THE FOUNTAIN THEATRE REQUIRES PROOF OF VACCINATION FOR ALL PATRONS
L.A. premiere launches outdoor performances at Fountain Theatre
Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Judith Moreland
Executive Producers Barbara Herman, Susan Stockel
Produced by Stephen Sachs, Simon Levy, & James Bennett
Starring
* Leea Ayers * Matthew Hancock * Mara Klein * Hazel Lozano *
* Rob Nagle * Kacie Rogers * Vanessa Claire Stewart * Pam Trotter *
THE FOUNTAIN THEATRE REQUIRES PROOF OF VACCINATION FOR ALL PATRONS
📞 Show Days: 11 - Curtain
📞 Dark Days: 11 - 6
📞 Closed Tues
Low-Price Previews: June 11, 12, 13, 16
Open: Fri June 17 & 18
Close: Sept. 19
Runs Fri-Sun 7pm
Pay What You Want Mon. 7pm
Los Angeles Times - “BOLD, BOUNDARY-BREAKING DRAMA… How natural it felt to be back, sitting among colleagues, acquaintances and strangers at a press performance for a show! I wondered if I might be moved to tears at my return to the theater, but instead I felt grateful and relieved that human ingenuity wasn’t thwarted by a virus… The Fountain’s ambition in reopening the theater with this multilayered play must be acknowledged and applauded. Where larger, better funded theaters in Los Angeles have played it safe, the Fountain has made room for bold, boundary-breaking drama… meta-theatrical fun… This outdoor production is an ideal way of easing back into this most public of art forms.” — Charles McNulty
BroadwayWorld - “EXHILARATING... SO VERY SMART… How exhilarating it is to have a work of drama be live and in your face once again… [a] spot-on ensemble and technical team… [Director Judith] Moreland and her team know exactly the type of kerosene they are playing with and how close to bring the lit match… The Fountain Theatre has a solid history of putting talented players on the stage and AN OCTOROON adds to this legacy.” — Evan Henerson
Theatre Notes - “EXTRAORDINARY… one of the most engrossing, confounding, and outrageous plays I have ever seen…. commands an audience to look at the past through comedy and pathos… What a joy it was to once again be seated with an audience in a real theatre [at] The Fountain Theatre’s splendid new outdoor stage.” — Paul Myrvold
StageSceneLA - “WOW!… adventurous, genre-bending, meta-theatrical… Under Judith Moreland’s endlessly imaginative direction, the entire cast soars… looks to be the summer’s most talked (and raved) about production, not to mention the hottest ticket in town.” — Steven Stanley
Splash Magazines - “HIGHLY RECOMMENDED… controversial, outrageous, and hilarious at the same time… The Fountain Theatre has long been known for presenting controversial and eye-opening drama in Los Angeles. On two fronts, the Fountain Theatre has outdone itself in 2021. As the pandemic is (hopefully) taking its last gasp, the Fountain Theatre inaugurates its new outdoor stage in a beautifully refurbished parking lot next to the theater – with a genuine modular stage and all the cables and wires accompanying world-class sound and light. And with socially distanced chairs seating 84 lucky audience members. But the setting is only part of Fountain’s contribution to LA theater this pandemic year. By selecting AN OCTOROON as its debut production after more than a year of silence, Fountain Theatre again confirms its uncanny ability to blend current events with gripping drama.” — Elaine Mura
Ticket Holders LA.com - “WILDLY SUCCESSFUL… LA’s premier return to live theatre… The first production to be delivered live and in person since the world nearly ended since March of 2020 would of course have to come from the intrepid folks at the Fountain Theatre, one of the most inventive, prolific, brave, determined—and scrappy—small theatre entities in Los Angeles… in the complex’s impressive newly created outdoor space… a tale told through outrageous humor without ever losing sight of the important and timely social commentary [playwright] Jacob-Jenkins so craftily espouses.” — Travis Holder
Stage Raw - “A WONDERFUL, MESSY, COMPLICATED stew of a play encompassing slapstick, wildly different styles of performance and incendiary questions about race and identity that admittedly are never answered — but oh, they are intriguingly posed!... staged at the Fountain Theater’s new (and fabulous) outdoor theater space.” — Deborah Klugman
Desde Otro O/From Another Zone - “BRILLIANT… grabs audiences' emotions/reactions from the first minute and takes them for an over two-hour ride… executed with a majestic cast.” — Alejandra Enciso-Dardashti
Culver City News - “TECHNICAL BRILLIANCE… THOUGHT-PROVOKING THEATRE… I have been following the multi-award-winning Fountain Theatre for several years as their plays are always thought-provoking, mind-bending, artistically creative, and socially confrontational. So, I knew when the announcement went out that their new outdoor stage would be presenting the Los Angeles premiere of AN OCTOROON, a radical, incendiary and subversively funny Obie award-winning play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, my longing to return to live, in-person theatre drew me to attend very early in the run. And it was so exciting to be back in an audience (with safety protocols in place) and be able to greet so many theatre friends I had not seen since early 2020!… Director Judith Moreland’s highly-styled staging seems to run the gamut of a myriad of styles, often channeling an off-beat vaudeville revue as well as a modern-day farce and antebellum melodrama. So while I was confused at first about exactly what I was watching, the innovative staging and talented cast certainly filled the lovely outdoor space with a welcome change to challenge my overall comprehension in a myriad of ways. And that is what thought-provoking theatre is all about… ‘An Octoroon’ brutally satirizes racial stereotypes in a funny and profoundly tragic whirlwind of images and dialogue that forces audiences to look at, laugh at, and be shattered by America’s racist history… Kudos to the entire design team for their technical brilliance in creating such an attractive and creative space.” - Shari Barrett
Nerds of Color - “SOMETHING TRULY SPECIAL… The journey is never a settling one and we are taken for a roller coaster [ride] … completely warps one’s expectations in our understanding of race.” — Edward Hong
Donloe’s Lowdown - “CONTROVERSIAL, THOUGHT-PROVOKING, WICKED, AND SMART… [a] theatrical stunner… there isn’t a weak link in this chain of accomplished actors… An Octoroon gets an E (excellent).” — Darlene Donloe
ShowMag - “A BREATH OF FRESH AIR... imagination and insights… sly commentary… some truly hilarious business… [playwright] Jacobs-Jenkins pulls out all the stops.” — Leigh Kennnicott
Hollywood Progressive - “AN INTELLECTUAL ROLLER COASTER RIDE… a cleverly concocted work that deconstructs racial caricatures and tropes with as much zest as The Fountain did in constructing its great new Outdoor Stage… as racism and the struggle against this vile, wicked, evil most foul roils our world, we need productions that challenge, inspire and enlighten audiences to grapple with how to bring about equality and justice for all. Bravo Fountain: well done.” — Ed Rampell
Stage and Cinema - “WILDLY ENTERTAINING, UNIQUE, SHARP, FUNNY, AND ADVENTUROUS… It’s no wonder that Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ brilliant adaptation of Dion Boucicault’s 1895 suspenseful melodrama The Octoroon is eight times better and more exciting than any other offering on America’s stages. It speaks to the current conversation of race in America while presenting a rather unknown actual nineteenth-century play that is rife with racism. It underscores issues from today’s newspapers without being didactic... a highly meta-theatrical, delightful, provocative rumination on theater itself even as it highlights many layers of racism and its atrocities in America… Drama, murder, arson, and more… laughs aplenty... I can’t wait to go back and see it again.” — Tony Frankel
Southern California Guide - “A THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE… a step forward is created in changing our ways regarding attitudes toward race… a beautiful outdoor, socially distanced comfortable seating arrangement.” — Valerie Summers
Larchmont Buzz - “FEARLESS… TERRIFIC… There couldn’t have been a more fitting time to see An Octoroon than the week Juneteenth became a federal holiday. The play, currently running at the Fountain Theatre’s terrific new outdoor space, fearlessly portrays life on a Louisiana plantation in the 1850s, integrating references to heinous racism during the 15 decades following abolition… We go to the theater to be challenged as much as entertained, and with An Octoroon, the emphasis is on the challenge. It’s a swirl of horror, humor, guilt and grief.” - Laura Foti-Cohen
Stage Right - "HUGELY RELEVANT... Eight fantastic actors in a delicious if challenging production… in the beautifully reimagined parking lot of the Fountain Theatre." — Michele Willens
On Stage Los Angeles - “WONDERFUL… an opportunity to engage with one’s deep nature held up to the mirror of our times. … professional theatre with a strong polemic that demands our attention.” — Michael Sheehan
The Los Angeles premiere of An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins inaugurates the new outdoor stage at the Fountain Theatre. Judith Moreland directs.
Winner of the Obie Award for Best American Play, Jacobs-Jenkins’ landmark play has earned ecstatic reviews nationwide. The New York Times hailed it as “this decade’s most eloquent theatrical statement on race in America today.” The Guardian declared it “brilliant” and “extraordinary.”
An Octoroon is a radical, incendiary and subversively funny riff on Dion Boucicault’s once-popular 1859 mustache-twirling melodrama set on a Louisiana plantation. A spectacular collision of the antebellum South and 21st-century cultural politics, An Octoroon twists a funhouse world of larger-than-life stereotypes into blistering social commentary to create a gasp-inducing satire.
“I’m proud the Fountain will introduce this bold play to Los Angeles audiences on our new outdoor stage,” states Fountain artistic director Stephen Sachs. “It could not be timelier. The moment has come for our nation to confront its own racist history. Branden uses satire to get to the dark core of American slavery and the racial stereotypes that continue to plague this country today.”
The new outdoor performance area is made possible, in part, by the generous support of Karen Kondazian, the Vladimir and Araxia Buckhantz Foundation, Rabbi Anne Brener, Carrie Chassin and Jochen Haber, Miles and Joni Benickes, and the Phillips-Gerla Family.
The Fountain Theatre commemorates the emancipation of enslaved women and men in Texas on June 19, 1865 — the last state to abolish slavery in the U.S. following the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 — with a special event at the Fountain’s new Covid-safe outdoor venue in East Hollywood. The Fountain’s Juneteenth Celebration will take place on Saturday, June 19 beginning at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.
Production Stage Manager — Deena Tovar
Asst. Stage Manager — Quinn O’Connor
Fight Director — Jen Albert
Choreographer — Annie Yee
Set Designer — Frederica Nascimento
Video Designer — Nicholas E. Santiago
Lighting Designer — Derrick McDaniel
Sound/Music Designer — Marc Antonio Pritchett
Costume Designer — Naila Aladdin-Sanders
Prop Master — Michael Allen Angel
Concessions Manager/Costume Maintenance — Terri Roberts
Outdoor Stage Production Manager — Shawna Voragen
Technical Director — Scott Tuomey
Audio Engineer — Kyle Cunanan
Alternate Audio Engineer - Emerson Harris
House Manager — Jose F. Picado