Arts In Review - Friday, June 12, 2026

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7. Try to set the night on fire
8. And welcome to KPFK's Arts in Review.
9. This is your host, Julio Martinez,
10. celebrating the best in live theater and cabaret
11. in the greater Los Angeles area.
12. Today, I'm delighted to have the playwright
13. and the complete cast of a new comedy
14. opening at the Hollywood Friends Festival.
15. So, please stay tuned. We'll be right with you.
16. And I am back.
17. This is Julia Martinez.
18. The play I was talking about is titled Small But Aggressive.
19. And it's directed by Ross Clark.
20. And the complete cast is here in the studio.
21. It just happens to be one petite lady.
22. That's me.
23. Yes. So I need to thank you for coming in the studio, Denise.
24. Julio, I am very pleased to be here. Thank you.
25. I have to ask you.
26. Yes.
27. You've done a number of one-person comedies, haven't you?
28. I have been doing my solo shows since sometime in the 80s.
29. Uh-huh. And what brought this one on?
30. Well, my husband had a malignant brain tumor and he passed away.
31. So to deal with it, what else do you do?
32. You write a show about it.
33. And actually, when he was in the last part of his journey, a lot of people were coming to the house.
34. And one of those was Whitney Weston, who is one of the artistic directors from Greenway Court Theater.
35. And she's a friend of mine.
36. And I was telling her about some of the crazy things that were going on.
37. And I said, when this is over, I'm going to write a show.
38. And she said, you write it, I'll produce it.
39. And it has four performances.
40. It opens Friday, June 19th at 7.30 p.m.,
41. then June 20th at 2 p.m., June 27th at 2 p.m.,
42. and then June 28th at 7 p Yes I be there for all of those Thank you During the course of the show we let our KPFK audience know how they can get tickets
43. how they can get tickets care of KPFK.
44. If you're a sponsor of KPFK, we'd love to invite you to the show.
45. You can also get discount tickets to the show.
46. That's right.
47. And we'll talk about that.
48. Yes, good.
49. So what was the first one-person show you ever did?
50. I don't know that it had a name.
51. I just called it Denise Moses.
52. Yes, because that is me.
53. And I was on the college circuit back then, performing mostly on the East Coast,
54. but going to colleges and doing my one-woman show there.
55. And I did that for a number of years in the 80s.
56. And it was a lot of different characters along the lines of what you used to see Lily Tomlin do and that kind of thing.
57. But it was mostly a collection of characters with some stand-up in there, but a lot of characters.
58. Did you do Tony and Tina's wedding here in Los Angeles?
59. I did.
60. I started it in the original off-Broadway production in New York.
61. And then we came out to L.A. in the end of 89.
62. And we were going to be here for four months.
63. So I just sublet my apartment back then.
64. And the show played for a year, and things were happening out here, so I just moved out here.
65. So I saw you in that as well.
66. You did?
67. I used to see a lot of theater.
68. Wow.
69. I should recognize you from that.
70. Do you play a lot of characters in that one?
71. In Tony and Tina's Wedding, I only played one, and I was Grandma Nunzio.
72. Oh, you weren't the mother.
73. I was not the mother.
74. I was the 87-year-old Italian grandmother.
75. I'm one of the only ones who could go back into my original role, but with a lot less makeup.
76. So you've performed at over 100 places nationwide.
77. That includes those colleges and clubs in New York, cabarets in New York, little theaters, that kind of thing.
78. Yes, over the years, that's what it added up to.
79. Now, the play is small but aggressive.
80. Have you done this elsewhere?
81. We did two stage readings at Greenway Court Theater just to see if the producers would actually be interested and to see if an audience would be interested.
82. I had an audience come for both readings, and it got such good feedback that I knew it was something that we could continue with and there would be an audience for it.
83. When you first performed before an audience, were you surprised where the laughs were and weren't?
84. Yes. In some places, yes. And there are some places that I hope people will laugh because you have to laugh in all of this. In the midst of grief, you have to cut it with something. Exactly.
85. I would guess that.
86. Yeah.
87. Now, is this based upon the relationship with your husband?
88. This is based on my husband's experience with my late husband with glioblastoma, which is malignant brain cancer.
89. So he was a classical ballet dancer and was diagnosed at the end of 2019 with a malignant brain tumor, and he passed away early 2021.
90. So this is about that journey and about my experience with grief who in my show is an actual character a chain character who refuses to leave because that is how I see grief Do you have children I do not but if you have any you want to loan to me
91. If you keep talking to me, I might.
92. Okay.
93. So I have to ask you, you were raised in Austin, Texas.
94. Well, I was raised in Oklahoma City, but I went to school in Austin, Texas, yes.
95. Now your parents weren't involved in the arts, were they?
96. Well, my father was the art director of the big ad agency in Oklahoma City.
97. So he was an artist.
98. And my mother always wanted to be a dancer.
99. So I think they understood.
100. And they were very supportive of what I did.
101. And my sister is an artist.
102. So how did you get involved in performing?
103. Well, back in Oklahoma City in grade school, they had a local children's theater called Mummer's Children's Theater.
104. And it was – we had public performances.
105. And I was cast after my first session there in Hansel and Gretel.
106. And I thought that was the sign that the world needed to see what I did.
107. So did you start out primarily dancing?
108. Well, I always took dance class.
109. In fact, my first tap teacher will be coming to see the show.
110. I was four years old when I took tap from her.
111. But I didn't think that dance had anything to do with acting.
112. I thought they were two separate things.
113. Later I found out that, yes, they're very connected.
114. When did you start studying acting?
115. Probably in grade school, if you count Mummer's Children's Theatre.
116. But in junior high, I did whatever they had available.
117. And in high school, I took drama class.
118. And I would go to speech tournaments.
119. And I actually won a scholarship to college because I won first place in the state speech tournament in my category, which was called humorous interpretation.
120. So you told a lot of jokes?
121. Well, you would take 10 minutes from a play, and you would play all the characters and present it.
122. And that was the premise.
123. Ah.
124. And I beat out everyone else in the state.
125. Did you continue to study the arts in college?
126. Yes.
127. I started out at Oklahoma City University, where Christian Chenoweth went and Kelly O'Hara went.
128. And we had four Miss Americas come from there.
129. And then I transferred to University of Texas, and I have a BFA in acting, if you want to see that certificate.
130. What was your first professional job as an actress?
131. Gosh, I think I was dancing in a little film for a publishing company.
132. It was to promote a book.
133. And back in New York, that would be my first time I think I got paid.
134. Aha.
135. Then you had been touring up to this time?
136. Well, I hadn't toured yet.
137. Oh, yeah.
138. I was still so young.
139. So young, you know.
140. Well, you have to start sometime.
141. You do.
142. You do.
143. What brought you to L.A.?
144. Well, it was Tony and Tina's wedding, the off-Broadway show.
145. And like I said, we thought we were going to be here for four months.
146. That's all that we had planned for.
147. and the show kept getting extended and was such a big hit that we played for a year And actually the show went on I played with it in san francisco and it played in many cities and even other countries since then huh now uh how did you get the idea of writing a one show
148. for yourself a complete play well back in new york i had a casting director who said to me
149. your character, I don't know what to do with that.
150. And I had never heard that term character.
151. I didn't know that I was a character actress.
152. And I thought it was something really bad.
153. But I thought, well, okay, I will show you what I can do.
154. And I just started writing characters and put them together and they became a show.
155. How many of these shows have you done?
156. Oh, my gosh, I've lost count.
157. A bunch, a bunch, a whole bunch.
158. And this is my latest one.
159. What's the running time of this one?
160. This is about 75 minutes, so an hour 15.
161. That's good for the Fringe Festival.
162. Right, and no intermission.
163. Straight through.
164. Right.
165. Now, you're going to do it at this Fringe Festival.
166. You're taking it to the New York Fringe, the Edinburgh Fringe?
167. Well, that may be in the future.
168. I'm looking into some of those, probably in 2027.
169. Edinburgh really interests me, and so I'd love to go there.
170. way back when I did the Edinburgh Festival.
171. Did you?
172. Many, many years ago.
173. What did you do?
174. Well, I had a theater company
175. sponsored by the city of Los Angeles
176. called the Public Players.
177. You ever heard of the CETA Act?
178. C-E-T-A?
179. Yeah.
180. The Comprehensive Employment Training Act.
181. That's to put displaced occupations
182. in different cities to work.
183. In L.A., they found there was no more
184. displaced occupation than acting.
185. So they formed five theater companies
186. And I started out as the music director
187. Then they made me the director
188. Of the public players company
189. Love it
190. And I did a Comedia
191. The Larty version of a man
192. Serving for two masters
193. And we took that
194. Fantastic
195. I love doing Comedia
196. I've never done Comedia but I would love to
197. Back in San Francisco I was part of a theater crew
198. The San Francisco Mime Troupe
199. That did all Comedia
200. and very aggressively left-wing commedia.
201. Great combination.
202. So I used my training in that to do that here.
203. And it was fun.
204. Fantastic.
205. But then I got settled down.
206. I've been here for 40 years almost at KPFK.
207. And I love talking to people like you.
208. I love talking to people like you, Julio.
209. Now, while you're here, do you also go out for the things that pay a bit more money,
210. like television and film?
211. Well, right, I do.
212. I try to, yes.
213. I do commercials, and I just wrapped a little indie film called St. Shirley,
214. where I play a very irreverent angel.
215. Well, she's a would-be angel.
216. She's trying to earn her wings.
217. And she has to vet people coming into either heaven or the other place.
218. And she helps them decide where they're going.
219. Uh-huh.
220. And do you teach at all?
221. I do, actually.
222. At Pasadena Civic Ballet, which is where my husband taught classical ballet for 30 years,
223. I teach acting to the ballet students.
224. Oh, wow.
225. Yes, I'll be teaching in July.
226. I'll be teaching there in July.
227. Have you ever done classical ballet as a performer?
228. Well, I have.
229. I have. I don't consider myself really a classical
230. ballet dancer, but I have training. And I played the grandmother in Nutcracker with Hollywood Ballet
231. and with Pasadena Civic Ballet. I've done a number of roles. And there's a new company
232. called Little Women Ballet. And we did Little Women at Pasadena Playhouse. And I play at March.
233. Wow.
234. So I do mostly character roles in the classical ballet, but they give me some steps to do too.
235. Oh, well, that's always nice.
236. I have to be on my toes.
237. Have you ever thought of teaching regularly, opening your own studio or anything?
238. Well, I haven't.
239. I haven't thought of that.
240. I'm so busy with hopefully performing that maybe down the line I would do that.
241. I'm wildly curious.
242. When my children were going to the L.A. County High School for the Arts,
243. there was not much interest in ballet.
244. There was a lot of interest in tap, show business,
245. and I always thought someone should be teaching ballet.
246. And I was told that it's too strict a discipline for the students who come here.
247. I think that ballet is the basis for whatever kind of dancing you're doing.
248. If you can do that, and discipline, I think you need discipline in dance.
249. That's how you get further, whatever that discipline means to you.
250. But ballet is a strict art, that's true, and takes a lot of practice and a lot of training,
251. but it's also so beautiful and worth it, and I think it applies to all dance forms.
252. And I'm interested in the characters you do, like small but aggressive.
253. Yes.
254. Can you give me an example of one of your characters?
255. Well, I play two main characters
256. Me, Denise
257. And then I play Grief
258. Grief?
259. G-R-I-E-F, Grief
260. Grief's the name and grief's the game
261. And that's the voice you use?
262. Pretty much
263. Right out of the side of your mouth?
264. That's right, that's me, yeah
265. How many different characters do you play in this?
266. Well, gosh, I haven't counted them
267. The other characters don't have as big a part as such a big role, not as many lines as Grief and Denise have.
268. But I play the people who run the skilled nursing facility where my husband was and some other characters like that.
269. How do you change your voice or change the character?
270. Well, part of it is body and part of it is Miss Moses.
271. Yeah.
272. We are a for-profit entity.
273. I get it.
274. Exactly.
275. So you study a lot of characters.
276. Well, it interests me.
277. You know, when you see people and you go, oh, my gosh, that's so interesting.
278. I have to remember that.
279. I have to put that into a character somehow.
280. And these people that I'm doing, I knew them in real life or I ran across them in real life.
281. So I just sort of imitated them.
282. Uh-huh.
283. I also had an opportunity
284. to interview
285. Kristen Chenoweth
286. oh
287. she was doing
288. a television show
289. uh huh
290. I was a member
291. of the television
292. critics association
293. so they would come
294. and we
295. we would interview them
296. and I
297. I talked to her
298. a bit
299. and
300. during the course
301. of the conversation
302. between me
303. and other people she went into a whole lot of different characters I not surprised did she talk about her vocal coach Florence Birdwell Yes Florence I have known since I was 12
304. Her daughter, Robin, and I are best friends from junior high on.
305. So I knew Flo very well.
306. And we did local theater together in Oklahoma City, lyric theater.
307. Wow.
308. Right.
309. She was a force.
310. She was wonderful.
311. Well, I asked her, do you yodel?
312. And she did.
313. She did.
314. And loudly.
315. She's a big boy.
316. She's little, but she's big.
317. Right, on stage.
318. Exactly.
319. Now, how long do you hold on to a show like this?
320. Well, that's a good question.
321. I hope that this show has a long life.
322. I am hoping that after we do this here in L.A., that maybe we do it in some other cities.
323. I have some connections in Dallas and Oklahoma City and other places.
324. And I'm hoping that there's interest to bring it there and share it with a whole new audience.
325. Do you have a strong connection to the university you went to?
326. I don't know people there anymore, but I will reconnect.
327. I am in touch with people who went there
328. I have a strong connection with the group that I was in school with
329. Now I have to remind people at KPFK
330. that the performances are at the Greenway Court Theater
331. Friday, June 19th at 7.30
332. Saturday, June 20th at 2 p.m.
333. Saturday, June 27th at 2 p.m.
334. Sunday, June 28th at 7.30 p.m.
335. Correct.
336. And if people want to get tickets to this, what should they do?
337. They go to greenwaycourteater.org.
338. greenwaycourteater.org.
339. And I also want to remind you that we are offering two pairs of tickets to the KPFK family.
340. If you are a member of the KPF family, a dues-paying member, just call 818-985-5735 or 818-985-KPFK, press 1, and you can get a pair of tickets to this show.
341. And we have a discount code for listeners as well.
342. Oh, really?
343. Yes.
344. They can use the discount code KPFK.
345. Oh, well, that is wonderful.
346. And they get $15 tickets.
347. Wow.
348. Exactly.
349. We'd love to see you all there.
350. We have time to talk.
351. Okay.
352. Are there any things you would like to do?
353. Any ideas you have for shows?
354. After this?
355. Yes.
356. Actually, I have one called Crawl Space.
357. Crawl Space.
358. Right.
359. Dark humor.
360. Oh, really?
361. Dark humor that I'm working on.
362. it's not very far along yet
363. but that would
364. and I may revive my
365. show that I did before called
366. Growing Up and Liking It
367. and it's about when I was a
368. child and I wanted to be a child star
369. but there were not a lot
370. of opportunities in Oklahoma City
371. if you got on the local news that was considered
372. a film credit
373. but it was about
374. that
375. Do you sing as well?
376. When I have to I do You heard me sing in I Love Lucy live on stage when I played Speedy Alka I had a little song that I had to sing and I tap danced I hope you remember
377. Remind me.
378. Oh gosh.
379. What is the Speedy Alka-Seltzer little song?
380. Round, round, round the stomach through.
381. Down, down, down the stomach too.
382. Wow.
383. That was pretty much it.
384. You have a nice gravelly voice when you need it.
385. I do, don't I?
386. Part of my character.
387. Have you ever taught diction or anything?
388. I have not taught diction, but I have a character who is the world's greatest living actress in my one-woman show.
389. And her name is Madame.
390. Madame.
391. And she will teach you diction.
392. No, don't look at me.
393. Just listen to the sound of my voice and I shall direct you.
394. Oh, wow.
395. It's really interesting
396. I interview people
397. some talk forever
398. some just answer the questions
399. you're more the person who just answers the questions
400. so it leads me to a lot of
401. questions
402. I can talk more if you want me to
403. sure
404. You said you live
405. in the valley now, right?
406. I do, I live in Burbank now
407. so it was very easy to get here to Glendale
408. Oh, yes.
409. Not hard at all.
410. Yeah, we've traveled around the valley from North Hollywood to Studio City, now in Sherman Oaks.
411. Right.
412. Right across the street from Notre Dame High School, where we get to listen to them play football all the time.
413. Isn't that lovely?
414. When I was growing up, we lived down the street from a football stadium.
415. So every Friday night, I could hear all the football games.
416. And in the summer, they had stock car races.
417. Oh, really?
418. You would hear the start car races all night long.
419. Yeah, we're right across the street from the football field,
420. so we can see the scoreboard, we can see the cheerleaders out there,
421. and we always know when Notre Dame has scored a touchdown
422. because they play the Notre Dame Pintz song.
423. Right, yes, you don't have to actually go to the stadium.
424. You can just watch it all from the convenience of your living room.
425. Have you ever done any athletics?
426. Actually, I was a competitive swimmer.
427. I was a member of AAU, Amateur Athletic League, when I was 11 and 12.
428. Right, I competed.
429. My stroke was backstroke.
430. And I won third in Junior Olympics in butterfly, 50-meter butterfly for one meet.
431. Yes.
432. There's a lot of resemblance between you and my wife.
433. The only athletics she did was swimming.
434. Oh, seriously.
435. She was part of the synchronized swimming team.
436. And I used to do synchronized swimming, too.
437. In Oklahoma, we called that water ballet.
438. Right.
439. Yes.
440. And where I went to camp in Oklahoma, Camp Cimarron, Coyle, Oklahoma, we did water ballet every summer.
441. And I used to teach water ballet, and I used to teach swimming.
442. I could teach you water ballet.
443. I could teach it to you, Julio.
444. Well, we need a bigger pool.
445. We do.
446. We do.
447. Now, you're opening on the 19th.
448. I'm opening on the 19th, which is, isn't that a week from today?
449. Yes.
450. Yes.
451. It's a week from today.
452. Yes, that's Friday.
453. Yes.
454. And you're doing two evening performances on Friday and Sunday.
455. Well, Friday the 19th, Sunday the 28th.
456. Then you're doing two matinees.
457. Two matinees.
458. And the second matinee the 27th we actually have a talk back afterwards And we will have a facilitator who is trained as a grief counselor because the show is about grief
459. And so she'll be there to help us do some of that.
460. Wow, that's great.
461. Right.
462. I have to remind everyone that following Arts in Review, Donna Walker's show, Pacifica Performance Showcase, comes on.
463. We're the Arts and Culture Hour here at KPFK.
464. And her guest is filmmaker Matthew Sullivan to talk about his documentary Seeds of Liberation.
465. And Leslie Scalone, co-founder of Dances with Films Festival.
466. Dances with Films Festival.
467. There it is.
468. and I really have to say
469. it's been a pleasure talking to you
470. I usually don't have to talk this much
471. but this has been great
472. Thank you Julio
473. and I'm going to come see your show
474. Wonderful, wonderful
475. I look forward to seeing you there
476. and for Julio Martinez and Arts in Review
477. we come to you every Friday
478. at 2pm
479. we will see you next week
480. take care and have a great and hot
481. weekend, take care
482. Hey, this is Brad Friedman of the Bradcast,
483. heard right here on KPFK, Mondays at 3 p.m. As you know, KPFK is corporate-free, listener-supported
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489. now and thanks. Coming up this week on LA Theatre Works. A brilliant mathematician entrusted with
490. state secrets is destroyed by revealing one of his own. You've just told me you've committed a
491. criminal offense. If I hadn't told you, you wouldn't have known anything about it. But you
492. did tell me. Simon Templeman stars as Alan Turing in Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore. Next time
493. on L.A. TheatreWorks. That's this Sunday evening from 10 p.m. until midnight. L.A. TheatreWorks
494. right here on KPFK.
495. This is Gary Oldman.
496. You're listening to radio
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498. KPFK 90.7 FM.
499. Thank you.
500. .