All posts by Amanda N. Gunther

A full-time theatre reviewer in the Baltimore, Washington, and surrounding areas; Amanda holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Maryland Baltimore County as well as a minor in Creative Writing. Having spent two of her five years at college studying abroad at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, she has learned a great deal about improv, devised work theatre, and interpretive movement pieces. Striving to promote theatre of all types, she can often be found in a theatre of some type, even on her nights off.

Review: Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver at Infinity Theatre Company

Reviews

Infinity Theatre Company just can’t wait to get on the road again. Here they are, back in Annapolis for the 2016 season, and they’ve brought with them Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver. Boldly challenging their audience with this revitalization of a bluegrass-folk infused musical revue featuring the songs of the iconic John Denver, Co-Producing Artistic Directors Anna Roberts Ostroff and Alan Ostroff present a sensational show filled to the very brim with heart and soul that triumphantly calls through the hills of Colorado all the way down to the Chesapeake Bay.

Read More »


Review: American Idiot at Milburn Stone Theatre

Reviews

It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right, you will definitely have the time of your life if you come see the Milburn Stone Theatre’s production of Green Day’s American Idiot. Directed by Lance Bankerd with Musical Direction by J. Andrew Dickenson, this viscerally emotional and hyper-sensationalized production of Green Day’s concept-album-turned musical does not shy away from the traumas encountered by the characters within. A jaw-dropping, fist-pumping, rage-bleeding experience,

Read More »


Review: Love Letters at The Hippodrome

Reviews

You can’t hang up on someone via a letter. In today’s much too fast-paced world where everything is tweeted and texted or shouted through smart phones, the intimacy between two lovers is lost, the warmth and heartfelt feeling that can only be felt when personally putting a pen to paper has all but faded from the memories of mankind. Evoking a spark of true tenderness from this art form of letter-writing, Love Letters— as a part of the CareFirst Hippodrome Broadway Series — arrives to Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre after following a successful and critically acclaimed run on Broadway.

Read More »


MET Marches On: An Interview with Artistic Director Tad Janes about the 2016/2017 Season at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Interviews

It’s that time of year when all the theatres start making their big announcements for what’s coming to their stages in future seasons! After a roaring successful season of new works, fun shows, area premieres, and much, much more, the Maryland Ensemble Theatre is ready to roll straight into their 2016-2017 season. In a TheatreBloom exclusive interview, we’ve sat down with Artistic Director Tad Janes to talk about the company’s rich history, how they continue to fight the good fight of professional theatre in Frederick and what’s next for them as the new season gets underway.

Read More »


Review: Floyd Collins at 1st Stage

Reviews

Do you hear that sound? It’s calling to you from the lone, cold hills of Kentucky. It’s calling for you to follow it down to 1st Stage in Tysons to see the rarely produced musical Floyd Collins. Based on the real life story of the caver by the same name, this backwoods folk-style musical with Music and Lyrics by Adam Guettel and Book by Tina Landau makes its return to the Washington DC area for the first time in over a decade.

Read More »


Review: Midlife at Single Carrot Theatre

Reviews

Life is slippery, like a fish’s tail. The harder you grab it the les of it you have in your hands. When life begins to slip away from your grasp, it isn’t always in the physical, tangential realm. What happens when the mind slips away from you? What becomes of your life’s story then? Are you two trains on diverting tracks tearing apart at the seams or are you an extraordinary fantasy fated for collision with the brutal harsh reality that is your mortal existence?

Read More »


Review: The Amazing Interactive Adventure 2 at Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s Fun Company

Reviews

Afraid your children are spending too much time with their video games? So much time that they might just get sucked into them and never return because they can’t beat the evil boss at the final level now that he has control of the keyboard that controls the game? That’s exactly what’s happening to Charlie— a smart, funny, young video game programming kid— in The Amazing Interactive Adventure 2 now appearing live on stage with MET’s The Fun Company!

Read More »


Charm City Brings Charming Actors to Town: Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake Welcomes Ali MacGraw & Ryan O’Neal to Baltimore for Love Letters

Interviews, News

“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” The line from Erich Segal’s novel popularized by the 1970 film adaptation of Love Story never gets old. 46 years later the dynamic acting duo from the film have reunited— this time on the stage— for a performance of A. R. Gurney’s Love Letters, appearing for just eight performances in the heart of Charm City’s Bromo Arts District at the Hippodrome Theatre.

Read More »


You Can’t Stop the Beat at Toby’s Dinner Theatre: Meet the Nicest Kids in Town- Coby Kay Callahan & Darren McDonnell

Interviews

You can’t stop an avalanche as it races down a hill! And this summer, Toby’s Dinner Theatre of Columbia is racing down the hill of amazing theatrical experiences as they bring the heart of Baltimore to their stage with Hairspray.  In the TheatreBloom exclusive interview series, “You Can’t Stop the Beat: Meet the Nicest Kids in Town” we’ll be chatting over the course of the production’s run with everyone from the character man and woman right up to Miss Hairspray herself,

Read More »


Review: An Octoroon at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Reviews

The fourth act of a play is known as “the sensation scene.” This is the point where the play unites the A-plot with the B-plot, crams the moral of the story down the audience’s throats, and then overwhelms the senses with something spectacular, usually a lot of smoke and flames. But what happens if you’ve not only overwhelmed the senses of your audience but completely shocked and stunned them with an unabashedly forward and unapologetically galvanizing performance charged with racial controversy?

Read More »


Review: Neverwhere at Cohesion Theatre Company

Reviews

Nothing is ever easy when journeys are involved. Dare you take a journey most chimerical? Most fantastical? Up-worlders beware, darkness is happening: fantastical, phenomenal, hypnotizing darkness that crackles with the electrifying magic of #LondonBelow at Cohesion Theatre Company as they draw their second season to a close with the Baltimore premiere of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. Directed by Brad Norris, this ambitious beast of a production ensnares the mind and engulfs the soul for a treacherous trek into a world unseen,

Read More »


Vile Villain: An Interview with Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ Nathan Parry

Interviews

Scandal. Lust. Mind games. Les Liaisons Dangereuses at The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre has it all. And so does area actor Nathan Parry. In a TheatreBloom exclusive interview, we take a moment to sit down with Nathan and talk shop about what it’s like to play vile villain Vicomte de Valmont, and find out just what makes it so dangerous.

Thanks for sitting with us! Would you give us the brief introduction and tell us what you’ve done that we might recognize of your work in the area?

Read More »


Review: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare…Abridged at Annapolis Shakespeare Company

Reviews

1,122 roles. 37 plays. 154 sonnets. 3 guys. 97 minutes. If that doesn’t make for one hell of a singular theatrical experience, I don’t know what does. Nothing short of Shakespearean shenanigans, Bardian buffoonery, and Stratford-Upon-Avon silliness, The Annapolis Shakespeare Company returns for its fourth annual summer venture into the series they call “Comedy in the Courtyard” and this year they’re bringing The Complete Works of William Shakespeare…Abridged along for the ride.

Read More »


It’s Not That Kind of Thing: A “Love”-ly Interview with ASGT’s Director Mark Briner and Co-Stars Jamie Austin Jacobs and Hayley Briner

Interviews

The year is 1985! The hair is big. The greed is good. The collars are up. And love is in the air. Actually, it’s 2016 and the hair is pretty flat, all things considered, greed is grody, and the collars are thankfully back down where they belong. Love is, however, STILL in the air and more potent than ever as Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre kicks off their 50th season with a production of the 80’s-themed The Wedding Singer.

Read More »


Review: Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Spotlighters Theatre

Reviews

Love is something you use, not something you fall into. Though should you choose to use your love of theatre to fall into one of the 68 seats inside The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre between now and the 19th of June you may just fall in love with what’s on the stage. Swordplay— of two distinctive varieties, once of which includes actual rapiers— scandal, sin; all of these delicious morsels are yours for the taking if you dare the three-hour theatrical endeavor that is Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

Read More »


Review: 10x10x10 at Fells Point Corner Theatre

Reviews

Ten actors. Ten plays. Ten minutes. One stage. It’s happening right now in a theatre near you— the Fells Point Corner Theatre, to be exact. Appearing as a new revision to their annual tradition of a 10-minute play festival, this year four directors take ten actors across the course of ten different ten-minute one-act plays. Polished, poignant, and perfectly humorous, this bundle of shorts is perfectly palatable for those who prefer their theatre in quippy clips and devourable morsels.

Read More »


Review: Superior Donuts at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews

Donut cannot change. Donut will always be donut. But the Maryland Ensemble Theatre can change up what’s on their mainstage menu as they close out the 2015/2016 season with Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts. A shockingly different production from the original company-written rock musical seen just a month ago upon the boards, Superior Donuts, directed by company member Gené Fouché, is a stellar and touching dramedy that lives up to its titular adjectival description in talent,

Read More »


Review: Dreamgirls at Tantallon Community Players

Reviews

They’re your Dreamgirls, they’ll make you happy! You just have to get a ticket to see them at the Tantallon Community Players and you better move hot quick because tickets are moving hotter than a disco inferno! Dreamgirls, produced by Larry Carbaugh and Directed by Christopher Gerkin, will welcome you back to an era of bygone music and the struggle of popular music as African American artists transitioned out of soul,

Read More »


The 32nd Annual Helen Hayes Awards 2016

News

“The theatre community here <Washington DC> is something other cities can only dream of.” An earnest and rewarding quote pulled directly from the lips of David Ives, this year’s recipient of “Outstanding Original Play or Musical Adaptation” at the 32nd Annual Helen Hayes Awards Ceremony. Just one of 236 nominees being celebrated over the course of the evening, Ives’ statement captured the tone of the evening early on with the aforementioned quote given during his award acceptance speech.

Read More »


Review: Blackberry Winter at Forum Theatre

Reviews

There is something to be said for comforting fictions. While they may not be the most elucidating tales they provide a certain umbrage from the harshness of reality that accompanies terminal illness. In an evocative rolling world premiere presented in association with the National New Play Network, Forum Theatre closes out its 12th season with Steve Yockey’s Blackberry Winter. Directed by Michael Dove, this stunning 90-minute tale awash in profoundly polarizing emotions sparks a compelling conversation of perceived realities,

Read More »


Review: Garbage Kids at Venus Theatre

Reviews

Good memories are all too oft entangled with the bad ones, forcing the mind to shut them all out. Recollection is subjective; you aren’t remembering it wrong but rather remembering how you felt it happened. Debuting the 56th women-empowering script at Venus Theatre, Founding Artistic Director Deborah Randall opens the world premiere of Jayme Kilburn’s Garbage Kids and turns the notion of memory on its ear. A play in two acts, where the first is memory and the second occurring in real-time reality,

Read More »


Review: The Master and Margarita at The Annex Theater

Reviews 2 Comments

What is truth? Satan’s hung out on Pontius Pilate’s balcony, had breakfast with Kant, and now he’s up for a jaunty holiday through Moscow. But will the unexpectedly mortal nature of man be enough to feed his musing folly? Annex Theater has contrived something completely absurd with their production of The Master and Margarita, adapted to the stage by Jacob Budenz from the novel of Mikhail Bulgakov. Budenz, who also serves as the show’s director,

Read More »


Review: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at The Arts Collective at HCC

Reviews

Felicific— adj. “causing or intending to cause happiness.” The Arts Collective at Howard Community College is currently in possession of a most felicific production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, where a splendid time can be guaranteed for all. F-E-L-I-C-I-F-I-C. Directed by Anthony Scimonelli with Musical Direction by Mayumi Baker Griffie, this all-inclusive, heartwarmingly inviting, and enticingly entertaining production has all the feels, talent, and words that any connoisseur of the theatergoing world could hope for.

Read More »


Review: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Reviews

Magnificent— adj. “very good; excellent.” The Milburn Stone Theatre @ Elkton Station has a magnificent production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee crossing their boards for one weekend only and it would be a real shame if you missed this production! M-A-G-N-I-F-I-C-E-N-T. Directed by Andrew Mitchell with Musical Direction by Anthony Vitalo, the Musical & Lyrics of William Finn and Book of Rachel Sheinkin, this zany musical about young students at the most important event of their pre-high school lives spells out F-U-N for anyone in the area lucky enough to catch one of only four performances!

Read More »


David Jennings (left) as Doug and Justin Calhoun (right) as Bud in Gutenberg! The Musical

Review: Gutenberg! The Musical! at Epic Productions Inc.

Reviews

Picture it! Schlimer, medieval Germany— the roof is made of dirty thatch, there are rats nibbling on stinky cheese, there are feces and rotting vegetables in the streets— okay, maybe don’t picture it. Picture instead two dedicated, earnest, devoted, passionate guys who just want to actualize their dream of writing a big flashy Broadway musical and have it produced by a rich Broadway producer. Turn tables, puppets, helicopters, people who used to be famous,

Read More »


David James as Grandma Addams

Helen Hayes Nominee David James Speaks on His Fifth Nomination

Interviews

The 32nd Annual Helen Hayes Awards is just around the corner celebrating live professional theatre of all shapes and sizes in the nation’s capital city of Washington DC. This year’s ceremony will be presented at the historic Lincoln Theatre on Monday evening May 23, where 236 nominees are being honored, representing 202 eligible productions produced in 2015. In a TheatreBloom exclusive interview, we’ve taken a few quick moments with nominee David James (nominated in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical— Helen Production,

Read More »


Review: The Coffee Shop at Just Off Broadway

Reviews

Well you know what they say, if you don’t have anything nice to say about anybody— then come sit by me! Gossip is no longer reserved strictly for the southern peaches of Miss Truvy’s Beauty Shop in Chinquapin parish! And half of Rosedale will be giving their eye teeth to come and take a whack at this new play written by Baltimore local Davis Gable. Making its world premiere on the Just Off Broadway stage,

Read More »


Review: Willy Wonka at The Salem Players

Reviews

Come with me and you’ll see a world of pure imagination. You’ll begin with a spin travelling in the world of their creation and what you see will truly defy explanation! If you want to view paradise, simply come to The Salem Players of Willy Wonka for the most Wonkariffic time you can imagine! There’s singing, dancing, Oompa Loompas, and candy! Directed by Anita Spicer-Lane with Musical Direction by Sterling Gray, this fantastical creation will take you straight to the heart of Roald Dahl’s enchanting tale about a young lad,

Read More »


An Evening in Hampden: Twisted Knickers Burlesque Goes to the Prom

News

Spring is in the air and that can only mean one possible thing: it’s time for a sassy, classy evening affair with Twisted Knickers Burlesque! And what better way to celebrate the season than a Saturday night spent at Church & Company for An Evening in Hampden: Twisted Knickers Burlesque Goes to the Prom? Featuring the troupe’s managing producer, Tapitha Kix, as well as five fantastic other area burlesque performers, and a very special Vice Principal Lincoln emceeing the event,

Read More »


A Night of Intimate Conjuring with L.G. Gerace, Most Marvelous at Hotel RL

News

Do you dare be mystified by the marvels of modern magic? A little sleight of hand…a little creative conjuring? Feast your eyes upon City Paper’s Best Late-Night Entertainer of 2015 as L.G. Gerace, Most Marvelous lights up The Living Stage Experience at Hotel RL for the third time since the project began. Appearing as a frequent performer at Hotel RL and in residence as the house magician for the Yellow Sign Theatre and the Baltimore Rock Opera Society,

Read More »


Advertisment ad adsense adlogger