Return Of The Mecca

Ahh, at last. News for this spring's Circus Theatricals production:

Now Casting:

COMPLEXITY
a world premiere by JOHN BUNZEL
directed by ELINA DESANTOS
produced by JEANNINE STEHLIN
artistic director JACK STEHLIN

Circus Theatricals is casting the world premiere of Complexity by award-winning playwright John Bunzel. Elina Desantos directs.

Complexity is a dark comedy about love, loss, and forgiveness. Complexity will be the first production in Circus Theatricals' new theatre in the Hayworth Theatre Center. The Hayworth is being transformed from the Vagabond art film theater into a new performing arts center. Circus Theatricals has garnered awards and nominations from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Association, Back Stage West, LA Weekly, Dramalogue, and the LA Stage Alliance Ovations.

This will be a high profile project. All roles are strong. Seeking actors with strong credits. Star names are encouraged.

DATES / SCHEDULE
Rehearsals start January 19
Previews March 10
Plays Fridays and Saturdays
March 17 - April 28
AEA 99 Seat

SUBMISSIONS
send pix/resumes to:
Circus Theatricalsc/o The Hayworth Theatre Center
2511 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90057
ATTN: COMPLEXITY CASTING
or email: Jeannine Stehlin

TOM (cast: JACK STEHLIN)

JILL - (Lead) - Late forties. Tom's wife. A lawyer. Attractive, dynamic, intelligent. Likes to look good, but not flashy. Knows how to be aggressive but uses her charisma to conceal a soft, vulnerable core.

CATHY (Lead) - Early thirties. An executive secretary. Pleasant looking but somewhat severe in her appearance and demeanor. Deliberate, vocal, stubborn. Cheerless. Always ready for combat.

GEORGE (Lead) - Seventies. Jill's father. A retired mechanic who is hard of hearing. Although rough and weathered in appearance, he is hopelessly well-intentioned. Lousy at concealing thoughts or feelings.

DAVID - Thirties. A painter. Attractive and mysterious. A strong physical presence. Passionate. Persuasive. Knows how to cleverly manipulate others to get what he wants.

MONICA - Thirties. Tom's lover. An ethnic bombshell. Exotic and brainy. Knows how to play dumb but is no dummy. Has an intense sexuality that she can turn on and off. We are open to all ethnicities in this dynamic role.

Synopsis:
Tom and Jill are struggling to save their floundering marriage. Matters get worse as the people around them try to keep them apart...

***

Sooooo. Whattaya think, honestly? My next ambitious mission to L.A. this season? It will be almost a year since seeing Jack in The Misanthrope, and a year before Macbeth, and since then as I have every year I've been quietly climbing the walls for that next new production, waiting for the Next Big Thing to take me back because pretty much nothing else would make me come over there otherwise. And unlike Macbeth and The Misanthrope, two plays that I had been previously deeply acquainted with, this will be something all shiny and new to me with no preconceived notions of how characters like Macbeth and Alceste are or should be. Jack portrayed each smashingly. Such divinity keeps me continuously flying back to be by his side every year.

And, er, ahem... his milkshake always brings this girl to the yard. {{raising the roof}}

In other news I got my spiffy new bridge put in over my gaped tooth this morning. Sure is mighty weird feeling that little phoneybone just sittin' there with my tongue, not attached to anything but the other fake tooth next to it. But at least I don't look like Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel anymore and by gum dey sher do look purdy in mah mouf. Oh, and Joe--er, that is to say, Grap got me a new Christmas prezzie this week:


I never saw this show when it was on the air back in 2001 but it was created by Judd Apatow and directed by Apatow and Paul Feig, the two guys involved in the creation of Freaks And Geeks, which most of you old-blog readers know is one of my all-time favorite TV shows. The series also features F&G alumni Seth Rogen and Jason Segel, and so far after watching the first two episodes I am already picking up on the similarity in humor and character development in the writing and in general structure. Although the university life portrayed here isn't quite as intensely nostalgia-inducing as F&G was to me (hardly the party girl type on campus, college radio station dweeb that I was) but I am quite enjoying it so far. Wish it could be a tad more music orientated in the way that F&G was. Buy hey, uh... Ted Nugent was in one episode. And the lead character does appear to have a rather, um, unholy obsession with Spinal Tap much like myself. It's a start. Bring it on.