This is an interesting article on Oakwood apartment complex – and the young talent that comes out of there. Many of Studio C Artists’ youngest clients currently live or have at one time lived at Oakwood, when they and their families first moved here.

Studio C’s Michael Sonntag was interviewed for the piece as well:

“Michael Sonntag, an actor and producer, charges £150 a month for two-hour weekly lessons. But for exceptional prospects, he offers “scholarships”.

“It shouldn’t be about the money, so we do what we can to help,” he says. “There are people out there who take advantage of parents. I’ve had families come to me who’ve paid thousands of dollars for worthless courses that guarantee jobs – which turn out to be just work as extras.”"

“It’s a solid, funny show, and I’m really proud of it because it was a huge undertaking,” says Mary Beth of her play Murder at the Howard Johnson’s.

Studio C Artists

“I’ve been married to him on the show as long as I’ve been married to my real husband,” says Mary Beth of her former DAYS co-star Stephen Nichols (ex-Steve; now Tucker, Y&R).

Getty Images/David Livingston

It’s been reported that Kayla is returning with her son…

Yes. She comes with her son Joey – but Steve has moved to Genoa City and he’s changed his name to Tucker! So let’s just be honest about that! (laughing)

Do you keep in touch with Stephen Nichols?

Yes. He came to opening night of the play and surprised me. We’ve been friends for so long. I met him three or four months after I got married at 24 years old. I’ve been married to him on the show as long as I’ve been married to my real husband.

Stephen is a really good actor. I think fans should follow him on Y&R. I think they should follow an actor they like, regardless of the character they’re playing. Sometimes people get too stuck on a particular character.

You’re also doing a few web soaps, The Bay: The Series and Pretty. What’s that experience been like?

I just did one episode of Pretty. Genie Francis, who I’ve been friends with for a long time, since we met at DAYS, she did it. It’s this hilarious, goofy thing. It’s about these beauty pageant women. It’s just the goofiest thing. You have to check it out.

The Bay is back this month. We’re just having so much fun doing it. These episodes are leaps and bounds from the first couple of episodes we did where we were all a little like, what have we gotten ourselves into? [Mary Beth stars in The Bay and is also a producer]

It’s turned into a great production and it’s really a labor of love for everyone involved. When something needs done everyone pitches it to get it done. Network soaps are more corporate. They’re big with a lot of people involved. You shoot on a set with four cameras. There are costumers, makeup people, all these people doing different jobs. It’s not like that when you do a webseries. This is shot with one camera and it’s beautiful. It looks like film. It’s more intimate. There’s only a couple of people on board. The person who wrote it, Gregori Martin, he also directs and produces it. We can all collaborate and it’s way more personal. The writer/creator/director is sitting right there while you’re doing it and so they’re always there with the answers when you need them.

It’s like doing ensemble theater. I get to work with people I love like Charlie Shaughnessy (ex-Shane, DAYS) and Matt Ashford (Jack, DAYS). I’ve known them for such a long time. This gives us another avenue to work in.

You’ve worked in soaps for a long time, first DAYS and As the World Turns. What did you think about ATWT being canceled, and then All My Children and One Life to Live?

It’s crazy. The soaps are such a standard, they were always there. I know for me, I watched The Young and the Restless when I was a kid and then when I was pregnant with one of my kids, I was bed-ridden for a week, and I turn it on and there’s Nikki and Victor, the same as they were twenty, thirty years ago. Is it a dying breed? It would be nice if it wasn’t. I still think the ratings are there and I know the fans are there.

I don’t know why SOAPnet didn’t take some of them. They say they’re so expensive to produce. I really don’t know much about that end of things. I hope there is a place for it. DAYS looks like it’s sticking around. Y&R, B&B and GH are all very solid shows. So maybe that’s what it will be for a while.

Now we’ll have to see how All My Children and One Life to Live do when they cross over to the Internet. There are these other Internet soaps [like Venice, Pretty, The Bay] and it will be interesting to see if this becomes more mainstream and brings soaps into this new frontier.

I love these shows. As the World Turns was my favorite group of people to work with. They were such hard workers, just a great group of people. It was such a treat for me to go there from California and hang out in Brooklyn. Now a lot of the actors have moved out here and some have stayed in New York and done theater.

Change is always scary but it’s also often good so we’ll have to see what happens. As actors we get very comfortable on shows like that. So it’s good to shake things up sometimes, but I hate to see them go away. These shows are such a big part of people’s lives.

You’ve also still got Mary Beth’s Apple Pie Company. How is that going?

The big sweep is on right now. You can get the pies at the Williams-Sonoma website, through Christmas. If you want to pick up pies in the greater L.A. area, you can go to Mary Beth’s Apple Pie Company website to find markets. It’s been six years, it’s crazy. I sold three-thousand pies on QVC in seven minutes! It was an insane beginning. I do the single serving pies now. I like them better. When I was making the big apple pies, it was a lot harder to do. I’d like to try to get into more markets and that’s something I’m working on. I might be able to take it somewhere but for now the pies come frozen, and my thing is ‘I’ll make it, you bake it.’ They’re still handmade so there’s no machine that can pop them out, which would be great because it’s a lot of work.

You’re already so busy, is there anything else you’d like to get involved with, any other projects you’ve got coming up?

I just did an episode of Body of Proof. And I’m trying to find ways to take my artistic ability and do something good with it. I believe you have to hustle and throw yourself out in a million directions and do something different. I’m not a person who sits still very well and so I’m looking for different avenues to go down all the time. I spent a year relandscaping my yard and when I got to the last tree, I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to have to come up with something else to do. What’s next?’ Friends tell me I should open a pie-ice cream shop. You never know. But I’m not sure that’s something I’d really want to do.

I entertain it all. My husband always said, ‘Say yes to everything,’ which can be dangerous for me! My last kid just went to college so I think it’s important for me to have other things that keep me going. It’s important to carve out something that’s just yours.

For tickets or more information on Mary Beth’s play Murder at the Howard Johnson’s, go to the Event Brite website.

About.com just did a really nice piece on Mary Beth Evans, who is currently starring in Studio C Artists Production of “Murder at the Howard Johnson’s”. The show is running for two more weeks – tonight at 8pm, this Saturday, and next Thursday and Friday – so if you haven’t had a chance to catch the show, don’t forget to get your tickets before it’s sold out!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Mary Beth Evans’ “Murder at the Howard Johnson’s” Opens Sept. 22; Same Day She Returns To DAYS

Studio C Artists has announced a six-week run of “Murder at the Howard Johnson’s,” written by Ron Clark and Sam Bobrick, directed by John Coppola, and starring Mary Beth Evans (THE BAY; DAYS OF OUR LIVES), Wilson Green, and Patrick Muñoz.

The show, produced by Michelle Appezzato, with Executive Producer Michael Sonntag, opens Thursday, September 22nd at 8 p.m., and continues on alternating dates through October 28th at the Studio C Artists performance space along Theatre Row in Hollywood. Opening night just happens to be the same day Evans starts shooting at DAYS OF OUR LIVES again.

“Murder at the Howard Johnson’s” is an uproarious screwball comedy, about a love triangle and three murder plots that all take place at a Howard Johnson’s Motor Inn. This production is set during the height of the Great Depression – times are tough, desperation is in the air – and Arlene’s passion-less marriage to Paul has her wanting for more. Much more. That’s where Mitchell comes in – he’s their dentist, and also Arlene’s secret lover. Act one – Arlene and Mitchell meet at the HoJo’s to kill Paul, but fail. Act two – Arlene and Paul reunite, and meet at the motel to kill Mitchell; they fail too. Act three – Paul and Mitchell, who have now both been dumped, pair up at the Howard Johnson’s to do-in Arlene. It’s a madcap farce that will be sure to keep you laughing!

“Enough laugh lines, mirth provoking situations and extravagant sight gags to outfit two rapid fire farces of the absurd.” – Variety

“A holiday of laughter… Beautifully polished, very funny very American comedy.” – WNBC TV

Mary Beth Evans has been acting since fourth grade, when she was voted Best Actress in her class. Since then, she is most known for her performance as Kayla Brady Johnson on NBC’s daytime drama DAYS OF OUR LIVES. Mary Beth’s stage credits include Hotel Paradiso and All in Favor Say No at the South Coast Repertory, All This and Moonlight, Love Letters, Night of the Iguana, The Tangled Snarl, and most recently Barbara’s Wedding at the Blank Theatre’s 2nd Stage. Her other television credits include contract roles on General Hospital and As the World Turns, and numerous guest spots including Body Of Proof, Criminal Minds, Nip/Tuck, Monk, and Law & Order SVU. She is currently producing and starring as socialite Sara Garrett in the web soap THE BAY: The Series. In addition to acting, Mary Beth is also founder and president of Mary Beth’s Apple Pie Company – her pies are now featured in the Williams-Sonoma catalogue during the Thanksgiving-Christmas holidays.

Wilson Green grew up in Burbank, CA in the shadow of the studios, so a profession in acting wasn’t ever far away. Over the course of a varied career, he has amassed some significant credits – making appearances in numerous films, national commercials, and daytime dramas. Most notably, he created the role of “Mr. Matt’s Dad” in the television series Myself. His previous stage work includes five appearances in the Blank Theatre’s Young Playwrights’ Festival, three at the Blank’s Living Room Series, and one in the Blank Theatre’s Main Stage Production of Dickie & Babe. Most recently, Wilson starred in Barbara’s Wedding at the Blank’s 2nd Stage.

In addition to being a prolific voice-over actor and coach, Patrick Muñoz has a long list of credits in the theater, as well as on film and television. Patrick has appeared at the Laguna Playhouse in Who’s Hot/Who’s Not, Don’t Dress for Dinner, Othello, Beauty and the Beast, and The Liar. He has also performed in Lulu (Pacific Resident Theater), Measure for Measure (Morgan-Wixson), The Odd Couple (Meadow Brook), A Funny Thing Happened…, You Never Can Tell, Merry Wives of Windsor (Occidental Theater Festival), 12th Night, Macbeth, The Tempest (Grand Canyon Shakespeare), Ballad of the Blacksmith, and The Way of the World (The Old Globe). Patrick’s TV/Film credits include Streets, The Agency, The Street King, and Morning Tide.

John Coppola was born into a filmmaking family in Brooklyn, NY, and has had a multifaceted career as a director, producer, actor and teacher. He began his acting career over twenty years ago while attending Yale’s prestigious Dramat Purple Crayon. He has appeared on Broadway numerous times (Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, American Buffalo) and in films such as Into the Paradise, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Out of Gas on Lover’s Leap, and You Gotta Leave Your Mark. As a director, John has helmed over 25 theatrical productions in New York, Los Angeles, and abroad. The movie Possibility, which he directed, took the 2005 Grand Jury Prize for short film at the New York International Film and Video Festival. As part of Studio C Artists, John offers private coaching to a thriving group of students, established actors, and movie stars.

The running schedule for Murder at the Howard Johnson’s is as follows:
Thursdays, September 22nd and 29th, October 6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th, 2011, at 8 p.m.

Fridays, September 30th, October 14th and 28th, 2011 at 8 p.m.

Saturdays, September 24th, October 8th and 22nd, 2011 at 8 p.m.

One matinee on Sunday, September 25th, 2011 at 3 p.m.

Approximate running time is two hours.

The ticket price is $22.50 for general admission, with an Opening Night price of $30 (which includes a Depression-era cocktail), and reservations can be made by visiting murderathojos.eventbrite.com.

The engagement ends on Friday, October 28th.

Studio C Artists is located at 6448 Santa Monica Boulevard, on Theatre Row, in Hollywood. Produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.

I Love Me, I Love Me Not

Studio C Artists | 6448 Santa Monica Blvd., L.A. | Through Sept. 15 | Tickets $20* | lovemenot.eventbrite.com

Homophobia. Self-loathing. Inequality. Racism. Lack of self-worth. These are qualities that are present throughout the world with young gay people. And all are showcased in the engaging one-man show, I Love Me, I Love Me Not. Written and performed by the award-winning Derek Ringold, the one-act play is a mirror of our times. Especially for those of us living in the land of broken dreams: Hollywood.

Ringold’s autobiographical story is nothing new: gay kid gets bullied, comes out, moves to Los Angeles to become a star, realizes it’s next to impossible to do so, gets discouraged and drowns himself at the gay bars, does drugs, has unsafe sex, has a few health scares, and gets more and more depressed.

Luckily for Derek, he finds his redemption. Many aren’t as lucky. This is the reason for his show—to offer hope for those that have gone through an all too familiar scenario.

Told through short monologues and interspersed with contemporary choreography, Ringold shares his story openly and personally. He is a smart and engaging performer who also happens to be easy-on-the-eyes. This helps as the story isn’t entirely fresh. Everyone in West Hollywood has a coming out story—a story about how homophobia and lack of self-esteem caused them to make bad choices. And everyone thinks their story is wholly original.

While nothing here was surprising, Ringold does take ahold of his audience and doesn’t let go for the brief 45-minute running time. The dancing is a bit awkward in such a small venue and as a result, uncomfortable for the audience, but the reason for it is understood. He takes potentially off-putting situations (drug-induced sex acts) and makes them palatable rather than cringe-inducing. It’s kind of a brilliant choice by Ringold and director John Coppola.

While I Love Me, I Love Me Not is another piece that preaches to the choir, it has its charms and it’s always nice when someone “understands” what many of us have gone through—at least in part. While some beats could have stood some fleshing out (his moment of redemption and hope isn’t set up at all, making it fall a bit flat), it all goes down easy because of Ringold’s charms.

*A portion of the ticket proceeds go to benefit The Trevor Project. —Kevin P. Taft

Check out the nice write-up our show received in Frontiers Magazine this week – Two more performances left – Thursdays @ 8PM!

Derek Ringold`s solo performance in Hollywood is an LGBT Must-See!

 Faggot!, Girl!, Homo! These words bring resonance to many gay men as we struggle with both our inner and outer acceptance in life. So true is it for Derek Ringold, the star of the latest theatrical production at Theatre Row’s Studio C Artists, “I Love Me, I Love Me Not.”

“I Love Me, I Love Me Not” is a one-man show written and performed by Derek Ringold. Now, solo performances do run the gamut here in LA as many up and coming actors take the reins of their career and produce their own work. You may even cringe by the thought of attending one. But Derek’s show is one of those performances that you don’t want to miss.

As humans, we all deal with universal themes that run in our lives such as mortality, discrimination, confidence, risk and the like. Now, open yourselves up to experiencing those challenges through the eyes of an African American gay man (a double whammy).

Ringold takes us on an eye opening journey beginning with his childhood when he just couldn’t explain to his Dad why although he wanted to play Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, it didn’t mean he wanted to be a girl. Guided by an exceptional director, John Coppola, Derek seamlessly weaves through his stereotypical Hollywood auditions and his constant inner homophobia and fear of loneliness. The combined collaboration of both director and actor in this piece pulls you into a delicious intimacy.

Ringold taps into his experience as a dancer from The Joffrey Ballet Jazz Outreach as he performs choreographed segments of his promiscuous trysts. No words are necessary here. It’s a raw yet refined interpretation of an intense sense of solitude that propels him into dark places.

We watch as Ringold faces his inner demons and temptations and he leaves us with a sense of hope that as humans it’s ok to deal with our dark side only to bring us back into the light.

“I Love Me, I Love Me Not” runs every Thursday through September 15, 2011, at Studio C Artists 6448 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood. You can purchase tickets at http://lovemenot.eventbrite.com/. A portion of the proceeds benefits The Trevor Project.