Cultural Arts: Stages

HIT THE WALL

It’s the summer of ’69. In a dangerous cocktail of oppression and heat at New York City’s underground gay nightspot The Stonewall Inn, a routine police raid erupts into a full-scale riot, igniting the LGBT rights movement. Smash that event against the vivid theatrical imagination of playwright Ike Holter, add live original music by Anna Waronker (That Dog) and Charlotte Caffey (The Go-Go’s), and you get an immersive theatrical remix that thrusts you to the center of Stonewall.

Written by Ike Holter
Directed by Ken Sawyer
Original Music by Anna Waronker and Charlotte Caffey
Produced by Los Angeles LGBT Center/Jon Imparato and Sixth Avenue/Adam Silver

Premiered at the Center’s Davidson/Valentini Theatre on September 19, 2015

THE CAST

NEWBIE……….Jason Caceres
A-GAY……….Burt Grinstead
PEG……….Charlotte Gulezian
CARSON……….Matthew Hancock
MADELINE………..Kristina Johnson
TANO……….Roland Ruiz
ROBERTA……….Shoniqua Shandai
CLIFF……….Adam Silver
COP………..Donnie Smith
MIKA……….Blake Young-Fountain
ENSEMBLE……….Maggie Marx, Daniel Olson, Jess Weaver

THE BAND

Johanna Chase……….Guitar
Jennifer Lin……….Keyboards
Nicole Marcus……….Drums/Percussion

Directed by Ken Sawyer; setting by Desma Murphy; costumes by E.B. Brooks; lighting by Matt Richter; original songs by Anna Waronker and Charlotte Caffey; sound by Ken Sawyer; choreography by Yusuf Nasir; fight choreography by Edgar Landa; properties design by Norman Cox; dramaturgy by Lisa Sloane; casting by Beth Ryne and Jami Rudofsky; production stage manager Rebecca Schoenberg; production manager Patricia Sutherland; assistant director Shaunessy Quinn; press representative Ken Werther Publicity; and crew J. Cody Andersen, Megan Benevente, Red Colegrove, Adam Earle, Kathleen Jaffe, Minta Manning, Maggie Marx, Caitlin Rucker, Dailia Vann, Lindsay Vickers.