We’re heavy on the site-responsive, immersive, and interactive shows in this week’s roundup. So, if you’re into having sweet nothings whispered into your ear while you sip cocktails with a stranger, don’t hedge your bets at the local watering hole. Hit one of these shows for some sure fire action. Or, just be a wallflower and watch the fun fly by.
As always, the weekly roundup isn’t endorsements, as we’ve not personally seen everything. It’s our way of keeping you in the loop about all the fun work swinging through the clubs, warehouses, and taverns.
SITE-RESPONSIVE
THE BLIND DATE PROJECT
Ongoing, various dates
21+
At Edinburgh International Fringe through August
Los Angeles Venue: Three Clubs
1123 Vine St.
Hollywood
$20
One show we missed last week in our Edinburgh roundup was Bojana Novakovic’s “The Blind Date Project.” Running for years, Novakovic is currently in Edinburgh with her surprising, touching, and hilarious show.
Desperate and looking for love, Anna (AFI award-winner Bojana Novakovic, recent star of Fox series RAKE and Showtime’s SHAMELESS) is a woman at a karaoke bar waiting for a date she matched with online. Each night, her date is a different guest performer (male or female) whose identity is unknown to her until the moment of performance. There is no script. All dialogue is created on the spot by the performers, and directions are sent via text messages and phone calls by the director. The ending is undefined, so what happens is entirely up in the air. This is an untethered night of theater (and karaoke) set in a real bar where anything can—and does—happen. No two shows are ever the same.
Check the show’s Facebook page for the latest guest/dates.
FOR TICKETS IN LOS ANGELES, RSVP: THEBLINDDATEPROJECTLA@GMAIL.COM
IMMERSIVE/INTERACTIVE
THE GRAND PARADISE
Third Rail Projects
Extended through December 31, 2016!
383 Troutman Street, Brooklyn
$115 – $150, 7:00pm and 10:30pm performances
Group rates available. See website for details.
A pas de deux of desire and death, a midlife crisis, a coming of age, and a search for the Fountain of Youth at the resort of the eternally brokenhearted.
Set in those hazy and culturally liminal years of the late 1970s becoming the 1980s, The Grand Paradise is a tropical resort that purports to be the home of the original, genuine Fountain of Youth whose waters promise to quench our deepest longings. Greeted with a tropical drink, a garland of flowers, and an overly-cheerful activities director, visitors encounter the resort’s resident population; characters who embody the era’s shifting and blurring values — a rogue’s gallery of eccentrics, hustlers, eternal youths, gods, monsters, disco queens, and con men. Guests are invited to explore the resort and beaches, watch a floorshow, follow performers into one-on-one encounters, and trade their faded ideals for shiny new illusions.
To learn more about Third Rail, read the Extended Play feature HERE.
IMMERSIVE/INTERACTIVE/FOOD
THE GLASS MENAGERIE
by Tennessee Willams
Presented by The Williams Project & Cafe Nordo
August 17-September 3
You’re invited to a dinner party hosted by Amanda Wingfield. Presented as a co-production between The Williams Project and Café Nordo, this reimagining of Tennessee Williams haunting family drama will put you inside the small, St. Louis apartment where one family struggles to survive the Depression and each other.
Your ticket includes one of the greatest plays in the American canon, a specialty cocktail inspired by the play, and a three-course meal of home-cooked, locally sourced, Southern Hospitality.
MENU
Appetizer:
Mama Lils Pimento Cheese Finger Sandwiches
Supper:
Mississippi Pot Roast
Black Eyed Peas
Collards with Ham hock
Mustard Greens
Buttermilk Cornbread
Dessert:
Gooey Butter Cake
