Theatre
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Greetings from Nicholas Martin
Williamstown Theatre Festival Looks Forward to 2009 Season
By: - Dec 17th, 2008By every account, from a strong box office, the enthusiasm of the audience, and rave reviews from critics, the first season of Nicholas Martin as artistic director of the renowned Williamstown Theatre Festival was an unqualified success. The world, however, has changed, and not for the better, since we last heard from him at the end of the summer season. Here Martin updates us with some reassurances for the coming season that will not compromise on its remarkable artistic standards.
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August: Osage County at the Music Box
2008 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award Winner
By: - Dec 14th, 2008The play by Tracy Lotts "August: Osage County" premiered with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 2007. On Broadway it won the 2008 Tony Award as Best Drama as will as a Pulitzer Prize. In addition to New York the play is currently running in London and a US tour will start this summer.
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Surrealism at American Repertory Theatre
Charlie Chaplin's Granddaughter Performs Magically
By: - Dec 11th, 2008A bit magical, a bit dance, even a bit dreamlike and a whole lot entertaining, Aurelia's Oratorio is a surprisingly beautiful holiday performance present from ART. Aurelia Thierree is a lissome limbed , gifted performer whose personality shines in sometimes spectacular ways performing an art that is part imagination and part athleticism.
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Vermont's Weston Playhouse and Dorset Theatre Festival Summer Schedules
Two gems nestled in the Northeast Kingdom
By: - Dec 09th, 2008As winter descends on New England, it is the perfect time to plan for the joys of Summer, 2009. Here a sneak preview of what is planned for the Weston Playhouse and Dorset Theatre Festival in Vermont.
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Steve Cuiffo Is Lenny Bruce at Mass MoCA
Yaddee, Yaddee, Yadda
By: - Dec 07th, 2008By the time he overdosed on drugs in 1966 Lenny Bruce was broke and wasted. He was routinely busted for obsenity and few if any club owners would book him. Also on any given night you never knew which Lenny would show up, the hilarious stand up comic, or the sincere but not really funny crusader and social commentator. Cuiffo presented more of the latter than the former.
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This Wonderful Life at Barrington Stage Company
Tom Beckett Recreates Capra's Beloved Film
By: - Dec 06th, 2008With remarkable affection and daunting energy Tom Beckett, in a smash hit, one man show, compresses the 1946 Frank Carpa 130 minute film "It's a Wonderful Life" to just an hour and twenty minutes while portraying some 30 characters. During these hard times our spirits soar as Clarence the Angel earns his wings.
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Rock 'n' Roll at Huntington Theatre Company
Perhaps Tom Stoppard's Best Play Extended to Dec. 13
By: - Nov 13th, 2008This boffo hit has been extended to December 13. Beginning in August 1968 with Russian tanks rolling into Prague and flower children mellowing in Cambridge, England and ending in 1990 with the tanks rolling out of Prague and the Rolling Stones rocking and rolling, this is a sweeping panoramic drama spanning two very different countries, three interconnected generations, and 22 unstable years. The Huntington showcases Tom Stoppard brilliantly intertwining love, rock and roll and the fall of Communism.
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Anne Galjour You Can't Get There From Here
One Woman Performance at MCLA's Gallery 51
By: - Nov 11th, 2008This new one woman show "You Can't Get There From Here" presented at MCLA's Gallery 51 by Ann Galjour was commissioned by Dartmouth College as a part of its Class Divide initiative. Although Cajun born in Louisiana here Galjour evokes a number of individuals in rural, down and out New England.
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David Mamet's November
Timely Production by Boston's Lyric Stage Company
By: - Nov 02nd, 2008In David Mamet's play "November" having its hilarious New England premiere at Lyric Stage Company of Boston we view the desperate final days of the lame duck President Charles Smith played with ferocious zest by Richard Snee.
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Wishful Drinking at Huntington Theatre Co.
Carrie Fisher's Star Shines in Spite of Her Life
By: - Oct 31st, 2008From a teenage sexpot in Shampoo with Warren Beatty to a sexy Princess Leia in Star Wars with the intergalactic hairstyle of all time, Carrie Fisher was well on her way to becoming, if not a Tinseltown icon like her mother Debby Reynolds, a second generation Hollywood star. Somehow the hair-raising trauma of her dysfunctional family life, personal addictions and bipolar condition derailed her adult life. One of the results is this clever, witty and often brilliant telling of the highs and mostly lows of her unique life. She says it best, " If my life wasn't funny, it would just be true, and that's unacceptable." Pop culture at its twisted best, laughing with Carrie Fisher is phenomenal.
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Machinal by Sophie Treadwell at Williamstheatre
Avant-garde Production of Expressionist Drama
By: - Oct 25th, 2008In 1927 Ruth Snyder was convicted of murdering her husband. A witness to the execution, Thomas Howard, published a front page image in the Daily News that caused a sensation. Based on this event Sophie Treadwell wrote the 1928 play "Machinal" which was a Broadway hit. It has been stunningly recreated by Williamstheatre.
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The Communist Dracula Pageant World Premiere At American Repertory Theatre
Ceausescu Meets Vlad the Impaler About History
By: - Oct 24th, 2008Nicolae Ceausecu and Elena Ceausescu were Romanian tyrants who over time became more egregious in their actions and more charicatures of what they actually wanted to be. Playwright Anne Washburn creates a fantastic theatrical mix and throws in Vlad the Impaler to give the play a bit of red blooded myth along with political history.
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Boleros For The Disenchanted at The Calderwood Theatre in Boston's South End
Playwright José Rivera's Puerto Rican Family Offering
By: - Oct 21st, 2008The Puerto Rican migration from the Caribbean island paradise to the gritty Bronx was a mass movement that effected hundreds of thousands of families. José Riviera's new play focuses upon one family's trials and testament.
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To Kill a Mockingbird at Barrington Stage Company
Harper Lee's Tale of Southern Racism
By: - Oct 16th, 2008Harper Lee's 1960 novel of coming to age in a racist town in the Deep South in the mid 1930s "To Kill a Mockingbird" won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. It has become a standard in class rooms. And an inspiration to the many students attending and writing reports on this stunning Barrington Stage Company production.
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Yvonne Latty's In Conflict
Temple University Production at NY's Culture Project
By: - Sep 30th, 2008The play "In Conflict" based on interviews by Yvonne Latty with Iraq veterans originated at Temple University. It won the Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It is now running Off Broadway in repertory with "The Atheist" through Culture Project.
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Kristin Scott Thomas in Chekhov's The Seagull
British Production Soars on Broadway
By: - Sep 30th, 2008In London Kristin Scott Thomas won the Olivier Award as Best Actress for her performance of Arkadina in Chekhov's "The Seagull." Through December 21 the stunning Royal Court Theatre production is staged at New York's Walter Kerr Theatre.
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Irina Brook Debuts Canterville Ghost at Shakespeare & Company
Oscar Wilde Adaptation has Plenty of Laughs, Not Much Heart
By: - Sep 29th, 2008Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost (1897) has served as the foundation for at least six film and television adaptations (1944-1996), several ballets (2006 and others) and even an opera (1966). The classic Oscar Wilde story is wonderfully suited to the theater as well, having been presented on stage by theatre companies throughout the world. With such a rich creative history, why then did Shakespeare & Company decide to start over from scratch?
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Let Me Down Easy At American Rep Theatre
Anna Deavere Smith's Amazing Grace
By: - Sep 28th, 2008One of the singular artists of our generation, Anna Deavere Smith brings insight, perception and intellect to the dramatization of the human condition in the 21st Century. Her latest performance piece Let Me Down Easy is both troubling and involving while equally enlightening and entertaining. It should not be missed.
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The Berkshire Summer Theatre Season 2008
A Mostly Upbeat Report Card
By: - Sep 17th, 2008Three dozen productions emerged from our four resident theatre companies this Summer making it the busiest Berkshire season in memory. Quality was surprisingly high given the hectic pace of productions. As Fall approaches, we offer you one person's opinion as to the best and the worst for 2008.
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Berkshire Theatre Summer 2008
An Overview of the Season
By: - Sep 17th, 2008Despite the challenges of rainy weather,gas at $4 a gallon, and a bad economy it was a superb season of theatre in the Berkshires. Nicholas Martin was the MVP for putting the venerable Williamstown Theatre Festival back on its feet.
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How Shakespeare Won the West World Premiere At The Huntington Theatre Company
49ers Entice Ragtag Group to Perform Bard's Words
By: - Sep 13th, 2008A World Premiere by a Tony Award-winning playwright, Richard Nelson, at the highly professional Huntington Theatre Company is generally a formula for success. However, even with good performances and technical mastery, an unfocused, overly complicated, confusing narrative by playwright Richard Nelson needs serious editing and refining. Less would have certainly been more.
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Cirque du Soleil's Kooza Arrives in Boston
Their Grand Chapieau Dominates the Boston Expo Center
By: - Sep 08th, 2008Cirque du Soleil delivers an unforgettable evening of outrageous clowning, astounding acrobats and colorful spectacle that is best described as "Theatrobatics!" Best of all, Kooza is the newest and funniest of their touring shows and even given the pricey tickets, worth every penny.
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Eleanor: Her Secret Journey by Rhoda Lerman at Berkshire Theatre Festival
Elizabeth Norment As Eleanor Roosevelt
By: - Aug 28th, 2008The revisionist, feminist approach of Rhoda Lerman's play, based on her novel, "Eleanor: Her Secret Journey" presents the developing independence of the first lady, portrayed by Elizabeth Norment, upon learing of an affair with Lucy Mercer by her husband Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
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Noel Coward's Double Exposure
Plays Currently at Berkshire Theatre Festival and Barrington Stage Company
By: - Aug 21st, 2008Currently there are two Noel Coward plays on view in the Berkshires. "Noel Coward in Two Keys" runs at the Berkshire Theatre Festival through August 30 while "Private Lives" continues through August 24. During 2007 there were Coward plays at Huntington Theatre and American Repertory Theatre as well as Williamstown Theatre Festival. Can you ever get enough of Noel Coward?
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See Rock City & Other Destinations at Barrington Stage Company
A Musical Tour About Love, Fear and Commitment
By: - Aug 19th, 2008See Rock City at Barrington Stage Company is a musical about people and the choices they make, regardless of where in life they find themselves. It proves that no matter where you go, there you are.
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