News
On May 1, 2013, we open for submissions of new, unproduced plays to Panndora's Box. This will be our seventh year of running this Festival; each year our playwrights rave about their experiences. And who knows, you might even get a full production ~ right, Adam Seidel and Alexandra Petri?
We look forward to hearing from all you playwrights out there. Start sending in scripts for our Annual New Works Festival! Our literary team is ready to read!
This dark, quirky, oddly funny tale of romance gone wrong, or maybe right, captured our hearts. In Adam Seidel the reviewers recognized a new voice to watch, an up and coming playwright who is going places. You saw it here first.
It was a wonderful run at Long Beach Playhouse in the Studio Theatre and we thank all the incredibly supportive LBPH folks who helped make this possible. Til next time!
Playwright Adam Seidel will be joining us for opening weekend of the premiere of "Catching the Butcher." We are delighted to have him here from Chicago. Saturday night after the performance at the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre, there will be a talk back with Adam, along with director, Chrisanne Blankenship-Billings and the cast of the show, Derek Long, Karen Wray and Rebecca Taylor. Moderated by the fabulous Alexandra Billings!
Come on down!
On February 8, 2013, Panndora opens our season with a winning play from Panndora's Box New Works Festival 2012. Don't miss the world premiere of CATCHING THE BUTCHER by Adam Seidel.
Nancy finds herself tied up in the Butcher's basement -- and she likes it. What could possibly go wrong?
mature content, brief nudity, dark comedy
Shows are Friday and Saturday nights at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm. Tickets are $20 general admission. Call 562-494-1014 or click the button below.
Best of OC Theatre 2011
www.examiner.com
Our playwrights have asked for more time to submit works to this year's Panndora's Box Festival of New Works and we are giving it. The deadline for submissions has been extended to JULY 10, 2011.
Don't miss this opportunity to have your untested gem read in a professional setting. Writers are in good hands with this Festival.
"I had a terrific experience with Panndora's Box. The actors who performed in the reading of 'Whites in Hot Water" were outstanding. The direction was phenomenal. It was exciting to see my play on its feet, and I learned a lot about the play's strengths and weaknesses."
Garrett Socol, 2010 Panndora's Box winner
Well, our production of "Well" went well. Every time we did this show, we found more to love. And our audience and reviewers agreed: "WELL" made me want to shout from the rooftops that I am alive. Panndora’s production filled me with more than a love for life; it made me grateful for the 90 minutes I was in that theater. Because it was nourishing and fulfilling and important – and GOOD! http://twolivesonepath.blogspot.com/2011/04/well-is-theater-in-excellent-shape.html.
This “solo piece with other people in it” gets a first-rate staging under the deft hand of director MaryAnne Mosher. Karen Wray plays Kron so well she’s credible enough to be mistaken for the playwright; Sonja Berggren is her match as Ann, the mother. J.J. Boone stands out as the childhood chum and other characters among the ensemble of players sketching in the background. http://exm.nr/h3rpe9
Issues of race revolving around the institutionlized segregation of the mid-20th century are almost as prominent in "Well" as are issues of health and illness. These two solid rails are bolstered by the real subject of "Well": Parent-child relationships as defined by Lisa and Ann Kron. . . .Part of what helped [Kron] regain her health was writing "Well," because "art helps makes sense of things." Indeed, that makes "Well" nearly as self-indulgent a piece of stagecraft as you're ever likely to see – but Kron is such a keen observer of human nature that the bulk of "Well" is still genuinely ingratiating. http://www.ocregister.com/entertainment/-299187--htmlhttp://www.backstage.com/bso/reviews-la-theatre/well-1005170652.story
Well, on Sunday May 15, we had our last show of WELL. We will miss this play!
Thanks to our fantastic cast - Karen Wray, Sonja Berggren, J.J. Boone, Philip Bushell, Richard DeVicariis, Pam Paulson - our fabulous crew - Kara Kessener and David Carnevale - and our wonderful director, MaryAnne Mosher.
And a special thanks to our audience, especially those of you who kept coming back to see this show again! You are terrific!
Panndora and Long Beach Opera
directed by Andreas Mitisek
May 1, 2011, 2-4:30pm
at the Art Theatre, Long Beach, CA
On May 1, Panndora joined forces with Long Beach Opera to present a "Coincidence" for the opera "Moscow, Cherry Town" by Dmitri Shostokovich. Do you qualify to get an apartment in Cherry Town? Or will you end up in "communal housing," living in one room with the kitchen, hallway, lavatory, and bathroom as highly contested public spaces? A humorous trip through the labyrinth of Russian housing with actors from Panndora Productions and singers from LBO's cast of "Moscow, Cherry Town." More
Yes I did. I met Kathleen Chalfant for coffee in New York on Friday, February 5. She played the role of Vivian Bearing in "Wit" for over three years on Broadway, garnering a host of awards for her brilliant performance. In person, she is delightful, generous, warm, earthy, funny and beautiful. She shared stories of how it felt to walk around town with no hair, to the beauty of this play and the "translucent transcendence" of its message. It was a magical afternoon, leaving me even more inspired to become Vivian for a month in Santa Ana, CA.
Our long-awaited production of "Wit" has found a home! Theatre Out, the company now presenting in the old Rude Guerrilla space (the Empire Theatre) in Santa Ana, has welcomed Panndora Productions into their fold. Our agreement gives us the space for 3 performances each weekend in March 2010. We've confirmed the rights and we are already working on this extraordinary play. Directed by Pete Taylor, "Wit" features Sonja Berggren, Brandon Crisler, Carmen Guo, Pete Taylor and Karen Wray.
"A brutally human and beautifully layered new play. . .You will feel both enlightened and, in a strange way, enormously comforted." THE NEW YORK TIMES
We had a fabulous opening night for Panndora's Box Friday with the reading of "Star Turn" by Linda Whitmore, our own New Voices playwright. The audience loved it, as did we.
Join us for the rest of the Festival!
Saturday at 4pm, "Sunday's Child" by Jennifer S. Jones, directed by Karen Wray, with Pete and Rebecca Taylor, Erin Henriques and Robert Dean Nunez.
Saturday at 7pm, "Denouement" by Jack Raymond, directed by Pete Taylor, with David Gold, Karen Wray, Rebecca Taylor and Pete himself.
Sunday at 1pm, "The Wall" by Jonathan Chapman, directed by Andreas Mitisek, with Kevin Brunner, Sonja Berggren, Leandro Cano, Brandon Crisler and Sky Siegel.
Sunday at 4pm, "The Morning After the Night Before" by William S.E. Coleman, directed by Sonja Berggren, with Karen Wray and John Wray.
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