Jan 28

ImprovBoston Presents: KEVIN MCDONALD, Sketch Writing Classes on Feb. 2 & 3, 2019

Sketch Writing w/Kevin McDonald:
SAT, Feb. 2, 10AM-6PM
ImprovBoston
40 Prospect St
Cambridge, MA

Workshop cost: $180. Payment Plans are available by contacting comedyschool@improvboston.com

The Sketch Writing Workshop gives you the chance to put your work in the hands of sketch comedy royalty. In addition to gaining firsthand knowledge of how Kevin approaches writing sketches, you’ll get the opportunity to gain some personal and direct feedback from Kevin on a sketch that you’ll create…from a single premise! Bring with you a premise for a sketch, such as: ” A person with toasters for hands” or “A person who is $10 short of being a millionaire” and Kevin will guide you in turning that idea into a fully formed sketch.  Whether you’re a brand new sketch writer or a seasoned pro, this is the perfect workshop for anyone looking to gain experience in writing sketch comedy!  

Sketch Thru Improv: The Kids in the Hall Method w/Kevin McDonald 
SUN, Feb. 3, 10AM-5:30PM
ImprovBoston
40 Prospect St
Cambridge, MA

Workshop cost: $180. Payment Plans are available by contacting comedyschool@improvboston.com

In this one day intensive workshop, Kevin McDonald takes you through the journey of how the Kids in the Hall would create sketches by using improvisation. After Kevin shares his views and experience on how to create comedy sketches, he will lead the students to discover comedic premises through improv games and scenes. Those scenes will then be replayed and dissected, eventually becoming a fully written, original sketch! This is a fantastic class for anyone looking to gain insight into how to turn your brilliant improv scenes into something more than one and done!   Continue reading

Jan 28

Here’s Your Coffee Ma’am: “Paul Bunyan and the Winter of the Blue Snow”

True love with dog. Photo by Alex Sandberg.

Presented by imaginary beasts & Charlestown Working Theater
Written by The Ensemble
Story conceived by Matthew Woods
Directed by Matthew Woods

Jan. 19 – Feb. 10, 2019
Charlestown Working Theater
442 Bunker Hill St
Charlestown, MA
imaginary beasts on Facebook

Critique by Kitty Drexel

(Charlestown, MA) Paul Bunyan and the Winter of the Blue Snow is about best friends and the lengths we go to love them. imaginary beasts treats us with another homegrown panto in the English tradition but with an American fringe flourish. Special effects are minimal but the appeal is high. The plot may wander but the panto’s generosity of spirit more than makes up for the meandering. Continue reading

Jan 24

“Heartland,” where the ache lies.

L-R: Shawn K. Jain as Nazrullah and Ken Baltin as Harold; Photography by Christopher McKenzie.

A national new play network rolling world premier
Presented by New Repertory Theatre
Written by Gabriel Jason Dean
Directed by Bridget Kathleen O’Leary

January 12—February 9, 2019
The Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts
321 Arsenal St
Watertown, MA 02472
New Rep on Facebook

Review by Diana Lu

(Watertown, MA) Powerfully written and gorgeously staged, New Rep’s production of Heartland is a true masterpiece. Gabriel Jason Dean deftly transforms his experiences of person tragedy into a poignant and profound meditation of the American body politic, particularly our interventionalist foreign policies in the Middle East. Continue reading

Jan 21

Excuses Are Not Explanations:”Haroun and the Sea of Stories”

Photo by Clive Grainger.

Presented by Boston Modern Orchestra Project
Composed by Charles Wuorinen
Libretto by James Fenton
Conducted and stage direction by Gil Rose, Artistic Director

January 19, 2019
Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory
Boston, MA
BMOP on Facebook

Critique by Kitty Drexel

(Boston, MA) The opera Haroun and the Sea of Stories is based on Iranian author Salman Rushdie’s magical realism novel of the same title. This cast has an awful lot of white people in it for an allegorical opera set in the subcontinent of imaginary India. What an opera set in India about fictional Indians and their nonhuman, non-colonizer friends demands is actual Indians. Asian erasure is unacceptable in an art form bursting at the seams with underpaid, overeager POC* artists. Such casting means that disappointed POC audience members leave at intermission just like the lovely couple next to me quietly did on Saturday night. Opera is killing itself by failing to include the very people it seeks to serve with such casting decisions.    Continue reading