Dancing in Pepperland: An interview with Nicole Sabella

Dancer Nicole Sabella is returning to Philly this month with Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG), celebrating the Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with Morris’ Pepperland. Sabella, who is a graduate of UArts, joined the company in 2015. She looks back at her time in Philly and credits it for some of her best memories.  

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RE!flecting on a career with PHILADANCO!: Interview with Kim Bears-Bailey

As PHILADANCO! prepares for their upcoming performance at the Kimmel Center, Kim Bears-Bailey looks back on her illustrious career with the company. Bears-Bailey joined the company in 1981 and rose through the ranks to her current position as Artistic Director. She shares with Phindie the creation of PHILADANCO! RE and highlights of the past 41 years. 

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Dual (dir. Riley Stearns): Film review

Not everyone will be on filmmaker Riley Stearns’ oddball wavelength, but it’s the viewer’s choice. In the case of droll, tightly-scripted sci-fi black comedy “Dual,” they’ll wish they could be. In what is very much from Stearns’ voice, the film is dryly comic, offbeat, andvanchored by dual performances from Karen Gillan that are subtly disparate but equally deadpan and finely tuned.

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Actress Jenny Lee Stern is Always…Patsy Cline

Bucks County native Jenny Lee Stern is returning to the Walnut to reprise her role as Patsy Cline. The Broadway veteran says she’s found her niche playing the legendary singer. The musical, which follows the unlikely friendship between Cline and Louise Seger, includes 27 of Cline’s best- known classics. Stern talks about why she keeps coming back – both to the role and to the Walnut.

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Waitress Goes Down Sweet As Pie

NETworks non-equity presentation of Waitress at the Kimmel Center delivers a production that is full of sweetness, laughs, and lovely music.

There is something so comforting about the American diner. The smell of bacon, the reliably hot coffee, the servers who’s brusk care is well-worn but personal. Likewise, Waitress, feels comforting, and certainly more filling than some other recent movie-to-musical broadway adaptations.

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You Won’t Be Alone (dir. Goran Stolevski): Film Review

“You Won’t Be Alone,” Goran Stolevski’s writing-directing feature debut, is something special. More than just “arthouse horror,” Stolevski’s film is a haunting meditation on identity, humanity, and how everything is relative, but also a sensory experience with some bloody innards. It’s unsettling, yet challenging and magical, and if you just let it wash over you, the spell is rewarding.

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Quintessence Breaking the Cycle with Tragi-Comedy The Winter’s Tale

As part of its Transformation Repertory, Quintessence Theatre Company presents one of Shakespeare’s most beguiling plays, The Winter’s Tale. Sometimes classified as a “late romance,” or a “tragi-comedy,” or simply “a problem play,” The Winter’s Tale spans two countries and 16 years.

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‘Catholic Guilt’ Returns for the Fifth Annual Philadelphia Theatre Week

Catholic Guilt might sound like a title for a heavy, depressing show, but Kelly McCaughan leads audiences on an adventure that is much more than that. The show is McCaughan’s “playful and poignant” take on her experiences with Catholicism, a mix of stand-up, improv and what they describe as “sinful audience participation”. 

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The Wilma Announces A Fundraiser Supporting Ukraine

As the world reaches out a hand to help the Ukrainian people amidst the Russian invasion, the local Philadelphia theater community is finding its own ways to contribute. In solidarity with Ukraine, the Wilma Theater presents a special event next week featuring the work of Ukrainian playwright Natal’ya Vorozhbit, raising money for those affected by the war.

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Lantern Theater’s Brave Return to Stage: A Man For All Seasons

What a brave return to live theater this production is!  Lantern Theater Company gives us old-time drama and powerful theater, full of big ideas and complex language, rather than a bit of fluff to amuse or console us. With a top-notch cast and clever direction by Peter DeLaurier, it’s a heady three hours.

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The Outfit (dir. Graham Moore): Film review

Author Graham Moore (who adapted his book The Imitation Game for the Benedict Cumberbatch-starrer of the same name) makes his writing-directing debut, and he decidedly shows a lot of skill in ratcheting up tension and claustrophobia in mostly one room for one long night. It’s a little like Hitchcock’s Rope in that way, but with more sharp objects. 

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Philadelphia Ballet’s Charles Askegard on the Brilliance of Balanchine

Charles Askegard has spent his career perfecting the work of George Balanchine – first as a dancer with NYCB and now as the Philadelphia Ballet’s rehearsal director. The company will be presenting Bold Brilliant Balanchine as part of its commitment to honoring and celebrating its rich Balanchine roots. Askegard spoke about the upcoming program and his time with the Philadelphia Ballet.

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