Theatre
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Henry IV, Part One
Oregon Shakespeare Festival
By: - Aug 06th, 2017Director Lilean Blais-Cruz does well with limited resources. Actors extract whatever drama and humor that the words allow. Lighting and sound achieve expected OSF standards. This production plays in the round and with a minimum of staging – the fixed portion being a number of vertical white pipes with light wands attached to a maze of pipes above.
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Jeanne Sakata’s Hold These Truths
Solo Show at Pasadena Playhouse
By: - Jun 10th, 2017Playwright Jeanne Sakata, a successful actor herself, premiered Hold These Truths in 2007 at East West Players in Los Angeles. It made its off-Broadway debut in 2012 with the Epic Theatre Ensemble, and has since been performed at numerous regional theatres including Portland Center Stage, the Guthrie Theater, Seattle’s ACT Theatre, and locally by Coachella Valley Rep in Palm Springs.
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Ragtime at Barrington Stage Company
Timely Revival of Issues Based Musical
By: - Jun 30th, 2017Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield has a reputation for mounting an annual blockbuster revival of a vintage musical. It also has an an agenda to present message plays that inspire and inform audiences. In the era of Trump Barrington is presenting Ragtime which seemingly conflates the mandates for entertainment and education. It results in a long evening top heavy with big ideas, multiple characters and confusing subplots.
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The Roommate at WTF
Full House for Jen Silverman's Quirky Two Hander
By: - Jul 02nd, 2017Since its debut at the Humana Festival in 2015 The Roommate by Jen Silverman has been widely produced. It has the advantage of being an intimate two-hander. But it is being given a lavish production and marquee players at Williamstown Theatre Festival. With Jane Kaczmarek (Robyn), S. Epatha Merkerson (Sharon) selling tickets in the Berkshires is this a production that may be headed to New York? Significantly Silverman was in town tweaking the script.
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Play About Climate Change in Miami Shores
World Premiere by Mad Cat Theatre Company
By: - Jul 03rd, 2017A new dark comedy, Firemen Are Rarely Necessary shines harsh light on global warming, censorship and corruption in government. Short, pithy scenes and snappy dialogue keep us riveted. A new play by Theo Reyna has biting comedy that awakens us to realities.
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Constellations by Brit Nick Payne
Geffen Playhouse in LA
By: - Jul 04th, 2017“Constellations”, a poignant drama written by British playwright Nick Payne, is deftly staged by award-winning director Giovanna Sardelli that validates the acting gifts of its two stars: pixie-like Ginnifer Goodwin and handsome leading man Allen Leech (best known for his six year run in the TV blockbuster series “Downton Abbey”, as the family chauffeur).
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Critical Condition
ATCA Conference in San Francisco
By: - Jul 04th, 2017In the age of social media everyone is a critic., Some enthusiasts post their "reviews" and images to Twitter and Facebook before curtain calls.That was he elephant in the room as some 80 of the 250 members of American Theatre Critics Association gathered for an annual conference this time in San Francisco. In addition to several days of seeing theatre there were meetings and panel discussions focused on issues and ideas in the profession.
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Much Ado About Nothing in Frisco
Enticing at Marin Shakespeare Company
By: - Jul 05th, 2017The play is originally set in Messina, Sicily. Except for retaining the Italian character names, director Robert Currier's delightful "Much Ado" is transported to the bare clapboard, hardscrabble world of the Hatfields and McCoys - the border lands of Kentucky and West Virginia. The set is crude, the costumes are peasant-style, and the language an admixture of Shakespearian eloquence with down home Southern earthiness.
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Twelth Night Launches Stratford Festival
Now 150 Canada Celebrates the Bard
By: - Jul 05th, 2017Canada’s great Stratford Festival’s 63rd season also celebrates Canada’s 150th birthday. Its dazzling opening week of stunning productions this year consisted of seven major classic works; the later openings this season will feature new and experimental theater.
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The Model American in WTF World Premiere
Pursuing the American Dream Ruthlessly
By: - Jul 05th, 2017Last summer at Williamstown Theatre Festival the director, Danny Sharron, collaborated with playwright, Jason Kim (HBOs' Girls) to develop a new play. The Model American is being given a hip and sleek world premiere at Nikos Stage. There is, however, nothing to like about its amoral anti hero and arguably the play itself. It is performing to sold out audiences with mostly positive reviews.
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Guys and Dolls at Stratford Festival
Actors Sing and Dance Up a Storm
By: - Jul 07th, 2017It seems that almost everyone has a show-stopping song. And the action constantly moves to a change of place and tone and feeling. When, after we’ve been variously entertained by several couples, at least five major contenders for the star role, and much clowning, one of the big, oafish, slangy gangsters, stands up in church and sings a confessional song that brings the house down.
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Measure for Measure
Theatre for a New Audience
By: - Jul 07th, 2017Measure for Measure is a romantic comedy, ending with the lusty union of a Duke and a prospective nun with other nuptials pending. Yet it is an odd romantic comedy, propelled by the Sermon on the Mount. Director Simon Corwin and his team make the message contemporary. Man's darker side often conflicts with society's laws. The play comes as close to being timeless as any of the Bard’s works.
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Twelfth Night in Ft. Lauderdale
New City Players' Production of Shakespeare
By: - Jul 08th, 2017Ft. Lauderdale company's Twelfth Night achieves mixed results. Production of Shakespeare comedy is highly energetic, entertaining. The play is staged in intimate space through July 23
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Cymbeline Directed by Tina Packer
Rarely Produced Shakespeare Play
By: - Jul 09th, 2017With Cymbeline it seems that Tina Packer, the founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company, has completed her personal cycle of the canon. Although rarely performed, arguably Packer has saved the best for last. This is a complex and messy play but with brilliant direction, a gifted cast and super production that welter of confusion has been turned on its head with stunning results. This is the must see play of the Berkshire season and is on the short list of best productions by Packer and S&Co.
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Erik Jensen Stars at Steppenwolf Theatre
How to Be a Rock Critic (Based on the Writings of Lester Bangs)
By: - Jul 10th, 2017Lester Bangs tells us the story of his life, how he got turned on to words reading Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, how he discovered the music that changed his life, and how he began to write music reviews. Also how he began to consume pills by the handful (acid, with beer) and Romilar cough syrup by the bottle.
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Children of a Lesser God at BTG
A Story of Love, Communication and Connection
By: - Jun 30th, 2017With the rise of so many platforms of communication in today's world, are we really hearing one another? Children of a Lesser God focuses on truly listening and communicating in the world of the deaf. It portrays a love story between a hearing man and a woman who neither hears nor speaks. Their communication and connection are powerful to see in stellar performances by the lead actors, Joshua Jackson and Lauren Ridloff. The play runs to July 22 at Berkshire Theatre Group in Stockbridge, Mass.
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Ah, Wilderness! at Chicago's Goodman
Eugene O'Neill's Only Comedy
By: - Jun 30th, 2017Truly, Ah, Wilderness! and Long Day’s Journey Into Night are companion pieces in many ways, including being set (most likely) in the same house in New London, Connecticut—now known as Monte Cristo Cottage. It's where the O’Neill family spent its summers when actor father James O’Neill took time off from nationwide tours with his production of The Count of Monte Cristo.
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One Act Play Marathon
36th Marathon at Ensemble Studio Theatre
By: - Jun 30th, 2017What a pleasure it is to see good new plays well-produced. The EnsembleTheatre has done this year after year for 36 seasons and they don't go stale.
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Ensemble Studio Theatre Mounts Marathon
36th Annual Event
By: - Jun 09th, 2017Joined by 100 pairs of hands from th Radio Drama Network, the Ensemble Studio Theatre presents the 36th Marathon of One Act plays. New playwrights are featured and each had a special touch as the series unfolded.
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Woody Sez at Irish Repertory Theatre
Actor, Singer, Writer David Lutken Stars
By: - Jun 10th, 2017Woody Sez was mounted at the American Repertory Theatre in 2012. Now the brilliant actor/singer/writer David Lutken has expanded the show by an action-packed thirty-five minutes,and deepened his take on this iconic folk singer, who speaks clearly to our times. The Irish Repertory production is spot on throughout.
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Proof in Ft. Lauderdale
Pulitzer Prize-Winner at New City Players
By: - Jun 11th, 2017No math knowledge is needed to relate to Proof's many relevant themes. Actors are at the top of their game in South Florida theater company's production. The Pulitzer prize-winning play opens New City Players 2017 season.
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The Barrow Group's Expecting Isabel
Lisa Loomer Creates Theater Magic
By: - Jun 11th, 2017What's it like to create a child when sex doesn't do the job? Stripped of privacy, subjected to injection of semen into a hamster, and fending off an alcoholic parent are just part of the challenge. A hilarious treatment by talented playwright Lisa Loomer leaves us laughing and crying at once.
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The Roommate by Jen Silverman
Frisco Preview of Williamstown Play
By: - Jun 18th, 2017The tight and compelling two-hander The Roommate by Jen Silverman premiered at the Humana Festival a couple of years ago. While attending an ATCA theatre conference we enjoyed a superb production at the San Francisco Playhouse. It is also scheduled for the Main Stage of the Williamstown Theatre Festival.
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Shakespeare on the Hot Seat
Cal Shakes Presents As You Like It
By: - Jun 19th, 2017Now dead for centuries amazingly a lot of people are pissed off about Shakespeare. The actor uttering "Et tu Brute" in a controversial NY production strongly evokes our American Caesar, The Donald. This was a context for a meeting of American Theatre Critics Association for a panel and performance at Cal Shakes.
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Hanging With ATCA in Sausalito
The Legend of Georgia McBride
By: - Jun 20th, 2017There was a long day of meetings at Marin Theatre Company. The executives of American Theatre Critics Association were hosted for dinner on a houseboat in Sausalito. Then it was back to the theatre for an evening performance of the Matthew Lopez dark comedy The Legend of Georgia McBride.
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