Showing results for "The Work of Literature" in Arts & Entertainment

On the last night of his life, Henry Jekyll records the harrowing story of his years-long struggle to maintain his reputation as a physician and philanthropist—while secretly suppressing the voracious beast he had long felt lurking within. Playwright David Rambo drew on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson for inspiration to create this original L.A. Theatre Works commission.

Showbiz is John Logan’s harrowing tale of life and death in the theatre. It tells the story of the brilliant young director Julian, whose single-minded determination drives those around him to personal and artistic extremes.

In this original adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel, an encounter in Florence and an offer to exchange rooms brings George Emerson to the attention of Lucy Honeychurch. Their flirtation is cut short by Lucy’s chaperone, but when they meet again back home in England, Lucy must negotiate the demands of her station with the desires of her heart.

The Code of the Woosters is one of the best known of Wodehouse's Bertie and Jeeves series. Bertie's beloved Aunt Dahlia pressures him into stealing a cow-shaped silver creamer much coveted by his uncle from his arch rival in silver collecting, Sir Watkyn Bassett. At the same time, Bertie attempts to patch up the shaky romance between Guisse Fink-Nottle, the newt expert, and Madeline Bassett, a four star drip. The results of Bertie's efforts are, as always, a financial disaster.

In this deeply personal book, the celebrated Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat reflects on art and exile. Inspired by Albert Camus and adapted from her own lectures for Princeton University’s Toni Morrison Lecture Series, here Danticat tells stories of artists who create despite (or because of) the horrors that drove them from their homelands. Combining memoir and essay, these moving and eloquent pieces examine what it means to be an artist from a country in crisis.

The Best of Second City is an unforgettable ride through decades of hilarity, packed with classic sketches that helped make this America's foremost comedy troupe. Dubbed "a temple of satire" by Time magazine, The Second City has been convulsing audiences since its founding in Chicago in 1959, lampooning every aspect of modern American life with brilliant, improvisatory sketches.

In Work Song, tensions between master architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his tempestuous relationships are explored in this uniquely prismatic view of one of the great architects of the modern era. This engaging production includes a panel discussion with Wright biographer Harold Zellman. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Jim Beaver, Amy Brenneman, Chris Butler, Matthew Patrick Davis, Sean Dougherty, Robert Foxworth, Charles Janasz, Kathryn Meisle, Kali Rocha, and Raphael Sbarge.

Director David Fishelson transforms Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and The Idiot into spellbinding drama that illuminates both titanic novels. In The Brothers Karamazov, the passionate brothers spring to life, led by their roué of a father ¿ who entertains himself by drinking, womanizing, and pitting his three sons against each other. The men have plenty to fight over, including the alluring Grushenka.

In Table Manners, the action occurs in the dining room of Mother’s house, where a conventional middle-class family is attempting to have a pleasant country weekend. But they are no match for Norman, the bane of the family, who horrifies everyone by doing exactly as he likes.

The Columbia Workshop aired on CBS radio from 1936 until 1947. Created by Irving Reis, it was an experimental platform with no boundaries for what radio had to offer. Broadcast from New York, it featured the biggest stars from stage, screen and radio including Orson Welles, Burgess Meredith, Agnes Moorehead, Art Carney, Charles Laughton, Vincent Price and Laurence Olivier. Stories were by William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, John Keats, Edgar Allan Poe, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Mark Twain, Lucille Fletcher, Carl Sandburg and Herman Melville with music by Bernard Herrmann.

World War II is over, and a family mourning a son missing in action plants a memorial tree and tries to go on with their lives. When a storm blows down the tree, a devastating family secret is uprooted, setting the characters on a terrifying journey towards truth.

In the high-stakes world of cancer research, Dr. William Shumway has just made a stunning breakthrough. But is it really the long-sought cure for cancer? Despite the young scientist’s reservations, a senior mentor pressures him to trumpet his findings to the world. Part medical drama, part suspense-filled thriller, Secret Order turns its microscope on bioethics, money and power.

A play about love between gun-shy young scientists! Just how does a computer scientist romance a molecular biologist? Elliot offers to build a computer program to help Molly with her latest research project, but they discover that love just might be the winning formula - if they can only move beyond their fear and past heartbreak. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Jason Ritter as Elliot; Mandy Siegfried as Molly; André Sogliuzzo as Don and Franklin; and Mia Barron as Lauren and Nell.

An important medical breakthrough has a shameful history. In 1840s Alabama, a slave-owning doctor performs medical experiments on involuntary subjects - enslaved women - in an effort to solve the problem of fistulas, a post-childbirth anomaly. As the experiments proceed, and he gets close to a solution, the women try to survive and even find dignity in the face of inhuman treatment.

To everyone's dismay, an older widower falls in love with his young secretary in this unlikely romance.

Inspired by released American hostages, Hotel Oubliette is a darkly comedic play that explores what happens when two emotionally disconnected men are chained to a post with an endless amount of time stretching before them.

Three terminally stylish friends, who share rivalrous affections, attempt to uncoil their twisted love triangle in this sexy and scandalous gem. Written in 1932, the play was deemed extremely daring, and even by today's standards is considered controversial. In its frank and funny take on sex, love, and commitment, Design for Living proves to be one of Coward's greatest successes.

The sensuality of Louisiana's humid, jasmine-scented air permeates this love triangle about three people who are haunted by the memories of the Vietnam war.

What happens when conflicting emotions inhabit the same space? When a new vocabulary is devised to disguise the same old thoughts? In this barbed satire of political correctness, Rebecca Gilman's provocative characters spin a web of their own, revealing the latent racism that may lurk beneath the porcelain veneer of a liberated conscience.

A brand new lawyer and his young bride have returned from their honeymoon and are moving into their new high-rent apartment. In order to reach this "charming" dwelling, they must first climb six creaking flights of stairs. Once there, they find the place is absolutely bare of furniture, the paint job is all wrong, the skylight leaks, there is room for only one twin bed, and the wacky neighbors pop up at the worst times.