Kevin Delin

Encapsulated Review (full review at Bitter Lemons): Making an encore appearance at the 2014 Hollywood Fringe Festival, Theatre Unleashed’s FRIENDS LIKE THESE attempts to provide an answer to the question "How do high school shootings happen?" With the play's ending revealed at the start, writer Gregory Crafts can focus us, instead, on the events that lead to the final tragedy. The strength of FRIENDS LIKE THESE is Crafts’ ability to capture both the pace and awkwardness of high school. Neverthel... full review

Encapsulated Review (full review at Bitter Lemons): HAMLET MAX may be co-presented by Schkapf and Sacred Fools Theater, but this is Jacob Sidney’s project all the way. He not only has adapted the material from Shakespeare’s Hamlet but also serves as producer, director, and lead actor. HAMLET MAX’s visual presentation is the most unique quality of this production. Using projections of original artwork by Hillary Bauman (which were then subtlety animated by Chris Hutchings), Sidney turns the en... full review

Despite the production’s unevenness and meandering storytelling, MisShapen might be worth a look. The cast’s enthusiasm is undeniable and many of the show’s individual pieces work well and deserve an audience. I’m hoping the artists will be able to reshape this material and elevate it to the bar set by their magnificent finale which will not soon be forgotten. Full review at Bitter Lemons: http://losangeles.bitter-lemons.com/2013/06/29/fringe-review-misshapen/... full review

I wasn’t expecting all 25 of these sketches to be funny (to me). Comedy is a tough thing; people have different notions of humor. Even the best of the classic Saturday Night Live shows only had about 50% funny content in any given evening. But the hit-to-miss ratio in the 2013 version of 25 plays per hour is unsafe at any speed. I’m hoping next year’s model will be better. Full review at Bitter Lemons: http://losangeles.bitter-lemons.com/2013/06/26/fringe-review-25-plays-per-hour/... full review

The Elephant Theatre Company has used its home-field advantage to stage a show during the Hollywood Fringe Festival that is so professional it could reasonably be considered a tryout for an offering later in their regular season. If that happens, I’ll be extremely excited to see the moody, brooding, and complex The Boneyard & Talisman a second time. In the meantime, this is one current production that should be on all Fringers – and all non-Fringers – short-list right now. Full review at Bitter... full review

Improv like you've never seen before. Every night is different, of course, but expect to see a violin - er, viola - on stage, played rather well. Also expect physical interpretative dance that becomes improv in a surprisingly seamless way. The entire troupe is great, standouts for the night I saw include Tyler Watson who has a truly bizarre understanding of his physical being, Gabe McKinney who transformed himself into a reptilian demon worthy of Edward Gorey, Tim Reid's philosophizing about the... full review

The modest production requirements of [title of show] (“4 chairs… and a keyboard”) and the strong, playful, music theater cast assembled ironically allow this particular Hollywood Fringe show staging of a fringe show about the creation of a fringe show to avoid the negative connotations often associated with a fringe show. In fact, this solid, well-performed [title of show] will easily please those outside the Fringe’s core audience. And what more could a good post-modernist ask for? Full revi... full review

Cedar’s formidable characterization and storytelling are best served when freed from the restrictive prose of Orwell’s political satires. I would have been completely happy, and no less aware of the message on human dignity, to spend the entire hour – and quite possibly more – watching him perform from just Orwell’s more intimate and personal memoir. Full review at Bitter Lemons: http://losangeles.bitter-lemons.com/2013/06/16/fringe-review-orwellian/... full review