That playwright Sarah Kane looked on the world as a pretty bleak place was confirmed by her 1999 suicide (at the young age of 28). But her…
View More Sarah Kane’s Controversial Play ‘Blasted’ Comes to Philadelphia’s Luna Theater Company
Author: Christopher Munden
Your faithful correspondent and publisher Christopher Munden has written and edited for many publications, websites, and cultural institutions. He was an editor/publisher of the Philly Fiction book series, collections of short stories written by local writers and set in Philadelphia. He's also a soccer coach, a pretty good skier, and an erstwhile songwriter.
Musical theater kicks off Mauckingbird Theatre Company’s fourth season
I’m not the target audience for Mauckingbird Theatre Company’s Philadelphia premier of “[title of show]”, now onstage UPstairs at the Adrienne Theatre. I’ve never been the…
View More Musical theater kicks off Mauckingbird Theatre Company’s fourth season
A Weekend of Christmas Plays
Amazingly, there is just one weekend left until Christmas, but that’s still plenty of time to get your fill of holiday theater. Here is the…
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PTC Preview show to benefit Philadelphia literacy organization
Tomorrow, Thursday 11, 2010, the Philadelphia Theater Company is presenting a special pay-what-you-can performance of its upcoming production, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.…
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Brat Productions Presents ‘Carrie’ at Underground Arts
Published in 1974, Stephen King’s Carrie, the tale of a bullied high school outcast who takes bloody telekinetic revenge upon her torturers, kick started a horror-writing career that…
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Theater Picks for the 2010 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe
The Live Arts and Philly Fringe has grown and moved mostly North and West from its Old City nexus, prices have gone up, and the roster of…
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A Queer Midsummer Night’s Dream
Mauckingbird Theatre Company presents a gender-bent look at Shakespeare’s famous play for a woman wert thou first created; Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell…
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Best of Philadelphia Theater, 2009-2010
August 2 saw the announcement of the 2010 Barrymore Awards. I only saw about 25 plays by 10 companies this season, so my pool of…
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A Demonic Tour de Force: The Screwtape Letters Returns to the Lantern Theater Company
C.S. Lewis‘s The Screwtape Letters is more overtly religious than his allegorical children’s books. But just as an appreciation for the Narnia tales does not require a…
View More A Demonic Tour de Force: The Screwtape Letters Returns to the Lantern Theater Company
An Evening Without Woody Allen
Not everyone likes Woody Allen’s comedy, it can be a bit high-brow, idiosyncratic, or vulgar for some tastes, and like any comedy, some of his…
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1812 Productions’ An Evening Without Woody Allen, now onstage at Plays and Players
“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work… I want to achieve it through not dying.” — Woody Allen Woody Allen might be the preeminent comic mind…
View More 1812 Productions’ An Evening Without Woody Allen, now onstage at Plays and Players
A Brief History of Early Publishing in Philadelphia
Early publishing in Philadelphia has a rich and storied history. William Penn founded Philadelphia in 1682; within three years the nascent town had its first…
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Theatre Exile’s "Shining City" at Plays and Players
The past year has seen some great stagings by Irish playwright Colin McPherson in Philadelphia. The Arden’s brilliant Seafarer was followed by a stripped down…
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Shakespeare in Philadelphia: The Arden’s Romeo and Juliet Introduces a Season of the Bard
Four hundred years after his death, William Shakespeare remains the world’s most produced playwright. For evidence of his enduring popularity look no further than the region’s stages:…
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Bruce Graham Scores Again with Theatre Exile’s Any Given Monday at Plays & Players Theater
Acclaimed local playwright Bruce Graham returns toTheatre Exile with Any Given Monday (now onstage at Plays & Players Theater), a sport-themed world premiere geared to ride the success of…
View More Bruce Graham Scores Again with Theatre Exile’s Any Given Monday at Plays & Players Theater
"Golden Age" – Philadelphia Theatre Company
“Great art is dangerous, that’s why there’s so little of it.” —Bellini, in Terrence McNally’s Golden Age Philly theater hacks were spoiled for choice last…
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No Deceit: Lantern Theater’s Scapin is a Treat
A classic work of comic literature, a joyous reworking by one of the best clowns in modern theater, an imaginative staging by a top-class Philadelphia…
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Conor McPherson’s The Weir: Subtlety and the Supernatural at the Curio Theatre
Irish playwright Conor McPherson has been called the “finest dramatist of his generation” (London Telegraph) with works that are “as near to perfection as a play can come”…
View More Conor McPherson’s The Weir: Subtlety and the Supernatural at the Curio Theatre
The Right Moves: BalletX’s Summer Series at the Wilma Theater
Perhaps it was a natural cultural chauvinism that kept me away from ballet for so long, even as my sister danced her way through elementary…
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InterAct’s Little Lamb Now Onstage at the Adrienne Theatre
InterAct Theatre Company has established itself as a daring production company, eager to take on hot-button social issues and support the careers of emerging Philadelphia…
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