One 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,…
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Five 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…
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BCKSEET 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…
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Updike’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…
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Philly For Foodies
Food is an essential part of what makes Philadelphia tick. Each neighbourhood has its own unique style, for instance in West Philly you’ll find traditional…
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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 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,…
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It’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…
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Meta is Dead. Long Live Meta.
I want to talk about shows in theatre and dance that deal with the audience head on. In other words, works that acknowledge the existence…
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The 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…
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Square 1682: Restaurant review
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Square 1682, which proved that you can have high end service and quality without the high end price tag.
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California Fresh: New theater company launches in Kensington arts space
The back streets of Kensington may not have much in common with Hollywood
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It’s “theater”
Philadelphia is in the United States, so I’ve decided that theater should be spelled theater, not the English/French theatre. Right.
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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…
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LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE by Theatre Exile at Plays and Players
Playwright Martin McDonagh delivers a powerful political message in the most palatable of pills
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How To Succeed In Comedy With Really Trying: Interview with The Waitstaff’s Sara Carano
For seven years Sara Carano has been a member of The Waitstaff, a Philly-based sketch comedy troupe that has proven to be one of city’s…
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What I learned from GQ this time around
Having been inspired last time around to write one of PPAA’s most popular articles “What Learned From GQ Today,” I thought I might mine the current issue…
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Did you see that thing about how last year Philly hotels had more guests than ever before?
Yeah, so it seems a shitload of people spent the night in Philadelphia in 2010. According to an Inquirer article/industry press release from Feb 19, “Philadelphia filled…
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Don’t worry folks, he’s not like that in real life (or so he claims): Interview with Blasted’s John Jezior
Actor John Jezior has become well known to Philadelphia area audiences through his work on Shakespeare productions; he has performed in nearly half of the…
View More Don’t worry folks, he’s not like that in real life (or so he claims): Interview with Blasted’s John Jezior
“Great Expectations” at Curio Theatre
Charles Dickens asked in his will that no memorials be erected to him and so the life-size sculpture of the author in Clarke Park in…
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Conceptual Dance and Star Power
My dance vocabulary is limited, so please forgive me as I redefine terms for my own benefit. When I say conceptual dance, I am referring…
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