Dramas

Musical comedies, dramas and an Agatha Christie murder mystery are on the agenda for the 61st season at Glendale Centre Theatre. "The Nerd" by Larry Shue, is the first in the line-up and is literally raising the roof with laughter, said Producer Tim Dietlein, who co-owns the theater with his wife, Brenda. "My office is upstairs directly above the stage and while I'm sitting in the office I can hear the laughter coming up through the ceiling," he said. "This show is raising the roof with laughter, which doesn't happen as much as I wish."

Glendale Police Officer Jim Flores — dressed in street clothes, carrying a handgun loaded with blanks and pretending to be a disgruntled parent as part of a school shooting drill — strode into Roosevelt Middle School on Thursday afternoon yelling and firing his weapon. “Where’s he at?” Flores called repeatedly, stalking the hallways of the school, pretending to be a parent who was angry after finding marijuana in his son’s school bag. Flores, a member of the Police Department’s SWAT team, was the fake suspect in a drill designed to help police and the Fire Department work together in the event of a violent incident at school.

The advanced acting class at Hoover High School is learning what it’s like to work with a playwright and hone a script that will eventually become a professional production. Los Angeles-based Jonathan Dorf writes plays produced by high schools, colleges and professional theater companies across the country. In searching for a high school to workshop his new full-length comedy “Tiny Tim Runs the Marathon,” Dorf received responses from schools nationwide, but chose Hoover because it was close to home and he wouldn’t have to deal with airfare, he said.

When Marc Sercomb was a fairly new teacher at John Marshall Elementary school, he started bringing theater into the classroom, and noticed that his students responded with enthusiasm and skill. So, he decided to launch an after-school drama club with the school?s older students. For the last six years, Sercomb has led the club ? which is called the Marshall Minstrels ? and helped the students create elaborate, student-driven productions for the younger children at the school.

Comedy, drama and a behind-thescenes look at television news are in the mix this season at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank. The selection starts with "Tonight at 11!" starring Fritz Coleman, a stand up comedian and KNBC News weatherman. Coleman, a former Glendale resident, has written a play that gives a behind-the- scenes look at an 11 p.m. newscast, starting three minutes before air time, he said, adding that there is a plot with some twists. "The public has a natural curiosity about how news people think about what they do," he said.

There’s a decent amount of bad acting in “Inspecting Carol,” the play being performed this week by the advanced acting class at Hoover High School, but it’s all part of the show. In the comedy, the character Wayne Wallacher — played by Aren Soulahian, 17 — is awarded a role in a play despite his lackluster acting skills simply because the theater company thinks he is an undercover inspector for the National Endowment for the Arts, which they need to impress to save their theater company.

CITY HALL — Just six months after a groundswell of public discontent over zoning and development issues swept Councilman John Drayman to office, he has packed and left City Hall, preferring instead to work out of his small Montrose studio. Citing the rampant “personal drama” that has proliferated the back council offices of City Hall, Drayman defended his decision to move out of his small office — which he said is only temporary until he finds a storefront location — as a decision not to be part of the status quo. “It’s a combative place, far more than people realize,” he said.

Haik Chatalyan walked hunched over, and pretended he was carrying a cane. His friend, Vernes Okanovich, 12, picked up a make-believe bean from the floor and showed it Haik. The two boys were on the auditorium stage at Roosevelt Middle School playing their parts for "Jack and the Beanstalk." Students in the school's drama class rehearsed their parts for their upcoming show, "Fractured Fairy Tales." The show will feature a series of classic fairy-tale adaptations. Drama students have written their parts and will perform them on stage wearing self-designed costumes.

Trip back to the summer of 1959 with Grease , The School Version. With book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, this beloved high school musical will be performed March 10 at 7 p.m. by Assistance League Fine Arts Drama under the direction of Koni McCurdy with choreography by Heather McNamara. A lively and talented cast brings the singing and dancing of Greased Lightnin' and Rydell High School to life on the stage at Lanterman Auditorium. This is a perfect evening of live family entertainment for everyone in the community.

The classroom floor was not covered with tar, or burning sand, or 5-foot grass, but 8-year-old Lauren Yoo was still straining to get out of the imaginary scenarios. She grabbed her pant legs and pulled with all her strength as students fell over around her, crawling and crying for help during what was supposed to be a sticky situation. “The tar is really hard,” the third-grader said during her drama class at Dunsmore Elementary School. “So I had to use my whole body to pull it up.” Some students took giant, laborious steps to get through the activity.