The literary works of Hughes, a poet, writer and playwright, are studied and discussed in high school classrooms and university lecture halls across the country. Hughes, who attended Cleveland’s Central High School from 1916 to 1920, is one of the most popular and influential writers of the 20th century.

For many years, Hughes was a familiar face at Karamu, where he taught art classes while in high school. He wrote his first play at Karamu, “The Golden Piece,” in 1921. He wrote and debuted several other works at Karamu. Hughes also became a member of the Karamu Players, a theatrical troupe.

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Tickets to the Awards Ceremony & Performance, which will be held at The Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th, on Saturday, August 9th at 8pm, are $35.00.  The 4 nominees for BEST PLAY of the season will be performed and awards will be presented for BEST PLAY, BEST DIRECTOR, BEST ACTOR & BEST ACTRESS.  The playwright of the Best Play will win a $1,500 Prize and a development deal to have a full-length play to be produced by the Riant.  A prize of $150 will be awarded to Best Director, Best Actor & Best Actress. 

The Riant Theatre founded in 1979 by classically trained actor Van Dirk Fisher, is a New York State 501(c) 3 professional theatre corporation, dedicated to providing a nurturing environment to develop new plays and outstanding artists.  The Strawberry One-Act Festival, the brainchild of Artistic Director, Van Dirk Fisher, is a play competition in which the audience and the theatre's judges cast their votes to select the best play of the season.  Twice a year, hundreds of plays from across the country are submitted for the competition, of which 37 were chosen to compete. Plays move from the 1st round to the semi-finals and then the finals. The playwright of the winning play receives $1,500 and the opportunity to have a full-length play developed by the Riant. Some of the plays in the festival will be chosen for publication in the anthology of The Best Plays From The Strawberry One-Act Festival: Volume 5.

In July the Strawberry One-Act Festival will also broadcast the festival via the internet on the second day of each series in the competition.  To pay to view the festival online and cast your vote, go to www.therianttheatre.com/video.  The online fee is $25.00 to see a series of 3 to 5 plays.

The Strawberry One-Act Festival will have a KICK-OFF PARTY on Monday, July 14th from 6pm - 8pm, the place to be determined.  The playwrights, directors, actors and production crew from the plays in the festival will be available for interviews with the press.  For Press Tickets please call Kevin Hansen at 646-623-3488.

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