La Jolla Playhouse Blog

Here’s the second installment of my recent conversation with the HOOVER COMES ALIVE! Playwright (and part-time tweeter for La Jolla Playhouse).
Gabriel Greene: A lot of the fun in HOOVER COMES ALIVE! arises from the mash-up between presidential politics and rock and roll — particularly the idea that Hoover chooses to emulate Elvis Presley’s 1968 Comeback [...]

During a break from rehearsals for HOOVER COMES ALIVE!, I got the chance to chat with HOOVER playwright Sean Cunningham*. Here’s the first installment of our conversation.
Gabriel Greene: What was the inspiration for this project? What brought Herbert Hoover into your consciousness?
Sean Cunningham: The inspiration was that Alex Timbers [who co-conceived and is directing HOOVER] [...]

The action of Restoration takes place over the course of a year, during which time art restorer Giulia performs a gentle cleaning on Michelangelo’s sculpture of David. Though the actual restoration strove to be “invisible” to visitors, our intrepid props department wanted Giulia’s work to be subtle yet noticeable to an audience. Which means that [...]

Anytime you produce a world premiere, it’s complicated. In addition to the typical work of getting a play ready for audiences (figuring out the actors’ blocking; line memorization; implementing the lighting, costume, scenic and sound designs to create a cohesive whole), there’s the extra wrinkle of the play being a work-in-progress; of having a playwright [...]