How Pasadena Playhouse is helping kids affected by the L.A. fires: L.A. arts and culture this week
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On the first day Pasadena Unified School District reopened campuses after a two-week closure caused by the Eaton fire, I brought my daughter to her elementary school in a mask. I was not alone. Many parents were tracking reports that toxic chemicals from the fire’s ashes could be drifting in the wind, even when the sky looked clear and blue.
But none of us were prepared for how it felt to arrive at a school masked-up. Painful echoes of the pandemic abounded and parents glanced anxiously at one another during dropoff. It was obvious that many of us were thinking the same thing: Our kids had been through so much — too much — in their short lives. Only now, instead of masking up inside, they were doing it outside. How to even explain that to an 8-year-old?
When PUSD shut down on Jan. 8, we parents never imagined it would be for two weeks (and longer for the kids attending schools closer to the fires). Some schools aren’t reopening until the end of the month. Five can’t reopen because they burned to the ground. Those kids, many of whom also lost their homes, will have to be reassigned to new schools. After the pandemic shutdowns, this felt especially heartbreaking.
Which is why it meant so much that the Pasadena Playhouse’s Education Department offered free day camp to participating kids who had been affected by the wildfires and school closures. That first week, the Playhouse welcomed 50 anxious kiddos into its black-box theater from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. There they thrived in an artistic environment, learning about puppetry, stage-fighting techniques, and making a movie titled “The Legend of Colleen’s Portal,” which is totally charming and hilarious. Playhouse artistic director Danny Feldman even made a cameo in the eight-minute film, telling a group of kids to scram when he caught them on the theater’s main stage.
That these kids, who had been through so much disruption and trauma, were provided with this respite, was incredibly meaningful to their parents (including me) — many of whom were struggling through their own smoke-and-fire-related ordeals. The next week, the education department again offered free day camp to fire-affected kids who are part of its education programming. The situation is fluid, so it’s not been announced if they’ll do it again this week.
In addition, the Playhouse is bringing thousands of students from Pasadena, Burbank, Glendale and L.A. public schools to free student performances of the kids’ show “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile: The Musical” at the Colony Theatre in Burbank. A “pay it forward” ticket initiative allows people to buy tickets to be given free to families impacted by the fires.
“In times of crisis, and always, our role as a nonprofit arts organization is to support our community,” Feldman wrote in an email. “The work we do goes beyond what you see on our historic stage. Our connection to this community has deep roots that span decades; we continue to reaffirm this commitment to them today and as we move toward recovery.”
I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, marveling at how the greatest kindness blooms from the darkest ashes. Ashley Lee and I have this week’s rundown of arts and culture news.
Best bets: On our radar this week
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The Decade Party
“I want to do opera in which the form of opera is so different that it allows for the possibility of transformation,” Yuval Sharon, founder and former artistic director of the Industry, told The Times last year. “I don’t want to just regurgitate what our contemporary perspective is. I want the whole apparatus of opera to help us imagine alternatives.” The experimental opera company is celebrating Sharon’s 10-plus years of visionary work and marking his legacy with a new fund to support the next generation of art and opera. The fundraising event will include a cocktail reception and hors d’oeuvres, keynote toasts by longtime friends and collaborators, and a one-time-only performance of highlights from landmark works including 2013’s “Invisible Cities” and 2015’s “Hopscotch” — the presentation of which marks a return to its original location at the Bradbury Building. Thursday, 7 p.m. Bradbury Building, 304 S. Broadway, downtown L.A. theindustryla.org
‘FU@K OFF’
The Walter Maciel Gallery exhibition features works by 23 contemporary artists whose practices portray personal experiences and concerns likely to be attacked or neglected during President Trump’s second term. Curated by Monica Lundy and Walter Maciel, the show gives a platform to artists who fight for human rights, equality and inclusion, as well as artists concerned about environmental issues such as climate change, unhoused communities and women’s rights to privacy and health. The exhibition, which opened last weekend, is on view through March 1. Walter Maciel Gallery, 2642 S. La Cienega Blvd., Culver City. waltermacielgallery.com
‘Memoryhouse’
The Los Angeles Ballet’s full-evening work is composed of vignettes honoring those who died during the Holocaust. Created by LAB artistic director Melissa Barak, the abstract piece is set to Max Richter’s 2002 album of the same name, in its entirety and in the order it was meant to be heard. These four performances, taking place Thursday through Saturday, mark the beginning of a new partnership between the Wallis and LAB. Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org
— Ashley Lee
The week ahead: A curated calendar
MONDAY
Inception Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending 2010 science-fiction thriller, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Caine, screens in 4K.
7:30 p.m. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org
How I Learned What I Learned Actor Lance E. Nichols performs August Wilson’s theatrical memoir.
7 p.m. Rubicon Theatre Company, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura. rubicontheatre.org
TUESDAY
Emanuel Ax & Anthony McGill The pianist and clarinetist team up for an eclectic program featuring works by classical and contemporary composers.
8 p.m. Barclay Theatre, UC Irvine, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. philharmonicsociety.org
Elements and Energy With John Adams The composer conducts the L.A. Phil New Music Group in solo etudes, including works by Donnacha Dennehy, Missy Mazzoli, Noah Jenkins.
8 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
WEDNESDAY
Dance Camera West The 25th anniversary edition of the movement-inspired film festival opens with “Dance Map,” a documentary film inspired by La Ville Dansée and narrated by Benjamin Millepied.
Through Sunday. Barnsdall Gallery Theater, Barnsdall Art Park, 4800 Hollywood Blvd. dcw.eventive.org
Fake It Until You Make It Playwright Larissa FastHorse’s new comedy about rival Native American nonprofits unravels the absurdities of ambition and authenticity.
Through March 9. Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. centertheatregroup.org
Noises Off Anna D. Shapiro directs Michael Frayn’s influential backstage farce in a co-production with Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
Through March 2. Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood. geffenplayhouse.org
THURSDAY
Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar The L.A. Film Critics Assn. presents the 2021 comedy starring Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, plus a Q&A with director Josh Greenbaum, Mumolo and production designer Steve Saklad, moderated by Katie Walsh and Jen Yamato.
7:30 p.m. Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. egyptiantheatre.com
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and playwright Jules Feiffer died Jan. 17 in Richfield Springs, N.Y. of congestive heart failure. He was 95. In an obituary, former Times staff writer Elaine Woo writes that Feiffer was “one of the most widely read satirists in America,” casting a cynical eye on the personal and political anxieties, hypocrisies and disappointments of upper-middle-class urbanites.” He is survived by daughters Kate, Julie and Halley, who is also a playwright.
Times features columnist Todd Martens visited Chromasonic Field, an art installation staged in a downtown L.A. warehouse where guests wander through colorful spaces with light synchronized to sound frequencies. “For here, everything was slightly abstracted — a sonic hum gave way to hazy mixture of lights as I glanced at various ideas and impressions,” Martens writes. “I’ve felt peace like this before — a trip to Sequoia National Park comes to mind — but what I liked about Chromasonic was that any sense of place felt distorted.”
The Broad museum and its former chief operating officer have been hit with a second lawsuit in less than a week. This one, filed by its former director of facilities, alleges age and race discrimination, as well as retaliation and defamation.
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A portrait of tech billionaire Elon Musk — the self-appointed first buddy to President Trump — was removed from the astronautics gallery at the Deutsches Museum of Science and Technology after controversy surrounding a gesture he made at Trump’s inauguration ceremony that many believed to be a Nazi salute (Musk has denied that it was.)
Why is the new $TRUMP meme coin called an “artwork” on its website? ARTnews attempts to break it down for you. “In a LinkedIn post on Tuesday, Georg Bak, a digital art advisor and co-founder of the Digital Art Mile art fair, noted the disclaimer and declared that Trump had issued ‘the most expensive artwork ever created in the world.’ The meme coin, he went on, is valued far higher than Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi — the generally accepted highest-valued artwork, which sold for $450 million in 2017,” the article notes. “Because $TRUMP was classified as art by the issuer, Bak continued, it is therefore an ‘artwork co-owned by thousands of coin holders and can be regarded as a tokenized artwork.’”
And last but not least
Frigid temperatures can’t stop people in Minnesota from enjoying an art exhibit on a frozen lake.
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