Once upon a time the Alexandria Hotel in downtown Los Angeles was visited by such Hollywood stars and luminaries as Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, Mae West, Rudolph Valentino, Clark Gable and Greta Garbo. Today, after undergoing major renovations, it is low income home to another generation. And The Black Box at The Alexandria is also the new home of Company of Angels (CoA), which will present L.A. Views II—Tales of Present Past in April.
Los Angeles’ oldest non-profit theater company (founded in 1959), CoA (www.companyofangelstheatre.org) produces works that reflect the diversity that is Los Angeles and the issues its people face. To that end in April they will present Tales of Present Past as the second installment of their hugely popular Playwrights Group project, "L.A. Views," which debuted in 2008. Silent Era movie stars of the once-glorious Alexandria Hotel have become the inspirational muse of contemporary Los Angeles playwrights. Among the inspirations for this show are Enrico Caruso, Sessue Hayakawa, Alla Nazimova, Pola Negri, Mabel Normand, Ramon Novarro, Mary Pickford, and Rudolph Valentino.
Tales of Present Past examines lives once lived at their most celebrated, while contrasting the reality of those lives in its current existence; those who fight hard to evade irrelevance and obscurity. This often moving and quite humorous production alternates during the “heydays” and “nowadays” of this eminent Los Angeles residence; it shines a light on those who inhabited the building during its years of grandeur and elegance, and those who now dwell in its present embodiment.
Participating playwrights include Damon Chua, Leon Martell, Jamison Newlander, Henry Ong, S. Vasanti Saxena, Lilly Thomassian, Brenda Varda and Kyle T. Wilson. Directors are Tony Gatto (supervising director), Jamison Newlander, Lui Sanchez and Nurit Siegel. The executive producers are Marlene Forte and Damon Chua.
"We had such a wonderful reception to L.A. Views last year that we decided to make this an annual, more high profile event," said Armando Molina, CoA artistic director. "This is the only short-play festival with L.A. playwrights specifically tackling Los Angeles subjects. This year, we’ve allowed ourselves to be inspired by the people who made our new home—The Alexandria—a very special place in a very unique era. In this production, we connect the 'then' to the 'now,' which parallels the city’s hard work in revitalizing Downtown L.A."
L.A. Views II—Tales of Present Past at 8 p.m., Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday, April 17 through May 10. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at www.brownpapertickets.com. The Alexandria is located at 501 S. Spring Street (at Fifth) in Los Angeles.
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Image provided by Company of Angels.
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