Theatre
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John Douglas Thompson in The Iceman Cometh
Discusses Roles in Plays by Eugene O'Neill
By: - Feb 13th, 2015The Robert Falls directed Goodman Theatre production of The Iceman Cometh has transferred from Chicago to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. John Douglas Thompson revives his role as the down of his luck former high roller Joe Mott. A couple of summers ago we discussed African American characters, including his portrayal in The Emperor Jones, in plays by Eugene O'Neill. Thompson returns this summer to Shakespeare & Company where he is well known to Berkshire audiences.
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Berkshire Theatre Group Announces 2015 Season
Bells Are Ringing at Colonial and Lots More
By: - Feb 12th, 2015Berkshire Theatre Group announces 2015 Summer Season Musical, the 10th Annual Community Theatre Production, The Fitzpatrick Main Stage productions and a medley of lively acts scheduled to perform at The Colonial Theatre and The Unicorn Theatre. BTG will be announcing a second round of programming, including The Unicorn Theatre's Summer Season, in the next several weeks.
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Williamstown Theatre Festival 2015
Kyra Sedgwick, Audra McDonald , Cynthia Nixon
By: - Feb 10th, 2015The stars return to Williamstown Theatre Festival this summer for the first season of artistic director Mandy Greenfield. These include newcomers Kyra Sedgwick, Audra McDonald , Cynthia Nixon as well as the return of Jessica Hecht. The festival runs from June 30 – August 23, 2015.
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The Cripple of Inishmaan
Phoenix Theatre Indianapolis to March 1
By: - Feb 10th, 2015There’s a cruelty in small towns. Everyone knows everyone else’s business. They’ve all grown up together, so there’s a comfort level that tends to ignore privacy. No one flinches in calling someone a degrading nickname or referring to an embarrassing moment in their past, because it’s all common knowledge.
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Constellations: The Emperor’s New Clothes
On Broadway Through March 15
By: - Feb 07th, 2015Though there is no accounting for taste - as they say, that’s what makes horse races - one can conjecture as to why so many of the critics, major and minor, from the New York Times, to the Hollywood Reporter to Time Out, have filed rave reviews. We beg to differ.
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David Alan Anderson as The Giver
The Indiana Repertory Theatre to February 21
By: - Jan 30th, 2015“The Giver†tells the story of a perfect world, where no one needs to make decisions because you know exactly what you are supposed to do every day. What seems innocent and friendly at first takes on a sinister atmosphere as we learn more about the rules of their world. Each chime heightens the tension as Jonas begins to question the world around him.
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The Second Girl At Huntington Theatre
Moving Irish-American Drama At Calderwood
By: - Jan 30th, 2015Set in August of 1912 with Eugene O'Neill's classic Long Day's Journey into Night as a backdrop, The Second Girl is set in the downstairs world of the Tyrone family kitchen. Two Irish immigrant servant girls and the American-born chauffeur search for identity love and success in their world beset by circumstances and human mistakes. It is the world premiere by Huntington Playwriting Fellow Ronan Noone and directed by actor/director Campbell Scott.
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CV Rep Production Focuses on Age and Wisdom
Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First Hundred Years,
By: - Jan 30th, 2015The play by Emily Mann presents a tender oral history life story of the real-life Delaney sisters of Raleigh, North Carolina, who share their observations, experiences, anecdotes and memories of two lives fully lived in the time of Jim Crow law in the South; who then moved to the North, settling in New York City first in a vibrant Harlem and then into the white suburb of Mount Vernon. It’s a remarkable journey and story of sisters who never married and reached 100 plus.
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Winners by Maggie Bofill
Stripped Bare Survivors of the Great Recession
By: - Jan 23rd, 2015Ensemble Studio Theatre and Radio Drama Network have teamed together to produce a play about now. It is delivered with grace and humor in a superbly acted depiction of life after the Great Recession.
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Georgie: The Life and Death of George Rose
Sharon Playhouse Season Opens May 14
By: - Jan 14th, 2015Sharon Playhouse will present a developmental workshop of Ed Dixon’s Georgie: The Life and Death of George Rose to kick off its 2015 Season from May 14-17 and May 28-31 in the Stage 2 at the Bok Gallery. John Simpkins directs.
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Barrington Stage Company's 10X10
Set for February 12 to March 1
By: - Jan 14th, 2015Barrington Stage Company, has announced casting for the 10-minute plays for the 4th Annual 10X10 New Play Festival, with performances February 12 through March 1, as part of the 2015 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival.
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A Perfect Future At SpeakEasy Stage
30something Angst in the 21st Century
By: - Jan 13th, 2015A Play of 21st Century manners, A Perfect Future tells the story of Claire and Max finding their values put to the test. When their best friends Alex and Elena announce they are having a baby, things begin to unravel in their perfect world. Claire is climbing the corporate ladder in advertising, while her husband Max is a puppeteer for PBS. With friends entering into parenthood, they begin to ask themselves who they are and where they are going so fast. And what happened to the indie-rock kids that hated everything their parents believed in?
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Barrington Stage Announces 2015 Season
Dreaming the Impossible Dream
By: - Jan 13th, 2015On a miserable January day the media gathered for lunch on stage at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield. Artistic director Julianne Boyd announced programming for the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage. There are still slots to fill on the Mark St. Germain second stage. Once that is complete Boyd will move on to schedule the cabaret largely based on who is available for the 99 seat basement venue. The company will again collaborate with the Berkshire Museum to present a youth oriented production.
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Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
A Delightful Chekhovian Spicy Comedy at Huntington Theatre
By: - Jan 08th, 2015A Chekhovian mashup from master of comedy playwright Christopher Durang, Vanya and Sonia's quiet, bucolic and rather boring life is upended when their glamorous movie star sister Masha arrives with her brawny boy toy Spike in tow. This Tony Award-winning Broadway treat is both a rollicking and touching comedy that pays loving homage to Chekhov's classic themes of loss and existential longing.
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Molly Ivins' Wit and Wisdom at Lyric
Karen MacDonald Triumphant as Red Hot Patriot
By: - Jan 06th, 2015Splendidly portrayed by Karen MacDonald, Molly Ivins was a dyed-in-the-wool liberal from deep in the heart of Texas,. She had a rapier wit that made her one of America’s highest-regarded political satirists and beloved rabble-rousers. Red Hot Patriot weaves personal anecdotes with Molly’s humor and wisdom, celebrating her courage and tenacity. This is especially true even when a complacent America wasn’t listening. She was a personable monument to First Amendment rights and virtues. This is a terrific play about an American original.
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Callback
Parts Unknown
By: - Jan 01st, 2015When Arnie Reisman was our editor at Boston After Dark my friend Larry Stark covered theatre. That was the 1960s and he's still at it. For the New Year he sent this story now posted with his permission.
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Indianapolis Theatre
Top Ten Shows of 2014
By: - Dec 25th, 2014Every theatre is unique and the shows that they produce there reflect that diversity. I’m grateful Indy has so many great ones to choose from. There were some wonderful shows in 2014 and here’s a top ten list of my personal favorites. Make sure you keep an eye on these theatre in 2015!
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Renée Fleming Broadway Bound
Yet Another Williamstown Theatre Festival Transfer
By: - Dec 23rd, 2014In what was widely reviewed as a potential career move last summer artistic director Jenny Gersten enticed opera diva Renee Fleming to appear as an opera diva in a comedy for the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Living on Love, starring Fleming, will open on Broadway in April. It will join another WTF production of Elepant Man with Fool for Love to follow. Gersten also exported the musicals Far from Heaven and Bridges of Madison County. She is currently on a hiatus from theatre.
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Playwright Mark St. Germain on Theatre
Keynote Address at Orlando Shakespeare Festival
By: - Dec 20th, 2014Some months ago playwright Mark St. Germain mentioned a keynote address he delivered to the Orlando Shakespeare Festival. It included comments on critics and their role. It is a lively topic which we have often discussed. Here is the text of that speech.
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10x10 Upstreet Arts Festival Returns to Pittsfield
Short New Plays at Barrington Stage
By: - Dec 18th, 2014The 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival returns to downtown Pittsfield for the fourth year from February 12-22, 2014, and features music, theatre, dance, film, visual art, spoken word, comedy and more, including BSC’s 10X10 New Play Festival. Directors for the 10X10 New Play Festival are BSC Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and Artistic Associate and Director of New Play Development Stephanie Yankwitt.
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A Beef & Boards Christmas
Seasonal Celebration in Indianapolis
By: - Dec 16th, 2014The show mainly stumbles when it tries to do too much. There are times when Lucas, the quartet, co-hosts Wims and Shepard, Santa and six dancers are all vying for the audience’s attention on stage at the same time. The frantic nature of those numbers makes it hard to appreciate any single element, much less all of them at once.
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Willy Holtzman's Smart Blonde
World Premiere at Pittsburgh's City Theatre
By: - Dec 16th, 2014Willy Holtzman moves the story along at a brisk pace, pausing just long enough to give us a glimpse of some of the major milestones in Judy Holliday’s career and personal life (the show runs eighty minutes without intermission). The flashbacks shift fluidly into each other, thanks to quick costume changes and skillful choreography on the part of actors Jonathan Brody and Adam Heller, who play the roles of all of the other figures in Holliday’s life.
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A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
2014 Tony for Best Musical
By: - Dec 14th, 2014Based on the 1949 treasure Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts and Coronets this 2014 Tony winning musical version A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder is a smashing pure delight. Through two marvelous acts we just laughed ourselves silly.
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Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar
Among 2014 Top Ten Plays for NY Times
By: - Dec 12th, 2014In one act and 90 minutes Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Ayad Akhtar has compressed an explosive take on medieval Islam and its square peg in a round hole of the conundrum of contemporary American society. How does an ambitious individual of Muslim heritage assimilate and succeed in our corporate culture? Not really according to the compelling play Disgraced.
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George Eastman's Happy Hour
Set for CV REP’s 2015/2016 season.
By: - Dec 11th, 2014Playwright George Eastman has written a play rich in memory and in the memories of his two characters: eighty-three year-old Harry Townsend, and his forty-year-old married son Alan. Harry still lives in the get-away chalet he and Alan’s mother built in Vermont many years ago. Now he is just another widower living alone with his memories. The play is still in development.
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