Arts Briefs: Theater company hosts ‘Six Characters’ in Pasadena and Glendale documentary screenings set
Classically absurd
A Noise Within is the highly respected classical repertory theater company formerly based in Glendale and now at home in Pasadena. It is set to begin its 2015-16 season with an opening production of Luigi Pirandello’s “Six Characters in Search of an Author.”
Adapted by Robert Brustein, and directed by Co-Producing Artistic Directors Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliott, performances begin on March 27. The absurdist play explores the relationship between dramatic characters and their creators. The Italian play had its U.S. premiere back in 1922 on Broadway.
In a press statement, Elliott said, “The play is fascinating because it puts what we do as theater-makers on trial. It calls into question the actors who are trying to create any truth that is not their own personal truth.”
The play’s author, Pirandello, was a novelist who wrote about 40 plays in his lifetime. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in literature. “Six Characters” will unfold on A Noise Within’s stage, now entering its sixth year in Pasadena in 2016 after 20 years in an old Masonic Temple in Glendale.
Tickets are $44. A Noise Within is at 3352 East Foothill Blvd., Pasadena. More information at (626) 356-3100 and www.ANoiseWithin.org.
--
Glorious Glendale
“Vintage Glorious Glendale,” a documentary on the history of Glendale, is being screened March 19 at the MGN Five Star Cinema in Glendale. The film by Velvet Rhodes examines the rich history and lasting beauty of the city’s vintage buildings, businesses and homes.
The project began after the director-writer-narrator participated in a Facebook group called “Vintage Glendale – The Jewel City” while organizing the Glendale International Film Festival last year. The documentary premiered at the Alex Theatre last fall.
The film returns for a 6 p.m. screening at Five Star Cinema. There will also be a Q&A with Rhodes. The theater is at 128 Maryland Ave. More information at mgnfivestarcinema.com and (888) 501-0101.
--
State of beauty
William S. Rice was a singular artist with a special love for the California landscape. His paintings and prints examined our local terrain beginning in 1910, capturing broad landscapes and detailed plant studies and still lifes.
Marquee arts writer Kirk Silsbee wrote last December, “Though his wind-swept Carmel coastlines, placid lakes and stoic adobes must have seemed quaintly dated after World War II, the subsequent years have proven them quintessentially Californian.”
The exhibition “The Nature of William S. Rice: Arts and Crafts Painter and Printmaker” is now in its final weeks at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, but several walk-throughs and docent tours remain for those who want to dive into Rice’s view of our state.
On March 20, PMCA Director of Exhibitions Erin Aitali leads a guided tour at 2 p.m., free with admission. Docent tours are offered March 12 and 17, and April 1.
The ¿Pasadena Museum of California Art is at 490 E. Union St., Pasadena. Information at pmcaonline.org and (626) 568-3665.