Tag Archives: Cambridge

Nov 06

“Safekeeping” Reading and Safety in Numbers

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Photo by Nile Scott Shots

Photo by Nile Scott Shots.

Presented by The Accessible Theatre
by Rob Zellers
Directed by Adam Sanders

Nov. 3, 2014 at 7:30PM
Central Square Theater
450 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Accessible Theatre on Facebook

Disclaimer: This production included Queen Geek, Kitty Drexel in its cast. For this reason, this review is tempered to accommodate the NETG reviewing policy on Geek performance involvement.

Review by Gillian Daniels
(Cambridge, MA) Joe (Felix Teich) is an artist who creates complex dioramas and a loving and temperamental caretaker of his brother, sixteen-year old Robert (Elliott Purcell).  Due to his cerebral palsy, Robert spends his days bound to their run-down apartment, watching soap operas.  The Accessible Theatre brings us a reading of a play about brothers who have built their own world, insulated from the impoverished, drug-addled reality of their Ohio city.  As with many stories, the status quo is disrupted when a woman, social worker Marianne (Rachel Sacks), walks into their lives.  Her intrusion is a benevolent one, however, an attempt to confirm Robert is getting the help he needs.

Continue reading →

Oct 29

The Accessible Theatre presents a Staged Reading of “Safekeeping” on Nov. 3, 2013

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The Accessible Theatre presents a Staged Reading of

Safekeeping

by Rob Zellers
Directed by Adam Sanders

Nov. 3, 2014 at 7:30PM – one night only!
Central Square Theater
450 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Accessible Theatre on Facebook

Joe and his younger brother Robert live off the grid in a run-down, inner-city neighborhood. Robert has cerebral palsy. Joe is an artist. They are in perfect control of their world until they are discovered by social services and into their lives comes Marianne, a bright and ambitious young therapist. Can art and imagination fuel the life spirit?

Felix Teich plays Joe, the older brother, an artist who is fiercely protective of his lifestyle and his brother Robert.
Eliot Purcell plays Robert, the younger brother who is adjusting to adult life without his parents’ support, and while dealing with cerebral palsy.
Rachel Sacks plays Marianne, a well-meaning social worker who is assigned to Joe and Robert.
Kitty Drexel joins the cast to read the playwright’s text and help illuminate the world of the play during our staged reading.

We can’t wait to see you there!

 

Oct 22

The Touring Blues: J.A.S.O.N.- Myth, Murder & Mayhem in a Punk Rock World

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Photo credit: O.W.I. Facebook page

Photo credit: O.W.I. Facebook page

Edited to Add: The originally published article misspelled Mr. Riesenberg’s last name. The spelling of Mr. Riesenberg’s name is now correct. Our apologies, no disrespect was intended.

Presented by The Office of War Information (Bureau of Theatre)
Written by Pete Riesenberg
Directed by Hatem Adell

October 4-26, 2014
Club Bohemia
Cantab Lounge
Cambridge, MA
OWI on Facebook

Review by Noelani Kamelamela

(Cambridge, MA) The Office of War Information (Bureau of Theatre) plugs the classics into amps and rocks the Cantab Lounge this October. 300 BCE and and the gritty 1970s combine to fill Club Bohemia with noise and fury.

If you experienced the punk rock world firsthand, you should remember the substance abuse, strong language, violence and gore portrayed onstage.  (The gore is less than you’d expect from a Greek tragedy.) Young teenagers, particularly those in high school, might appreciate a re-telling of classics they have been forced to read.  Adults friendly with the tales of Jason, the Argonauts and Medea should also be pleased by this remix. Continue reading →

Oct 07

Something from Nothing: “Movie! The Musical!”

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Image found via the Hidden Falls facebook page.

Image found via the Hidden Falls facebook page.

Presented by Hidden Falls

September 19th – October 17th, 2014
ImprovBoston
40 Prospect Street
Cambridge, MA
ImprovBoston on Facebook

Review by Danielle Rosvally

(Cambridge) Look, they improvised a full-length Broadway-scale musical adaptation of Sharknado based upon a suggestion from an audience member who couldn’t even recite salient plot details. Based solely upon these merits, I would be remiss if I told you anything but drop whatever you’re doing at 10:00 PM this Friday and go to ImprovBoston to see this show. Continue reading →

Sep 16

All Cucumbers and Hooves: UNDER MILK WOOD

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Photo courtesy of Artsboston; a picture of the cast at the reading with Mr. Scanlan in the front.

Photo courtesy of Artsboston; photo was grabbed from the Poet’s Theatre FB page.  A picture of the cast at the reading with Mr. Scanlan in the front.

A celebration in honor of the revival of The Poet’s Theatre and the centennial of the Author’s birth.

Presented by The Poet’s Theatre
By Dylan Thomas
Directed by Bob Scanlan

Sanders Theatre, Memorial Hall
Harvard University
Sunday, Sept. 14, 2014 @ 7pm ONLY
Poet’s Theatre on Facebook

Review by Kitty Drexel

“…the idea that I write a piece, a play, an impression for voices, an entertainment out of the town I live in, and to write it simply and warmly and comically, with lots of movement and varieties of moods, so that, at many levels, through sight and speech, description and dialogue, evocation and parody, you come to know the town as an inhabitant of it.”
– Dylan Thomas – Collected Letters edited by Paul Ferris (London: Dent, 2000 (new edition)

(Cambridge, MA) Under Milk Wood is a radio drama by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. It was performed on the stage during Thomas’ lifetime (and by Thomas himself). It became a movie directed by Andrew Sinclair, and featured Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O’Toole, in 1972. For his centennial, the BBC has a site devoted to a recent film production of Under Milk Wood. All of this is mentioned because not nearly enough Americans have an appreciation for Thomas’ work –  aside from his famous poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night.” His work is elegant, romantic, and, best yet, free to read on the internet or in a library. It is a worthwhile, mind-expanding endeavor to read as much of his collected works. If not for your own sake, then to woo a paramour or two. Continue reading →

Aug 04

Theatre@First Presents Shakespeare’s “Henry the IV”

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Presented by Theatre@First
by William Shakespeare
directed by Shelley MacAskill

After seizing the throne, King Henry IV rebuilds his kingdom and despairs over his heir’s dissipated life in the London slums. Prince Hal spends his time carousing with the bawdy Joan Falstaff and her gang of thieves and misfits, but he is far more than the scoundrel he seems. When the king’s former allies rebel against him, Hal plans to redeem himself in his father’s eyes. Facing the rebel leader, Hotspur – England’s greatest and noblest warrior – Hal has a chance to prove his worth, but will redemption bring more pain than Hal could imagine?

Theatre@First’s Henry the 4th combines two of Shakespeare’s greatest history plays in one thrilling night of theatre!

Director: Shelley MacAskill has been involved in thirteen productions with Theatre@First, including directing Harriet IV – a gender-swapped one-act version of Henry IV – for Festival@First 7: Shaken Up Shakespeare. She has also produced two plays (The Lady’s Not for Burning and Bent), been Technical Director for another (Equus), and been stage manager, rehearsal assistant, and light board operator for more than she can readily recall. This is her first time directing a full-length play.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
​​8pm evening shows:
Thursday, August 21
Friday, August 22
Saturday, August 23
Wednesday, August 27
Thursday, August 28
Friday, August 29

4pm matinee show:
Saturday August 30

PERFORMANCE SPACE
Unity Somerville
6 William St, Somerville
unitysomerville.org

TICKETS: $15 for adults
$12 for students/seniors.
Group discounts available.
theatreatfirst.org
brownpapertickets.com
goldstar.com

Jul 24

Change takes one step at a time, one person at a time: “The Walk Across America for Mother Earth”

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Photo credit: Julie Fox

Presented by Circuit Theatre Co
Written by Taylor Mac
Directed by Christopher Annas-Lee
Music by Ellen Maddow

July 9-July 27
Club Oberon
2 Arrow St
Cambridge, MA
Circuit Theatre on Facebook

Review by Noe Kamelamela

(Cambridge) If you’ve never been part of a political action, this show will be eye-opening and uncomfortable. Its both of those things in many other ways, and I recommend leaving the little ones at home due to violence, sexuality, sexual violence and nudity. Taylor Mac’s ode to the political march and the people who do them gets a spirited revival at Club Oberon. Continue reading →

Jul 23

Hops Along at a Hip Clip: “Welcome To Arroyo’s”

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Photo from Circuit Theatre website. Look at all these POCs!

Presented by Circuit Theatre Company
By Kristoffer Diaz
Directed by Jen Diamond

July 9-July 27
Club Oberon
2 Arrow St
Cambridge, MA
Circuit Theatre on Facebook

Review by Noelani Kamelamela

(Cambridge) Performed in repertory with The Walk Across Mother Earth, Taylor Mac’s ode to the political march, Kristoffer Diaz’s coming of age tale features a brother and sister from Manhattan’s Lower East Side.  The Circuit Theatre Company hands in a breezy summer confection, heavy on fun and low on substance. Continue reading →

Jul 15

Go Big or Go Home: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

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The Cast. Photo found on It’s A Fiasco Facebook page.

It’s a Fiasco Theatre Company
by William Shakespeare
Sponsored by the City of Cambridge and the Cambridge Arts Council – presented under the auspices of the Actors’ Equity Association Member’s Project Code.

June 19 – 29, 2014
Longfellow Park, 175 Mt. Auburn Street
Cambridge, MA
It’s A Fiasco on Facebook

Review by Craig Idlebrook

Think for a moment of the conditions under which Shakespeare was performed in the Elizabethan era and you realize this play was never meant to be locked away in an ivory tower. At the time the words of these plays were fresh, so was the concept of public sanitation. Most of the population was illiterate, and probably a good amount of them shared their skin with some form of vermin. Even in the hallowed halls of royal theater, the patrons probably stank to high heaven and air conditioning was a couple of centuries from being invented. So if at first glance it seems incongruous to speak some of the English language’s best poetry next to a Cambridge water park, it might be best to remember this probably would have been considered a pretty gentile staging grounds back in the day. Continue reading →

Jun 09

War Wounds and “Widows”: Ariel Dorfman Reading

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Presented by Flat Earth Theatre and Open Theatre Project
By Ariel Dorfman
Directed by Lindsay Eagle

Saturday, Jun 7, 2014 8PM
The Democracy Center
45 Mt Auburn Street
Cambridge, MA
Flat Earth on Facebook
OTP on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Cambridge) In one of Widows most wrenching scenes, Fidelia Fuentes (Mariagrazia LaFauci) struggles to figure out how to tell the story of her father’s disappearance. She starts by talking about a bird, then starts again by describing how soldiers kicked down the front door, and then talks about flying. The narrative spins and, it seems, so does she. With each false start, Fidelia tries to find the language that will successfully communicate her anxiety. She can’t, however, certainly not within a country under a lethal dictatorship. Her narrative has been compromised. Continue reading →