TOCA Backstage

Perla Batalla - Songs and Sundries Variety Hour (and a half) Part 2 Friday and Saturday October 21 & 22, 2022 Perla’s return to our cabaret will feature hand-picked selections from Batalla’s vast repertoire, including songs from her original Mestiza song cycle, Perla’s inspired arrangements of Spanish language classics, The Great American Songbook, and of course, personal favorites from her me...

Musician/actor Scot Bruce celebrates what made Elvis not only the king of rock & roll...but the king of cool! See the magic that made a generation swoon in the 1950’s and 60’s, before the white jumpsuit, sunglasses and the glitter of Vegas. Along with his rockin’ 4-piece band, Bruce meticulously and respectfully recreates the electrifying musical excitement of Elvis in his prime...right down t...

UnitOne, a professional taiko group based under the umbrella of Asano Taiko U.S., presents their long awaited full length concert.   SHIKI (“four seasons” in Japanese) draws from intimate memories of the four seasons in Japan. From the fiery heat of summer to the frigid depths of winter, Shiki is a look inside UnitOne's memory of a distant place. Artistic Director Young Kang intertwines some of Un...

Question: What happens when you invite veteran comedy writers and character actors to tell tales of their love able friends with tails? Answer: you get MY DOG IS BETTER THAN YOUR DOG, a hilarious and heartwarming evening of stories about our four-legged friends.    This story driven show features comedian Carol Leifer (Writer/Producer Hacks, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld), Humorist and novelis...

Yesterday and Today: The Interactive Beatles Experience is the nation’s most innovative and unique show utilizing the works of the Beatles. This amazing group, anchored by brothers Billy, Ryan and Matthew McGuigan, does away the worn out “tribute” format of bad wigs and fake accents. Instead, they perform as themselves and leave the song choices completely in the hands of the audience. This is don...

Many of us recognize her from the platinum-selling Number 1 hit song “Stay (I Missed You)” from the film Reality Bites. Since then, she has enjoyed a successful career in music, film, television, voice-over work and children’s recordings. In addition to raising two children in LA, she stays busy working on her growing eyewear line, her music for grown-ups as well as books and CD’s for kids and fam...

A mime with noise, stand-up with no talking – drama with no acting. Viral sensation Tape Face has to be seen to be believed. Tape Face is a character created by performer Sam Wills; delightful, wry, many-layered, hilarious and with universal appeal. He accesses an inner child in us all that must be fed. Through simple, clever and charming humour, aimed at satisfying that hunger, this America’s Got...

Terry Casey and Chris Pierce talk about the band

Emmy® nominated, Irish singer - producer, Michael Londra is from the opera capital of Ireland, a small town on the South East coast called Wexford. He decided in his early 30’s to follow his heart and pursue a professional singing career. His leap of faith was rewarded when he soon became a leading man in musical theater in Dublin playing many roles culminating in becoming the lead singer for Rive...

Every now and again, something so cool comes along that I just have to share it with you.  Audiojack is a very unique experience that I highly recommend you give it a try. As the website describes it, it is an audio based movie with no words to mindfully engage your imagination.  In short, you close your eyes, listen to a bunch of sound effects that are specifically designed to elicit a response f...

Chris Jacobson is an enthusiastic businessman who learned about the plight of foster youth who are aging out of the foster care system. Rather than just feeling sorry for them, he took it upon himself to create a company that not only sells great coffee, but also involves these young people in hopes to give them a foundation for building their future. Building on the premise of helping those in ne...

If you don’t have plans for this Saturday October 3, I can recommend the streaming performance by Los Angeles Virtuosi under the direction of Maestro Carlo Ponti.  To learn more about this event, check out our podcast here. Maestro Carlo Ponti has been bringing music to the world for over 20 years. From the Russian National Orchestra to the San Bernardino Symphony. In 2013, he founded the Los Ange...

Typically, these newsletters and podcasts are used to let you know about the exciting shows we have coming up. A quick glimpse into the background of the artist, a simple reminder to get your tickets or just come interesting information about TOCA or the art as they relate to the South Bay or Torrance. I feel, however, that I would be remise in my duties if I didn’t make you aware of a virtual pro...

It was a pleasure speaking with Oisín Mac Diarmada about his upcoming virtual performance, Breakfast in Ireland. This special performance will be Zoom live streamed from Sligo, Ireland with Oisín Mac Diarmada (fiddle) and Samantha Harvey (dance / piano) Fiddler Oisín Mac Diarmada has spent most of his musical life living in Sligo, an area noted historically for an extraordinarily rich fiddle tradi...

With all the craziness going on in the world today, I have to confess that at times, it seems like we are riding an emotional rollercoaster. Some days we are truly optimistic and some days are filled with despair. Then you meet someone like Grace Fisher. I learned about Grace through an old friend of mine who shared some of her videos on her social media page. The video posts were mostly of a youn...

Jon Armstrong has won numerous awards including Close Up Magician of the Year. His special brand of humor and magic have been seen in 30 countries, not to mention “The Today Show”, “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Penn and Teller’s Fool Us” , which caused Penn to exclaim his act as “the most original I’ve ever seen!” When you see him live, Jon hopes that you laugh loudly, are amazed by his sk...

Bearing an ever expanding repertoire of, as she puts it, "obscure, lovely and naughty songs from the 1910s, '20s and '30s," Janet Klein is a musical archaeologist hiding in the body of an F. Scott Fitzgerald heroine. Her music is as timeless as her personality.

TOCA's SouthBay Festival of the Arts was supposed to be Saturday June 27th. However, due to the Covid 19 pandemic, we had to cancel the event. Still, with all that's going on in the world, we'd still like to share the arts with you this weekend. On Friday June 26th at 7pm, TOCA will present a live concert, streaming on our Facebook page. Jeff Bordes is an amazing musician who has appeared on TOCA'...

The current COVID pandemic has taken its toll on performing arts organizations and performing artists. In hopes to support these artists who are critical to our success, we have created TOCA To Go. A way to support local artists and TOCA. Do you know someone who is missing the excitement of a live performance? Got a special occasion that you want to celebrate or need a special gift you want to sen...

Arts organizations (as well as small businesses) was hit with Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) at the beginning of the year which outlines a new way to determine who is an independent contractor vs an employee. With the changes in the determination, many found that creative artists who were once paid per gig or as an independent contractor were now seen, in the eyes of this bill, as an employee. Needless to...

During this time of social distancing and stay at home orders, sometimes the only way to stay connected with friends and family is through photos, videos and Zoom calls. We’ve all had times when we have taken a selfie or photo and instantly deleted it because we didn’t like it. Or maybe you are on a Zoom happy hour or business meeting and you look at your image compared to others and can’t seem to...

Magic Up Close One of the shows that we had lined up for this season before we had to postpone everything was Magic Up Close. This is one of my favorite shows that we produce. Changing the Nakano Theatre into a very intimate performance area, we bring in magicians to present a full length presentation of magic up close. This year we had scheduled Jonathan Levit and George Tovar for this intimate e...

Prior to the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, TOCA was looking forward to presenting Go Now: The Music of the Moody Blues. Lead by Gordon Marshall, the drummer of the group for over 25 years, this was sure to be one of the highlights of the season. Needless to say, as the current health crisis began to limit travel, the group had to cancel their US tour, leaving us to have to cancel our April per...

As I am fond of saying... "I appreciate dance, but I don't always understand it." So, I thought I would chat with someone who might help to understand this often underappreciated art form. Brenda Way received her early training at the School of American Ballet and Ballet Arts in New York City. She is the founder and artistic director of ODC/Dance and creator of the ODC Theater and ODC Dance Common...

When it was decided that we wouldn’t be able to bring you interviews of the artists in our season due to the postponement of shows, I reached out to a number of people that I thought would be interesting to speak with. Kelly Freemon Craig, award winning film director and screenwriter was gracious enough to take me up on the offer. Kelly started out writing sketch comedy and spoken word poetry in c...