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One of the most successful plays in Broadway history makes its way to the iconic Bucks County Playhouse. DEATHTRAP is a mystery/thriller (brimming with bleak humor) by Ira Levin (“Rosemary’s Baby). DEATHTRAP is the story of a once-famous playwright Sidney Bruhl (Saxon Palmer) with an enormous case of writer’s block living with his beautiful wife Myra (Angela Pierce) in Connecticut.
View More DEATHTRAP (Bucks County Playhouse): A 60-Second Review
Let me say it up front: Unconstitutional, running through July 6th at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, is a tour de force stronger than the Tour de France.
The famous Quinn, familiar to Saturday Night Live fans, presents his observations on the quirks of life in the U.S. at such a neck-breaking pace that I thought I was participating as a bidder at an auction, where the auctioneer speaks at world record speed so that I, as one of his “bidders,” was unsure at times if I was buying or not. So as not to miss his many powerful insights, wrapped in highly addictive humor, I was forced to listen carefully. And listen I did.
View More Arrogantly profiling American history: An interview with Colin Quinn, starring at the Philadelphia Theatre Company
“There aren’t enough cocktails to help me understand why I continue to be an actor! This shit is for the birds!”
Thus begins the Facebook entry by Joey, a dancer-actor-singer who played many roles along the U.S. east coast, but recently did not get hired for a new musical.
View More The Ups and Downs of Success: Theater artists between jobs
Cathartic, camp, and euphorically uplifting, WILD WITH HAPPY—Philadelphia native Colman Domingo’s madcap adventure with death and grief, love, loss, and sexuality—keeps you laughing while tugging at your heartstrings and ardently reaffirming the joy of life. That’s quite an accomplishment, and Center Stage’s Baltimore premiere is quite a production.
View More WILD WITH HAPPY (Center Stage, Baltimore): All That and More!
While THE TOUGHEST BOY IN PHILADELPHIA has something important to say, the material is arranged so carelessly that I’ll be damned if I can tell you what it is.
View More THE TOUGHEST BOY IN PHILADELPHIA (Iron Age Theatre): Gender confusion
Corinna Burns’ INTERNET STALKER and Chris Davis’ BORTLE 8 is the perfect pairing of “two shows one roof” (not under, but on) in this year’s…
View More SoLow Fest: INTERNET STALKER (Corinna Burns) and BORTLE 8 (Chris Davis)
“You will be broken and put back together again,” as one theatregoer commented on Facebook.
Given the explosive nature of this extraordinary play, I thought it important to talk to the playwright directly.
View More Freezing one’s laughter mid-stream: THE MOST SPECTACULARLY LAMENTABLE TRIAL OF MIZ MARTHA WASHINGTON by James Ijames
Josh McIlvain’s interview with Charlotte Ford “The untenable career of a successful Philadelphia theater artist” sparked some soul-searching among Philadelphia performers. They met on June 23rd to discuss.
View More Philly Performing Artists Discuss their Untenable Careers: Video from the Philadelphia Artists Summit
In this final episode, we talk about people talkin’ ‘bout bodies in West Philly and a double-bill: dark skies and stalkers in South Philly.
View More SOLOW FLASH INTERVIEWS 2014, EPISODE ELEVEN: CHRIS DAVIS, CORINNA BURNS & KAYCEE FILSON
“It’s really hard to do acting and make a living unless you’re really good—and a Caucasian man.”
View More Asaki Kuruma on Writing, Immigration, and the Racial Dynamics of Philadelphia Theater
In episode ten, we’ve got nothingness Goethe in a secret secret place, grief clowning in West Philly, and autobiographical anatomy in Rittenhouse.
View More SOLOW FLASH INTERVIEWS 2014, EPISODE TEN: ALEXANDRA TATARSKY, CINDY SPITKO and JOY CUTLER
In the SoLow Fest this year, some 30+ artists are creating cheap cheap theater in formal and informal spaces around the city. Challenging the idea…
View More SOLOW FLASH INTERVIEWS 2014, EPISODE NINE: THOMAS CHOINACKY, SARAH VAN AUKEN & JAMES HARO
There’s a wonderful movement these days in the Philadelphia theater world to give voice to our younger generation. Dwindling arts funding, as well as the…
View More MISSED CONNECTIONS & OTHER CURIOSITIES (Simpatico): A Craigslist cabaret
To the left of the pyramid was a little shanty you could enter and perform a primal scream. A glass window on either side faced in on a small chamber with an apple and, if you hit the right decibel with your scream, the apple would explode. The mechanism for blowing up the apple failed pretty quickly (it worked a few times before the forces of chaos seeped into the mechanism), but that didn’t stop the crowd going in and screaming periodically while the Eye played master of ceremonies from his pyramid throne.
View More Plato’s Porno Cave: The Trial (Little Berlin): Surrealist party, imagery orgy
Jason (David Bardeen) and Brendan (Jered McLenigan) ease the paucity of Ritu’s (Rebecca Khalil) existence by sending monthly checks through an aid organization. The last thing in the world they’d ever expect would be for their charity case to show up in their living room.
View More RITU COMES HOME (InterAct): Two gay men who practice Safe Charity become parents
In SoLow, you redact the boring stuff—these tickets and grants and five-year-plans and most importantly the stages and lobbies and flashy pricey venues—which are meant to indicate to the audience member, yes, see this show and not those.
Let’s imagine that when SoLow redacts these walls, what results, remarkably, is not dust and rock and paper shreds, but sand.
A big pile of sand.
SoLow is like a sandbox.
To give you a clearer picture of what’s being built in the sandbox, freelance writer/performer Julius Ferraro conducts a series of flash interviews of our artists.
View More SOLOW FLASH INTERVIEWS 2014, EPISODE EIGHT: DUO OF GROSSNESS, TRIO OF MADNESS
You can tell a lot about a city by looking through its craigslist pages. Jobs, apartments, M4W, rants: it’s all there. An exploration of wants…
View More Beautiful woman in row g [29] (Philadelphia): Simpatico presents craigslist themed MISSED CONNECTIONS AND OTHER CURIOSITIES
Following its traditional adaptations of The Nutcracker and Frankenstein, The Cabaret Administrion undresses Frank Baum’s children’s classic in a spectacle of ballet and burlesque. Director…
View More You’re not in Kansas anymore: Photos from The Cabaret Administration’s OF OZ
Brainspunk Theater keeps the conversation on race going with a pair of one-acts by Kansas City writer Michelle T. Johnson, WICCANS IN THE HOOD and TRADING RACES: FROM RODNEY KING TO PAULA DEEN.
View More WICCANS IN THE HOOD / TRADING RACES (Brainspunk): Let’s talk about race, baby
SoLow is about play.
There are some plays in it.
There are some . . . things . . . in it which are not plays.
But, SoLow is about reducing the boring stuff—the stages and lobbies and tickets and grants and endless marketing strategies—which stands between the artist and the audience, so that everyone can play.
To give you a clearer picture of what’s being played around with, freelance writer/performer Julius Ferraro conducts a series of flash interviews of our artists.
View More SOLOW FLASH INTERVIEWS 2014, EPISODE SEVEN: KEVIN MEEHAN, AMELIA CHARTER & ELIZABETH WHITNEY