Playwright David Ives’ insightful offbeat comedy play is in good hands with College of the Desert (COD) Theatre Department Assistant Professor and production honcho, Russell “Tres” Dean.  Friday night Dean and his cast of highly talented and entertaining performers served up a tasty dish of comedy, creative satire, and a first rate production of “All in the Timing”. The show does justice to Ives’ quirky view of life and to those who are driven in their pursuit for relationships and connections.

According to the program notes, Dean is huge fan of playwright Ives, and with good reason.   Both are creative thinkers who “work outside the box”.  I still fondly remember seeing productions at the Palm Canyon Theatre entitled “The Big Show”, created and directed by an indefatigable, brilliant young Improv director named Tres Dean.  What most of his fellow performers in the Valley used to say about him was “… is there any way we can bottle his energy and gifts and drink freely from it from time to time?” Thankfully, all that talent, energy and creativity is now channeled toward producing interesting and challenging shows on the stages of the College of the Desert.  The school and the theatre arts students, and their audiences are fortunate and are definitely in for a treat.

      “All in the Timing”, is blessed with a cast of eighteen high-energy performers who are both fearless and talented.  It’s a delightful show to begin COD’s 2012/2013 Season.

When a show has an outstanding ensemble, like this show, it’s always tough on the critic who then has to mention or highlight a certain performance or performances in the review (but who really cares about the critics anyway?). In any production there are always a few who stand out.  That doesn’t mean the rest of the cast didn’t stand out.  It just means critics have publishers with space limitations.

With that being said, Chris Hoggatt and Paulette Bartlett who portray Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin respectively, are scene shifters who set the tone of what is to follow with flair, energy, and style.  Miss Bartlett, doesn’t utter a word on stage, but is an important actor in the show. Hoggatt, an actor whom I suspect, can tap-dance up a storm when the opportunity arises, brings an earnest freshness as Jack in his scenes with Natasha Garcia, as Jill.

Jennifer Kiehl as Mrs. Trotsky, and as Ruth, has turned into a solid actor over the last three years and shines in this production.  Ivan Ortega in his scenes with Miss Kiehl, also scores.  Shawn Abramowitz as Leon Trotsky, wears that pick axe sticking out of his head (thanks to Technical Director and props wizard, Diamond Braverman) with real flair.

Matthew Reyes as Al, does a nice turn in his scene “The Philadelphia”, as does Liridona Leti as Betty, in hers.  Anthony Gomez and Hannah Seals deliver nice performances in the “Universal Language” skit.

There are many clever directorial touches in this production. Creatively executed set changes and overall traffic management, being just two.  If I had an issue with this production it would only be that it runs a tad too long.  Perhaps, the six short pieces and the two set pieces – “Ancient History, Parts One and Two” – could be juxtaposed or juggle in a way where the entire show runs two hours.  But then, I’m nitpicking.  It’s a very entertaining evening of theatre regardless of length.

“All in the Timing” performs at Theatre Too, on the campus of College of the Desert through October 28th.  Call 760-773-2565 for reservations and tickets.

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In response to a blackout from the mainstream media and the American political elite, RT is happy be giving American voters coverage of this year’s third-party presidential debate, hosted by Larry King and a panel including our own Thom Hartmann.

On Tuesday night, RT was one of only a handful of media outlets to broadcast the debate moderated by multi-award winning broadcast journalist Larry King. Organized by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, candidates from the Constitution, Green, Justice and Libertarian parties sounded off on the issues facing American voters – without having to worry about towing Democratic or Republican party lines.

The third-party candidates’ debate statements, as diverse as they were, came as a breath of fresh air to the growing portion of Americans who see little substantive difference between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. And as much as they disagreed, there was near unanimity on one general concept: that the Democratic and Republican parties represent corporate interests, not the average American.

Speaking to RT, Free and Equal Elections Foundation founder Christina Tobin said,“We’re going to shift the power back to the people, back to the origins of the Constitution, which doesn’t even mention parties or corporations.”

And despite having their platforms largely silenced by the two-party system’s ruling elites, Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode and Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson plan to continue their campaigns through Election Day. Since their thoughts on critical issues have been muted by the mainstream media, however, their visions for America have been left without an outlet.

The debate changed that.

Read the whole story and more photos…

Dezart Performs, the Palm Springs-based theatrical performing company co-founded by Daniela Ryan and Michael Shaw, raised the curtain on its 5^th Season with a Fund Raiser held Saturday, October 20, 2012, at the acting group’s permanent home, the Palm Springs Woman’s Club.

The audience of some sixty patrons of the arts, and theatre supporters of Dezart Performs, were treated to a wonderful stage reading of A.R. Gurney’s classic performance piece “Love Letters”.  Hollywood stars Donna Pescow and Robert Hayes, delivered tender, poignant, and sensitive performances as Melissa Gardner and Andy Ladd.

Playfully directed by Lenny Ripps, Gurney’s two-character play is an oft-told tale about lifetime friends who drop into one another’s lives, from time to time, via letters to each other. Although, it’s set in an earlier and somewhat gentler time in America – the 1930’and ‘40s – Gurney’s dialogue and insight into the world of privileged, preppy New England society, still resonates, even with today’s 47 percenters and those old enough to remember those days.  Core American values and emotions, transcend time and class.

Donna Pescow, of the TV series “Angie” and the iconic movie “Saturday Night Fever”, brought an appealing and sympathetic quality to her performance as Melissa.  Pescow transcended the “poor misunderstood little rich girl” label and made her performance a finely nuanced little gem.

Robert Hays, of “Airplane” fame (who kept setting up the Leslie Neilsen lines “…and don’t call me Shirley”), has lost none of his boyish, wide-eyed charm as Andy.  He grew steadily in his Andy persona, ultimately delivering a full bodied and confident friend and lover to his life long friend Melissa.  The onstage chemistry between Pescow and Hays was genuine and real.  They’ve performed together in the TV series “Angie” several years back and continue to bump into one another on various guest-starring roles on TV.

Following the evening’s “Love Letters” performance, guests were treated to a champagne and dessert get together with the evening’s two stars.

Also, it should be noted that the absolutely “decadent desserts” catered by Trio Restaurant of Palm Springs did indeed, have zero calories in them (yeah, sure, but boy, were they scrumptious!).

Up next, the Dezart Performs group presents, the winners of the 4^th Annual Play Reading Series: “Feeding Time at the Human House”, “The Blind Date”, and “Mourning Glory” in fully mounted stage performances, beginning Thursday, November 29 through December 9 at the Palm Springs Woman’s Club.  For reservations and ticket information call 760-322-0179.