I’ve been a lover of the stage as long as I can remember. Mostly this love has been realized as a patron of local theaters.…
View More Theater People vs. Theater Critics…The Ultimate DebateCategory: Theater
The best source for independent coverage of Philadelphia theater.
Why’s Everyone Such a Critic?
I’ve been a lover of the stage as long as I can remember. Mostly this love has been realized as a patron of local theaters.…
View More Why’s Everyone Such a Critic?Talkin’ Irish with Madi Distefano of Brat Productions
Six theater companies came together this season to create the Philadelphia Irish Theatre Festival, which featured eight contemporary plays from the Emerald Isle. Brat Productions…
View More Talkin’ Irish with Madi Distefano of Brat ProductionsBrat Productions’ CRAIC Fringes the Irish Theatre Fest
There are some 400 million native English-language speakers in the world and about 6 million of them live on the island of Ireland, but the…
View More Brat Productions’ CRAIC Fringes the Irish Theatre FestClassics Now and Forever: Interview with Quintessence Theatre’s Alexander Burns
Quintessence Theatre Group is wrapping up its inaugural season at the Sedgwick Theater in Mount Airy with The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, which is…
View More Classics Now and Forever: Interview with Quintessence Theatre’s Alexander BurnsCommedia, Terrorism, and Royalty: Inis Nua’s DUBLIN BY LAMPLIGHT
Cast members from Inis Nua Theatre’s DUBLIN BY LAMPLIGHT, playing in Philadelphia PA through May 14. The Royal Wedding and the death of international terrorist…
View More Commedia, Terrorism, and Royalty: Inis Nua’s DUBLIN BY LAMPLIGHTAmaryllis Theatre Company Brings an Excelente LYDIA to the Adrienne
As Octavio Solis’s sublimely crafted play Lydia opens, the Mexican American Flores family is struggling to cope with the aftermath of a terrible car accident.…
View More Amaryllis Theatre Company Brings an Excelente LYDIA to the AdrienneTwo Jews Walk Into A War at InterAct
At the Adrienne last Thursday night, the show started before the curtain went up: first there was the woman who got a verbal spanking from…
View More Two Jews Walk Into A War at InterActWorld War What? Did PIFA forget a little something in its celebration of Paris 1910-20?
IS it just a little strange that in a festival with a theme of Paris 1910–20, few of the shows and none of the literature seem to mention that there was a little war going on
View More World War What? Did PIFA forget a little something in its celebration of Paris 1910-20?Bleak Complexity: SPEAKING IN TONGUES at the Walnut’s Independence on 3
As SPEAKING IN TONGUES opens, two couples are about to cheat on their partners. Their dialog develops in unison; each pairing uttering the same lines.…
View More Bleak Complexity: SPEAKING IN TONGUES at the Walnut’s Independence on 3One Woman, Many Voices: LET ME DOWN EASY at PTC
There are many voices in this nation’s health care debate, and Anna Deveare Smith could probably act out them all. In LET ME DOWN EASY,…
View More One Woman, Many Voices: LET ME DOWN EASY at PTCFive Technical Things About Ancient Roman Comedic Stages You Were Dying To Know
We know about the plays, at least if we have read them. But how much do we know about ancient stages? We’ve asked PPAA classics…
View More Five Technical Things About Ancient Roman Comedic Stages You Were Dying To KnowBCKSEET Productions’ Losing the Shore
You never expect lighthearted comedy when going to a show by BCKSEET Productions. Argentine prison dramas, biting Edward Albee plays, and a Christmas show depicting Santa…
View More BCKSEET Productions’ Losing the ShoreUpdike’s guide to reviewing
Submit to whatever spell, weak or strong, is being cast. Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his…
View More Updike’s guide to reviewingLessons from Newt Gingrich: or how we in the theatre and dance communities can stop acting like losers and learn to make the nation love us
How often have you heard that performing arts are dying, that we’re a niche market, that you can never make a living off of it,…
View More Lessons from Newt Gingrich: or how we in the theatre and dance communities can stop acting like losers and learn to make the nation love usIt’s The End of the World As We Knew It: New City’s PTERODACTYLS at the Adrienne
PTERODACTYLS takes place in a sterile Main Line living room (set design Cory Palmer), a fitting setting for a work reminiscent of Victorian drawing room…
View More It’s The End of the World As We Knew It: New City’s PTERODACTYLS at the AdrienneThe New and Old of It: Interview with BCKSEET’s Gregory DeCandia
BCKSEET Productions has staged more than thirty plays in their eleven-year history, about half of those in Philadelphia, the city the company has called home…
View More The New and Old of It: Interview with BCKSEET’s Gregory DeCandiaCalifornia Fresh: New theater company launches in Kensington arts space
The back streets of Kensington may not have much in common with Hollywood
View More California Fresh: New theater company launches in Kensington arts spaceIt’s “theater”
Philadelphia is in the United States, so I’ve decided that theater should be spelled theater, not the English/French theatre. Right.
View More It’s “theater”THE CRUCIBLE (Tri-County Performing Arts Center)
Like many people, I was introduced to THE CRUCIBLE in a high school English class. The teacher dutifully told us that it was a play…
View More THE CRUCIBLE (Tri-County Performing Arts Center)