L.A. Theatre Works continues its 40th Anniversary Season with “In the Heat of the Night”

WESTWOOD, Calif. - Oct. 7, 2014 - PRLog -- Ryan Vincent Anderson and James Morrison (24) head the cast in John Ball’s sizzling 1965 noir thriller, adapted for the stage by acclaimed playwright Matt Pelfrey. Based on the award-winning novel which inspired the Oscar-winning film and the Emmy-winning television series, this off-Broadway hit pits a visiting black detective from California against a small Southern town simmering with anger over desegregation. The play, a fitting reflection of America in the 1960s, remains provocative, timely and uncomfortably relevant. All performances at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater will be recorded live in front of an audience, with costumes by Carin Jacobs and projections by Sean T. Cawelti, to air on LATW’s syndicated radio theater series, broadcasting weekly on public radio stations nationwide (locally, in Southern California, on KPFK 90.7 FM) and available for streaming on demand at www.latw.org. Following the L.A. run, the radio theater production heads out on tour to 21 cities across the U.S. (Oct. 24-March 9).

“College-educated, well dressed, a respected police officer from California and a black man, Virgil Tibbs may never have been written into existence were it not for the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” notes L.A. Theatre Works associate producer Anna Lyse Erikson. “King was shot dead in his hotel room on April 4, 1968 — just six days before In the Heat of the Night was awarded 5 Oscars at the 1968 Academy Awards Ceremony. Even today, in 2014, there are moments in this story that are all too familiar. In many ways, it seems timelier than ever.”

Performances of In the Heat of the Night  take place on Thursday, Oct. 16 at 8 pm; Friday, Oct. 17 at 8 pm; Saturday, Oct. 18 at 3 pm and 8 pm; and Sunday, Oct. 19 at 4 pm. The James Bridges Theater is located in Melnitz Hall on the campus of the UCLA School of Theater, Film, Television at 235 Charles E. Young Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (enter UCLA from Hilgard just south of Sunset Blvd. and  park in Lot 3 on the lower level). Tickets are $60; student tickets are $15 at the door. To purchase tickets, call L.A. Theatre Works at 310-827-0889 or go to www.latw.org.