As the nights cool down, it feels like time for theater. And indeed it is. Check out these special events, part of a fall season like no other.
A Chorus Crime: A Sydney Styles Mystery from Seize the Show
Thursday, Sept. 24 at 8:00 p.m.
The year is 1976 and Sydney Styles, gossip columnist and amateur sleuth, finds herself in the middle of a murder. A Broadway costume mistress has been murdered by one of four chorus girls. Work with Sydney to help crack the case. Once you’ve registered, you’ll receive an email with a unique Zoom link. Tickets are $9.99 and are available here.
Skylight Theatre’s Wake Up Call
Thursday, Sept. 24th at 3:00 p.m.
Nancy Travis makes her Skylight Theater debut with Wake Up Call. The show approximately 45 minutes and will be followed by a Q & A. Access with a reservation, which you can make here.
Latino Theater Company Reading of Just Like Us
Sept. 25–Oct. 4
The documentary-style Just Like Us by Karen Zacarías is based on Helen Thorpe’s bestselling book of the same name. piece follows four Latina teenage girls, two of whom are documented and two who are not, through young adulthood. The reading on Friday, Sept. 25 will be preceded by a live, online conversation with the artists on Thursday, Sept. 24; the reading and the conversation will each stream for 10 days.
The stream can be viewed at www.thelatc.org/.
Transmissions in Advance of the Second Great Dying
Monday, Sept. 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Echo Theater Company presents a live-streamed reading of Transmissions in Advance of the Second Great Dying, an epic tale of grief and global warming through the intersecting lives of Earth’s human and non-human inhabitants in 2045 by playwright Jessica Huang. Watch the free live stream by clicking here.
Open Fist Theatre Company’s 30th Anniversary Virtual Gala
Saturday, Sept. 26 from7-8 p.m.
Join Open Fist Theatre Company for its 30th Anniversary Virtual Gala. The celebration will feature special guests including Shoshana Bean, Jason Paige and Ty Taylor. There’s also an online auction.
Join the party at www.openfist.org. Admission is free.
Together LA Festival
Oct. 1-17
Thirty-four intimate Los Angeles theatre companies have collaborated to showcase new 10-minute works created specifically for a digital platform. Tickets are free. See the full schedule and how to watch here.
An Evening with Echo Young Playwrights
Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Echo Young Playwrights, a group of Los Angeles-based playwrights in the early stages of their careers dedicated to developing new work for the stage, takes the virtual stage of Echo Theater Company for an evening of short plays, monologues and excerpts from longer works in process. Click here to join.
Neo’s Show of Shows
Oct. 2 and 3 at 7:30pm
NEO Ensemble Theatre, home to your intrepid theater reporter/reviewer, had its March performance of Character Flaws cancelled due to COVID. Now you can see a “best of” from that show and two predecessors, Family Secrets and Inappropriate, including two pieces by yours truly. Suggested donation: $10.
Click here to watch on Friday, Oct. 2. Click here to watch on Saturday, Oct. 3.
Boston Court’s Kristina Wong for Public Office
Oct. 3 at 4:00 p.m.
Performance artist, comedian, and elected representative Kristina Wong is taking her raucous campaign online to arouse civic engagement and counter-hijack our democracy! An actual elected representative of Koreatown in Los Angeles, she was once a scrappy performance artist with a bright future in reality television. Now, the political system she used to ridicule is the one she’s become. Is she more effective as a performance artist or a politician?
The show is pay-what-you-wish. RSVP here and make a donation here.
An Evening Conversation with Marla Gibbs and Angela Gibbs
Oct. 9 at 6:00 p.m.
The Robey Theatre Company presents Marla Gibbs and Angela Gibbs (mother and daughter) discussing the current and future state of the theater, the impact of the pandemic on the performing arts, and the response of the arts to the recent global uprising in support of racial and social justice. This will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience. Marla Gibbs is best known for her television roles in The Jeffersons and 227. The latter series began life as a play, presented at the Crossroads Arts Academy Theatre in Leimert Park, which was founded by her daughter Angela.
Register here to receive the Zoom link. Suggested donation: $10.
A previous Buzz piece features several additional upcoming events worth checking out.
Several local theater companies have scheduled their upcoming fall-winter seasons. We’ll share them next time. For now, here’s a much-needed inspirational picture, from a special remembrance of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Susan Galbraith.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (with tenor Lawrence Brownlee) takes a bow for her speaking role of the Duchess of Krakenthorp in Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment at Washington National Opera in 2016. (Photo: Scott Suchman/Washington National Opera)
 fall theater season.){kind=link}