Tag Archive | Huntington Theatre Company
Celebrating Black History Month in Boston
Happy Black History month! This Black History month I have made it my goal to support as many black artists as possible. The following list is compiled of artistic and creative endeavors that I have come across that feature black artists prominently, tell stories of black people, and/or are created/hosted by black people in Boston. […]
“I hate it! Get me out of here!”
In 2012, my middle school boyfriend Charlie planned a big date for our anniversary by surprising me with seeing Into the Woods at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. It should be said: Charlie did not know a thing about musical theatre, except that he “wasn’t really a fan.” It should also be said: I LOVED […]
A Response to the Huntington’s THE WHO AND THE WHAT
Walking into the Calderwood Pavilion for a Sunday matinee I was unsurprised by the audience make-up, mostly older and white, with about six to seven people my age and about twenty people of color, including a Muslim Sudanese couple, and two parties of Muslim Pakistanis, who introduced themselves as such when they spoke during the […]
Topdog/Underdog Audience Response
It’s a Wednesday matinee of Topdog/Underdog by Suzan Lori-Parks at the Huntington theatre. A play about two black men in American society, struggling with many systems (societal, economical, fate) that have been rigged against them. The story has Greek elements of fate written into it, what with the characters being named Lincoln and Booth, it is […]
The Who and The What
Last week I saw the Huntington’s production of The Who and The What by Ayad Akhtar. When I got to the Calderwood, I was (unsurprisingly) one of the youngest people there. It was a typical Huntington audience- very white and very old. This didn’t phase or bother me too much until later on in the evening. […]
Some Thoughts on Billy Porter’s Topdog/Underdog at the Huntington
First off, the set energized me to the core. It consisted of a dilapidated, nondescript room at the center of the stage that didn’t bind itself to one moment in time. It feels as if it could’ve been a room during any time within the 20th and 21st centuries. The director, Billy Porter, goes as […]
Sunday in the Park with Adam Chanler-Berat
A disclaimer: Sunday in the Park with George (Stephen Sondheim & James Lapine) is my favorite musical. Ever. To be clear, I don’t think it’s even close to perfect: the book certainly has it’s inconsistencies, and the time gap between Act I and Act II is difficult to reconcile in terms of emotional investment in the leading […]
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 […]
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 […]
No Such Thing As Bad Press: “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”
It has been said that there is no such thing as bad press. This may end up the case for the Huntington theater Company’s production of Guess Who is Coming To Dinner, a show adapted from the 1960’s film of the same name. The pieces advertisement on the Huntington Theatre Company’s website is summarized as, “Joanna […]
Critical Response: Becoming Cuba by Melinda Lopez
The second-to-last show in the Huntington’s 2013-14 season is “Becoming Cuba”, a new play by Boston-based playwright Melinda Lopez. The play takes place in a pharmaceutical shop in 1897, while the Spanish and American tensions regarding the Cuban War of Independence rise, leading to the Spanish-American War. Lopez writes of two sisters running the pharmacy […]
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 […]
Critical Response to “Becoming Cuba”
For their 2013-2014 season, The Huntington Theatre decided to produce local playwright Melinda Lopez’s Becoming Cuba, a story following a strong woman trying her best to shelter herself and her family from the growing military disputes in Havana. It’s a narrative that separates family and country, past and present, loyalty and impulse into independent choices […]
Trumbull High School Production of RENT Back On! (Sort of)
Recently, administrators Trumbull High School in Connecticut have found their decision to cancel a student production of RENT: School Edition facing a large amount of public scrutiny. As the Hartford Courant reports, “Student representatives from Trumbull High’s theater department were told last Monday that the show they planned to perform next spring covered topics too “sensitive” […]
The “POWER” of Duff: A show worth experiencing
This past weekend I had the pleasure of seeing several pieces of truly incredible theatre. Everything I saw was inspiring and noteworthy. Even a week later I am still digesting what I saw. Although I would love to chat about all three of the shows, I will focus primarily on The Huntington Theatre Company’s The […]
The Power of Duff
Tonight I saw The Power of Duff by Stephen Belber, directed by Peter DuBois. What a treat. Since my first year in Boston University’s School of Theatre, I have been tested to take my comments further than “I liked it” and “I didn’t like it.” That’s really difficult for me, because a lot of the […]
On Darkness and Audience
Today I watched The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer at Boston University directed by Vanessa Stalling. What an evocative experience. The direction of this play was, to me, spot on. From the essentialist set, comprising of multiple chairs, an old school projector, some various props to the omission of extraneous sound and blackouts. The grey walls […]
Boy Meets New Play (and Rhombus Turns Ten!)
The Boston University School of Theatre is lucky to call Kirsten Greenidge its playwriting professor. Nationally recognized for acclaimed plays like Milk Like Sugar and Luck of the Irish, Kirsten is now in her second year on faculty and has been very generous sharing her place in the Boston theatre community with her students. Last night, […]
Theatre for Theatremakers: Bridge Rep’s “The Libertine”
In the second elephant scene of the Huntington Theatre Company’s The Jungle Book, Colonel Hathi says to his troupe, “Our strategery shall be: the element of surprise!” In immediate response, one member of the elephant ranks looks straight at the audience with a bright smile, pops his foot, and gives his best jazz hands. (I […]
The Look of the Book
So, I just got back home from the Huntington. I am curled up snuggly in my bed, allowing my brain to sift through the many potent or merely aesthetically appealing images Mary Zimmerman and her team created in their production of The Jungle Book. I think to myself, “you know what would be an awesome […]
Drama Lit Blog 2.0: BU School of Theatre 