CRITICS'FORUM - Theater


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Theater

Mar 2008 | Finding the Universal in Ibsen's a Doll House, by Lori Yeghiayan (308 KB)
Question: What does a play, written in Norwegian in 1879 about a woman’s journey toward personhood and freedom from repressive social, gender and class norms, have to do with the Armenian community?

Jan 2008 | The Best of Theater: 7 in '07, by Aram Kouyoumdjian (35 KB)
The practice of handing out awards or issuing “best of” lists to honor artistic achievements certainly has its detractors. These detractors are offended when artists are pitted against each other in “competition,” and they doubt that art can ever be evaluated objectively.

Oct 2007 | Five Solo Flights, by Aram Kouyoumdjian (88 KB)
In what is either an extraordinary trend or an extraordinary coincidence, no less than five female writer/performers of Armenian descent have graced Los Angeles stages this year with solo shows they’ve authored. The number is striking given the relative paucity of Armenian actresses in general and solo performers in particular.

Jun 2007 | Clair de Luna, by Aram Kouyoumdjian (47 KB)
The light of the moon has been shining a little brighter ever since the Luna Playhouse opened its doors in September, traditionally the start of the theater season. As the season formally ends with the onset of summer, the time is opportune to take a look at Luna’s first “year” in existence.

Mar 2006 | The Times of Their Lives, by Aram Kouyoumdjian (63 KB)
The title of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ gritty drama “In Arabia, We’d All Be Kings” doubles as a line spoken by one of its characters, Sammy, the resident drunk of a dive bar. In some ways, Sammy, old and nostalgic with alcohol, can trace his roots back to a barfly in a play from an earlier era.

Dec 2006 | Year in Review, by Aram Kouyoumdjian (33 KB)
Last year, as I looked back on the theater scene of the preceding twelve months, I counted on the fingers of one hand the number of productions by or about Armenians. This year . . .

Sep 2006 | A Triumphant Love's Labor's Lost, by Aram Kouyoumdjian (70 KB)
In some quarters of the literary world, “Love’s Labor’s Lost” is considered one of Shakespeare’s “lesser” comedies. After seeing its recent incarnation by the Actors’ Gang, you’d never believe it. In director Simon Abkarian’s hands, “Love’s Labor’s Lost” (playing through September 30 at the Ivy Substation), is a visual feast of choreography and color that achieves a delicate balance between levity and profundity.

Jun 2006 | Shifting Moods Mark William Saroyan's "Time," by Aram Kouyoumdjian (55 KB)
A harsh reality of theater is that monumental works of drama–say, those with epic-sized casts or taxing technical demands–are rarely produced.

Apr 2006 | Bogosian Double Play, by Aram Kouyoumdjian (29 KB)
To describe a play as “talky” seems rather silly; dialogue, after all, serves as a foundation for drama. Eric Bogosian’s plays, however, are “talky.”

Feb 2006 | "Rumi" Follows Uneven Path to Divine End, by Aram Kouyoumdjian (19 KB)
The Djanbazian Dance Company’s new performance piece, “Rumi: Path to Enlightenment,” began as most major Armenian cultural events do – late – and ended like them too, with a standing ovation. In between, this multimedia work about Jalal ad-Din Rumi, a Persian mystic and poet of the 13th century, navigated both brilliance and tedium on its way to a stunning finale.

Dec 2005 | A Look Back ..., by Aram Kouyoumdjian (27 KB)
Initially, I had hoped to write a year-end article looking back on the best and worst of Armenian theater that I had experienced during the last twelve months. This lofty intention, however, was soon met with the sobering realization that the entire pool of choices consisted of four plays – and one of them was my own.

Nov 2005 | Saroyan's Play No "Day at the Beach," by Aram Kouyoumdjian (20 KB)
Over the course of his decades-long career, Aram Saroyan has achieved a certain status in the world of letters by composing in genres ranging from poetry to fiction to memoir. Now, Saroyan, who has about a dozen published books to his credit, has ventured into drama.

Oct 2005 | Play Dates, by Aram Kouyoumdjian (32 KB)
If I were to tell you that I go to the theater every month with “a large group of friends,” you’d probably think I mean a dozen people. Or maybe 15. Say 20, just to be generous.

Sep 2005 | Homelands Faraway So Close, by Aram Kouyoumdjian (40 KB)
Just as I was preparing to reread Leslie Ayvazian’s “Nine Armenians,” I was handed a copy of a new anthology that surveys plays written in English by authors of Armenian ancestry. “Contemporary Armenian American Drama,” edited by Nishan Parlakian and published by Columbia University Press, is a handsome volume comprised of eight plays culled from the past three decades.

Aug 2005 | Culture Clash in Pera Palas, by Aram Kouyoumdjian (21 KB)
At any given time, even during the slow summer season, the Los Angeles theater scene features at least 100 productions. Armenian theater usually accounts for none of them, although it may occasionally give life to one – say, once every nine months.

Jul 2005 | In Search of Armenian Theater, by Aram Kouyoumdjian (20 KB)
It seems like a simple enough question: “What is Armenian theater?” Indeed, if I intend to write about it, a definition should come easily. But it proves quite elusive. The difficulty does not pertain to dramas written in the Armenian language. Rather, it concerns the works of Armenian playwrights who, in a diasporan setting, compose in the language of an adopted country.

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