All in the Timing Six One Act Plays + Mere Mortals by David Ives

 

L - R Melodie Shih, Patrick Warburton and Talon Warburton - Production Stills by Chris Devlin

By Joe Straw 9

 

David Ives has plays running all over Los Angeles, in a few short months one has seen “Metromaniacs” an adaptation at Theatre 40 and “All in the Timing” at the Zephyr both were excellent productions.

 

The best thing one can say about David Ives’ work is that he has a warped sense of humor trapped in a bizzarro world, and he uses those ideas to create works that ring an existential truth and one that also delves in a deeper meaning of life.  

 

All in the Timing, a 90-minute series of one-acts, written by David Ives and directed by Michael Yavnieli is now playing through November 20 at the Zephyr Theatre on Melrose in Los Angeles, California.

 

All in the Timing is a lot of fun with marvelous performances all around. The one-acts are wonderfully directed by Michael Yavnieli. The work is excellent and there is something here for everyone to enjoy. And you get Patrick Warburton to boot. If there is one show you should run to see in Los Angeles this weekend, this should be that show.

 

Also, the show features animation that will delight, excite the senses, and/or annoy depending on your frame of mind. And that was created by Ron Yavnieli.

 

 

 

When one walks into the Zephyr Theatre one sees a pipe projected on the upstage wall with a caption underneath labeled “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (this is not a pipe). Your job may be to discern the meaning of that statement given what you believe is before your eyes.

 

Each of the one-acts takes place on August 21 in various years and the one that is verifiable is 08/21/1940 the death of Leon Trotsky.   

 

Taylor Behrens and Meadow Clare

 

 

“Sure Thing” takes place in a café.  Betty (Meadow Clare) is waiting when Bill (Taylor Behrens) interrupts her to get to know her. But as these things go each has a second chance to make good on the relationship simply by ringing the bell and beginning again at the break-off point.  

 

Meadow Clare and Taylor Beherns are exceptional in the roles and neither miss a step to get what they want. Their work was superb.

 

L-R Bill Butts, Talong Warburton, and Patrick Warburton

 

 

“Mere Mortals” appears to be about high-rise construction workers based on the animation of a bird flying by a construction site.  Joe (Bill Butts), Frank (Talon Warburton) and Charlie (Patrick Warburton) get ready to lunch and for the most part a normal day.  But this is no ordinary day, they want to throw away the mundane, and speak as to why they are exceptional. And the truth is, well the truth flies out the window.  

 

Patrick Warburton led this group with his dry deadpan delivery, the squinting eyes, and remarkable timing.  Bill Butts and Talon Warburton follow suit with their words of deception and one-upmanship.

 

 

L-R Melodie Shih, Maram Kamal and Meadow Clare

 

“Words, Words, Words” is the story of three chimps, who somehow or another have been captured and given life until infinity. The goal of the unseen researchers and their hypothesis that, given time, chimps can write “Hamlet”. Possibly not these chimps who can barely peck a manual typewriter, but they are able to speak English. Given a chance to present, they revert to ape form and start screeching when things are not going their way. The researchers have given the writers names: Swift after Jonathan Swift, Kafka for Franz Kafka and Milton for John Milton. Swift (Meadow Clare) is a chimp that barely stands upright.  Milton (Melodie Shih) screeches with the best of them. And Kafka (Maram Kamal) is an introspective chimp and the one moving in the right direction.

 

Marma Kamal’s Kafka is low-key and is concentrating on her work but ignores the antics of her partners in crime. If Kafka is moving the right direction, she must prove it to her partners before the ending. Swatting away the lice picking friend and closing her ears to the screeching are the annoyances of the learning processes and must lead her back to the typewriter.  

 

Just to step aside for a moment, the one-acts directed under Michael Yavnieli starts getting better and better.  

 

Mark Haan and Tania Gonzalez - Photo by Maram Kamal

 

 

“The Universal Language” is the story of Dawn (Tania Gonzalez) wanting to come into a language program to cure a stutter. (That’s what the program said but I don’t remember the stutter at all.) Nevertheless Don (Mark Haan) wants to teach Dawn a new language “Unamunda” and it’s going to cost Dawn a lot of money that she doesn’t have. Don starts the lesson right away. Dawn picks up the language and by the end of it she is fluent. Haan and Gonzalez make an incredible duo in this play, playing off each other, moving along in a language not their own. Haan has a strong voice and Gonzalez makes the most of her moments. Both are wonderful.

 

“The Philadelphia” is a state of mind.  Unsuspectingly it captures Mark (Talon Warburton), and he is absolutely lost when the waitress (Melodie Shih) can’t get his order.  It’s up to Al (Patrick Warburton) to explain to Mark the manner to which he has been captured and the resolution to the problem.  

 

“Variations on the Death of Trotsky” Leon Trotsky was a politician and a theorist who escaped from Siberia twice after being arrested and later in life is found, to his detriment, living in Mexico City. It is here the play takes place after an ice axe has already struck his head. Trotsky survives the attack for a time and continues to work with the help of Mrs. Trotsky (Maram Kamal) while his attacker Romón (Mark Haan) watches his slow demise. It’s hard watching a character on stage walking around with an ice axe in his head. (Actually, his parietal bone) But that is how Trotsky (Talon Warburton) live and died. (08/21/1940)

 

One can imagine all that went on after the axe went through his skull, the chaos, the screaming, the medical attention, and the shedding of tears but none of that happened.  There may be more the actors can include to highlight their performances including the killer who waits for death and the concerned wife.

 

Run! Run! Run!  And take someone who enjoys the heck out of crossword puzzles.  They’ll enjoy talking about the word play in this offering on the way home.  

 

All in the Timing Six one Act Plays + Mere Mortals was produced by Western Warburton in association with MY / Acting Studios.  The Executive Producer was Patrick Warburton and produced by Tania Gonzalez and Michael Yavnieli.  

 

Other members of the crew are as follows:

 

Nick Foran – Production Design

Angelica Diaz Estevez – Production Stage Manager

Sandra Kuker PR – Publicist

Tania Gonzalez – Music Supervisor

Emmy Newman – House Manager

Chris Devlin – Graphic Design

 

 

www.onstage411.com/aitt

 

Glorious by Paul Coates

 By Joe Straw 

 

In this time and age theatrical productions presents so many obstacles and the one thing that is still with us is COVID.  Everyone strives a certain level of health, taking all the precautions necessary in order to get a show up on its feet and in the amount of time that was blocked for this production.

 

Glorious, also delayed by COVID, is not the only production that has suffered the same fate this year.  There have been three or four productions that have also shut down due to the health calamities within each cast.

 

But, back on the boards and at the last minute I ventured out on Thursday night knowing other commitments would exclude me from seeing this play. And taking a seat, masked as always, there were others who did not take the same precautions.  One woman sitting a few seats from me, not masked, said she had just gotten over it. I would have preferred not to have known her information.

 

 

City Playhouse & The Los Angeles City College Theatre Academy presented Glorious by Paul Coates which will have closed by the time you read this.

 

The play was constructed by the Studio Playwrights Unit and performed by members of the Actors Studio – a perfect fit for the word stylings of Paul Coates.

 

For the life of me I don’t understand the title as it relates to the play. Maybe in another viewing or reading the play when it is published.

 

Dr. Leslie (Paul Coates) a psychiatrist, in his home office, looks extremely weathered. Possibly it’s his job, or the circumstances surrounding his life, he appears to pour from a thermos, a cup of coffee, takes a sip, or a gulp and continues with his work.  

 

Today his patient is Anna (Jennifer Lassalette) a woman who has just undergone a relaxation procedure of deep breathing. Leslie doesn’t rush anything he lets Anna take her time.  And when that time comes, several characters are brought to life.  She has numerous personalities, and some are downright disagreeable. When she spews sententious rhetoric, she gets a smile out of the good doctor. Anna is there for a reason to work out a problem that has been gnawing on her being for some time. Today, they don’t find the answers, perhaps another day.

 

Dr. Leslie prides himself in his work, dealing with the day-to-day personalities that visit him but for now he takes his healing power and visits his sister in another part of the house.

 

Alexis (Suanne Spoke) rests in bed comfortably accompanied by the disease that will eventually end her life but for now she is happy that she is being watched over by her younger brother. She doesn’t need anything now except perhaps a little water and to spend time reminiscing with her sibling.

 

Alexis is also a psychiatrist and there is no love lost in the competition they have had since the day he was born, sibling rivalry that haunts their beings and will until the moment she dies.  And don’t get them started on the McIntosh twins.

 

Later, Dr. Leslie has a court ordered client Angel (Johnny Cendejas) a young bright-eyed teenager wrapped in an emotional cocoon.  Angel previously had gotten a gun and was threating his abusive stepdad Sean (Brian Gleason) and vice versa.   Today, Angel sits alone in a chair, aware of the trouble he is in but willing to stay in therapy until the job is finished and it would appear there is a way to go.

 

Angel’s mother Carla (Kimberly Green) rushes in to pick up her son.  She is also weathered in a long coat understanding the complexities and relationships between her husband, her son, and Dr. Leslie.  She is in too much of a rush to get her son out the door and doesn’t want to spend time knowing they are scheduled to come back another time in a court ordered meeting.

 

There is a lot of work to do for Dr. Leslie and given the relationships in his life right now there are lives to mend and promises that are not kept also Dr. Leslie makes one huge mistake.

 

Unless there is another incarnation these are some of the best performances you will not see on stage in Los Angeles.

 

Paul Coates, the writer, has written a fascinating play with developed characters with consciences that have problems deeply rooted in the unconsciousness. Each in their own way have their faults plastered and expressed harshly on their surface, all envenomed at one point in their lives, and all need some level of treatment. Historically Coates has been superior at writing characters and establishing unique relationships that works and he does so again in Glorious.

 

Glorious is still being developed and not finished yet.  This was not exactly a reading and not a full-scale production and got some help “with direction from Christina Hart”.  One is looking forward to another incarnation of this production.  Nevertheless, the acting was well above par. In fact, the acting was excellent.

 

Paul Coates is Dr. Leslie and is wonderfully expressive and natural in the role. I mentioned that Dr. Leslie makes one big mistake and I’m not sure this production got the most made from that moment. Coates performance was outstanding.

 

Jennifer Lassalette has her work cut out for her as Anna and other personalities that inhabit her being. And, although the work was excellent, there is more work to add to the other characters making them unique to Anna. One suspects the trick to the other characters is doing more to add to their physical nature. Finding something, an object, a painting that solidifies a character and of course making them all different.

 

Suanne Spoke is excellent as Alexis. Her performance rings true, her relationship with her brother is excellent, and one especially loves her ending scene.  (They never tell you what’s on the other side!)

 

Johnny Cendejas is Angel, the troubled teenager and he also does excellent work. Most of his dialogue is in English but when it is done in Spanish his Spanish is impeccable. One believes his relationship with the doctor should be stronger.  e.g., Angel gets a compliment about his artwork.  At this point he slightly shrugs his shoulders at the mention rather than accepting the information and absorbing the compliments. This should strengthen his ending and make it much more dramatic because now he has a reason. That aside, the work is incredible.

 

When Brian Gleason (Sean) came out at curtain call one saw a completely different personality, one that was pleasant. But Sean was tenebrous and unseemly demonstrative in his actions as the stepfather. Sean was asked if he had done military service and surprisingly, he said no. His socially repugnant actions in therapy caused a deep divide and didn’t help his cause.  What was it that drove this man to those ends? Usually, it’s money and lack of it but we heard little of this. There must be more of a reason why a man acts in the way he does. Still, a wonderful performance.

 

Kimberly Green is Carla and Carla is caught between three worlds, her son, her husband, and the psychiatrist. They pull her in three different directions, and she hasn’t a clue what to do about any of it. In the end she decides but then is ambivalent. Carla needs a better ending.  Green is exceptional in the role.

 

 

Desert Stories for Lost Girls by Lily Rushing

Katie Anvil Rich and Glenn Stanton - Photo by Grettel Cortes

 

By Joe Straw

 

Native Voice at the Autry, in association with the Latino Theater Company, presents the world premiere of Desert Stories for Lost Girls by Lily Rushing and directed by Sylvia Cervantes Blush through October 16, 2022.  

 

Desert Stories for Lost Girls is an exciting new play by Lily Rushing using an authentic 

Native American voice with a social movement that is undeniably different and one that 

offers a unique perspective of this life. The play leaves an indelible impression on an open 

heart.   

Carrie Black (Katie Anvil Rich) 18, bag in tow, arrives and is excited to take care of her grandmother Rosa Black (Carolyn Dunn), a woman aged into some form of dementia.  

 

Uncle Edgar (Tom Allard), Rosa’s son, a cantankerous man, has been taking care of Rosa and the only thing that has kept him sane was the herbal remedy only an arm’s length away.  He’s got everything sorted out, the pills are in the pill boxes, all ready to go.  But he warns Carrie to stay away from the back and the front yards. He then summarily scoots out the front door, unencumbered, and happy by the sudden elation of his personal freedom.  He closes the door and leaves Carrie to her own devices.  

 

Alone with her grandmother, who sits at a table working her arts and crafts, things start to go awry. Communication is difficult, grandmother won’t take her pills, and getting any type of narrative from her, of their history, is almost non-existent.

 

There is a story here, in this home, the family secrets, unrecoverable and stored away in a yellow suitcase. And this story includes an overseer, a woman affected with communication difficulties. Carrie doesn’t question why, perhaps she makes a mental note. But they move about, living life, not caring how they got to this point, or either caring how they will move beyond. It is perhaps up to the visions they all encounter but refuse to openly acknowledge to one another.  But in the here and now Carrie is just trying to figure out her life. Even though the girls are lost, past and present, there are pieces to be discovered, recognized, placed in a journal, and then eventually told because the result is the play we are seeing on this night.     

 

One leaves the theatre in a variety of moods and after seeing this production I had mixed 

emotions, and it was hard to understand where those feeling originated.  Perhaps it was the story 

and the affects of the long arm of colonization that has no end.   

There is that, and then there is technical feeling one gets when one pleads for a stronger 

theatrical perspective, movement, objective, and convincing choices that leads us to an 

understanding of where the participants are going.   

Lily Rushing, the writer, is a Genízaro Indian, or part of an indigenous people from various tribes that were enslaved and made to work for the Spanish Colonialists in the region that is now New Mexico.  We hear nothing of the term in this play. The play is based on her life and the life of her family. And it is through the revelation of the family that the play takes off giving us a clearer picture. But the struggle to fully grasp the story is hampered by the grandmother who communicates very little of her life and we were left to guess why these ghostly people suddenly appeared. While visually interesting, it is difficult to piece together the incoherent muttering of someone who has dementia, and how it has affected the granddaughter to act. Is the poetic yet fragmented words a puzzle for us or someone else to piece together? And is that someone else actively looking? Given the time restraints of smaller theatre there is more to be had in the offering.  

 

Sylvia Cervantes Blush, the director, must tie the elements from the present to the past. As it appears now, the characters from the past show up and they leave without leaving their mark on the present and vice versa.  Also, there are times we lose sight of the truth.  The grandma throws her pills away, and, if we can hear it in the back row of the theatre, why doesn’t Carrie hear it? And, why doesn’t she respond?   Also, the clue is the yellow suitcase. (La pista es la maleta amarilla.) It is the one thing that ties the play, past and present, into a cohesive whole and used effectively will make all the difference. One believes the suitcase is a symbol that will enhance the through line and make it much more dramatic.  

L - R Samantha Bowling, Brenda Banda, and Carolyn Dunn
L 
 

Despite my mutterings, the acting is uniformly good.  There are better choices to be made 

and stronger objective to be had. 

Katie Anvil Rich has her work cut out for her as Carrie Black.  First finding a truth in 

playing a teenager and then discovering who she is and where she is going. When the 

grandmother shouts “Who owns me?”, several times, that should be the alarm 

that moves her into action. 

Carolyn Dunn is Rosa Black the grandmother in a difficult role.  Locked in a land of 

dementia she must find a way to communicate one way or another and then perhaps to 

let us know her deepest thought when thinking of the past. We see little in her reflection 

of her early days when the light of knowledge should bathe her being.  

Tom Allard has his moments as Uncle Edgar. He is funny and seems to be having the 

time of his life. 

Rainbow Dickerson does well as the young Rosa leaving home with the one thing that 

she must keep on her journey to California, the yellow suitcase. 

Glenn Stanton is outstanding as Nicholas Jacinto, a Spanish man in a mask and a 

conquistador helmet, projecting the long reach of colonialism even after his untimely death, 

causing disruptions to others around him and visiting to keep his hold on the one thing he 

never wanted to let go. His physical life onstage is excellent. Stanton is also Joe Black 

who is in a hurry to take and keep what he wants. 

Brenda Banda is also excellent as Josefa Jacinto a woman who appears to have a noose 

around her neck reminding the present of her fate in life. Her work is good and solid. 

Samantha Bowling as Placida and has immeasurable strength.  She is the most sympathetic, 

beautiful, and enslaved. She is the beginning of the story, where it all started, and where this 

Genízaro tragedy begins to unfold. She is raped by her colonizer and is made to endure 

hardships that no one should endure. She comes back to make the record clear. 

Bowling has a strong presence on stage and is wonderful in the role. 

Understudies that did not perform the night I was there are Andrew Roa, Kholan Studi, 

and Jehnean Washington. 

The beautiful scenic and props design were made possible by Christopher Scott Murillo 

highlighting wind, earth, and home.

Other members of the crew are as follows: 

Dramaturg: Courtney Elkin Mohler

Lighting & Projection Design:  Derek Christiansen & Ruby O’Brien

Sound Design: Lorna Bowne

Production Stage Manager : Maricela Sahagun

Assistant Stage Manager: Martha Espinoza 

Run! 

Tickets: https://www.latinotheaterco.org/

A Clean Brush by Norm Foster

Mandy Fason and Michael Kerr - Photo Eric Keitel

 

By Joe Straw

 

One looked at the bare stage and noticed a single chair near a fireplace. Oh, good I thought, one prefers a play where actors will be relating to each other with very little set pieces on the stage. And that happened throughout the night, but there was one fascinating thing that stood out far beyond the play, the actors, and the writing that I’ll share later.

 

Theatre 40 presents the world premiere of A Clean Brush written by Norm Foster, directed by Howard Storm and produced by David Hunt Stafford.   

 

Dick Stern (James Lemire) and Mello Boggs (Michael Kerr) are housepainters. That classification, a simplification, is minute for both.   They have other interests as well.

 

Dick is tall, with a sonorous voice which resonates from his diaphragm and is projected out of the left side of his mouth.  He has a funny accent, almost Canadian, or Chicagoan but it’s loud enough to wake up the dead. But today, dead is dead, and he is not going to raise any hackles.

 

Dick is a hapless independent contractor, and he has been contracted is to paint the downstairs/basement/apartment-like room.  

 

Dick brings with him his partner Mello, an obsequious servant, a seedling of a man in comparison. Mello is articulate, with a knack for asking astute questions. Their relationship is recent given their conversations. Dick is the teacher and Mello is the absorbing student and someone to help him make it through the day and to help him paint.

 

Mello, an odd name to be sure, was named by his hippy parents and he is mellow in certain ways. In his way this job is all fodder on his way of being a stand-up comedian.

 

As they set up, Dick tells Mello not to mention the recently departed dead husband. He says the woman who hired them Zoe Caldwell (Mandy Fason) was upset and was crying over the phone when they spoke, and wouldn’t you know it it’s the first thing Mello asks Zoe.

 

Zoe, stepping down in colorful attire to explain, says she wasn’t sad, and she wasn’t crying either.  (Her appearance hardly looks like someone who is grieving.) She didn’t much care for her husband and her crying was the results of her allergies that were giving her trouble. To explain his death Zoe said she was out fishing when her husband collapsed, fell, and hit his head on the fireplace poker numerous times.

 

Hmmm, that sounds suspicious.

 

Even if one weren’t too bright, one would suspect that she had a hand in the matter. No matter, Zoe tells them she’s self-sufficient, a book editor, and has already collected the life insurance money so there’s plenty of that to pay them. She leaves, and Dick and Mello start to work on painting the place.

 

Brushing that aside and getting back to work Dick has a philosophical idiom is that painting, like life, always starts with a clean brush.  It’s a hallmark, in a way, ignoring the past, and taking on the new roads of life. Still, there are other things to think about.    

 

 

 

A neighbor enters Lois (Susan Priver), pleasantly dress and with a facetious smile in tow, and an offbeat since of self, (“We must be who we are” she says.) mentions that their work is essentially covering up a crime scene that Zoe had something to do with it.

 

Zoe finds Lois in her house and asks her to leave before she walks out of the room. But Lois doesn’t leave, she fills in the gap of what happened a couple of nights ago, with all the blood on the walls and the carpet that Zoe cleaned up and burned in the backyard.

 

Later, Zoe finds an interest in Mello and vice versa, and they decide to take matters privately upstairs. Mello comes down and tells Dick everything, eventually telling Dick they’ve been contracted to do more work to the space for thirty thousand dollars.

 

Unfortunately, there were some slight problems upstairs which complicates matters and there’s a lot more to discover.  

 

Howard Storm, director, sends everyone home thinking good thoughts about the play. I caught myself laughing at some of the antics onstage late into the night. Storm, also noted for directing Woody Allen’s Bananas, and Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask, and numerous television shows, was in the theatre on this night, and I spoke to him briefly.  He is nearing his 91^st birthday.  

 

Norm Foster, the writer, and one is told the Canadian Neil Simon, gives us an amusing night of theatre. The visuals on the program suggest a paint brush smearing blood with “A Clean Brush” fingered in the blood.  Makes one think about the nearly departed in films when the dying writes the name of his murderer before he shakes his mortal coil.

 

Although “A Clean Brush” is a comedy there is a lot to say about discovery in this two-act play. And it is mostly about the two men discovering who they are first and then discovering Zoe and Lois.  Dick Stern and Mello Boggs find out a lot about each other but most importantly they discover who the other person is, and that relationship must grow. Mello ask Dick Stern if he was Jewish, and this catches Dick so off guard that he must think about it, deep in thought be brings up his uncle Schlomo, and then his son Itzhak. He gets more Jewish as the night rolls along. More could be made of this.

 

The comedy works best when the comedy bites and the relationship changes between the participants.  One thinks about Laurel and Hardy and other comedy teams how those teams worked when they absorbed the relationship

 

Early in this run there may be things missing that the actors will find to solidify their objectives. Things that will move the actor to a push that catapults the night.  It doesn’t mean the effort wasn’t there, it just means there’s more work to be done. Not a lot, maybe a little, but some.

 

James Lemire is Dick and there were some interesting character choices, but James needs to define his objective, make it creative, and make it his own. He must own up to his purpose and find the way of the character. A couple of day earlier, a man was bludgeoned to death, in that very room and when finding out the information there is little or no reaction to either woman or to his partner. Is he a teacher?  Does he take delight in the antics of his partner? How does he react when finding out this information? Also, find a way to paint (if it’s only the fourth wall so be it) and do this when carrying on the conversation.

 

Michael Kerr, Mello, wants to be a comedian and he moves in that direction, but not taken as far to make it more creative.  Mello might find ways to do his standup during the evening. He seems to be absorbing the information, things that will help him grow understanding human awareness, but he is not using that information. He gets involved with a woman who two days earlier was covered in blood and he thinks nothing of bedding her even though she might have an instrument of destruction under the bed?  And then relating the sad story to his boss.  Boy this is just comedy fodder!

 

Mandy Fason, Zoe, was recently brilliant in Metromaniacs and does well here.  There’s more to add and possible choices that might work better for the character.  Without giving too much away, the entrance of the neighbor can create a maelstrom of possibilities, but we don’t see much in the way she treats her given all that she knows about this person. She just asks her to leave and then she walks upstairs.  Also, if finding a man of her dreams is her objective, then her choices must move her in that direction.  

 

Susan Priver, Lois, always delights and does a good job here but there’s also more to add to character in the offbeat sense of self. The reason for entering the home has its justification that we find out later in act two, but we must sense that in act one with her physical and mental behavior.  Priver’s movement on stage just delights still there is something more to add to the character.  

 

The thing that fascinates me is that Howard Storm is still creating, still mastering the craft, and still loving what he does at the tender age of 90 and he brings his stunning wife, Patricia Storm, along as the assistant director.  

 

Other members of the crew are as follows:

 

Jeff G. Rack – Set Designer

Michele Young – Costume Designer (One wouldn’t mind seeing Zoe dressed completely in black and a clown broach.)

Derrick McDaniel – Lighting Designer (Nice work especially when we see the transformation of the newly painted place, but the illusion is slightly dissipated when the broom is seen leaning against the wall during that transformation.)

Nick Foran – Sound Designer

Craig Hissong – Stage Manager

 

Run! And take a contractor with you!

 

RESERVATIONS: (310) 364-0535.

ONLINE TICKETING: https://theatre40.org