Author: The Argonaut

The Actors’ Gang Theater’s new production features tales of the Great Depression By Kamala Kirk Tim Robbins met and interviewed his longtime hero and renowned author, Studs Terkel, for a public conversation that was hosted by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art 21 years ago. “Paul Holdengräber from the New York Public Library contacted me and asked if I wanted to interview the greatest interviewer of all time,” Robbins said. “When he told me it was Studs, I jumped at the opportunity because I loved his books. This was a man that chronicled the human condition of everyday people that were struggling to get through terrible times.” Terkel’s bestselling book, “Hard Times,” featured firsthand accounts of people who lived during the Great Depression of the 1930s. On the book’s 50th anniversary last year, Robbins — who is the artistic director of The Actors’ Gang Theater — and his cast adapted “Hard Times” into a play via Zoom when they were unable to get together during the pandemic. “The idea came out of the limitations. We couldn’t meet or be in the same room to create together,” Robbins said. “Zoom is not a theatrical medium and, because of those limitations, we started working on just storytelling. At first, we tried doing the stories in the first person, but later adapted them to the third person. When we started workshopping,...

Compiled by Kamala Kirk Cases and deaths by neighborhood as of July 22: Culver City: 2,346 (deaths 110); Del Rey: 35 (deaths one); El Segundo: 793 (deaths six); Marina del Rey: 455 (deaths four); Mar Vista: 2,229 (deaths 37); Palms: 2,766 (deaths 61); Playa del Rey: 128 (deaths one); Playa Vista: 652 (deaths nine); Santa Monica: 5,210 (deaths 183); Venice: 1,933 (deaths 13); Westchester: 2,738 (deaths 49) Total Westside cases: 19,285 Total Westside deaths: 474 Total confirmed cases in LA County: 1,276,137 Total deaths in LA County: 24,607 Total new cases as of July 22: 2,767 Total new deaths: 13 Hospitalizations: 645 Positivity rate (seven-day daily average): 4.05% Total number of people tested: 7,213,245 (Source: Los Angeles County Department of Public...

Program brings camping, connection and confidence to kids By Haley Beyer Happy Trails for Kids, a camp for boys and girls growing up in foster care, partnered up with Happy Camper Live, Comfort Cases and Alternative Family Services to start a program called Happy Camper Hangouts. This program is dedicated to bringing camping, connections and confidence into the lives of kids who do not have access to the same extracurricular activities most get to experience. The idea for the camp started back in 1976 when a boy named David Abrams was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 2 years old. He survived cancer, but his treatments left him epileptic and with intellectual disabilities. Because of Abrams’ illness, no sleepaway camp would allow him to stay, so his mother, Pepper Edmiston, started her own called Camp Good Times, which was changed a year later to Happy Trails. Happy Trails hosted families who were raising seriously ill or incapacitated kids (either kids of their own or through foster care) for 13 years. David’s sister, Susan, became an attorney who represented kids in foster care. In 2009, she took over as president of Happy Trails and focused the mission of the program on kids in foster care with and without disabilities. From that point on, The Salters (David’s grandparents), Abrams and Edmiston families continued to support Happy Trails for Kids, both to...