Why Deaf Theater is a Form of Resistance
This film follows Daymond Sands, a Deaf theatre program director, preparing his first original showcase, highlighting the cast’s heartfelt effort to bring Deaf perspectives center stage
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…
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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…
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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…
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COCK (Theatre Exile): Spatial choreography reveals isolation, influence, and alliances.
Here’s the setup: A young man has lived with his male lover for a few years. During a spat he falls for a woman. Things…
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MARCUS; OR THE SECRET OF SWEET (Plays & Players): 60-second review
Is life sweet when you live in the Louisiana Bayou before an unprecedented storm hits? For Marcus (Eric L. Fleming), life at 16 years of age…
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COCK (Theatre Exile): A Provocative Fight for Love and Identity
Finding love and self-knowledge beyond the fixed categories of sexual identity (gay, straight, or bi) is the central theme of Michael Bartlett’s COCK, now in…
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WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT (InterAct): Are You Black Enough?
Drury’s funny, traumatic, inventive and timely play will stab at you, personally, at least once. She asks whether it is important that a story be told, or if it is more important that it be told in a certain way. She uses the events in Namibia to illustrate the cracks in our own culture, the divides caused by racial issues even among a group of people who would probably all vote for the same candidate..
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MACBETH (Hedgrow): An ambitious and effective take on the Scottish play
Director Dan Hodge does not mind imposing his vision upon a text. His bold decision to combine the Ariel and Miranda characters proved surprisingly effective.in…
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A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (Luna): Commedia dell’arte meets post-modern morality play
Luna Theater Company’s interpretation of Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel is a unique marriage of the British author’s futuristic stylizations with disturbing a cappella songs with the historic conventions of masking and stock movement inspired by Italian commedia dell’arte. It’s a perfect match to tell the cutting-edge morality tale of teen ultra-violence and reform.
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COURTLY LUST: A KING ARTHUR BURLESQUE (GDP/Walking Fish): 60-second review
A tongue-in-cheek recounting of some of the sexier moments of King Arthur’s rule, COURTLY LUST attempts to do it all—just like the knights of old.…
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HANNAH (Hella Fresh): The glories of the sober mind
In response to a story I wrote about LSD, a college creative writing professor told me that it’s never a good idea to give characters…
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Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Brother/Sister Trilogy: Philadelphia audiences get a great look at an acclaimed new playwright
Allen Radway, James Ijames, and Daniel Student discuss Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Brother/Sister trilogy. All three plays in the series hit Philadelphia stages this fall.
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SLASHER (Figment): An improv horror
SLASHER is a one hour improv play in the vein of a B-movie horror. There’s an unnecessarily precautious “splash area” where the audience may be stained with stray stage blood. An audience member’s spin of a wheel dictates the setting and holiday (a school on Easter weekend, on opening night). If this sounds like a description of the kind of show you like to see, you’ll probably like SLASHER.
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THE CONVERT (Wilma/Woolly Mammoth): Shining a light on colonialism
Colonialism is Pygmalian writ large: one culture trying to civilize another. In Danai Gurira’s melodramatic THE CONVERT, a priggish preacher (Irungu Mutu) in 1895 Rhodesia (present-day…
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DANCE IT OUT: SEBASTIAN AND SHANNON (curated by Meg Foley): What Stays With You
Excerpted from thINKingDANCE.net. Upon entering the dark, intimate AUX space for Meg Foley’s first DANCE IT OUT (a new series she is curating), the crowd made…
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4000 MILES (PTC): What a Long, Strange Trip it’s Been
As someone born in the mid-1980s, I’ve rolled my eyes at the sight of the word “Millennial” more times than I can count. What’s great about Amy Herzog’s 4000 MILES is that she refuses to imprison the characters in any social or political context.
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HAMLET (Quintessence): Brevity is the soul of it
Hip, fast-paced, with a frat-boy-cool lead: these aren’t usually phrases to describe HAMLET. But Quintessence Theatre Group’s heavily edited version takes a bare bodkin to Shakespeare’s story of revenge and existential crisis in the state of Denmark.
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Daniel Student on Tarell Alvin McCraney: An interview with the Plays & Players director about the playwright and his works
Plays & Players Theatre is staging Marcus, Or the Secret of Sweet, the third part of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s acclaimed Brother/Sister series. Phindie spoke to P&P…
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Roy Kaiser looks forward and back as Pennsylvania Ballet turns 50
Published by The Dance Journal. Reprinted with kind permission. Pennsylvania Ballet launches its 50th season this month with the celebrations, reunions and gala performances, but…
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ROMEO AND JULIET (Curio): A same-sex take on Shakespeare’s classic
The world’s most famous love story is given a new twist. The familiar characters are now the teenaged daughters of the feuding Montague and Capulet families, whose tragic romance is used to explore the true universality of Shakespeare’s themes.
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