OPERATIC OR NOT, a review of THINGNY IS BACK, the third night of fidget’s 4th Annual Fall Experimental Music Festival
Adam Vidiksis’s legs are completely still like a concert violinist’s. He barely bends except to lean over the snare as he burrows the tip of a…
View More OPERATIC OR NOT, a review of THINGNY IS BACK, the third night of fidget’s 4th Annual Fall Experimental Music Festival
TRUE STORY (Passage): A Multi-Layered World-Premiere Whodunit
Though EM Lewis’s 80-minute thriller TRUE STORY pays homage to Raymond Chandler’s detective-story and film-noir tradition of the 1930s and ‘40s, the play offers a more current (cell-phone era) exploration of the genre. It combining the twists and turns of a gripping murder mystery with the profound human issues of coping with loss, assuming responsibility, the nature of truth, and the desire for justice. Passage Theatre Company’s world-premiere production, directed with wit and suspense by Damon Bonetti, succeeds in delivering all the surprises, humor, emotion, and psychology inherent in the script.
View More TRUE STORY (Passage): A Multi-Layered World-Premiere Whodunit
MAKESHIFT (Murmuration Theater): A play not just about cake
Ten seconds into Murmuration’s inaugural production of Jessie Bear’s brand spankin’ new play, MAKESHIFT, Brian David Ratcliff, stands like a little boy by his lonesome on stage in what he describes as a devastated post-apocalyptic earth donning a royal blue super hero cape, goggles strapped to his head, holding a tape recorder up to his mouth declaring: “I, Michael Bolton will save the world.” I thought: “Wow, we are really on the edge of a cliff here, and Oops, I think we fell off into—I don’t know what.”
View More MAKESHIFT (Murmuration Theater): A play not just about cake
ADDRESS UNKNOWN (Meadowbrook Productions): Letters from the edge of history
Reading history is like watching a familiar play: the fascinating thing is that the characters don’t know what’s going to happen. But sometimes you come across a work of fiction written on the cusp of great historical events imbued with a clear sighted vision of how the epoch is unfolding. Adapted by Frank Dunlop from a 1938 novella by Kathrine Kressman Taylor, ADDRESS UNKNOWN is one such work.
View More ADDRESS UNKNOWN (Meadowbrook Productions): Letters from the edge of history
I AM MY OWN WIFE (Theatre Horizon): A story of perserverance
In Berlin in the wake of German reunification, American John Marks writes to his friend “Doug Wright” (I AM MY OWN WIFE’s playwright) about the eccentric Charlotte. Having “grown up gay in the Bible Belt”, Wright is fascinated by the transgender Berliner and spends grant money and savings to pay her a series of visits, hoping to turn his interviews into a play.
As related in act one of this short two-act piece, Charlotte’s tale fascinates Wright (and the Theatre Horizon audience).
View More I AM MY OWN WIFE (Theatre Horizon): A story of perserverance
THE WOMAN IN BLACK: A GHOST PLAY (Act II): 60-second review
THE WOMAN IN BLACK: A GHOST PLAY is a cleverly constructed stage production by Stephen Mallatratt based on a novel by Susan Hill. It is a story within a story with Arthur Kipps (Dan Kern) seeking the assistance of an actor (Jered McLenigan) to tell his terrifying and sorrowful tale he’s compiled into a five hour manuscript. The actor encourages Kipps to tell the story through acting; the actor playing the role of Kipps and Kipps playing the roles of the people he encountered during his experiences.
View More THE WOMAN IN BLACK: A GHOST PLAY (Act II): 60-second review
MAKESHIFT (Murmuration Theater): 60-second review
Strange games are afoot upstairs at Plays and Players. Not light or fun games, either—we’re talking full-on Don’t-talk-about-our-son-Martha! games here. Murmuration Theater’s new play MAKESHIFT throws us right into the middle of two different stories, and figures we’re smart enough to figure out what’s going on. The show doesn’t dole out much information, and when it does, it’s timed for maximum effect. Once you get enough to realize the show’s central conceit (which is quite nice, and unfolds so organically that I’d hate to spoil it), the earlier scenes come into better focus and make more sense.
View More MAKESHIFT (Murmuration Theater): 60-second review
THE GARDEN (Nichole Canuso Dance Company): Offer your hand…
Six audience members isn’t an empty house; that’s the full load for Nichole Canuso Dance Company’s THE GARDEN. The basement below us is an expansive concrete stretch, a network of small rooms and squared pillars, and we’re sent down into a smallish room scattered with chairs. We’re invited to sit wherever we like.
View More THE GARDEN (Nichole Canuso Dance Company): Offer your hand…
And the winners are….
The Barrymore Awards are on hiatus this year, returning in all their splendor for the 2013/14 season, but on November 4, 2013, Theatre Philadelphia gave out several awards recognizing local theaters and artists.
View More And the winners are….
RFK (New City Stage): An American tragedy
Director Ginger Dayle and sound and video designer Ren Manley intersperse audio and visuals from the 1960s in New City Stage Company’s RFK, complementing Widdall’s powerful performance with a great soundtrack and contextualizing video clips. Following pre-show newsreels from JFK’s assassination, the play begins in 1964—eight months after the fateful day in Dallas.
View More RFK (New City Stage): An American tragedy
STICK FLY (Arden): An inventive, relentlessly funny look at race and class
The immaculate Martha’s Vineyard home of the African American LeVay family is the set for Lydia R. Diamond’s STICK FLY at Arden Theatre Company. Plush sofas and pristine white cabinetry are the trappings around which the evening’s drama unfolds. The audience has a window into the kitchen, living room and porch where at times multiples scenes take place at complementary intervals; sometimes echoing their counterparts in the next room. The characters in the play are a complex set, all with different but overlapping backgrounds—some more than they realize.
View More STICK FLY (Arden): An inventive, relentlessly funny look at race and class
Screw the Barrymores, Get Some Clown Funk
The Barrymore Awards, Philadelphia’s bastard stepchild of the Oliviers or Tonys, took something of a hiatus for the 2012/13 season, as the downfall of the…
View More Screw the Barrymores, Get Some Clown Funk
NICE AND FRESH November (SmokeyScout): Get punched in the face by art at SmokeyScout Productions’ NICE AND FRESH
SmokeyScout is named after artistic director Josh McIlvain’s cats: Smokey and Scout. The program of the November NICE AND FRESH thanks them, along with Moving Arts of…
View More NICE AND FRESH November (SmokeyScout): Get punched in the face by art at SmokeyScout Productions’ NICE AND FRESH
Revisiting New City Stage Company’s RFK
Since my original review of New City Stage Company’s stellar production of RFK in October 2012 (reprinted below), the show was featured in Washington, DC’s…
View More Revisiting New City Stage Company’s RFK
Raphael Xavier’s THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO AUDIENCE WATCHING PERFORMANCE at the First Person Arts Festival
Published by The Dance Journal. Reprinted by kind permission. Like many artists, dancer Raphael Xavier has a difficult time describing exactly what he does for…
View More Raphael Xavier’s THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO AUDIENCE WATCHING PERFORMANCE at the First Person Arts Festival
JEWELS (Pennsylvania Ballet): Dance review
Published by The Dance Journal, reprinted with kind permission. As noted in Lew Wittington’s interview with PA Ballet Artistic Director Roy Kaiser last month, George…
View More JEWELS (Pennsylvania Ballet): Dance review
THE JERSEY DEVIL (Berserker Residents): 60-second review
The three troupe members of the FringeArts-famous Berserker Residents will do pretty much anything to get a good laugh out of the audience. Their recently…
View More THE JERSEY DEVIL (Berserker Residents): 60-second review
FringeArts Progress Report: The latest on the High Pressure Fire Service Building of 1903
Since my initial tour of the new FringeArts headquarters in August 2012, the projected opening (originally set for the Spring of 2013, then for the…
View More FringeArts Progress Report: The latest on the High Pressure Fire Service Building of 1903
Get Berserk this Halloween: The Berserker Residents return with THE JERSEY DEVIL
The Berserker Residents—that ludicrous comic trio of Justin Jain, David Johnson, and Bradley K. Wrenn—are a moved-loved highlight of the Philly Fringe. 2013’s The Talkback was a joyous…
View More Get Berserk this Halloween: The Berserker Residents return with THE JERSEY DEVIL
SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER (Quintessence): A contemporary 18th-century comedy
SHE STOOPS is an 18th-century comedy of manners and mistaken identities by Oliver Goldsmith. It is considered by many to be the most enduring of…
View More SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER (Quintessence): A contemporary 18th-century comedy