Jun 11

Imperfect Healing: “next to normal”

Next to Normal – Highlights from Central Square Theater on Vimeo.

Presented by Central Square Theatre and The Front Porch Arts Collective
Music by Tom Kitt
Book and Lyrics by Brian Yorkey
Direction and Choreography by Pascale Florestal
Voice and Music Direction by Katie Bickford
Intimacy Direction by Sean Patrick Gibbons
Featuring Cortlandt Barrett, Diego Cintrón, Ricardo “Ricky” Holguin, Sherée Marcelle, Dashawn McClinton, Anthony Pires, Jr.

May 30 – June 30, 20024
Central Square Theater
450 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139

Review by Kate Lew Idlebrook

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Central Square Theater’s next to normal is a mother struggling with the daily grind of managing her family’s busy lives. A father worried he isn’t doing enough to support his wife and children. A teenage daughter who wants her parents to truly see her. A son who is fighting not to be left behind. The whole Goodman family insisting that it’s all “gonna be good.” It’s all just so relatable. Continue reading

Oct 01

Your Fave is Fanfiction: “The Book Club Play”

Becca A. Lewis, Sean Patrick Gibbons, Greg Maraio (with Pepto Bismol), Rachel Cognata; photo by Stratton McCrady.

Presented by Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
By Karen Zacarias
Directed by Shana Gozansky
Dramaturgy by Caity-Shea Violette

Sept. 26 – Oct. 13, 2019
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre 
Boston, MA
BPT on Facebook

“We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don’t have books, don’t fuck them.”
John Waters

Critique by Kitty Drexel

(Boston, MA) The pop culture obsessions of today are the classics of tomorrow: 50 Shades of Grey is Twilight fanfiction; the Twilight Saga is influenced by Wuthering Heights; Wuthering Heights was controversial in its day for its critical examination of religious hypocrisy, and class inequality within the gothic fiction genre. If the cultural narrative in response to a book shows us who we are as a society, then The Book Club Play at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre shows us that book snobs are insecure secret-hiders.  Continue reading