Originally published on the FringeArts blog. Republished with kind permission. “I see 150 to 180 plays a year, and still always regret missing a bunch.” Mark Cofta has been covering…

It’s 1959. Two veterans of the Great War sit in silence. HENRI: I love the month of August GUSTAVE: I knew it couldn’t last, the world was at peace, and…

There is a certain brand of comedy that bases its entire aesthetic on the idea that genitalia, in and of itself, is hilarious. A lot of trashy movies from the…

Ancient Greek historian Thucydides introduced his majestic History of the Peloponnesian War by claiming it was “not a piece of writing designed to meet the needs of the immediate public,…

Hella Fresh is staging THE GAMBLING ROOM at Papermill Theater in Kensington. One of several little companies working in small neighborhood venues, Hella Fresh is contributing to the flowering of…

In 1900 the city of Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that it discharged into the Mississippi River instead of Lake Michigan. The flow of time is…

“Rare moths, wives pretending to be sisters,” deadly moors, escaped killers, and a legendary hellhound: the plot points of Arthur Conan Doyle’s THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES are ripe for…

I hope one day to see (and understand) a Moliere play in the original French, though as I’m not doing anything about that desire except letting my scant French knowledge…

Following his much-discussed piece on Gimmickry in Theater, Michael F. Fisher considers the role of the critic, and how theater criticism in Philadelphia compares to the best pop culture reviews….

A few years ago I was at that good used bookstore on 20th Street by the Free Library and saw a crowd gathering on the Parkway: Bruce Springsteen was about…

It’s a pretty safe bet that you didn’t have a high school teacher as cool as Aaron “Gobanna” Pleasant. By turns musician, radio DJ, and teacher at Philadelphia Mennonite High School, Pleasant wrote KARMA 101 to teach high schoolers about the realities of growing up, making decisions, and higher education.

For Phindie’s third Philadelphia Independent Theater podcast, hosts Christopher Munden and John Rosenberg visit the Walking Fish Theatre in Kensington to talk to owner Michelle Pauls, artistic co-director of B….

Two main threads run through George Bernard Shaw’s plays: social critique (he was an early member of the socialist Fabian society) and sharp observant humor. Some of Shaw’s social criticism…

Interview with Jenna Horton about her Jumpstart piece MOUNTING ETNA.

“One generation’s Orwellian dystopia is the next generation’s comfort-inducing lifestyle.” J. Ferron Hiatt, FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI TOY AND NOVELTY. The six short plays in Luna Theater’s FUTURE FEST (part of the…

The outskirts of Philadelphia are blessed with several high quality community theaters, and visits to them are a welcome treat for theatergoers accustomed to the cadence of center city professional productions. Located…

Abraham Lincoln’s status as “the Great Emancipator” is a foundational myth of the American nation: a racially loaded narrative explored and satirized by Suzan-Lori Parks in THE AMERICA PLAY, now…

They only believe in things that can’t be seen. Oscar Wilde’s witty drawing room comedies are well known to theatergoers. SALOME, an experimental modernist piece banned for many years from…

Like the rest of us, theater companies have to file taxes. This tax day, we look at some information from the most recent publicly available tax returns (generally 2012) for some major and independent Philadelphia companies.

A pleasingly unpretentious comedy, THE HAND OF GAUL is something of a departure for Inis Nua, which generally produces serious works by contemporary Irish and British playwrights. Part of the…