‘Memnon' Review: To Fight or Not to Fight?
His nephew Memnon, though? That man has majesty. As embodied by a gripping Eric Berryman in 'Memnon,' Will Power's Trojan War verse play at the Classical Theater of Harlem, he radiates the charisma, integrity and serious-mindedness of a leader. He has a sense of family duty, too.
Not to be confused with Agamemnon (same war, different king, opposite side), Memnon has traveled all the way from Ethiopia, where he is king, to answer his uncle's call for help. A great warrior, he is uncertain that he wants to join the battle, though Troy is a decade deep in combat and in danger of imminent defeat.
Memnon has not forgotten the painful slights he has endured for being Trojan only on his father's side: treated as 'not fully Trojan, kin and not kin,' he says. Is a society that has always regarded him that way, led by a king who also sees him that way, worth risking his own life for?
His moral wrestling is at the heart of the play, his blend of affection and alienation speaking to the present with bracing clarity.
'It makes no sense, to fight for that which has proven time and time again that you will forever be other,' he says. 'And yet, golden moments do I have. Good memories in Troy.'
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Los Angeles Times
39 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Belly Laughs spotlights Asian comedians and cuisine, offering a tasty excuse to ‘laugh at ourselves'
'Never more than two.' That's Kumail Nanjiani's general assessment of the modest serving of Asian performers on a typical comedy show lineup (if any at all) when he was starting out in comedy. Even as an actor who's gone on to find success on hit TV shows like 'Silicon Valley' and has flown high in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 'Eternals,' the stereotype of ethnic comedy quotas from his roots in stand-up — which he's recently returned to a couple years ago — still sticks with him. Nanjiani recently spoke with The Times about this weekend's Belly Laughs Festival, a two-day event at L.A. Live that spotlights Asian comedians, cuisine and culture. He was joined by fellow festival performer Jonnie Park (a.k.a. rapper Dumbfoundead) and comedian/actor Sherry Cola (who is no longer performing at the festival due to a scheduling conflict) to talk about the importance of Asian representation in comedy. During the chat, Nanjiani described not only his love for food (specifically Biriyani Kabob House in Koreatown, which will be at the festival) but also for stand-up. After returning to performing live shows again in 2023, Nanjiani is slated to release 'Night Thoughts,' his first comedy special in 12 years, on Hulu later this year. Inspired by the Hollywood slowdown and the writers' strike that prevented him from pursuing TV and film work, Nanjiani says he returned to doing comedy in order to keep working on stage while the rest of Hollywood was mostly shut down. 'I missed being good at something that I wasn't good at anymore,' he said. 'I didn't like the feeling like I used to have so much confidence in this now it feels like [I'm] a different person, and so in the strikes, I was like, I want to try again and see if I still love it.' Since then, the Pakistani-born comedian says he's still hungry for both the craft of comedy and the community that gathers to devour it. For all three comedians, though moving into acting has elevated their profile on the small and big screen, stand-up is the art form that makes them feel the most sharp. 'I do find being a stand up comedian as a superpower, stepping onto a set, for sure,' says Cola, who most people know from her role as a series regular in the TV show 'Good Trouble' or in the 2023 raunchy road-trip comedy 'Joy Ride.' 'I think because we're good at crowd work, we have a quickness that not every actor has.' Belly Laughs, happening Saturday to Sunday, offers a buffet of top-tier Asian comedians performing all weekend inside the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live. Nanjiani takes center stage along with Hasan Minhaj, Margaret Cho, Bobby Lee and over 30 of the funniest Asian comedians to perform headlining shows in L.A. at theaters and clubs around the country. Outside the venue on L.A. Live's outdoor plaza, an array of food and activities like mah-jong, karaoke and cooking demonstrations with star chef Tue Nguyen will be available for fest-goers to enjoy throughout the tasty sprawl of Mama's Nightmarket. The idea for Belly Laughs took shape about three years ago when Michelle K. Sugihara, executive director and chief executive of the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (better known as CAPE), joined forces with volunteer festival producer Viv Wang who helped bring on AEG as a venue partner, followed by L.A. outdoor food staple Mama's Nightmarket and event promotions company Nederlander Concerts. For CAPE, the world's longest-running nonprofit creating opportunities for Asian and Pacific Islander artists, actors and storytellers in Hollywood, Belly Laughs is a natural extension of its mission over the last 35 years. 'Food and comedy is really a chance to celebrate our culture with the broader L.A. and Southern California communities, but also it's a celebration of how food comedy culture just brings people together, which is needed now more than ever,' Sugihara said. For Park, who is also performing at Belly Laughs, his transition from music to stand-up comedy and podcasting more than 10 years ago was an effort to find a new way to express himself as he matured and became mildly more responsible. 'I started [rapping at] 14 years old and it had a lot of youthful energy to it. And as I got older, there's a lot of things I wanted to talk about that I didn't want to [express] over beats,' he said. 'I didn't want to share those adult things about my finances and doing taxes. I didn't want to make 'doing taxes rap,' he jokes. Park said his ability to use humor to give back to his community as a longtime resident of L.A.'s Koreatown helps foster more opportunities for Koreans from his neighborhood to see stand-up shows and festivals like Belly Laughs. 'When I was growing up, a lot of Koreans in my neighborhood had never seen a stand-up show,' he said. 'I've thrown a couple of all-Asian stand-up comedy shows in my neighborhood, and a lot of people who come, it was their first stand up show. They don't even go to the Comedy Store, the Laugh Factory — none of that. So [a festival like Belly Laughs] might be their first one.' If that's the case, any newcomers to L.A.'s comedy scene are likely to leave full and happy by the end, as the fest serves up not only amazing food but an inclusive environment to see comedy from an Asian perspective without feeling othered as part of a quota on a comedy lineup or the butt of any scathing racial humor — at least not by non-Asian comedians. 'If anyone's gonna roast my people, it's gonna be me,' Park said with a grin. 'I think there's a little bit of that with us as [Asian] comedians and talking about our own culture. We have to take ownership of that.' Cola concurs, adding that after being the subject of racial jokes for decades, the best way to counteract the sting of the stereotypes is for Asian comedians to write jokes about their cultures that help their communities laugh the hardest—just hopefully not while chewing their food. 'I don't know if it's just society trying to define us and put us in a box, but it's almost like we just recently got permission to laugh at ourselves,' Cola said. 'Because we've been the punch line for years in the media, but now it's like [a chance to] exhale, because this is a safe space. That's kind of what Belly Laughs is giving.'
Miami Herald
17 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Manuel Masalva of ‘Narcos: Mexico' ‘reborn' after 105 days in hospital
LOS ANGELES - Mexican actor Manuel Masalva is on the road to recovery after contracting an aggressive bacterial infection in March that left him in a medically induced coma for weeks. In his first social media post since the onset of his illness, the "Narcos: Mexico" actor updated his followers on his current health status via Instagram on Monday evening. "I am healing. I want to profoundly thank you all for the support you have given me and continue to give me, in every sense, every one of you," Masalva wrote. "This [process] has barely begun, there is much more left to go, but I feel blessed, strong, reborn and well-accompanied. ... God has given me a new life." Masalva first felt the onset of an ailment when he arrived in Dubai in March, following a trip to the Philippines, revealing that he ended up spending 105 days in the Dubai hospital that first treated him for his prolonged illness. The actor first arrived in the Middle East city on March 18, his manager Jaime Jaramillo Espinosa told The Times in April. "[After] about two days in Dubai, Masalva began to feel internal discomfort and pain which increased by the day," Jaramillo Espinosa said. On March 26, Masalva underwent emergency surgery after doctors discovered the bacterial infection, which prevented him from traveling back to his home in Mexico. The following day, the infection reached his lungs and he had to be put into a medically induced coma. Masalva thanked the Dubai hospital staff for their work and for the distinct culture that "overflowed with love and spirituality." "I don't know if I really understand all of what's going on or just a part of it, it's been an eternity and there are still some parts missing, I just want to the strongest thanks that I can give to God, my family, my doctors and all those people that have supported me since the start of this process. I owe you all my life," he wrote. Masalva played the role of Ramón Arellano Félix in the Netflix drama series "Narcos: Mexico," alongside Diego Luna, Bad Bunny and Scoot McNairy. He has also been featured on the telenovela "La Rosa de Guadalupe" and recently in the series "La Guzmán." Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Miami Herald
Is Hollywood inspired by the CIA, or the other way around?
LANGLEY, Va. - At CIA headquarters, beyond the handsome granite seal on its lobby floor and a wall of stars carved in honor of the agency's fallen, experts are at work in the complex tasks of spycraft: weapons-trained officers, computer engineers, virologists, nuclear scientists. But there are also storytellers, makeup artists, theater majors and ballerinas - Americans who probably never thought their skills would match the needs of a spy agency. Yet the CIA thought otherwise. Though it rarely gets the spotlight, there's a revolving door of talent between the country's premiere intelligence agency and its entertainment industry, with inspiration and influence often working both ways. The agency is targeting professionals at the intersection of arts and technology for recruitment, CIA officers told The Times, and continues to cooperate with entertainment giants to inspire the next generation of creative spies. This month, the agency is assisting a New York Times bestselling author on a young adult book examining the foundations of the CIA laid during World War II. Scenes from a major upcoming film production were just shot at its headquarters, a logistical feat at an intelligence campus tucked away in the Virginia suburbs behind rings of security perimeters, where officers roam cracking down on Bluetooth signals. Another popular streaming TV series will be back at Langley to film this fall. But their collaboration goes far deeper than that, officers said. Creative minds in Hollywood and the entertainment industry have long had a role at the Central Intelligence Agency, devising clever solutions to its most vexing problems, such as perfecting the art of disguise and harnessing a magician's ability to cast spellbinding illusions. Indeed, in the 1950s, a magician from New York named John Mulholland was secretly contracted with the agency to write a manual for Cold War spies on trickery and deception. These days, the officers said, creative skills are more valuable than ever in such a technologically complex world. "You're only limited by your own imagination - don't self-censor your ideas," said Janelle, a CIA public affairs officer, granted the ability to speak under her first name at the request of the agency. "We're always looking for partners." An elusive history David McCloskey, a former CIA analyst and author of "Damascus Station" and other spy thrillers, offered several theories on why the agency might be interested in fostering a robust relationship with Hollywood, calling it "a two-way street." "There definitely have been operational applications for espionage," McCloskey said. "It's probably the exception to the rule, but when it happens, it's compelling." It's easy to see why CIA leaders would be interested in Hollywood, he said, in part to shape impressions of the agency. "But their bread and butter business is receiving people to give secrets," he continued, "and part of that is getting close to people in power." "The closer you are to Hollywood," McCloskey added, "that's a really interesting 'in' to having a lot of interesting conversations." Some of the CIA's most iconic missions - at least the declassified ones - document the agency's rich history with Hollywood, including Canadian Caper, when CIA operatives disguised themselves as a film crew to rescue six American diplomats in Tehran during the Iran hostage crisis, an operation moviegoers will recognize as the plot of "Argo." "'Argo' was almost too far-fetched to even believe," said Brent, an in-house historian at CIA headquarters. "It's almost more Hollywood than Hollywood." Canadian Caper was both inspired by Hollywood and relied on Hollywood talent. Agent Tony Mendez had been a graphic artist before joining the agency and helping craft the mission. Another key player was John Chambers, the makeup artist who gave the world Spock's ears on "Star Trek" and won an honorary Oscar for his trailblazing simian work on "Planet of the Apes." He was awarded the CIA's Intelligence Medal of Merit for his work on the covert rescue effort. Just a few years before, Howard Hughes, then one of the world's richest men and a tycoon in media, film and aerospace, agreed to work with the CIA to provide cover for an effort by the agency to lift a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine off the floor of the Pacific Ocean. Deploying Hughes' Glomar Explorer under the guise of mineral extraction, the CIA was able to salvage most of the sub before The Times broke a story blowing its cover - "the story that sunk our efforts," in CIA parlance. And another mission was made possible thanks to a device invented by a professional photographer - a gadget that later became the inspiration of an over-the-top scene in the blockbuster Batman film "The Dark Knight." In Project Coldfeet, CIA agents gathering intelligence on a Soviet station erected on a precariously drifting sheet of ice in the Arctic needed a reliable extraction plan. But how does one pick up an agent without landing a plane on the ice? The answer was the "skyhook": Balloons lifted a tether attached to a harness worn by an agent high into the sky. A CIA plane snagged the tether and carried the agent off to safety. In "The Dark Knight," Batman makes a dramatic escape deploying the same kind of balloon-harness contraption. 'The superhero spy' CIA leadership often says that acceptance into the agency is harder than getting into Harvard and Yale combined. Yet the agency still has challenges recruiting the type of talent it is looking for - either in reaching those with unconventional skills, or in convincing them that they should leave secure, comparatively well-paid, comfortable jobs for a secretive life of public service. It is no easy task managing work at the agency, especially with family, CIA officials acknowledged. Deciding if and when to share one's true identity with their children is a regular struggle. But Janelle said the CIA tells potential recruits there is a middle ground that doesn't require them to entirely abandon their existing lives. "People don't have to leave their companies to help their country and to work with CIA," Janelle said. "People come here because they love their country and know they can make a difference." Janelle is part of a team that regularly engages with creatives who want to portray the agency or spies as accurately as possible. "Some producers and directors reach out and they do care about accuracy," Janelle said, "but they ultimately pick and choose what's going to work for the film or show." CIA analysts have also been known to leave the agency for opportunities in the entertainment industry, writing books and scripts drawing from their experiences - so long as they don't track too closely with those experiences. Joe Weisberg, the writer and producer behind the television series "The Americans," and McCloskey, who is working on a fifth novel focused on U.S. and British intelligence, were both part of the agency before launching their writing careers. And as CIA alumni, they had to submit their works for review. "There's a whole publication and classification-review process," Brent said. That process can be a bit of a slog, McCloskey said: "They quite literally redact in black ink." But it is far more difficult for nonfiction writers than novelists. "There could be bits of tradecraft, or alluding to assets, or people at the agency, which are clear no's," McCloskey said. "But with novels, it's not that hard to write them in a way to get them through the review board." Try as they may, studios often repeat the same falsehoods about the CIA, no matter how often they are corrected. Officers and agents aren't the same thing, for one. And as disappointing as it may be for lovers of spy thrillers, the majority of officers are not licensed or trained to carry weapons. "One thing Hollywood often gets wrong is the idea that it's one officer doing everything, when it's really a team sport here," Janelle said. "Zero Dark Thirty," an Oscar-winning film released in 2012 about the hunt for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, was widely acclaimed but criticized by some within the intelligence community over the credit it lends a single, fictional CIA analyst for tracking him down. McCloskey sympathizes with the writer's dilemma. "I can't have 35 people on a team. From a storytelling standpoint, it just doesn't work," he said, acknowledging that little in the field of espionage is accurately captured on screen, even though there are plenty of former spies available to work as consultants. "There's no lack of sources to get it right," he said. "It's that the superhero spy - the Jack Ryans and Jason Bournes - are pretty much the Hollywood representation of espionage." However inaccurately glorified and dramatized, the agency hopes that Hollywood's work can keep the revolving door moving, inspiring atypical talent to join its ranks. "We have architects, carpenters, people who worked in logistics," Brent said. "People might not realize the range of skill sets here at CIA." And as Canadian Caper showed, sometimes spycraft requires stagecraft. It's possible that what's needed most to complete the next mission won't be oceanography or data mining, but costume design. Or maybe another ballerina. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
