Alumni News

Please send your contact information to our SOCSArts.org web chair, , so we can keep you updated on upcoming alumni events.

THE FOLLOWING SOCSA ALUMNI NEWS WAS PROVIDED BY EILEEN JOHNSON, SOCSA ALUMNI PARENT: DATE: March 13, 2008

Just a quick update on one of SOCSA's alumni from 2005. Michelle Johnson, has just booked Galinda in the show Wicked at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre, in Chicago! She starts in April.

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THE FOLLOWING SOCSA ALUMNI NEWS WAS PROVIDED BY DONNA DRYSDALE, SOCSA ALUMNI PARENT:

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DATE: January 12, 2008

Hi, Alan:

I just wanted to share the review that came out yesterday in the L.A. Times for Artbrawl's production of Metamorphosis, in case you want to use it to promote SOCSA (Adam Rigg, Tessa Drysdale & Heather Littany, SOCSA alumni). We are SO excited! Woo hoo!

Donna Drysdale
Drysdale Imagery
www.DrysdaleImagery.com

'Metamorphoses' shows promise

The actors in the recently formed Artbrawl theater are achingly youthful and attractive, with the undiluted passion of their years. While occasionally rough around the edges, Artbrawl's production of Mary Zimmerman's "Metamorphoses" at the Complex's Ruby Theater is an auspicious debut.

A lively retelling of Greek myth, Zimmerman's richly humanistic take on Ovid is a challenging but fitting choice for this fledgling company. After all, many of these characters are gods and goddesses, so the prevalent beauty seems well placed.

In that vein, it is the play's physical production that is most striking. Director and production designer Adam Rigg has created a sumptuous look on a shoestring, with a particular emphasis on the lighting, which shifts from the golden to the minatory as the occasion warrants. A shallow pool of water is the primary playing area, where the characters, clad in Tessa Drysdale's simple but handsome costumes, enact their various tales, from the humorous to the tragic.

Several of the performers are professionally trained dancers, and choreographer Heather Littany's subtle contribution contributes greatly to Rigg's impressively smooth staging. The cast includes Drysdale, Littany, Dove Benari, Olivia Harris, Kate Littany, AJ Moorehead, Adam Siladi and Scot Young. While executing their assorted characters, most of which are rooted in contemporary idiom, the performers are uniformly prepossessing. However, during the narrative segments of the show, the cast's California cadences grate on the ear, when a more mellifluous and mature rendering would have been welcome. - F. Kathleen Foley

SOURCE: LATimes.com

"Metamorphoses," Complex's Ruby Theatre, 6478 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. Ends Jan. 20. $20. (323) 728-6078. artbrawl.org. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.