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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

10 Dates with Mad Mary (Inis Nua): A real piece of work returns

Kathryn Osenlund September 7, 2023 No Comments

10 Dates with Mad Mary is playing upstairs at a favored watering hole, Fergie’s Pub. The show was so popular last year that it’s back!

View More 10 Dates with Mad Mary (Inis Nua): A real piece of work returns
Reviews Theater

TWELFTH NIGHT (Wilma): Beach blanket Bard

Kathryn Osenlund June 12, 2023 1 Comment

There’s a lot of Twelfth Night going around in the Philadelphia area, all different. The Wilma conjures a fresh seaside setting. A dock moves forward.…

View More TWELFTH NIGHT (Wilma): Beach blanket Bard
Reviews

TWELFTH NIGHT (Lantern): Some are born great

Kathryn Osenlund June 2, 2023 1 Comment

Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night (1599-1600), one of his few fantasy plays, immediately before he penned his incomparable Hamlet (1600-1601).  As Artistic Director Charles McMahon describes…

View More TWELFTH NIGHT (Lantern): Some are born great
Theater

RADIO GOLF (Arden): Hearts on one side, heads on the other

Kathryn Osenlund April 6, 2023 No Comments

A crippling honesty and family ties mark August Wilson’s Radio Golf, a play that flows with humor along with sharply incisive dialogue and a clever story line.

View More RADIO GOLF (Arden): Hearts on one side, heads on the other
Reviews Theater

THE TEMPEST (Quintessence): Full of magic

Kathryn Osenlund March 6, 2023 No Comments

There’s magic and mystery as wonderfully costumed characters come alive to dance, sing, cavort, wrestle, draw swords, threaten violence, and show mercy

View More THE TEMPEST (Quintessence): Full of magic
Reviews Theater

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (Walnut Street Theatre): A thinking play

Kathryn Osenlund February 24, 2023 No Comments

Introducing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as “a thinking play,” Tennessee Williams wrote to his audiences: “I want to go on talking to you…

View More CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (Walnut Street Theatre): A thinking play
Theater

Waiting For Lefty (Quintessence): On the side of angels but not art

Kathryn Osenlund January 24, 2023 No Comments

This show has history. Odets, a voice for his disinherited generation was born in Philadelphia.

View More Waiting For Lefty (Quintessence): On the side of angels but not art
Theater

Every Brilliant Thing (Arden Theatre Company): 60-second review

Kathryn Osenlund November 11, 2022 1 Comment

Scott Greer has the audience suffering with him, then happy for him. It seems this story could have been his personal history. He owns it that much.

View More Every Brilliant Thing (Arden Theatre Company): 60-second review
Tattooed Lady
Theater

The Tattooed Lady (Philadelphia Theatre Company): Tattoo as metaphor, tattoo as tattoo

Kathryn Osenlund November 10, 2022 No Comments

Boisterous, joyful, defiant, and a little bawdy, the show may have a sketchy contraption of a plot, but you don’t go to a musical expecting Hamlet.

View More The Tattooed Lady (Philadelphia Theatre Company): Tattoo as metaphor, tattoo as tattoo
Theater

DEATH OF A DRIVER (InterAct): 60-second review

Kathryn Osenlund November 7, 2022 No Comments

Faced with bureaucratic nonsense or official missteps, who hasn’t said ‘fuck the government’ or a more genteel equivalent? The multi-ethnic East African Kenya Colony gained independence in…

View More DEATH OF A DRIVER (InterAct): 60-second review
THE GLASS MENAGERIE at Arden Theatre Company.
Theater

THE GLASS MENAGERIE (Arden): Revisiting the famed memory play

Kathryn Osenlund October 14, 2022 No Comments

Tennessee Williams had been writing since he was a teenager, and by the time he was 30 years old he was getting nowhere. His early…

View More THE GLASS MENAGERIE (Arden): Revisiting the famed memory play
60-Second Review Theater

THE CHAIRS (Quintessence): 60-second review

Kathryn Osenlund October 3, 2022 No Comments

Due to the pandemic, it had been many months since I’d visited the Sedgwick Theater in Germantown. October 1 was opening night for The Chairs…

View More THE CHAIRS (Quintessence): 60-second review
Fringe reviews Reviews Theater

ROMEO AND JULIET (OJ Productions): 2022 Fringe review

Kathryn Osenlund September 26, 2022 No Comments

It’s a tragedy that more audiences will not have a chance to enjoy the production.

View More ROMEO AND JULIET (OJ Productions): 2022 Fringe review
Theater

LATE NIGHT SNACKS FAMILY SHOW (Bearded Ladies): 2022 Fringe review

Kathryn Osenlund September 19, 2022 No Comments

Okay: A drag queen show for children.

View More LATE NIGHT SNACKS FAMILY SHOW (Bearded Ladies): 2022 Fringe review
Theater

Watching THE TWO-CHARACTER PLAY (OUT-CRY) by Tennessee Williams

Kathryn Osenlund September 15, 2022 No Comments

This play-within-a-play about a play takes place on the Bluver Theatre’s tiny stage, brightly lit, although called dim by the characters. The audience,  up close…

View More Watching THE TWO-CHARACTER PLAY (OUT-CRY) by Tennessee Williams
Theater

Romeo & Juliet in a Bar (Shakespeare on Tap): 2022 Fringe review

Kathryn Osenlund September 12, 2022 No Comments

A little bit naughty at times, semi-Shakespearean lingo is mixed with a good deal of TomFoolery.

View More Romeo & Juliet in a Bar (Shakespeare on Tap): 2022 Fringe review
Fringe Festival Fringe reviews Reviews Theater

FOOD (Geoff Sobelle): 2022 Fringe review

Kathryn Osenlund September 9, 2022 No Comments

Unless you know Geoff Sobelle’s other works, you’ve never seen anything like this.

View More FOOD (Geoff Sobelle): 2022 Fringe review
Fringe Festival Fringe reviews Reviews

NOT RIGHT NOW (James Christy): 2022 Fringe review

Kathryn Osenlund September 6, 2022 No Comments

There are many, many moments that become stories.

View More NOT RIGHT NOW (James Christy): 2022 Fringe review
Theater

Looking Back: An early Pig Iron production

Kathryn Osenlund October 26, 2020 No Comments

ames Joyce is Dead And So Is Paris was presented at Christ Church Annex in Old City in 2003. It was something else!

View More Looking Back: An early Pig Iron production
Theater

Looking Back: Two works by Thaddeus Phillips

Kathryn Osenlund October 6, 2020 No Comments

In today’s edition of my look back on theater from years past, I remember two Thaddeus Phillips works from 2015 and 2017: Alias Ellis Mackenzie and A Billion Nights on Earth.

View More Looking Back: Two works by Thaddeus Phillips

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