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“Dog Sees God” …entertains, moves, and provokes thought, thanks to an octet of talented young actors and Royal’s perceptive script… becomes much more than just a funny and often raunchy comic gem. It is that, indeed, but in Royal’s perceptive script, it is also a touching love story, a look at the causes of homophobia, and a plea for acceptance.”
“As CB, Timothy Miller is almost too red-headed charismatic to be the Sad Sack Charlie we know so well, but his is a performance that starts strong and grows stronger as the play progresses. Heart-on-his-sleeve sincere and utterly endearing, Miller is absolutely convincing as a teen alternately confused and elated by the unexpected discovery of feelings for the last person he’d expect to fall for. By the time the play’s final ten minutes roll around, the overwhelming pain and regret CB feels about what he did and what he didn’t do are so real that they are not easily shaken at curtain calls. This is powerful, deeply moving work.”
“Carlo Maghirang is a sweetly touching (and believable) Beethoven, and he does his own piano playing! Another standout is Alyssa Carter, hilarious as CB’s outlandish sister. (When Carter performs sis’s one-girl show, Cocooning Into Platypus, about a caterpillar who longs to metamorphose into a platypus instead of a butterfly, an off-off-off Broadway star is born.) Emily Lehrer is funny and quirky as Van’s institutionalized sister.
The rest of Cortez’s cast all have their good moments. Paul Dietz reveals a Matt whose homophobia may come from his own repressed feelings for CB. Matthew J. Middleton gets laughs every time he tries to speak with his lungs full of pot. The more over-the-top they are, the more amusing Crystal Castillo and Katherine Ko are as Tricia and Marcy.
“Ultimately, in the immortal words of The Who, these kids are alright, and they and their director all deserve major props for their work, their dedication to the project, and their initiative in bringing their LAVC production to a larger audience. I can’t imagine anyone with a heart not ending up moved by this production.”
Steven Stanley- StageSceneLA.com
Full review can be accessed here:
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Congrats to the cast and crew of “Dog Sees God” on a fabulous opening night July 17th 2009. Pics to come!
Filed under: 1 | Tags: Alyssa Carter, Bert V. Royal, Bert V. Royal writer, Carlo Maghirang, Courtnie DiPiazza, Crystal Castillo, Cullen Pinney, Danielle DeMasters, Dog Sees God, Emily Lehrer, Jon Cortez director, Katherine Ko, Matthew L. Middleton, Nick Huff, NoHo Arts District, North Hollywood, Paul Dietz, Secret Rose Theater, Simon Daniel Lees, Tiffany A. Jordon, Timothy Miller
Cast for “Dog Sees God- Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead” by Bert V. Royal at Secret Rose Theater has been announced. Directed and produced by Jon Cortez for Secret Rose Theater and opening July 17th for a six week run, the cast is as follows:
Cast:
CB: Timothy Miller
Beethoven:Carlo Maghirang
Matt: Paul Dietz
CB’s Sister: Alyssa Carter
Van: Matthew L. Middleton
Tricia: Crystal Castillo
Marcie: Katherine Ko
Van’s Sister/Frieda: Emily Lehrer
Understudies:
CB: Simon Daniel Lees, Matt: Nick Huff, CB’s Sister: Emily Lehrer
Van: Cullen Pinney, Tricia: Tiffany A. Jordan,
Van’s Sister/Frieda and Marcie: Courtnie DiPiazza
Stage Manager: Danielle DeMasters
Lighting Designer: Cullen Pinney
Light Board Operator: Jason Henderson
House Manager and Costumes: Amanda Yollin
Assistant House Manager and Sound: Sean Schwartz
Artistic Director for the Secret Rose Theater: Mike Rademaekers
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The cast, director and team behind “Dog Sees God” was at LA Pride/ CSW along with the West Coast Singers promoting the show and talking to the crowd. Hope you all had a great time, we sure did! We enjoyed chatting you up and getting some phone numbers! See ya at the show starting July 17th! And check out our Facebook page for pics of the cast and their adventures over the weekend, and become a fan of ours while you are there!
Filed under: 1 | Tags: "The Scarlet Letter", Alyson Machalka, Amanda Bynes, Cam Gigandet, Daniel Byrd, Easy A, Emma Stone, Gossip Girl, Hester Prynne, Lisa Kudrow, Malcolm McDowell, Patricia Clarkson, Penn Badgley, Playwright Bert V. Royal, Stanley Tucci, Thomas Haden Church, Twilight, Will Gluck
Cast penciled in for ‘Easy A’
Lisa Kudrow, others join Screen Gems comedy
By MICHAEL FLEMING
Screen Gems has set Lisa Kudrow, Alyson Machalka, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Penn Badgley (“Gossip Girl”), Cam Gigandet (“Twilight”), Malcolm McDowell and Daniel Byrd to join Emma Stone and Amanda Bynes in “Easy A,” the Will Gluck-directed comedy that begins production June 9.
Stone plays a high school student who, after being ostracized by a false rumor she’s loose, uses the rumor mill to her advantage, pitting puritanical students and teachers against their liberal counterparts.
Pic was scripted by playwright of “Dog Sees God- Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead”, Bert V. Royal, who weaves the plight of “The Scarlet Letter” heroine Hester Prynne into a parallel storyline to what the “Easy A” protagonist endures.
Zanne Devine and Gluck are producing.
Filed under: About Dog Sees God, Dog Sees God, Secret Rose Theater | Tags: Bert V. Royal writer, Jon Cortez director, NoHo Arts District, North Hollywood, Secret Rose Theater, What's Dog Sees God All About
“Dog sees God- Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead” By Bert V. Royal, opening July 17th at the Secret Rose Theater in North Hollywood is a very funny comedy that deals with some some very serious issues that we all seem to go through at some point in our lives. Anyone who felt akward or an outsider, bullied, confused, directionless or questioning will find some connection with this show. Working with an enthusiastic cast who really seems to understand the play has been extremely rewarding and it has been exciting to see how audiences react to the show with laughter and recognition and tears. Whatever your High School experience, whether you were one of the popular kids or a “Charlie Brown”, I think “Dog Sees God” has the power to ask the questions that we all may ask at some point in our lives; “What does it all mean?” “Why do things happen the way they do?” and how do we cope with things when they don’t turn out as we planned and when people react negatively to the unexpected changes? Oh, and did I mention it’s really funny too? – Jon Cortez, Director
Filed under: About Dog Sees God, Secret Rose Theater | Tags: Dog Sees God inspired by Peanuts comic strip, Dog Sees God the Story
The story, Dog Sees God is inspired by the characters of Charles Schultz’s Peanuts comic strip. When CB’s dog dies from rabies, CB begins to question the existence of an afterlife. His best friend is too burnt out to provide any coherent speculation, his sister has gone goth, his ex-girlfriend has recently been institutionalized, and his other friends are too inebriated to give him any sort of solace. But a chance meeting with an artistic kid, the target of this group’s bullying, offers CB a peace of mind and sets in motion a friendship that will push teen angst to the very limits. Drug use, suicide, eating disorders, teen violence, bullying, rebellion and sexual identity collide and careen toward an ending that’s both haunting and hopeful.
Filed under: Dog Sees God Reviews, Secret Rose Theater | Tags: Bert V. Royal writer, Jon Cortez director, Play Coming to NoHo Arts District, Plays in North Hollywood
“Dog Sees God- Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead”, a play by Bert V. Royal and Directed by Jon Cortez, starts its North Hollywood run on July 17th for 18 performances at The Secret Rose Theatre in North Hollywood, California.
When “Dog Sees God” appreared off-Broadway Variety said the following about the play…”Dog’s” appropriation of the teen movie idiom has given a contemporary makeover to the iconic American cartoon stirip. And the metamorphoses undergone by the characters in the roller-coaster years since puberty hit. The play uses as its springboard the stream-of-conciousness reflection of CB, following the death of his beloved beagle.
Flanking the introspective blockhead are his familiar childhood cohorts, some of them more radically altered by adolescence than others. Once a precocious, carefree kid, CB’s sister is now an outsider, a brooding wiccan goth expressing herself through bad performance art. The Linus-like Van is now a stoner whos quasi-intellectual philosophizing is now hopelessly clouded by primo weed, which he mixed with the ashes of his security blanket.
The blanket bonfire is one in a string of arsonist incidents that have landed the CB’s sister in a padded cell far removed from the stand where she once charged 5 cents for psychiatric advice. But the doctor is still in, and even in seclusion the crabby bully of the gang can still make her influence felt.
Having evolved from tomboy and bespectacled geek, respectively, into Tricia and Marcie, this tartlet duo who mix vodka with their juice boxes, delight in dissing their classmates and are not averse to some three-way action with Matt, who has traded his aura of pig-pen like filth for germphobic obsessiveness and his happy go lucky ways for uptight homophobic agression, viciously targeting the ostracized, piano playing Beethoven.”
Performances begin July 17th at the Secret Rose Theater in N. Hollywood’s NoHo arts district. http://www.secretrose.com
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