Theatre
-
ATCA Celebrates Qui Nguyen’s Vietgone
Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award
By: - Apr 10th, 2016The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) has selected Qui Nguyen’s “Vietgone” as the winner of the 2015 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, recognizing playwrights for scripts that premiered professionally outside New York City during 2014.
-
I Will Look Forward to This Later at New Ohio
Both Funny and Tragic
By: - Apr 11th, 2016When the famous and respected literary lion Wyatt Holloway suddenly passes away, his wife, sons and lovers are left to figure out how to relate to each other and find direction in their lives. “I Will Look Forward to This Later” will be playing at The New Ohio Theatre (154 Christopher St., NY, NY) through April 23.
-
Can You Forgive Her At Huntington Theatre
A Social Comedy About Making Mistakes at the Calderwood
By: - Apr 12th, 2016On Halloween night, various individuals are weighing their life questions and answers. Sparky Miranda is desperate for a way out of her situation. She’s up to her neck in debt, she might be actually falling for the man who pays her bills, and now her week-end date has threatened to kill her. A seemingly sweet stranger offers shelter and a drink. Where will the night end? With dark humor, two-time Pulitzer finalist Gina Gionfriddo presents complicated and somewhat incomplete characters wrestling with love, money, and their past. This sometimes awkward show is about people making strategically bad life choices and mostly talking about it. Using contemporary themes roughly juxtaposed, the playwright uncomfortably lays out no easy answers.
-
Laurence Holder's Sugar Ray
Woodie King, Jr. Directs Reginald L. WIlson
By: - Apr 12th, 2016Legendary actors Wesley Snipes, Laurence Fishburne, Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson took their first steps on the stage directed by Woodie King, Jr. before they blasted onto the Big Screen. Woodie has found a new giant, Reginald L. Wilson, who he directs in a mesmerizing performance at Harlem Besame, on the exact spot that Sugar Ray Robinson, arguably America's greatest boxer, conducted his enterprises in Harlem.
-
ATCA in Philly
2016 Theatre Conference
By: - Apr 19th, 2016"In our time, theater here began to blossom about 25 years ago," wrote Howard Shapiro, a Philadelphia-based theater critic and ATCA's conference chairman in a welcome note to attendees. "And about 15 years ago the scene exploded. Of the 50-plus stage companies that pay their actors, designers and creative teams, about 35 hold Actors' Equity contracts at any given time. Metropolitan Philadelphia is now home to more than 1,000 Equity members, plus sizable communities of scenery, costume, lighting and sound designers; directors and playwrights. The theater community is a minor Philadelphia industry."
-
Steppenwolf Premieres Mary Page Marlowe
Six Actors Portray Tracy Lett's Main Character from 12 to 69
By: - Apr 20th, 2016Tracy Letts’ script for the Steppenwolf Theatre world premiere production, Mary Page Marlowe, explores her identity in 11 scenes and 80 minutes. In his dramatic deconstruction of a life, the scenes are not performed in any ordered way and Mary Page is represented from age 12 to 69 by six different actors. (And a baby doll. Originally three actual infants were to alternate as infant Mary Page, but director Anna D. Shapiro decided during previews that was too much verisimilitude. Shapiro has children herself, so I don’t know why she thought a baby would do what it was being directed to do. Directing babies would be like herding cats.)
-
American Repertory Theatre 2016/ 17 Season
Award Winning Theatre in Cambridge
By: - Apr 20th, 2016“Our 2016/17 season features work that will engage our audiences in current conversations around gender, class, and identity; pivotal moments in Irish and Argentinian history; and the crisis in our American education system.” stated A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus. “I am delighted to welcome back to the A.R.T. Anna Deavere Smith, Bill Rauch, and Jo Bonney, and to introduce many new artists.” She continued, “Incubating and developing new work is critical to our mission of expanding the boundaries of theater. Instead of helming a production next season, I am excited to be dedicating my time to the development of new work, which will result in productions for future seasons.”
-
Aoife Duffin Embodies A Girl Half-Formed
Irish Words Affecting and Harrowing
By: - Apr 21st, 2016A Girl is a Half-formed Thing has been translated from novel to stage by Annie Ryan, who also directs. A solo performance by the brilliant Aoife Duffin evokes the world of a young Girl, growing up with an older brother who is dying of brain cancer. Her mother's absorption with the boy leaves the Girl unprotected, but also free to spread her wings. Astonishing images arrest the ear.
-
Agnes of God in Palm Springs
Coyote StageWorks at Annenberg Theatre
By: - Apr 23rd, 2016Whoever says one has to go to New York or LA to see great theatre obviously hasn’t seen, but should see, the current Coyote StageWorks production of “Agnes of God” currently on stage at the Annenberg Theatre in Palm Springs.
-
The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord
Scott Carter at Northlight Theatre in Chicago
By: - May 19th, 2016Scott Carter is executive producer for HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher” and previously produced the first 1100 episodes of Maher’s “Politically Incorrect.” He has written two full-length monologues. Discord premiered in 2014 in Los Angeles at the Geffen Playhouse and the NoHo Arts Center.
-
Joe Sutton's Brilliant Orwell in America
At 59E59th Street Theater
By: - Oct 09th, 2016Playwright Joe Sutton creates George Orwell twisting moment to moment. Jamie Horton is magnificent in the wrenching role. Orwell’s discomfort, his loneliness, his humor and passion are all developed before us in language that is very much the author’s. Director Peter Hackett brings off this complicated character in an enormously engaging piece.
-
First Berkies Theatre Awards This Sunday
VIPs to Gather at Mr. Finn's Cabaret in Pittsfield
By: - Nov 08th, 2016Theatre celebrities, from critics to thespians, will gather at 5 pm on Sunday, November 13, 2016 at Mr. Finn’s Cabaret in Pittsfield. With a champagne toast they will celebrate the first, annual Berkshire Theatre Awards AKA 'The Berkies." The 25 winners in a range of categories, many of whom plan to attend, have previously been announced. The suspense will focus on the winner of the Larry Murray humanitarian award named for the critic and founder of the awards.
-
Tony Winner Fun Home
Touring Company Visits Chicago
By: - Nov 08th, 2016Fun Home, the prize-winning show (five 2015 Tonys including best musical), opened at Chicago's Oriental Theatre last week for a very short run. The play, based on Alison Bechdel’s best-selling graphic novel, is a story of growing up trying to figure out yourself and seeing your parents through new eyes as you mature.
-
Sharr White's Annapurna
Launches CV Repertory Theatre's Season
By: - Nov 08th, 2016The narrative of Sharr White’s play is not its strongest asset. It’s the performances of the actors that win the day. The technical credits at CV REP are always top tier.
-
The Little Flower of East Orange in Chicago
Play by Stephen Adly Guirgis at Eclipse Theatre
By: - Nov 10th, 2016Stephen Adly Guirgis opens the veins of family feelings in his plays, with his gritty, piercing dialogue. He writes scenes we usually don’t see in public, scenes that reveal long histories of family abuse that become painful memories. He does this in Between Riverside and Crazy and The Motherfucker with the Hat, He is is a member of New York’s highly regarded LAByrinth Theater Company. Little Flower premiered at LAByrinth in 2008, directed by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.
-
Finian's Rainbow Arcs Over New York
Irish Repertory Mounts Charming Production
By: - Nov 11th, 2016FInian's Rainbow was first produced in 1947, but the tough issues it raises are very contemporary. In Southern United States blacks and whites live comfortably, but are challenged by land grabs, Sears Roebuck salesmen and a Senator ripe for conversion.
-
White Lights Festival Presents All That Fall
Beckett's Radio Drama Re-imagined
By: - Nov 10th, 2016The brilliance of Samuel Beckett is captured by the Pan Pan Theatre Company of Dublin. Beckett's magical words never had more music and humor. The irony of death's grip is fully evoked in our mind's eye as we sit in rocking chairs, imagining figures. Beckett is laugh-inside funny, his words ricocheting around the room.
-
After by Michael McKeever
World Premiere at Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center
By: - Nov 12th, 2016“Now what” are the words playwright Michael McKeever wants us to ponder after watching his devastatingly honest, explosive, unflinching and all-too-topical play titled simply “After.”
-
First Annual Berkies Awards
Theatre VIPs Jam Mr. Finn's Cabaret
By: - Nov 14th, 2016The Berkshire theatre gilterrati crammed into Mr. Finn's Cabaret for a raucous evening celebrating The First Annual Berkshire Theatre Awards. Seventeen arts journalists voted on 120 nominees in 25 categories chosen from artists in the 75 live theatre productions mounted in Berkshire County and adjacent areas between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016.
-
Playwright Lauren Gunderson Takes Action
An Offer We Cannot Refuse
By: - Nov 15th, 2016Any theatre company, group, or person who wants to do a reading of my feminist political comedy, The Taming, on Inauguration Day 2017 can do so for free, with thanks to Playscripts.
-
From Silence by Anne Marilyn Lucas
NY's Theater for the New City
By: - Nov 16th, 2016The brutally honest play From Silence by Anne Marilyn Lucas is based on her observations of second generation Holocaust survivors and their families. The piece centers on a Jewish Holocaust survivor who, as a coping mechanism, has remained silent about her experiences in detention.
-
Jon Robin Baitz's Vicuna
World Premiere at Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City
By: - Nov 16th, 2016“Vicuna” is comedy rich in innuendo and roman à clef portrayals. I’ve seen several of Jon Robin Baitz’s plays in the past, but this one is a little different from his usually serious efforts as a dramatist.
-
Tony Winning Play on the Road
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
By: - Nov 18th, 2016The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time closed on Broadway in September after 800 performances (including 23 previews) and won five Tony Awards, including Best Play and garnering a host of other honors. Our correspondent reports on the touring company that performed briefly in Palm Beach, Florida.
-
Remembering Edward Albee
A Critic Recalls Interactions with the Playwright
By: - Nov 18th, 2016When Edward Albee died, the social networks were inundated with spontaneous comments. One admirer reminisced about the exquisite instructions on preparing the perfect crème brulee in Counting the Ways and made me realize how many such excerpts have stayed in my mind over the years. I’ve been thinking about them like memorializing snapshots – all those stimulating tricks with words, like Agnes wondering whether she can say “I dropped upstairs” and Jerry asking about saying “A dog I knew.”
-
Heisenberg by Simon Stephens
Manhattan Theatre Club Through December 11
By: - Nov 07th, 2016British playwright Simon Stephens and director Mark Brokaw weave an engaging obbligato of nicely nuanced, performances by two terrifically talented stars who know how to draw the audience into their small, compelling story and make it sing. It's currently on Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club.
<< Previous Next >>