Blacks featured in two A.V. plays
‘Go Ask Alice’ and ‘The Crucible’
A trio of African American actors are sharing their theatrical talents with Antelope Valley audiences as cast members in several plays.
Leandra Marshall and Mahlea Smith are currently appearing in the It’s Only Tuesday Production of “Go Ask Alice,” which continues on stage through Saturday at the Arbor Court Community Theatre.
The play is the true story of a teenager who inadvertently gets involved in taking drugs, runs away and never makes it back.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the curtain is at 7 p.m. Tickets range from $10 to $15, and the theater is located at 858 Jackman St., Lancaster.
Chris Reese will be featured in the production company’s next show—“The Crucible”—which comes to the Arbor Court Community Theatre stage nightly at 7 Feb. 9-18.
“The Crucible,” a 1952 play by American playwright Arthur Miller, is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place during 1692 and 1693.
Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the United States government blacklisted accused communists.
Miller, himself, was questioned in 1956 and convicted of “contempt of Congress” for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.
In addition to his role in “The Crucible,” Reese has been cast in such plays as “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Our Town” and “Pride and Prejudice.”
A Howard University graduate, Reese’s ultimate dream is to one day become a force within the entertainment industry behind the scenes and out front. He has already started working on that goal through his acting, stand-up comedy, writing and filmmaking.
It’s Only Tuesday Production is also holding auditions for “Dora the Explorer, Pirate Adventures” on Feb. 18 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Arbor Court Community Theatre.
Those interested in the roles of Dora and Diego must be 11 to 25 years old. Actors should also prepare a one-minute song to accompaniment tracks. Any Disney piece would be appropriate. A dance number and cold reads will also be part of the audition process.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — In light of a 63-year-old woman being mauled to death by pit bulls in the high desert community of Littlerock, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors today asked staffers today to evaluate a proposed change in the county’s definition of a dangerous dog.
Supervisor Michael Antonovich, who said “four killer pit bulls” attacked Pamela Devitt, called for the change.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — High surf pounded the coast and fierce winds howled across the Southland today, with gusts topping 70 mph whipping the Saugus area and 50 mph in Lancaster.
As the nation slowly emerges from the Great Recession, the economic numbers for the Antelope Valley show a much higher rate of sustained unemployment and devalued housing prices in both Lancaster and Palmdale.
The five-year economic downturn saw much of the area’s the job losses come from the construction industry and retail sales. At the beginning of the year, Lancaster had an unemployment rate of 14.4 percent while Palmdale fared better at 11.1 percent. In 2008 the two cities lost a little fewer than 1,000 jobs combined, according to a 2009 report.
A 2013 bipartisan poll from the Democratic Hart Research firm and the Republican Public Opinion Strategies firm shows that 77 percent of American voters feel immigration reform is good for the United States.
One study, conducted by the Center for the Study of Immigration at the University of Southern California, shows that if the estimated 8.5 million lawful permanent residents became U.S. citizens, their earnings alone over the next decade would generate somewhere between $21 to $45 billion.
After years of planning, followed by delays, lawsuits, recession and a slow economic recovery, the California High Speed Rail Project will at last begin construction this summer. The first major leg will stretch from Madera to Fresno in the Central Valley, and then extend 114 miles south to Bakersfield. A second portion will run from Palmdale, through Victorville and onto Las Vegas, Nev.
