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Anthony Byrnes Host
Anthony Byrnes

host of 'Opening the Curtain'

Anthony Byrnes is a director, producer, educator, critic and arts administrator, based in Los Angeles, California. He has served as the founding Artistic Director of Burning Wheel & the Umbrella Company, a weekly columnist on KCRW, Director of Cultural Relations for the University of Southern California, and Associate Producer of New Play Development for Center Theatre Group.

Byrnes received an MFA from CalArts and currently teaches at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.

FROM Anthony Byrnes

Catching glimpses of a great play
Opening the Curtain

Catching glimpses of a great play It’s easy to see why Lynn Nottage’s play “Sweat” won a Pulitzer prize. “Sweat” chronicles what happens to a union factory town when the old way of doing things isn’t doing it anymore. It’s set mostly in a local dive bar. The kind of place you go after your shift to grab a beer. The kind of place you celebrate every birthday since - well, hell you can’t even remember it’s been so long.

3 MIN, 33 SEC Sep 17, 2018

The present soul of a classic
Opening the Curtain

The present soul of a classic The question of the classical soul is always looming in the air for the Getty Villa’s annual outdoor drama. Calling upon those classical Greek and Roman plays, one always wonders how academic, how true to form (and perhaps devoid of soul) will the work be? That question is particularly poignant when Anne Bogart and SITI Company are tackling the Greeks, as they are for the third time this year, with Euripides “Bacchae.”

3 MIN, 44 SEC Sep 10, 2018

Too little water; too much drama!
Opening the Curtain

Too little water; too much drama! It’s in roughly the third scene of Circle X’s world premiere of “Hole in the Sky” that the moon rises behind the actors.  Not a prop moon or a piece of scenery - the actual moon…because we’re sitting on the edge of horse stable deep in the Valley - Lake View Terrace to be exact.

3 MIN, 30 SEC Aug 27, 2018

‘Cabaret’ as cover band
Opening the Curtain

‘Cabaret’ as cover band The tricky thing with a musical like “Cabaret” is that it’s so iconic.

3 MIN, 17 SEC Aug 13, 2018

"Who gets to be a mom?"
Opening the Curtain

"Who gets to be a mom?" Yes, this is a play about new mothers but because child-rearing is inextricably linked to privilege and class it becomes about much, much more than that. To say this is play that could only be written by a women is like saying only a woman can give birth - both overly simplistic and more complicated than we can fully grasp.

3 MIN, 39 SEC Aug 06, 2018

Getting lost in a playwright’s mind
Opening the Curtain

Getting lost in a playwright’s mind With most plays and playwrights, you track story, character, plot. There’s a sense that while the source of the drama may have been the playwrights mind that’s not the setting. That’s not how it works with a Murray Mednick play.

3 MIN, 28 SEC Jul 30, 2018

Falling for young fruit
Opening the Curtain

Falling for young fruit You know how you feel about brussels sprouts? You know you should probably eat them. “A Month in the Country,” the Turgenev classic, is basically the theatrical equivalent of brussels sprouts. Fortunately, the Patrick Marber adaptation of “Three Days in the Country,” - is like the chef that throws in a little bacon into the brussels sprouts and makes you reconsider the whole affair.

3 MIN, 38 SEC Jul 23, 2018

Moms will do anything
Opening the Curtain

Moms will do anything The story behind the play "Hostage" is incredible.

3 MIN, 26 SEC Jul 16, 2018

Going crazy in the Valley
Opening the Curtain

Going crazy in the Valley To wrap your mind around Jonathan Muñoz Proulx's production of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" without going crazy yourself, you've got to separate the concept of the piece from the actual drama.

3 MIN, 28 SEC Jul 09, 2018

Easy endings to difficult problems?
Opening the Curtain

Easy endings to difficult problems? Dominique Morisseau's play "Skeleton Crew" is a feel good play about an auto plant closing. It takes place in the break room of a Detroit auto plant. Times are tough. Plants are closing all over the place. People are losing their jobs, their dreams. And there are rumors that this plant might be next. That's got this play’s quartet of African-American characters on edge.

3 MIN, 20 SEC Jul 02, 2018

Great play! Right theater?
Opening the Curtain

Great play! Right theater? I want to tell you to buy a ticket to this play right now but I also need to tell you to buy a ticket up front because the Ahmanson is a less than ideal theater for this play.

3 MIN, 25 SEC Jun 25, 2018

A little stinky is okay - but too much and the whole thing's a mess
Opening the Curtain

A little stinky is okay - but too much and the whole thing's a mess It's June - which for Los Angeles intimate theater means it's time for the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Now, if you've never done the fringe, it's a bit like doing a tasting menu with a drunk chef.  Everything happens quickly, some things are brilliant, some experiments are catastrophes, and almost everything goes better with a wine pairing.

3 MIN, 22 SEC Jun 11, 2018

An unsatisfying journey
Opening the Curtain

An unsatisfying journey Mfoniso Udofia's play at Boston Court is not a satisfying play. In the opening scene of “Her Portmanteau,” Iniabasa certainly does not look satisfied. She's at arrivals at JFK - she's just flown here from Nigeria with a big tattered suitcase, the “portmanteau” of the title.

3 MIN, 18 SEC Jun 04, 2018

Perverse magic of LA’s intimate theaters
Opening the Curtain

Perverse magic of LA’s intimate theaters You know that moment at the bookstore when you're browsing the serious, literary classics and the salacious cover of something pulpy catches your eye? It's that same impulse that has you order a plate of cheese fries. You know it's not going to be good for you, but god is it satisfying. "Forever Bound" by Steven Apostolina is the theatrical equivalent of that moment.

3 MIN, 27 SEC May 28, 2018

Better than Cats
Opening the Curtain

Better than Cats Two facts you need to know before you go see "Soft Power" David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori's new musical at the Ahmanson. One, weeks after the 2016 election, playwright David Henry Hwang was walking home in Brooklyn when he was brutally and mysteriously stabbed in the neck - this really happened. Two, that election? Hillary Clinton didn't win. Both these facts are critical dramaturgical departure points for "Soft Power."

3 MIN, 34 SEC May 21, 2018

Straying from a mission to fulfill a promise
Opening the Curtain

Straying from a mission to fulfill a promise About 10 minutes into Antaeus Theatre Company's production of "Native Son", a black man accidentally kills a drunk white heiress. With most structurally sound plays, that would be enough. We have our moral crisis. We have a protagonist and a powerful question - "what will society do when a black man in 1939 accidentally kills a white woman?"

3 MIN, 26 SEC May 14, 2018

Recommended

Shaking up the USDA, 'The Beef Cookbook' and 'Tartine All Day'
Good Food

Shaking up the USDA, 'The Beef Cookbook' and 'Tartine All Day' Peggy Lowe explains why Trump’s pick for USDA Secretary is rattling rural America. Dario Cecchini talks future plans for Chianti ramen, and Richard Turner shares cuts from “PRIME: The Beef Cookbook.” Writer Matthew Sedacca looks at the controversy behind liquid smoke. Jonathan Gold tries Chengdu-style dishes, and Elisabeth Prueitt of Tartine fills us in on the latest. Plus, chef Michael Beckman shares a recipe for cactus confit.

56 MIN, 46 SEC Jun 03, 2017

George Saunders: Lincoln in the Bardo (Part I)
Bookworm

George Saunders: Lincoln in the Bardo (Part I) Lincoln in the Bardo dramatizes a grieving President Lincoln as he visits the grave of his beloved son Willie, who died at age eleven. In the novel, the buried dead believe they're not dead -- "they're sick and refer to their coffins as "sick boxes."

28 MIN, 28 SEC Aug 31, 2017

Securing Public Spaces, Super Wealthy Asians
Design and Architecture

Securing Public Spaces, Super Wealthy Asians Vehicles are increasingly being used as weapons, as seen in the London Bridge attack over the weekend and in New York’s Times Square last month. The Compton-based company Calpipe is designing security bollards to help make public spaces safer. And novelist Kevin Kwan satirizes the “crazy rich” Asian jet set and their luxurious tastes in his latest book, “Rich People Problems.”

28 MIN, 31 SEC Jun 06, 2017

Jordan Peele: Get Out
The Treatment

Jordan Peele: Get Out Comedian Jordan Peele joins Elvis Mitchell to discuss his directorial debut Get Out. (REPEAT)

28 MIN, 34 SEC Nov 30, 2017

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