Bonjour,
It’s your last chance to see “The Homecoming!” The audience and critics are raving about it. It must close this weekend so if you haven’t yet made you reservations, do it today! Don’t miss it!
TOP TEN! RECOMMENDED!
“It’s been six decades since Harold Pinter’s enigmatic, controversial two-act drama about family conflict and dysfunction had its debut in London, yet it continues to lend itself to interpretative wrangling and ambiguous coloration. Still, the misogyny and male angst that are chiseled into it are oddly apropos to the times we now live in where critical attention has recently been focused on the subject of “toxic masculinity” and its destructive effects…. Director Frederique Michel has done an excellent job of regulating the aggressive tensions that continually arise in this play, as well as skillfully accentuating its sexual elements without overdoing them. The performances are excellent, especially Beyer whose turn as Ruth is flawless.” — Lovell Estes III
“WOW!”
“Directed to laceratingly sharp effect by Frédérique Michel and performed by a cast of seasoned City Garage vets and a couple of talented newbies, The Homecoming adds up to a whole lot of fun-and-games of the vicious, venomous sort. Rarely has there been a nastier family patriarch than Dunn’s Max, and it’s great fun to see how he keeps the always dependable Frank’s Sam under his thumb. Equally terrific are Marr’s cowed and cuckolded Teddy, Langsam’s brutal, conniving Lenny, and Cannata’s coarse, not terribly clever Joey. Still, this is City Garage stealth weapon Beyer’s show all the way, whether tantalizing the boys with tales of her adventures as a “model for bodies,” or tempting them with crossed and uncrossed legs that could give Basic Instinct’s Catherine Tramell lessons in seduction, or breaking her marriage vows in full view of them all….A blast!”
— Steven Stanley, Stage SceneLA
“This cast, under the direction of Frederique Michel, makes every glance or smile or silence work….The experience proves eerie, fascinating, a little bit disgusting, often quite funny, and it crawls under one’s skin. Bravo!
— The World Through Night Colored Glasses
“Directed by Frederique Michel, The Homecoming is a play that only gets better over time….[It] still packs a punch.”
— Accessibly Live Off-line
The Homecoming by Harold Pinter
May 9 – June 15, 2025
Fridays, Saturdays 8:00pm; Sundays 4:00pm
One of Nobel-prize winning playwright Harold Pinter’s greatest plays, this darkly comic, hauntingly ambiguous, play follows a family of men in a seedy house in North London: Max, the aging, crude patriarch, his ineffectual brother Sam, and two of Max’s three sons, both unmarried, Lenny, a small-time pimp and Joey, who dreams of success as a boxer. Returning to this oppressive household, one simmering with bottled-up anger and barely concealed hatreds, is the oldest son Teddy, now a successful professor of philosophy in America. After six years abroad, he brings his wife Ruth, to meet the family for the first time but the visit quickly turns into an ominous game of cat and mouse. In this unsettling drama of insidious manipulation, subtle power struggles, and sexual game-playing, nothing is quite what it seems.
A New Pledge of $20,000!
As we told you last week, a very special patron (who wishes to remain anonymous) has made an incredibly generous pledge of $20,000 to support the work at City Garage! Can you help us match this amount by the end of the summer so that we can fully benefit from our angel’s wonderful pledge? Thanks to these kind people below, we’ve already raised $11,214. More than halfway there!
Roger Director
Joanne Leslie
Ricky Lee Grove and Lisa Morton
Ann Bronston
Tom Laskey
Anonymous
Steve Diskin
Martha Duncan
Bo Roberts
Anonymous
Lindsey Carlsen
Holly Dunnigan
Mr. & Mrs. Jerome Greenberg
Michele and Curt Wittig
Tom Patchett
Michael Intriere
Roger Marheine and Carol Wise
Please join them and help us get the rest of the way. Any amount, small or large is welcome!
Merci, and see you soon at City Garage!
Archie, Frederique & Charles
Bounds / I Want a Country
Bonjour,
FINAL WEEKEND!
It’s your last chance to see “Bounds” and “I Want a Country!” Both shows are in their final weekend, with “Bounds” on Thursday and Friday at 8:00pm, and “I Want a Country” on Saturday at 8:00pm and Sunday at 4:00pm. Don’t miss these critically acclaimed productions!
Special Performance of both plays on Sunday, March 9th! – Followed by Q&A
Join us on Sunday, March 9th to see both plays on the same evening! “Bounds” will be at 4:00pm, followed by “I Want a Country” at 6:00pm. Afterward, we’ll have a Q&A with the cast and the creative team. Buy a ticket in advance for either show on that date and you can see both—or pay-what-you can at the door.
“Bounds” by Tino Caspanello
Buy tickets for “Bounds”
“I Want a Country” by Andreas Flourakis
Buy tickets for “I Want a Country”
See both plays, and save $10!
Buy tickets for Both Plays
What the Critics are saying:
TOP TEN! RECOMMENDED!
“A surreal journey that serves as a lament for unexpected loss, a skewering of global capitalism, and – perhaps – a metaphor for what awaits the U.S. as it embarks on its potential imperial collapse….Director Frédérique Michel has crafted an absurdist setting and cryptic characters into a sometimes confusing yet compelling narrative that depicts reluctant migrants in a quest for a new home….Michel’s crafty, artful staging befits the nature of this lost tribe…. One telling line would be appropriate for any of the characters to utter: “We’re a group of indignant, frustrated people. We’re not a county.” If that is not a suitable definition of a country, I do not know what is.”
— Martín Hernández, Stage Raw
“WOW! As strikingly stylized as it is unapologetically political….Like Andrei Kureichik’s Insulted. Belarus, Andreas Flourakis’s I Want A Country spotlights City Garage’s knack for bringing innovative European theater to American audiences….Dynamically staged…thought-provoking and topical, I Want A Country is well worth an hour of your time.”
— Steven Stanley, Stage Scene LA
“A startling, even haunting piece of theatre….Director Frederique Michel along with her cast brought what doesn’t seem like it should be very dramatic to a fiercely vivid life….A simple but profound dance amid hopes, fears, rages, and attempts to make sense of it all–a collection of human beings living through disaster with no end nor rescue in sight. What else is there to do but wait, endure, and try to understand?“ — David MacDowell Blue
“Both of these plays are timely, especially amidst the rising threats of mass deportations of immigrants, unreasonable searches and incarcerations, and increasingly militarized borders. Once again, and per their thirty-five year record, City Garage Theatre has produced plays that speak to the times and encourage people to have empathy and compassion for what it means to arrive in a country that may pummel you into the ground.”
— Allie Rigby, SeeFilm LA
“Bounds” by Tino Caspanello
Translated by Haun Saussy
February 6 – March 14, 2025; Thursdays, Fridays 8:00pm
Five women are stranded on a beach in an unknown country. They might be displaced persons, refugees, unhoused, undocumented immigrants. What we do know is that they are unwanted. They pass the time by playing games and singing songs, they fantasize about belonging, and they compete. One of them, they know, will be selected. But who will that be? While they wait, bonds are created, ties of affection. “Bounds” is a story about us, about the truths we take for granted, and about a society unable to exist without bonds. It is also about “the others,” about those to whom we open our doors—or refuse. It is a story about cages, violence, dreams, a story that reflects our time, a time when we struggle with the rules, obligations, and prejudices that keep us from looking in the eyes of our neighbors.
“I Want a Country” by Andreas Flourakis
Translated by Eleni Drivas
February 8 – March 16, 2925; Saturdays 8:00pm, Sundays 4:00pm
A group of people huddle in the darkness, clutching suitcases and umbrellas. They have lost their country. Where did it go? They wander in search of a new one. They complain, argue, debate, talk about what makes a place feel like home. Together, they imagine what the country of their dreams would be like: a place where they could find peace, justice, and kindness at last. Though written by Flourakis about the Greek financial crisis of the early 2010s, this haunting and poetic text speaks just as powerfully to our own political moment here in the United States where so many long to replace division and enmity with connection and understanding.
Links for Tickets:
Buy tickets for “Bounds”
Buy tickets for “I Want a Country”
Bounds
I Want a Country
Merci, and see you at City Garage!
Frederique & Archie & Charles
Community
Bonjour,
Last week was a terrible one for so many in Los Angeles. Our hearts go out to everyone affected and to all those who are still at great risk. We fear that many of our audience members who come from Pacific Palisades or other areas that have been devastated are now struggling with catastrophic losses. We hope everyone can stay safe and that this nightmare will soon come to an end, though, for so many, the hardships will continue for a long time to come. Our immense gratitude and appreciation to all the first responders who continue to work so hard to save lives and protect us all.
Theatre is about community. Sharing stories that move us, inform us, unite us, and sometimes, in times of grief or loss, can comfort. We hope that when times are better, we willl see you all again at City Garage.
Thinking of you an sending our love,
Frederique, Charles and everyone at City Garage
Hughie
Bonjour,
Eugene O’Neill’s “Hughie” is now Playing!
“Hughie,” Eugene O’Neill’s small masterpiece, continues its successful run. If you haven’t yet seen it, don’t miss this haunting, late masterpiece by one of America’s greatest playwrights. Watch the trailer!
“A welcoming simplicity….[Troy Dunn] is a walking parcel of unrealized dreams and bluster….What emerges is a stark, sad picture of Erie’s shallow, desperate existence. Director Frederique Michel has added a layer to the narrative with the inclusion of the voice of a narrator (Nathan Dana Aldrich), who provides occasional insight, commentary and humor….solidly convincing.”
— Stage Raw
“[An] inspiring production with excellent actors. [A] short play, with a big story to tell.”
— Edward Goldman, Art Matters
“Erie Smith is a liar and a con man, a boaster who dances between truth and delusion. The direction of Frédérique Michel of these fine actors brings all that to the surface, bubbling out like the stuff of an existential cauldron. It feels tragic to watch, and hopeful, disorienting as well as sad. In the end Dunn’s Erie comes across as in some fundamental way…us. You. Them. Me. All of us.”
— David MacDowell Blue, The World Through Night Tinted Glasses
About the Play
Hughie, one of Eugene O’Neill’s last works, takes place in a seedy New York hotel lobby at 3:00am on a hot night in the summer of 1928. Erie Smith, a small-time gambler, down on his luck and at the end of his rope, shows up after a three-day bender, brought on by the death of “Hughie,” a night clerk at the hotel and always a willing listener to Erie’s yarns of his life’s imaginary successes. But Hughie is gone now, and Erie has only his dull, disinterested replacement to listen to him as he tries to boast and lie his way through his grief, loneliness, and despair. Only now, with Hughie dead, a guy he always considered a dope and a sucker, does he realize the desolate emptiness of his life. in this powerful, haunting piece, as in The Iceman Cometh, O’Neill draws a heartbreaking portrait of longing and loss, of the loneliness of the human condition, and the desperate hunger to overcome it.
New Grants for City Garage!
Great news! We’ve just received notice of new government grants for City Garage—for a total of $25,900! But they are also matching grants. That’s where we look to you, our kind and loyal audience. Like all non-profit theaters, large and small, we could never meet our expenses through box office alone. We depend on grants like these and on generous contributions from patrons like you to match them. Help us raise this $25,900 by your donation. And thanks to the generous patrons below, we’ve already raised $8,138!
Michelle & Curt Wittig
William R. Gray Jr
Andrea Baker
Jennifer Ferro
Jay Bevan
Michael Intriere
Alexandria Gray
Shelly Martinez
Lisa & Bill Gray
Roger Marheine
Holly Dunnigan
Martha Duncan
Lindsie Carlsen
Tom Laskey
Alexandra Seros
Please join them in supporting the work at City Garage. Any amount helps, large or small. Follow this link and donate today!
Merci, and see you at City Garage!
Frederique & Archie
Voices From Ukraine 3
Bonjour,
With so many terrible problems in the world, we know it’s easy to forget the ongoing struggle in Ukraine and the incredible courage the Ukrainian people have shown in their heroic resistance to Putin’s brutal invasion. Won’t you show your support by coming to City Garage this Thursday? We’ll be doing a staged reading of a new full-length play from Ukrainian poet and author Valeriy Puzik, “Ghosts in Branches.” Valeriy has been fighting on the front lines since the beginning of the conflict in 2014. He provides a true, first-person perspective on Ukraine’s existential struggle for survival—but one laced with poetry, deep spirituality, and an aching longing for peace. It’s our third installment in our ”Voices From Ukraine” series as part of the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Reading Project, a benefit to raise humanitarian relief for Ukraine. One hundred percent of the proceeds go to groups working on the ground in Ukraine. Please come. Any amount of donation is welcome and can be made either in advance sort at the door.
Merci,
Frederique & Charles
Voices from Ukraine 3
The Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings Project at City Garage
“Ghosts in Branches” by Valeriy Puzik
Translated by John Freedman with Natalia Bratus
A staged reading to support humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
Thursday, June 6, 2024 @ 8:00pm
As Russia’s brutal war enters its third year since the full-scale invasion, City Garage will be presenting a staged reading of a new, full-length play from Ukrainian author and poet Valeriy Puzik “Ghosts in Branches.” This is the third in a series of readings City Garage has presented as part of the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings Project in support of humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine.
Featuring: Nathan Dana Aldrich, Angela Beyer, Carter Calahan, Carey Cannata, Devin Davis-Lorton, Romy Evans, David E. Frank, Liam Galaz Howard, Gifford Irvine, Ryan Nebreja, Ralph Radebaugh, Shane Weikel.
Directed by: Charles A. Duncombe
Click here to attend and/or donate
About the Play:
A small group of Ukrainian soldiers shelters in the remains of a hut on the front lines of the war. Some are young, some are older; they are ordinary men, who have left behind ordinary lives to do something none of them ever imagined: fight a war. In their daily struggle to survive they joke, gripe, fantasize about distant love ones, fend off boredom, hunger, loneliness, deadly shelling and drone attacks, go on night raids, and endure the constant thought of death: not if it will come, but simply when. In this haunting, beautiful piece, Ukrainian poet, writer, and filmmaker Valeriy Puzik takes a gently ironic view of deadly events: grimly comic, deeply humane, injecting lovely surreal fantasies that express a longing for peace, seeking shards of light and sources of hope in the grimmest of situations.
About the Author:
Valeriy Puzik is a Ukrainian artist, writer, and director. He was born in 1987 in Telizhyntsi in the Khmelnytskyi region. His paintings and artwork have been shown in exhibitions and museums in Ukraine as well as internationally. Puzik has actively fought in the war with Russia on the front lines from 2014 to the present. He is the author of numerous books. Bezdomni psi (2018; tr: Homeless Dogs) and Monolit (2018) are collections of short prose for which Puzik has won several awards. With his comrades, he made a short documentary called Ceasefire, whose plot unfolds in the early days of the conflict, when a ceasefire was announced in eastern Ukraine on February 15, 2015. The film received a special jury prize at the 86 festival of the Palma Piwnoci (tr: Palm of the North) national documentary competition.Puzik’s book Ja baciv jogo zhywym, mertvym i znowu zhywym (2020; tr: I Saw Him Alive, Dead and Alive Again) was one of the top 20 Ukrainian prose books of 2020, according to the Ukrainian PEN Club. He is the screenwriter of the miniseries Blindash (tr: Blindage), based on real experiences of Ukrainian soldiers of the anti-terrorist operation in Donbas. Puzik has worked as a journalist for various online media and newspapers. He has won numerous literary competitions, such as Smoloskip, Granoslov, and Novela po-ukrainski, and was awarded, among others, the Olesia Ulyanenko Literary Prize. Puzik wrote his first play, Ghost in Branches, in 2024.
About the Project:
The Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings Project, organized and supervised by writer/translator John Freedman, has been raising humanitarian aid for the people of Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began. To date, there have been more than 580 performances of 170 texts by 60 writers in 35 countries and 20 languages. Attendees are asked to make a minimum donation of $10 but encouraged to give more. 100% of proceeds will be distributed to charities working on the ground in Ukraine.
We Need You for Our $15,000 Pledge Campaign!
Won’t you help us match the generous pledge one of our anonymous donors recently made? Thanks to the people below, we now have $1,300 toward the $15,000 we need to raise by the end of the summer. Join them and help us get there by your gift, large or small.
Help us get to the $15,000 we need to raise!
Our grateful thanks to these donors:
Gustav Vintas
Martha Duncan
Lindsie Carlsen
Tom Patchett
The Writers Workshop at City Garage — New Online Sessions Begin July 6th!
The Writers Workshop is now happening online! Sign up now and get 50% off! Are you working on a play, a one-person show, a screenplay, or a piece of fiction and want help pushing it forward? Develop it in the Writers Workshop at City Garage. Get guidance, feedback, story analysis, and support in our weekly sessions. Reserve your spot by July 4th and get 50% off your first month! Click here for more information.
Frederique 👠👠, Charles, and everyone at City Garage
Archie says Thank you!
News
Bonjour Bergaragistes,
Last Monday, Stage Raw held their annual Awards Ceremony. “The Penelopiad” was awarded “Distinguished Production of the Year.” Congratulations to the cast and everyone who worked on the production. Charles and I also received their “Lifetime Achievement Award.” Steven Leigh Morris, Publisher/ Editor of Stage Raw, and Faye Viviana, Executive Producer of Crimson Square Theatre, presented the award and this is what they said:
Sometime in 1989, maybe it was 1990, but it was a long time ago, I was a lot younger then, and so were the co-founders of City Garage Theatre, who we’re honoring tonight. I don’t remember why exactly, but I was on the Santa Monica Pier, and I noticed this theater putting on a play by Harold Pinter. Let that sink in. Harold Pinter, on the Santa Monica Pier. Outside, it was the sound of calliopes and screaming kids and the smells of popcorn and sunscreen. And inside, on this stage there was a kind of stark terror, absurdist repartee, Pinteresque pauses, I remember slivers of sunlight oozing in through tiny cracks in the building where you could still hear those calliopes and I couldn’t help wonder what the hell is going on here? This was not the first production by City Garage and its co-founders, Frederique Michel and Charles Duncombe, who we’re honoring tonight . The organization started putting on plays 1987 at the off-Main Theater, also in Santa Monica. We’re now in 2023 and the company has never left Santa Monica, though they’ve been in several theaters there.
One of them was tucked in an alley of the Third Street Promenade – the embodiment of consumerism. And of course, many of the plays they put on railed against consumerism. Why not? It’s sort of like putting on a play at the beach that rails against the surf. That’s part of what they do. Defiance. Much of what they defy, and have always defied, is the odds. The odds of sustaining a defiant theater of ideas in a complacent culture.
They’ve done plays from all over the world, plays by Fassbinder, Mueller, Margaret Atwood, Charles Mee, Caryl Churchill, Sarah Kane, and Eugene O’Neill, and plays written by their own Managing Director, Charles Duncombe. Their Artistic Director Frederique Michel is French, which means they’ve also done Moliere, and Ionesco. Moliere and Charles Mee probably sit most comfortably with traditional audiences, But Frederique, who directs all their shows, usually directs her actors to move with a kind of arch, presentational choreography that’s very hard to execute well. But they’ve been at it so long, that they’ve discovered a way to communicate with their actors so that the style looks, well, natural.
They’ve made the unnatural look natural. They’ve made defiance entertaining, for 36 years they’ve provoked and stimulated and offended and done everything that the theater does best, but rarely dares to. And 36 years later, they’re still here, adapting, surviving, and, in moments, thriving. It’s with great pleasure that Stage Raw presents its 2023 Lifeime Achievement Award to Frederique Michel and Charles Duncombe.
So many thanks to you, our loyal audience, for being with us through this journey of 35 years. But there is more to come. Next week we’ll tell you about our next production coming up, our own City Garage version of Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure.”
Love,
Frederique 👠👠
Cardenio
Bonjour Citygaragistes,
It’s the last weekend for “Cardenio.” If you haven’t yet seen it, come join the fun onstage for “Cardenio.” Just four performances left. Make your reservations today!
Top Ten – Recommended!
“In Michel’s propulsive and imaginative staging, the actors, including Jason Pereira, Angela Beyer, Kat Johnston, Loosema Hakverdian, and Andy Kallok, pitch their performances just shy of slapstick. Scene-stealer Dunn, in particular, chews the scenery with brio, but the entire cast is engaging and well-matched. It all makes for a delightful entertainment, to be sure. But dig a bit deeper and you might discover a heartfelt Valentine to the transformative power of the theater, a fitting message not only for this play, but for City Garage’s enduring mandate.”
— Stage Raw
“What’s magical about this moment isn’t simply the transformation of an actor [Tory Dunn] before our eyes (though that’s pretty great). It’s the self-awareness of the play and the production itself. It’s a bit like the play is winking at us and saying — ‘Yes, it’s all been a bit over the top up until now. We know. But it’s part of the magic of theater. And isn’t that really why we’re all here?’….More than a love letter simply to these prior plays, it’s a love letter to theater itself.”
— KCRW
“High paced wit and slapstick comedy….Enjoy this piece and have a great laugh or two in the process!
— Accessibly Live Off-Line
“Mischief and misunderstandings commence, splashed with copious amounts of self-deceit, questioning, art, and that most dangerous of all substances in this world, Truth….Dunn delivers a tour-de-force which nicely portrays how art can impact life for the better.”
— The World Through Night-Tinted Glasses
“Michel has choreographed…a pair of scene changes are absolute delights. There’s also some very good work being done on Charles Duncombe’s Italian countryside set, most notably by Beyer (who delivers some priceless “reaction shots”), real-life couple Duncan and Roberts as a couple of quintessential show people, Johnston’s embittered Doris, and Dunn’s molto spumante Rudi. Best of all is the tall, dark, and handsome Sannazzaro, displaying effortless comedic panache as Anselmo while radiating the kind of charisma that had audiences swooning over Rupert Everett in My Best Friend’s Wedding.”
— StageScene LA
For tickets and reservations:
Cardenio tickets at TicketLeap
Cardenio by Stephen Greenblatt and Charles L. Mee
February 24 – March 26, 2023
Come and join us in the sunny hills of Italy for a romantic adventure as three mis-matched couples struggle to sort themselves out—even a newly married bride and groom! Noted Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt and Obie Award-winning playwright Charles L. Mee have re-made a “lost” comedy of Shakespeare’s into a contemporary delight. Anselmo, uncertain of his young bride Camila’s love persuades his best man to put her to the test. Her furious reaction, when she finds out, manages to send all three couples into confusion as their own conflicts come out in the open—with results that at first seem disastrous, but of course, end happily. Working from such texts as exist for this “holy grail” of Shakespeare lovers, Greenblatt and Mee have crafted a joyful play with all the hallmarks of Shakespeare’s great comedies: playful, sensual, sexy, filled with exuberant language, an intoxicating affirmation of the power of love—even if it begins in confusion.
Voice From Ukraine 2
Many thanks to all those who came to the reading last week. We raised $900. If you weren’t able to be there, we will post a video soon. For more information on how you can contribute to charities working on the ground in Ukraine, or to buy the book supporting Ukrainian writers, follow this link:
Voices from Ukraine 2
Vote For Us!
City Garage is a finalist as one of Santa Monica’s “Most Loved Businesses.”We’re listed under “Live Entertainment Venues” Please vote for us! Here is a link:
Santa Monica Most Loved Businesses.
Love,
Frederique 👠👠
Beach People
Bonjour Citygaragistes,
Join us at the beach for sun and fun with our sexy cast for the final weekend of “Beach People.” It’s been a hit with both audiences and critics. Don’t miss your last chance to see it before it leaves the stage.
Top Ten! Recommended!
“Michel’s staging balances the humor and pathos with equal panache and her cast does not equivocate. Beyer and Thompson hold our sympathy as the angst-ridden couple, and they deliver Duncombe’s machine-gun dialogue with skill and flamboyance.”
— Stage Raw
WOW!
“Impressively acted by a skin-revealing cast of four….Amazing…a hoot!”
— Stage Scene LA
Highly Recommended!
— Theatre in LAOn Stage Los Angeles
“Who ever heard of an existentialist rom com?….This is a fun idea. More though, it is a funny show….both broad and subtle….Genuinely delightful as well as silly (and painfully true).”
— The World Through Night Tinted Glasses
“A fast paced comical drama…leaning toward a lot of life’s questions that hold no answers. And that’s the best part!”
— Accessibly Live Off-Line
“Where is happiness found if not on a beach? It is that irony that is the center-piece to the theatrical excitement and excellently florid script of Beach People….which sings in the laughable absurdity of being inundated in such a technologically complex world whereby no one has any idea of how any of it all works.”
— Joseph Hazani, A Dilettante
If you haven’t got your tickets yet, get them today!
Reservations at TicketLeap
Proof of vaccination and masks required.
City Garage Underground: Final two shows of “Somebody Somewhere” by Anthony Sannazzaro
And don’t miss the last two performances of “Somebody Somewhere,” the first in our new City Garage Underground series. Written and directed Anthony Sannazzaro, the piece centers on a young man reliving the defining moments of his life and a man and woman dealing with the grief of loss. Last two shows this Wednesday and Thursday, September 7th and 8th . Here is a link for tickets:
Proof of vaccination and masks required for all performances at City Garage.
Merci, and see you soon at City Garage!
Love,
Frederique 👠👠
“Voices From Ukraine” – The Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings Project
To support humanitarian aid for Ukraine, please visit our page, “Voices From Ukraine.”
The Birthday Party
Bonjour Citygaragistes,
Only two performances left of “The Birthday Party.” If you haven’t seen it yet, this is your last chance!
“My friends, I urge you to see this challenging and inspiring performance of The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter. Superb acting and stage directing in an intimate space with only a few dozen seats. You can still buy tickets for this performance for the month of July. I hope you take the time to enjoy it.”
–Edward Goldman, Art Matters
“This production knocked it out of the park.”
–Night Tinted Glasses
“The Birthday Party is open for a lot of interpretations for its real meanings. Even if one doesn’t win in this guessing game, the stage presentation at City Garage makes great theater as viewed on its intimate stage.”
–Accessibility Live Onstage
Top Ten, Recommended!
The Birthday Party was not intended to be a realistic depiction of everyday life among working class Brits; instead, it was meant to relay awareness of the dark oppressive forces that lie beneath the surface of daily living….Much of the humor and pure entertainment in this production is reflected around Flood’s utterly engaging persona, a beacon amidst the baleful shadows and apocalyptic themes…an adept, well-paced production…a tale of authoritarianism run amuck.”
–Deborah Klugman, Stage Raw
“City Garage has revisited The Birthday Party in a splendid production that captures Pinter’s specialty as a playwright: grotesque naturalism wrapped around a core of menace and depravity…. superb acting and directing.”
–Will Manus, Total Theater
Make your reservations now!
Buy Tickets Now
Please note our current COVID protocols.
And merci to our many donors who have added more candles to our cake.
Please join them with your donation of $100 to add another candle. Can we get one for each of our last 35 years? Only twelve more to go. Here’s a link you can follow to add yours to the cake:
Coming August 5th “Beach People” by Charles A. Duncombe.
Tickets now on sale!
Close your eyes and listen to the sound of the waves, feel the sun on your skin, have a pina colada, smell the coconut oil. A couple baking happily on the sand seem to have found paradise until their life is turned upside down by a beautiful girl in bikini who has a thing for fruit salad and eastern philosophy. And what about the handsome waiter in a speedo? This is how a day at the beach turns into existential panic. Two floundering people struggle to figure it all out—literally—in this new comedy about love, sex, and the meaning of life by award-winning playwright Charles A. Duncombe.
https://city-garage.ticketleap.com/beach-people/
Animal Farm
This week on “Animal Farm” Steven talks with Roger Q. Mason, playwright of Lavendar Men, opening next week at Skylight Theatre/Playwrights’ Arena.
A Tribute
It is with great sadness that we share with you that this last week we lost one of our dear friends and long-time company members, the very talented, bright young woman and mother of twins, Liz Hight. Here is one of her great performances, in Eugene Ionesco’s The Lesson. She will be missed by her family and friends.
Watch The Lesson
Merci, and see you soon at City Garage
Love,
Frederique 👠👠
“Voices From Ukraine” – The Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings Project
To support humanitarian aid for Ukraine, please visit our page, “Voices From Ukraine.”
Voices from Ukraine
As part of the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings Project, a global effort to raise humanitarian aide for the people of Ukraine, more than a hundred theatre companies around the world have presented over 170 readings of 22 plays by Ukrainian playwrights, all of them written since the war began. Here is the reading City Garage presented on May 15th. If you want to support this cause, here are links to some charities on the ground in Ukraine.
Ukrainian Emergency Performing Arts Fund (https://www.uepaf.org.ua/)
Children’s stories (https://voices.org.ua/en/childrens-stories/)
Humanitarian aid for Ukraine (https://www.lphr.org/en/humanitaere-hilfe-ukraine/)
Here’s the video of the reading:
Thanks again to the donors who supported the reading:
Chopper Bernet, Nathan Birnbaum, Holly and Harold Dunnigan, Anne Guillen, Lisa and Bill Gray, Jana Hatch, Garv Manocha, Roger Marheine, Graciela Markarian, Myron Meisel, Bottara Kahn Nabaie, Veronique Pascal, Sirpa Raitanen, Laurel Schmidt, Pamela St. Clair-Johnson, Michael Toman, Gustav Vintas.