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As Westwood’s Geffen Playhouse celebrated the opening day of The Inheritance on Sunday, there was a special guest seated in the audience all day long: Matthew López. And what a day-turned-night it was.

The Tony-winning playwright turned up for an epic day at the Geffen, which presented part one and part two back-to-back with a block party in between.

The day’s schedule kicked off as doors opened at noon for a cocktail hour that preceded the first performance, from 1-4:30 p.m. An outdoor picnic followed from 4:30-6 p.m. featuring boxed lunches, an ice cream truck, a coffee cart and other treats sprinkled about on Le Conte Avenue, a spread that also featured a production-approved cherry tree. Then a musical performance and DJ in the Geffen courtyard from 6-7 p.m. followed by Part 2 and a post-show party...

Pride is only one month, but queer film lives on all year. And as long as there are obstacles to funding, production, and distribution for queer films, shorts remain the easiest way for filmmakers to get noticed and get a foot in the door of the industry. That’s doubly and sometimes triply important when you’re a marginalized voice, especially if your work deals openly with themes of queerness, sexuality, race, and/or gender.

While the U.S. has fewer avenues for short films to gain attention than say Europe or Asia, there will always be cinephiles who enjoy the unique pleasures of a well-made short. The best short films don’t use the form as a mere stepping stone to a feature, but as a unique and valuable medium unto itself.

Recognizing that barriers to entry remain higher for all marginalized filmmakers of all stripes, it’s vitally...

Chicago – The 1960s were a time of historical social transition. The movements – civil rights, feminist, gay rights – all had roots in that tumultuous decade. The Chicago premiere of Basil Kreimendahl’s “We’re Gonna Be Okay” echoes all of those movements in its characters, and collides them against the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The show has a Thursday-Sunday run at the American Theater Company through March 4th, 2018. Click here for more details, including ticket information.

Play Rating: 4.0/5.0

Directed by Will Davis, the staging is a elegant rendition of neighbors sharing their particular angst, and a bomb shelter. The history is symbolic rather than accurate, choosing to expand upon the freedoms that groups and individuals had to realize in American culture, rather than a retelling of the missile crisis situation. The casting is diverse, with women portraying men, African American actors doing cream cheese suburban neighbors and a trans actor taking on a teenage boy.