Open Fist’s annual “political pop-up” features a rotating roster of short plays by writers from across the country that explore our nation’s current social and political climate and how the past year has affected us. Finding it hard to get off the couch and get to the theater? Open Fist has brought the couches to Atwater Village Theatre, creating a cozy, speakeasy setting where patrons can arrive early or stay late to have a drink and a chat with the cast and fellow audience members. March 15 – April 6; Open Fist Theatre Company at Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039; $20–$30; Free Parking; (323) 882-6912; www.openfist.org.
What Matters Now?/! (Another Political Pop-Up of the Theatrical Kind)
Reviews
Artistic Director Martha Demson started the festival after President Trump's election while thinking about the role of theatre in the aftermath. Demson and company searched out plays with narratives that were true to the writer's intent with being neither to heavy or slight and it made for an immediate hit. This is the company's second year at Atwater Village.
It's an evening you won't forget and will surely enjoy.
Not surprisingly, there are a lot of intense topics in the short plays presented here, including families separated at the border, reparations for slavery, the Israel/Palestine conflict, and sexual assault allegations against a Supreme Court Justice. Yet you'll be entertained.
And you'll definitely have plenty to talk about after the show. Open Fist has created the perfect place to do that...
The ensemble is without a weak link. Before you know it, the actors have breezed through some fabulous nuggets of theater in 75 minutes, but your head is full of more questions — ones that we will all face together as a nation.
What Matters Now?/! Atwater Village Theater has created a cozy speakeasy vibe where patrons almost feel a part of the action occurring on stage – it's personal and very effective...
It's an evening you won't forget and will surely enjoy.
The beauty of these presentations is our ability to hear new voices and see in short form snippets of writing by possibly future Pulitzer candidates as they try their wings.
The setting is comfortable; the tenor of the playlets is not. The evening is bitter, angsty, and darkly humorous; a theatrical cri de coeur. Given the current state of the nation and the world, the performance fits the times, sadly.
Artistic Director Martha Demson started the festival after President Trump's election while thinking about the role of theatre in the aftermath. Demson and company searched out plays with narratives that were true to the writer's intent with being neither to heavy or slight and it made for an immediate hit. This is the company's second year at Atwater Village.
It's an evening you won't forget and will surely enjoy.
Not surprisingly, there are a lot of intense topics in the short plays presented here, including families separated at the border, reparations for slavery, the Israel/Palestine conflict, and sexual assault allegations against a Supreme Court Justice. Yet you'll be entertained.
And you'll definitely have plenty to talk about after the show. Open Fist has created the perfect place to do that...
The ensemble is without a weak link. Before you know it, the actors have breezed through some fabulous nuggets of theater in 75 minutes, but your head is full of more questions — ones that we will all face together as a nation.
What Matters Now?/! Atwater Village Theater has created a cozy speakeasy vibe where patrons almost feel a part of the action occurring on stage – it's personal and very effective...
It's an evening you won't forget and will surely enjoy.
The beauty of these presentations is our ability to hear new voices and see in short form snippets of writing by possibly future Pulitzer candidates as they try their wings.
The setting is comfortable; the tenor of the playlets is not. The evening is bitter, angsty, and darkly humorous; a theatrical cri de coeur. Given the current state of the nation and the world, the performance fits the times, sadly.