Jul 23

Laughter Through Tears: “Steel Magnolias”

The Cast; Photo by Tim Gurczak

Presented by Hub Theatre Company of Boston
By Robert Harling
Directed by Paula Plum

July 19 – Aug. 3, 2019
Club Cafe
209 Columbus Ave
Boston, MA
Hub on Facebook

Critique by Kitty Drexel

(Boston, MA) Steel Magnolias is a theatre classic. It can be seen in fringe and community productions across the country. The 1989 movie starring Sally Fields and Dolly Parton has firmly cemented itself into the 80’s pop culture. The 2012 TV-movie starring Queen Latifah and, queen in her own right, Phylicia Rashad introduced a new generation to the story. It has survived well because of its timelessness. There will always be a need for safer-spaces where women can be themselves beyond the emotional and physical labors society demands from them. Hub Theatre’s production nestles into that need.  Continue reading

Jul 17

Universal Appeal Through Puppetry: “A Chance Encounter”

Image via https://english.moc.gov.tw

Presented by Puppet Showplace Theater
Written and performed by I Wan Jan Puppet Troupe

Saturday July 13, 2019
Puppet Showplace Theater
32 Station Street
Brookline, MA 02445
Puppet Showplace on Facebook 

Critique by Piyali Mukherjee

(Brookline, Mass.) I Wan Jan  is a puppet troupe from Taiwan who presented their debut and only performing show in Boston on July 14th. The troupe was founded by Li Tien-Lu, who named the group “I Wan Jan” (translation: “like natural”) because he believed that a puppet show could be as convincing as any performance by a live actor. The members of the troupe are fourth and third generation descendants of Li Tien-Lu. Continue reading

Jul 12

New Rep Theatre Announces Open Captioning for 2019-2020 Season

New Rep header via http://www.newrep.org

New Repertory Theatre
Mosesian Center for the Arts
321 Arsenal Street
Watertown, MA 02472
New Rep on Facebook

Story coverage by Kitty Drexel

(Watertown, MA)  New Repertory Theatre will provide one open captioned performance per each of its six productions during the 2019-2020 season due to a grant from the Theatre Development Fund, said a July 5 press release.

This project is also funded by the National Endowment for the arts, according to the press release. New Rep will offer discounts to those who require open captioned services. Continue reading

Jun 14

Like A Bird Made of Light: “Yerma”

Nadine Malouf (Yerma). Photo Credit: T Charles Ericksonn© 

Presented by the Huntington Theatre Company
Adapted and translated by Melinda Lopez
Based on the play by Ferderico Garcia Lorca
Directed by Melia Bensussen
Original music by Mark Bennett
Choreography by Misha Shields
Fight direction and intimacy direction by Claire Warden & Ted Hewlett

May 31 – June 30, 2019
Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
Boston, MA
Huntington on Facebook

Critique by Kitty Drexel

Trigger warnings: sexual acts, hallucinations & mental illness

(Boston, MA) It is 2019 and the United States government is at war with its people. Laws that aim to control anyone with a uterus are rushing through courthouses at an unprecedented rate. They aren’t protecting life; they are punishing women for having sex. Cadavers have more agency than women. Meanwhile, the foster care services in these same states are overwhelmed with children that desperately need good homes. Saying that the Huntington’s production of Yerma is topical is an understatement. Yerma approaches childbirth not from an opposite standpoint but an adjacent one. The right to choose also means choosing to have a child. Continue reading

Jun 12

Tickets available for Theatre On Fire’s “An Oak Tree”

Do not wait! Get Tickets Now!

“A play about theatre, a magic trick, a laugh and a vivid experience of grief, and it spoils you for a while for other plays.” – Caryl Churchill

Directed by A. Nora Long
June 13 – 22, 2019
Charlestown Working Theatre
Tickets available here now

 

Featuring
Michael Carr
as the Hypnotist

 

Two actors on stage
Only one has seen the script
The other one is new every night
And there is no rehearsal
What happens?

Thursday, June 13 @ 8pm: The incomparable Georgia Lyman
Friday, June 14 @ 8pm: The indefatigable Alex Simoes
Saturday, June 15 @ 4pm: The indefinable Noah Simes
Saturday, June 15 @ 8pm: The indubitable Kim Klasner

Thu, 6/20 @ 8pm: The Remarkable Cheryl Singleton
Fri, 6/21 @ 8pm: The Redoubtable Margarita Martinez
Sat, 6/22 @ 4pm: The Rexalicious John J King
Sat, 6/22 @ 8pm: The Revolutionary Margaret Ann Brady

 

Theatre on Fire presents An Oak Tree
June 13 – 22, 2019
Charlestown Working Theatre
442 Bunker Hill Street
Charlestown, MA 02129
TOF on Facebook

Jun 12

ImprovBoston Presents “Terpsichore,” A Masterclass for all female-identifying individuals

Sunday, June 23, 12 – 4pm
Registration: Tickets via ImprovBoston

ImprovBoston
Main Theater
40 Prospect St
Cambridge, MA 02139
IB on Facebook

“Terpsichore” is an improvised storytelling theatre piece in movement, dance, music, and spoken word. The format is simple enough and focuses on actors breaking the 4th wall to tell captivating tales supported by their cast who operate as one entity like a Greek chorus to support the action of the story. Through dance, movement, co-creation, and support, the cast weaves narratives that transport the audience to different times and places and blend fiction and non-fiction together in a heady phantasmagoria of sound, movement, and speech.

The workshop for this project itself is a crash course through decades worth of research, interdisciplinary study, and artistic exploration. During the 4 hour workshop, the performers will learn a shared vocabulary of group mind, movement, storytelling, dance, musicality, mime, and object work to create something truly awe-inspiring that will open up their creative centres and let them radiate as performers. The exercises involve mime, dance and movement, narration and storytelling, singing and vocal support, responsibly respectful contact improv, use of the environment and space, concrete and abstract deconstruction, points of inspiration and above all else support of fellow castmates and celebrating mistakes through repetition and support and elevating ideas until the whole piece becomes a matrix of unified thought.

“Terpsichore” is designed to break the mold of what improvised theatre is expected to be, even from within the improv community. It urges performers to stand outside of themselves and their perceived limitations and co-create something truly extraordinary using skills they didn’t even know they possessed before the process began.

FROM LINDSAY: This project is about providing advanced training specifically to benefit and encourage the next generation of female improvisers. With that goal, the cost to be a part of this unique and exciting opportunity is kept low.

REGISTRATION IS $20 AND IS OPEN TO ALL FEMALE IDENTIFYING PERFORMERS

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
Lindsay Gonzales is a stand-up comedienne and improvisor lately of Chicago, Illinois. Continue reading

Jun 01

Base Anarchy: “The Shape of Things”

Poster courtesy of Brad Costa Designs

Presented by the Glass Horse Project
By Neil Labute
Directed by Taylor K. Corbett

May 30 – June 1, 2019
Co+ Creative Center
137 Union St
New Bedford, MA

Critique by Kitty Drexel

Trigger warnings: gaslighting, manipulation, sexual content, domestic abuse, misandry

(New Bedford, MA) Neil Labute uses his plays to pit the lawfully evil against people so truthfully neutral that they lack personality.  The personalities always win. Meek characters are traumatized. This weekend the Glass Horse Project examines art, and the identity we tie to it in The Shape of Things. The audience might be disturbed by Labute’s play but they can’t say they weren’t entertained. Continue reading

May 23

We Will Be Free When We Are All Free: “We Live in Cairo”

The cast of “We Live in Cairo.” Photo: Evgenia Eliseeva

Presented by the A.R.T.
Book, music, lyrics by Daniel Lazour and Patrick Lazour
Directed by Taibi Magar
Choreography by Samar Haddad King
Music directed by Madeline Smith

May 14 – June 23, 2019
Loeb Drama Center
Cambridge, MA
ART on Facebook

Critique by Kitty Drexel

(Cambridge, MA) There are a few things that must be established for a white audience to fully digest the A.R.T.’s production of We Live in Cairo.

Continue reading

May 22

An Alternate Tyranny and Timeline in Handel’s “Silla”


Presented by The Cambridge Chamber Ensemble
Music by G.F. Handel
Libretto by Giacomo Rossi
Music Directed by Juliet Cunningham
Stage Directed by Ingrid Oslund
Produced/Executive Direction/Translation by Martha Birnbaum
Rossana Chung, violin
Rob Bethel, violincello
Lisa Putukian, oboe
Juliet Cunningham, harpsichord
May 17 – May 19, 2019
Warehouse IX
Somerville, MA
The Cambridge Chamber Ensemble on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Somerville, MA) Roselin Osser as Silla has the wild eyes, swagger, and exquisite cheekbones of a villain as he dominates the stage. In this alternate version of 2019, the Roman Republic is alive and well and Silla, after a successful military campaign, announces that he plans to rule as Perpetual Dictator of Rome. The reporters are horrified. Silla’s wife, Metella (the hilarious Theresa Egan) grits her teeth and stands by her man. As Silla begins to openly lust after other women and jail his political enemies, however, Melania–I mean, Metella, yes, begins to wonder just how much her loyalty to a tyrant husband is worth. Continue reading

May 03

To Love is to Be Rebellious: “Indecent”


Presented by Huntington Theatre Company in a co-production with Center Theatre Group
By Paula Vogel
Directed by Rebecca Taichman
Choreography by David Dorfman
Fight direction by Rick Sordelet
Compositions by Lisa Gutkin and Aaron Halva

April 26 – May 25, 2019
Huntington Avenue Theatre
Avenue of the Arts
Boston, MA
Huntington on Facebook

Critique by Kitty Drexel

“Heterosexuality is not normal, it’s just common.” – Dorothy Parker

(Boston, MA) God is a terrible excuse to hurt another person. Yet, religion has been used since time immemorial to justify slavery, mass murder, and other cruelties. Paula Vogel’s Indecent is testimony to the historical squashing of nonheterosexual relationships for the greater good. It is reprehensibly incomprehensible that our love is still considered so immoral that heterosexual society vainly dooms LGBTQ+ individuals to irreparable harm in God’s name. Religion didn’t fail the LGBTQ+ community. Humanity failed.   Continue reading