Press Release - RISE at Best of Hollywood Fringe 2012
June 29, 2012FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 29, 2012
Contact: Aaron Lyons 310-902-3142
Email: [email protected]
ZENITH ENSEMBLE PRESENTS THE AWARD WINNING PLAY RISE FOR THE BEST OF HOLLYWOOD FRINGE JULY 2012.
WHAT: RISE
WHO: ZENITH ENSEMBLE
WHERE: Theatre Asylum – 6320 Santa Monica Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90038.
WHEN: Sunday 7/15@3pm, Sat...
Press Review
June 29, 2012Willard Manus – www.totaltheater.com:
Zenith Ensemble, one of L.A.’s newest theater companies, really put itself on the map with its production of Rise at the 2012 Hollywood Fringe Festival. Written by first-time playwright Cal Barnes and featuring two dynamic actors, Brett Colbeth and Gowrie Hayden, Rise has a raw, visceral intensity about it, an intensity that is maintained over the entire course of its 60-minute length.
Colbeth plays Henry Donner, pastor of the New Heart Church in Los Angeles, an ex-rock musician and junkie who has found God. Hayden plays Alexandra Riverton, a beautiful young woman who shows up unannounced. The smug, bible-spouting pastor pretends not to know her, but the hard-edged Alexandra soon demolishes that lie and makes him face up to the past they once shared.
Barnes keeps going deeper into character, revealing not just the passion and love they felt for each other, but the flaws, weaknesses and contradictions that eventually...
Press Review
June 29, 2012Bob Leggett –www.examiner.com
You come across a great play once in a blue moon. Rise is definitely one of those great plays.
It is most remarkable and noteworthy that this is the first play drafted by writer Cal Barnes. I believe he may just be the next Arthur Miller.
The direction of Aaron Lyons is also quite evident, and continues his reputation as an exemplary performer and director. Last year he starred in Pulp Shakespeare, which was selected for extension during the Best of Fringe.
But the true stars of this production are Brett Colbeth as a young successful preacher and Gowrie Hayden as the lady from his past.
Growing up in church, I could totally relate to his struggles to put the past behind him and change his destiny. I also understood the motivation to bring him back down a few notches.
The story, taken quite literally from the Book of Job, was painstakingly crafted and performed. It was impossible not to feel for the characters, to want...
Press Review
June 20, 2012Paul Birchall – LA Weekly – GO!
First time playwright Cal Barnes’s fierce drama – an auspicious theatrical debut — explores the sometimes vague difference between seeking redemption and living in denial. A young, kindly intentioned preacher (Brett Colbeth) counsels a troubled young woman (Gowrie Hayden), and, while at first he can’t understand her inexplicable venomous attitude towards him, she gradually reveals dark and dreadful past events that linked the pair. Barnes’s writing possesses a thoughtful maturity that meshes good, evocative dialogue with a nuanced sense of philosophical ambiguity. Director Aaron Lyons’s production is feverishly intense, with the stage almost not being big enough to contain Hayden and Colbeth’s crackling chemistry. The evolution of Colbeth’s character – by the end, he resembles nothing of the figure he was in the play’s opening scenes – is particularly masterful. Zenith...
Press Review
June 16, 2012MR Hunter – Eye Spy LA:
Intense and Edgy: “Rise”
Cal Barnes’ two-hander is a wild ride pitting former junkies with a past in a room that ticks down the time like a bomb ready to explode. It doesn’t hurt that his actors and director are all from last year’s ‘Best of Fringe’ “Pulp Shakespeare” with Brett Colbeth charmingly playing Henry Donner, an evangelical preacher wit…h a Bible and a former rocker sensibility and Gowrie Hayden posing as a curious stranger with a husky, temptress quality. Intrigued, Henry agrees to a spiritual Q&A that turns ugly, dark and violent despite his efforts to put his past and his demons behind him. What begins as a jilted lover seeking answers and apologies segues into a blistering, biting power play of escalating emotional proportions. Barnes deftly hurdles over exposition while still keeping the audience guessing as to what will happen next. Both characters are a fascinating composite of faith, but what they hold true isn’t...
Press Review
June 12, 2012Richard Adams – The World Socialist Website:
RISE, scripted by Cal Barnes and deftly directed by Aaron Lyons, stars Brett Colbeth and Gowrie Hayden, is the most polished, narratively engaging, and morally complex play I’ve seen in the Festival to date. The show I saw was billed as a preview but felt as if it had been playing for weeks and whose actors had been living in the skins of these characters for their entire lives.
Zenith Ensemble Presents RISE
May 05, 2012FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 4, 2012
Contact: Aaron Lyons 310-902-3142
Email: [email protected]
ZENITH ENSEMBLE PRESENTS THE WORLD PREMIERE PLAY RISE AT THE
HOLLYWOOD FRINGE FESTIVAL JUNE 2012.
WHAT: RISE
WHO: ZENITH ENSEMBLE
WHERE: Theatre Asylum – 6320 Santa Monica Blvd. LA 90038
WHEN: Preview Perfo...