Los Angeles' Playwrights' Arena Launches FLASH THEATRE L.A.

FLASH THEATER L.A. is a hybrid of flash mob and site-specific theater work that combines text, songs, rituals, dance, and music performed in public places produced by Playwrights' Arena.
Artistic Director, Jon Lawrence Rivera, hopes to engage young audiences to the theater by creating performances that suit their mindset. "The formalities of theater does not excite any young audience member whose life revolves around social networks like twitter and facebook" Rivera says. "You may present plays with hip-hop, socially relevant topics or new music. But when you cram that idea inside an old format: an 8 o'clock performance on a Saturday night, inside a dark theater where they have to get dressed, and turn off their cell phones during the show. - you lose their interest. That's just not the way they function these days."

Flash Theater L.A. is the antithesis of those formalities. There are performance pieces to be performed in public places all over Los Angeles. There are no set schedules, no set venues, and at no charge. Audiences can only find out WHEN and WHERE by following it on: twitter.com/#!/flashtheaterla or www.facebook.com/pages/Flash-Theater-LA/213967101985369

You have only one chance to experience this project without having to follow us on twitter or facebook - by joining us for the launch/preview of Flash Theater L.A. on Tuesday, September 27th, 2011, starting at 8:30 PM, on Spring Street (between 5th and 6th streets) in Downtown Los Angeles. This launch/preview is company devised and features Emmy Award-winning actors Christian Le Blanc and Michelle Stafford, both from television's "The Young and the Restless", the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles, the band Cityzen, a gospel choir, and a cast of more than 100 actors, singers, dancers, and stilt walkers.

Future Flash Theater L.A. performances will be written by LA-based playwrights in celebration of Playwrights' Arena's 20th Anniversary Season in 2012. The Flash Theater L.A. playwrights include: Luis Alfaro, Boni B. Alvarez, Alison de la Cruz, Evelina Fernandez, Tony Foster, Prince Gomolvilas, Jose Cruz Gonzales, Velina Hasu Houston, Tom Jacobson, Donald Jolly, Michael Kearns, Lucy Kim, Annette Lee, Jennifer Maisel, Leon Martell, Ken Narasaki, Laurel Ollstein, Michael Premsrirat, Janine Salinas, Gene Franklin Smith and Bernardo Solano.

For more information go to: www.playwrightsarena.org or (213) 627-4473

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