Evan Reynolds plays the character Kevan

(available at Blockbuster video on May 25th)

The Bachelor Party

A New Play by Donald Welch

             Writer, Director DONALD WELCH unveils his newest stage production, the daring comedy/drama The Bachelor Party at The Cast Theatre 804 N. El Centro in Hollywood from Thurs. January 22^nd thru Sun. February 1^st 2004 nightly at 8p.m., except Sundays at 7p.m.  All seats are general admission at $20.00.  Call Tickets LA at (323) 655-8587 or (310) 346-3343 for reservations.

Saturday is the big day for 30 year old confirmed bachelor “Lance Brentwood” (JASON OVERSTREET).  He is set to marry “Michelle” (TIFFANY LOWERY) a girl he has only been dating a matter of months.  Reluctantly he allows 6 of his closest “buddies” to throw him a bachelor party.

THE BACHELOR PARTY allows the viewer to get an inside look into what is usually a secret, sacred haven for grooms to be; a place where everything is said and anything goes.  Witness what happens when vendettas are revealed, painful memories surface, and friendships are tested, and Love is measured by lies.

Also stars:  SHONEJI LORAINE, FRED THOMAS JR., SEAN A. RECTOR, ZEUS BENITEZ, PAUL E. JEROME, EVAN REYNOLDS and RON YOUNG.

Due to subject matter and adult language; there is a FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ALERT.  No one under 16 will be permitted.

Presented by Don B. Welch Productions.  Set design by Joe Koonez and Donald Welch.

We had a GREAT run................ June 22, 2002 until September 8, 2002.  Everyone who attended loved the performances and the overall production.  If interested, we are considering other opportunities beyond Los Angeles.  Drop me an email and I will put you in contact with my Director, Bill White.

A REVIEW FROM THE LA TIMES

Proud, wounded, defiant or serene, the voices in Keith Antar Mason's "For Black Boys Who Have Considered Homicide When the Streets Were Too Much" are all saying: Don't define me, much less judge me, when you haven't tried to understand me.

Written in the spirit of Ntozake Shange's "for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf," Mason's assemblage of poetic narratives and dances may be 20 years old, but it continues to speak with urgency and yearning in a revival at 4305 Village Theatre in Leimert Park.

In America, black men are "just numbers," the piece declares. To drive home the point, each of the six actors wears a T-shirt emblazoned with a random number.

In moments of brotherly unity, the performers emphasize Mason's key statements in an almost musical overlay of echoing voices or give their bodies over to the throbbing rhythms of funk and jazz. Separately, they shift through various identities.

Some of these characters cry out in protest: a young man who fears he's being dismissed as just another statistic as he dies of stab wounds, or a young professional who, after working late one night, finds himself in a deserted parking lot surrounded by police, who assume he committed a nearby rape.

Other characters try to cut through societal assumptions, going so far as to take black women to task for readily believing the same stereotypes that everyone else does.

Under William White's direction, the show pulses with life, surging to reverberant shouts ("I found God in me") and quieting to moments of introspection. The tremble of sexual awakening, the pain of feeling marginalized, the peace of being happy with oneself--and much more--are deftly conveyed by Michael Broughton, Paul Eric Jerome, Devon Todd, Carlton Wilborn, Jonaton Wyne and Christopher Hines (who on Sundays is replaced by Evan Reynolds).

Further texture is provided by the live drumming of Dele Adefemi and the deft dance of light devised by Kathi O'Donohue.