Ivy Substation

The Culver City Redevelopment Agency approved preliminary plans to renovate a site at Culver and Venice boulevards that includes a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Agency members said renovating the Ivy Substation, built in 1907, and the two-acre Media Park, located within Los Angeles city limits, would provide an attractive gateway to Culver City and would reinforce other efforts to develop the downtown area.

Actors' Gang stalwart Brian T. Finney invites us to once again venture deep into the interior of the African Congo in his adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," now at the Ivy Substation. This stripped-down Actors' Gang production zooms in on Finney's intensely contained performance as Marlow, the seaman who tells the story of his obsessive pursuit of the mysterious Kurtz, an ivory trader who has come to symbolize, among other things, the insatiable greed of imperial conquest.

The Actors' Gang is the front-runner in the race to become the resident company at the Ivy Substation, a coveted 99-seat venue operated by the Culver City Redevelopment Agency. The agency's review panel is recommending the Gang, and the agency's board will meet Monday evening to consider final approval. The two-year contract would begin on July 1. The Gang was selected from a field of 14 applicants.

Let's congratulate the Actors' Gang for at least bringing some novelty to our classical repertory. When American theater companies feel an itch to revive a work by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, they inevitably reach for "The School for Scandal," which has come to epitomize that post-Restoration genre known as 18th century comedy. "The Rivals," Sheridan's first play, is a more unwieldy affair, but there are hearty laughs to be had from this scattershot spray of silliness from 1775. To enjoy them, however, one most be willing to plod through dizzying stretches of ludicrous plot.

Actors' Gang stalwart Brian T. Finney invites us to once again venture deep into the interior of the African Congo in his adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," now at the Ivy Substation. This stripped-down Actors' Gang production zooms in on Finney's intensely contained performance as Marlow, the seaman who tells the story of his obsessive pursuit of the mysterious Kurtz, an ivory trader who has come to symbolize, among other things, the insatiable greed of imperial conquest.

"The Merchant of Venice": Director-actress Lisa Wolpe of the Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company and her all-female crew give the Bard's dark comic study of anti-Semitism and ambivalent romantic intrigue an invigorating boost. Wolpe aptly sets the action in 1942, with clashes unfolding amid the brick-and-marble levels and Christian icons of Katrina Coulorides' smart Ivy Substation set.

"Break the Whip" Where: The Ivy Substation, 9070 Venice Blvd. Culver City When: 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Ends Nov. 13 Admission: $15 to $25 Contact: http://www.theactorsgang.com or (323) 962-3759

The restored Ivy Substation in Culver City has won awards from two major preservation organizations. The substation, which once distributed electrical power for local rail service, won the Los Angeles Conservancy's 1994 Conservancy Preservation Award. It was cited for "exemplary completed rehabilitation" in this year's awards presentation by the City of Los Angeles' Cultural Heritage Commission.

Irish playwright Brian Friel's "Dancing at Lughnasa," a 1992 Tony Award-winner, is getting a sturdy, finely acted Los Angeles County premiere from singular productions at Ivy Substation. It's not hard to see why no larger group has tackled the project. Friel's memory play is a triumph of high craft and subtle emotions, a well-calibrated slice-of-life lacking the dramatic fireworks audiences might expect from a Broadway favorite.

Laden with a groaning freight of unmotivated wackiness, Bill Barker's "Life Is Like a Train" strains valiantly for laughs in its premiere, staged by singular productions at the Ivy Substation. Unfortunately, despite Jessica Kubzansky's incisive direction and a few entertaining whistle stops en route, this Little Engine That Couldn't takes us on a circuitous journey in which humor remains a distant destination.

"Break the Whip" Where: The Ivy Substation, 9070 Venice Blvd. Culver City When: 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Ends Nov. 13 Admission: $15 to $25 Contact: http://www.theactorsgang.com or (323) 962-3759

MOVIES Lunch With a Legend Director, writer and actor Spike Lee answers questions about his fruitful career at this lunchtime lecture series co-hosted by Morton's and ESPN. Morton's the Steakhouse, 735 S. Figueroa St. 11 a.m. $50. (213) 553-4566. www.mortons.com. POP MUSIC Wolfmother With "Cosmic Egg," the magnificently coiffed Aussie Andrew Stockdale leads a new lineup of his power trio through Zeppelin-inspired, overdriven blues-rock that practically offers its own contact high, which makes pondering the new album's cover art all the more interesting.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY Independent Shakespeare Co., Hollywood; (323) 836-0288, independentshakespeare.com Hollywood's Barnsdall Park plays host to this critically acclaimed company, now in its fifth season. The productions are traditional, with minimal sets and modest costumes. The emphasis is on clarity of diction and making Shakespeare accessible. "Twelfth Night," through Aug. 23; "Henry IV, Parts One and Two," July 3-Aug. 22; Christopher Marlowe's "Dr. Faustus," July 24-Aug.

"The Merchant of Venice": Director-actress Lisa Wolpe of the Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company and her all-female crew give the Bard's dark comic study of anti-Semitism and ambivalent romantic intrigue an invigorating boost. Wolpe aptly sets the action in 1942, with clashes unfolding amid the brick-and-marble levels and Christian icons of Katrina Coulorides' smart Ivy Substation set.

The Actors' Gang is the front-runner in the race to become the resident company at the Ivy Substation, a coveted 99-seat venue operated by the Culver City Redevelopment Agency. The agency's review panel is recommending the Gang, and the agency's board will meet Monday evening to consider final approval. The two-year contract would begin on July 1. The Gang was selected from a field of 14 applicants.

Fourteen stage companies, including Cornerstone Theater and the Actors' Gang, have applied to become the resident troupe at a renovated power facility that Culver City officials hope will become a prominent part of a planned theater district in their downtown. The Ivy Substation, dating from 1907, was occupied from 2002 to 2004 by the downtown L.A.

Let's congratulate the Actors' Gang for at least bringing some novelty to our classical repertory. When American theater companies feel an itch to revive a work by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, they inevitably reach for "The School for Scandal," which has come to epitomize that post-Restoration genre known as 18th century comedy. "The Rivals," Sheridan's first play, is a more unwieldy affair, but there are hearty laughs to be had from this scattershot spray of silliness from 1775. To enjoy them, however, one most be willing to plod through dizzying stretches of ludicrous plot.

It's no big surprise that Balzac died of caffeine poisoning. Considering that he wrote some 80 novels in 30 years, it may stand to reason he was hyped up on something. Somehow, in addition to that extraordinary outpouring of prose, Balzac also managed to write a handful of plays, among them, "Mercadet, the Napoleon of Finance." In Robert Cornthwaite's new translation at the Ivy Substation, Balzac's 150-year-old comedy spans the centuries with sprightliness intact. The Antaeus Company, highly praised for last year's revival--also at the Ivy Substation--of Arthur Miller's "The Man Who Had All the Luck," has had good luck itself digging into the archives for obscure classics.

How do you dramatize the urban experience -- the thrumming subway, the cacophonous congestion, the suppressed violence triggered by the wrong clothing, wrong stance, wrong glance? Leave it to Universes, poets of color with a distinctly New York sensibility whose stated objective is no less than "re-creating the King's English" through a mix of movement, music and inner-city slang.

Two weeks ago, the hip-hop-punctuated feature film "8 Mile" opened No. 1 at the box office, and a mixed chorus of euphoria and mild surprise went up in CEO suites across the entertainment industry. The movie's star, rapper Eminem, could really act! A movie with a mostly African American cast set in grim, battle-scarred Detroit could attract white suburban boomers and other demographic untouchables (i.e. anyone older than 25).