I love new theatre companies, their first productions always pulse with a brilliant first-time energy. Can’t Wait Productions’ Oleanna by David Mamet opened with this same raw verve. Upon arriving at the First Church Somerville venue, the audience was ushered not into a proper theatre but into a small office with the name John displayed charmingly […]
The Boston Conservatory Theater Ensemble has never failed to impress me, and its recent workshop production of Factory Girls proved no exception. The level of effortless performance delivered time and again by their students always seems to come as a surprise. Guided by an excellent faculty who recognizes the importance of the theatrical process, the […]
The Red Light District’s most recent production appeared daring. Staged at Toronto’s notorious Club Wicked, it featured a brave ensemble caught in various compromising positions as they navigated what was supposed to be a boundary pushing mashup of turn of the century Vienna and modern Toronto nightlife. Going in, I knew I’d be very out […]
Propeller Shakespeare Company, performing through June 19th at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, is a damn cool company. This UK group’s respect for the text, their return to basic themes and their bold all-male casting make them somewhat traditional in their approach to Shakespeare. But then there’s masks and shiny suits and sombreros and heads […]
Boston University had a lot of faith in Ellie Heyman’s surrealist interpretation of Hedda Gabler, mounting it on the BU main stage instead of in a standard CFA space like any other masters thesis project. As such, Ibsen’s remarkable text about a caged, trapped woman appeared on an enormous proscenium, played out to hundreds of […]
This spring I had the privileged of seeing many of Boston University’s School of Theatre productions. If you read this blog regularly you’ll have read my accounts of the all-female Julius Caesar, the award-winning original play Fallujah, the student/professional collaboration Walking the Volcano and the fascinating thesis projects from the senior Theatre Arts majors. Still […]
A couple weeks ago, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre presented their Ground Floor New Play Series. I had the pleasure of seeing 3 of the 4 readings in the series, work from Boston University’s MFA candidates. Unfortunately, I missed out on Reginald Edmund’s South Bridge on the second night, but the three readings I did see left […]
The weekend of April 21-23rd was a phenomenal weekend of theatre in the BU community. I was lucky enough to see 3 excellent shows in two days on Thursday and Friday, all very different. Here’s a quick rundown of the awesome: Fallujah has become something of a huge success story for BU theatre in the […]