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May 12

We’re All Seagulls Here: THE NINA VARIATIONS

Posted on May 12, 2013 by kittymdrexel

We’re all seagulls here. All the best people are. Photo courtesy of Brown Bos Theatre Project Facebook Page.

Presented by Brown Box Theatre Project
by Stephen Dietz
Directed by Kyler Taustin

Davis Square Theatre
Somerville, MA
May 9-12 & 16-19, 2013

Ocean City Center for the Arts
502 94th St
Ocean City, MD
Maryland: June 8-11
Brown Box Theatre Project Facebook Page

Review by Kitty Drexel

The Nina Variations is a strange little nugget of show presented for the approval of Anton Chekhov devotees. The plot re-imagines the last scene of The Seagull 42 different ways. It manifests on stage all possible and impossible permutations of the final scene. Three different actresses playing Nina and one actor as Boris Trigorin examine all aspects of the couple’s “love story” (Is this how people in love treat each other? Really? Ok, fine.). The result is a live fanfiction demonstration wrapped in a buttery layer of honed acting technique. Continue reading →

Mar 18

“Lysistrata”: Adorably Filthy

Posted on March 18, 2013 by gilliandaniels

The lovely ladies of Lysistrata refusing to get sexy. Photo Credit: Theatre@First.

Presented by Theatre@First

Written by Aristophanes
Directed by John Deschene
Choreographed by Alex Nemiroski

Unity Somerville
6 William Street
Somerville, MA
Theatre@First Facebook Page

Review by Gillan Daniels

(Somerville) Comedies, especially those that depend on references contemporary to when they’re written, don’t often age well. Plays survive on the universal quality of their themes, like mortality, revenge, and hope, most of which belong to the sphere of drama. For a long shelf life, they must be built on ideas that resonate down the ages. It certainly says something about the nature of humor that Lysistrata, produced in 411 B.C.E. and one of Aristophanes few surviving plays, continues to be well remembered and celebrated for its bawdiness. Continue reading →

Feb 04

Irish Nationalism and Irish Charm: “The Irish and How They Got That Way”

Posted on February 4, 2013 by gilliandaniels

Gregg Hammer, Janice Landry, Jon Dykstra, Meredith Beck,
Andrew Crowe and Irene Molloy

Frank McCourt’s The Irish and How They Got That Way

Directed by Danielle Paccione Colombo

Davis Square Theatre
255 Elm Street
Somerville, MA
January 24 – March 17, 2013
Frank McCourt’s Facebook Page

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Somerville) Frank McCourt’s The Irish and How They Got That Way is a musical revue that’s less about the Irish than what goes into being Irish American. Lots of drinking and tragic songs, it says. The fare is light, airy, and mainly interested in adding to the mystique of the Emerald Isle.

The Irish and How They Got That Way is infectious in its charm. It’s funny, sweet, and, at least for the first half of the show, sad. Stirring versions of “Danny Boy,” “Fields of Athenry,” and “Mrs. McGrath” can be difficult to endure without a twinge of feeling. The show never makes the mistake of taking itself too seriously, though, with a cast all too happy to lapse into “Give My Regards to Broadway” as well as the comic, “Finnegan’s Wake.” Storytelling and scraps of history keep the action moving between numbers. Continue reading →

Dec 31

Embracing the Flaws: TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA

Posted on December 31, 2012 by craigidlebrook

Stratton McCrady Photography; the cast getting funky with Shakespeare.

presented by Actors Shakespeare Project

Davis Square Theatre
255 Elm Street,
Somerville, MA
December 12^th, 2012 – January 6^th, 2012
Actors Shakespeare Project Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Somerville) Because Shakespeare has become the standard by which Western theatre is judged, we often forget that the man first had to feel his way in the dark, just like every other art school wannabe. Two Gentlemen of Verona, believed by some to be the Bard’s first play, shows frustrating snatches of his future brilliance. All his trademark comedic pieces are there (cross-dressing women, inconstant lovers and the amazing power of the wilderness to right all wrongs), but this script reads like the man was working on deadline. Themes are picked up and discarded, wordplay only sporadically catches fire and a plot point in the final act makes you want to bang Shakespeare’s head against the floorboards and scream, “Rewrite!” Continue reading →

Nov 09

Bare Bones Staged Reading: Julie Johnson

Posted on November 9, 2012 by kittymdrexel

Written by Wendy Hammond
Directed by Becca Kidwell

ONE NIGHT ONLY! Thursday, November 15^th at 8pm

Julie Johnson will be presented at Unity Somerville
6 William Street
Somerville, MA 02144
presented by Theatre@First
Theatre@First Facebook Page

Suggested Donation $5 – General Admission – No reservations required

Julie is on the verge of a breakdown. She loves her children but feels the need for a change. Her husband is abusive and she wants to be more than just a wife and mother. Her friend Claire’s life isn’t much better and they struggle through their difficulties. Julie grows as she takes computer classes, which uproots not only her own life but the lives of the people around her.

Please note: This performance contains adult language and volatile domestic scenes.

The Director: Becca Kidwell has directed ten plays so far with her favorites being: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and Marla’s Devotion. She has worked in almost every aspect of theatre in the past eighteen years. Most recently she served as an assistant stage manager for Happy Medium Theatre’s production of Romeo and Juliet. She was nominated for an EMACT award for best props design for Walpole Footlighters. She thanks her husband and in-laws for their constant and unwavering love and support.

Bare Bones: Staged Readings at Theatre@First offers directors, casts and audiences the chance to explore a wide variety of plays in a spare, intense setting.

Oct 15

The Boston Babydolls and “The Wrathskellar”

Posted on October 15, 2012 by gilliandaniels

Photo credit: The Boston Babydolls

presented by The Boston Babydolls
October 28, 2012 to October 5, 2012
The Davis Square Theatre
255 Elm Street, Somerville, MA

The Boston Babydolls Facebook Page

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Somerville) The Boston Babydolls are out for an immersive burlesque experience. The striptease doesn’t begin when the women take the stage but when the audience find the door.

Theater-goers are greeted by a street musician at the mouth of a misty alleyway and directed to the stairs. There, they may be met by Herr Bücher (Scratch, narrator and director) who is dressed with all the subtlety of Alice Cooper. Which ever guide is doing the greeting, one will be directed down the stairs to The Wrathskellar. Continue reading →

Sep 14

Bent, Not Broken

Posted on September 14, 2012 by gilliandaniels

BENT
Presented by Theatre@First
A Play by Martin Sherman
Directed by Nick Bennett-Zendzian

Theatre@First Facebook Page

Performances: Friday, September 14 – Saturday, September 22
Unity Somerville, 6 William Street at College Ave.
TICKETS – $15 for adults, $12 for students/seniors. Group discounts available.

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Somerville) When the stakes grow to dizzying heights, Theatre@First’s production of Bent has the power to draw its audience as tightly as a bowstring. The air crackles expectantly as viewers wait for the other shoe to drop. As its characters are fenced in with barbed wire and SS guards, they are left with nothing but the hope that things can’t get any worse. It certainly will, especially when that backdrop is the Holocaust and the principal characters are homosexual. Continue reading →

Apr 01

rogerandtom: Pardon My Fourth Wall

Posted on April 1, 2012 by beccackidwell

Stephen Radochia and Anna Waldron, Photo by Diane Libby.

rogerandtom by Julien Schwab, Simple Machine Theatre, Davis Square Theatre, 3/30/12-4/7/12, http://www.simplemachinetheatre.com/productions.html. (one spoiler–marked)

Reviewed by Becca Kidwell

(Somerville, MA) Julien Schwab takes the idea of a play within a play to a new level. Exploring drama and its tools, rogerandtom pulls, tears, twists, and turns its melodramatic plot cleverly until its end. Continue reading →

Mar 24

Pride and Prejudice: Stage Proves a Better Home for the Classic Satire Than Film

Posted on March 24, 2012 by gilliandaniels

Pride and Prejudice, based on the novel by Jane Austen, adapted by Elizabeth Hunter, Theatre@First, Somerville Theatre, 3/22/12-3/31/12, http://www.theatreatfirst.org/shows/pride_prejudice/pride_prejudice.shtml.

Reviewed by Gillian Daniels

(Somerville, MA) Elizabeth Hunter adapts, directs, and brings an enormously funny Pride and Prejudice to the stage. Longtime Austen-fans should rejoice at their good fortune. The thorough play is probably closest to my own imagining of the classic 1813 novel.

The book is a smart satire of the husband-hunting rat race that young women engaged in during the Georgian Era when inheritances were more likely to pass to sons. Continue reading →

Dec 10

Great Acting While on a Treadmill: The Merry Wives of Windsor

Posted on December 10, 2011 by craigidlebrook

Photo Credit: Stratton McCrady

The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Davis Square Theatre, 12/7/11-1/1/12, http://www.actorsshakespeareproject.org/events/merry-wives-windsor-0.

Reviewed by Craig Idlebrook

(Somerville, MA) It’s one thing for a young theater troupe to be ambitious, but it’s something else to watch the troupe succeed in its ambition.

In its early history, the Actors’ Shakespeare Project has decided to skip the low-hanging fruit of the Bard’s body of work and reach for some of his more obscure works. (Hands up for anyone who knows a single line from Troilus and Cressida, which the troupe performs in the spring.) Continue reading →

The New England Theatre Geek

Tag Archives: Somerville

We’re All Seagulls Here: THE NINA VARIATIONS

“Lysistrata”: Adorably Filthy

Irish Nationalism and Irish Charm: “The Irish and How They Got That Way”

Frank McCourt’s The Irish and How They Got That Way

Embracing the Flaws: TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA

Bare Bones Staged Reading: Julie Johnson

The Boston Babydolls and “The Wrathskellar”

Bent, Not Broken

rogerandtom: Pardon My Fourth Wall

Pride and Prejudice: Stage Proves a Better Home for the Classic Satire Than Film

Great Acting While on a Treadmill: The Merry Wives of Windsor