Tag Archive | boston theatre
Boston Globe Severs Its Relationships With All But ONE Theatre Critic…
It would appear that Boston globe has buried the lead. On November 28th, Bill Marx, the editor-in-chief of The Arts Fuse broke a story on the death rattle of theatre criticism at the Boston Globe. Apparently due to cutbacks, the Globe has discontinued its relationship with freelance theatre reviewers. The Globe has not released an official […]
Trumps Effect: The Scottsboro Boys
Photo by Nile Hawver On Saturday January 21st, 2017 I walked into The Roberts Studio Theater at the Boston Center for the Arts to see SpeakEasy Stage Company’s extended run of The Scottsboro Boys. The music and lyrics were tastefully crafted by John Kander and the late Fred Ebb, the team that has also given […]
What makes theatre in Boston, ‘Boston theatre’? If anything…
As I find myself at the precipice of preparing for my move to Los Angeles, I am forced to acknowledge the fact that I am also about to leave behind a theatre community that has raised me, and like many familial relationships, I have complicated feelings towards. The individuals that make up Boston’s theatre community are some […]
Developing the Negatives in Company One’s Really
Recently I had the opportunity to catch Company One’s production of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s play Really. And it was really damn good. The play has kept me thinking about the nature of death and memory, about how my baby brother has more picture and video footage of him than any of my grandparents, about how […]
Thoughts on Rob Askins’ Play Hand to God, From a Fellow Byproduct of America’s Bible Belt
Recently, I got to see SpeakEasy’s production of HAND TO GOD by Rob Askins. I had been looking forward to seeing the show for months! It’s one of the most “in advance” tickets I’ve bought in some time. I wasn’t excited for the show because of it’s recent hype and popularity, but more so because the playwright […]
What To Do When Political Theatre Becomes Old News, or, Clowns Ruin Everything
This past Sunday I grabbed some much-needed last-minute tickets to the highly-renowed American Repertory Theater to see the Abbey Theatre’s production of The Plow and the Stars. I regretted not having the opportunity to see a production of theirs during my visit in Dublin, and looked forward to making up for lost time. Although no dramaturg was […]
For: Those Who Starve
Sarah Kane’s Blasted is unpleasant — at the very least. It stars addiction, emptiness, guilt, brutality, rape, suicide, and in case this list isn’t enough, the eating of the organs of a dead baby. It is ugliness tightly wrapped into a 90-minute play. A punch at the viscera (and one very well-orchestrated by John Kuntz […]
The Seeds of Violence
Earlier today, in response to the coverage of the police shooting of Terrence Crutcher, activist and academy award winning actress Susan Sarandon tweeted the following: Sarandon’s tweet highlights the failings of a vast amount of contemporary journalism, which places higher value on news stories that get the most traffic rather than importance to the national climate. In […]
Visual Stroytelling
Something that has started to interest me more and more is the way that theatre makers create the visual landscape of the play. How do we read a script and then from that, develop the visual world of the play, drawing on scenery, lights, costumes, and more? The visual world of the play has its […]
Choose: Joy
I haven’t stopped recommending this play since I saw it on Sunday. I completely loved George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum at the Huntington Theatre Company. The production was beautiful, the cast immensely, immensely talented, and the script is just so – SMART. The Huntington in particular has a reputation for producing work by African-American playwrights. Not only are […]
The PLAY After Tomorrow (It’s Wicked Cold)
It’s a tough time to be doing theatre in Boston right now. Let’s face it, it’s a tough time to be doing anything in Boston right now. WCVB news calculates that it’s snowed 96.3 inches this season (in an article posted two days ago, and it snowed again yesterday, and today, so I’m simply dying to know where we’re at now…). […]
Layers and Layers – ‘Father Comes Home from the Wars’
I sat down to Father Comes Home from the Wars at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge from a position of total ignorance. I didn’t even look through the program prior to the play starting. I approached with no preconceptions, and so my process of watching was also a process of discovery, and of allowing the deep layers of […]
History is Time that Won’t Quit (much to our dismay)
In Suzan-Lori Parks‘ essay “The Elements of Style” she writes,”History is time that won’t quit.” It is a line set apart from the others. It has its own title: history. For that reason it stands out (though a number of other lines have their own titles too, so it does not stand out too much). When I first […]
Sanctuary for the Little Guy
An article from the Boston Globe opinion section drew my attention this week. In it Peter DuBois, Artistic Director of the Huntington Theatre Company, addressed one of the saddest news to impact the Boston Theatre Scene, the close of the Factory Theatre. I am proud to be a theatre artist. I enjoy the work that […]
Guess Who Really Hates Theatre Audiences?
The theatre is a powerful place to change minds…to those who will listen. This past Saturday I went to see the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”, a well done production that I enjoyed. The production I enjoyed, the experience not so much. Being the end of a popular run, the […]
Mission: Accomplished (Maybe?)
Since arriving back at school, I have been focused (nay, determined) on trying to find time to mosey on down to the American Repertory Theatre to see their production of “Finding Neverland”, the new musical full of Broadway stars that has already announced it is heading to the Great White Way this season. Despite the fact […]
Diving into Boston Theatre with THE WHALE
I like being a Boston Theatre Artist. There, I said it. There are several theatre companies in Boston that I think are doing exciting, and engaging work: Zeitgeist, Underground Railway Theater, Company One, and SpeakEasy Stage Company are just a handful of companies that instantly spring to mind (Imaginary Beasts also deserves a shout out). […]
Becoming Cuba Response
Let me start by saying, I really wanted to like this play. I know Melinda Lopez, I like her writing, and I like her as an artist and a human being. Melinda even gave my wife a children’s book when my daughter was born, and it is one of her favorites. I also find fictionalized […]
A Response to the XX PlayLab at Company One
I had the pleasure of attending one of the events in Company One’s XX PlayLab series last week. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Company One describes the XX PlayLab as “a collaborative program of the Boston Center for the Arts and Company One Theatre, designed to propel the work of female playwrights from […]
A Response to Fresh Ink’s Production of Handicapping
I walked into Fresh Ink Theatre Company’s production of Handicapping by James McLindon with an entirely different idea of what it would be than what it was. Since it was called “Handicapping” and I knew it featured a disabled character, I assumed it would be a drama about the experience of being disabled. Before the play […]
Drama Lit Blog 2.0: BU School of Theatre 