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Author: Kathryn Osenlund

Kathryn Osenlund, Theater aficionado. Reviewer for Phindie.com. ATCA member (American Theater Critics Assn.) Professor Emeritus Communications and Theater, Holy Family University. Instructor Philadelphia Police Academy: Police role plays and public speaking. Visiting Lecturer Oxford University. Instructor in Warsaw, Poland. NEA Fellow: Arts Journalism. Barrymore Award Nominator. National Critics Institute, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Education: Villanova, PhD in Media; Temple University, MA in Theater; UArts, BFA in Film.
Reviews Theater

A Summer Day (Wilma): Existential and eccentric

Kathryn Osenlund June 24, 2025 No Comments

An existential and eccentric play , it’s not light-hearted theater.

View More A Summer Day (Wilma): Existential and eccentric
Reviews Theater

GIOVANNI’S ROOM (Quintessence): Bringing Baldwin to the stage

Kathryn Osenlund June 9, 2025 No Comments

Giovanni’s Room, is currently on stage in Philadelphia in world premiere. The James Baldwin Estate granted Quintessence Theatre permission to produce this theatrical adaptation, the…

View More GIOVANNI’S ROOM (Quintessence): Bringing Baldwin to the stage
Reviews Theater

RENT (Arden): Revisiting a 90s La boheme

Kathryn Osenlund June 2, 2025 No Comments

Jonathan Larson,  who wrote the book, lyrics, and music in 1994, described Rent as a Rock Opera

View More RENT (Arden): Revisiting a 90s La boheme
Reviews Theater

THE 39 STEPS (Lantern): Hitchcock onstage

Kathryn Osenlund May 28, 2025 No Comments

Adapted by Patrick Barlow from the novel by John Buchan and the movie by Alfred Hitchcock

View More THE 39 STEPS (Lantern): Hitchcock onstage
Reviews Theater

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (Quintessence): The Bard’s crazy side

Kathryn Osenlund March 25, 2025 No Comments

Hard to imagine that the Bard who wrote this fun and foolish play also penned Hamlet, Othello, and Romeo and Juliet.

View More A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (Quintessence): The Bard’s crazy side
Reviews Theater

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Lantern): Still a joy

Kathryn Osenlund February 25, 2025 No Comments

A script needs life breathed into it and that’s what happens with an inspired director, designers, and talented versatile actors.

View More MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Lantern): Still a joy
Theater

HOLY GRAIL OF MEMPHIS (Arden): Lost tape blues

Kathryn Osenlund January 28, 2025 No Comments

Playwright Michael Hollinger’s Holy Grail of Memphis is in world premiere at the Arden Theatre Company. This is the 13th Hollinger play that the Arden has produced.

View More HOLY GRAIL OF MEMPHIS (Arden): Lost tape blues
Theater

RED (Theatre Exile): Coloring an artist’s story

Kathryn Osenlund November 7, 2024 1 Comment

RED, not to be confused with REDS, is a color, not a Commie. It refers to the impression given by one of ten huge canvases…

View More RED (Theatre Exile): Coloring an artist’s story
Theater

Cyrano De Bergerac (Quintessence): 60-second review

Kathryn Osenlund October 18, 2024 No Comments

French playwright Edmond Rostand’s story about a brilliant man endowed with a large nose is a work of fiction.

View More Cyrano De Bergerac (Quintessence): 60-second review
Reviews Theater

POTUS (Arden): Brash and in your face

Kathryn Osenlund September 26, 2024 No Comments

Warning: These seven marvelous actors in the all female cast, are not your nice Aunt Sara. Wild and untamed, they’re women without borders. Stepping out…

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Reviews Theater

FATHER COMES HOME FROM THE WARS (Qunitessence): A theatrical odyssey

Kathryn Osenlund June 11, 2024 No Comments

Father Comes Home From The Wars by Suzan-Lori Parks is remarkable in many ways. There’s no denying the appeal that took the audience to its…

View More FATHER COMES HOME FROM THE WARS (Qunitessence): A theatrical odyssey
Reviews Theater

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS (Lantern): Twins, shipwreck, mistaken identity, romance gone awry

Kathryn Osenlund May 28, 2024 No Comments

One of Shakespeare’s greatest hits, his first comedy, The Comedy of Errors, is playing at the Lantern Theater Company until June 16. Twins, shipwreck, mistaken…

View More THE COMEDY OF ERRORS (Lantern): Twins, shipwreck, mistaken identity, romance gone awry
Reviews Theater

MACBETH (Quintessence): Onstage magic

Kathryn Osenlund April 1, 2024 No Comments

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble. Cool it with a baboon’s blood, then the charm is firm and good. Macbeth, the…

View More MACBETH (Quintessence): Onstage magic
Reviews Theater

THE LEHMAN TRILOGY (Arden): A play in three acts

Kathryn Osenlund March 21, 2024 No Comments

A tale about cotton, Civil War, commodities, finance, and wealth told through the story of three brothers and the company they found.

View More THE LEHMAN TRILOGY (Arden): A play in three acts
60-Second Review Reviews Theater

Once Upon a Bridge (Inis Nua): 60-second review

Kathryn Osenlund March 11, 2024 No Comments

 Inis Nua has done its best with a story more told than shown, an aftermath.

View More Once Upon a Bridge (Inis Nua): 60-second review
Reviews Theater

FAITH HEALER (Lantern): Powerful storytelling

Kathryn Osenlund February 13, 2024 1 Comment

The Lantern Theater’s performance of Faith Healer, by Brian Friel is presented as four monologues that represent three points of view, those of Frank Hardy…

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Reviews Theater

A RAISIN IN THE SUN (Bristol Riverside): An old fashioned play, carefully executed

Kathryn Osenlund February 10, 2024 2 Comments

Lorraine Hansberry wrote Raisin in the Sun in 1959, a bold play for its time. It takes a dark view of the progress of integration,…

View More A RAISIN IN THE SUN (Bristol Riverside): An old fashioned play, carefully executed
Reviews Theater

CAMP SIEGFRIED (Theatre Exile): An unlikely love story

Kathryn Osenlund November 5, 2023 No Comments

Love happens, even in a setting dedicated to concentrated evil, as an American girl becomes a fierce Nazi uber-princess. 

View More CAMP SIEGFRIED (Theatre Exile): An unlikely love story
Reviews Theater

NO EXIT (Quintessence): A new translation of a hellishly absurd classic

Kathryn Osenlund October 13, 2023 No Comments

Quintessence Theater’s founding artistic director Alex Burns, has written a new translation from the original French

View More NO EXIT (Quintessence): A new translation of a hellishly absurd classic
Reviews Theater

ASSASSINS (Arden): A celebration of psychopaths

Kathryn Osenlund October 1, 2023 No Comments

The wall of the F. Otto Haas Stage features pictures of targets and X’s for murdered presidents. Starting with John Wilkes Booth’s killing of Abraham…

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