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: The Wizard of Oz at Suburban Players

Somewhere over the beltway, way out east— there’s a church called St. Demetrios, serving up a big Greek feast. Somewhere over in Carny, The Suburban Players know, they are producing a stage dream for the 41st season show. With Director Mark Briner, and Musical Director Patricia DeLisle, go beyond the rainbow for a true community theatre experience with The Wizard of Oz. Classic and charming, this delightful performance lives up to the standards that The Suburban Players have set over the last four decades of performing quality theatre as a community effort.

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Oliver! at Third Wall Productions

I’m reviewing the situation; can Baltimore sustain one more community theatre that popped-up overnight? The answer is yes, as Third Wall Productions makes their inaugural production of Oliver! snap jauntily to life in the found-space stage of the Episcopal Church of the Messiah in Hamilton. Produced by Jerry Gietka (who has commemorated producing the show in loving memory of his late sister Bernie)  and Directed by Ed Higgins, with Kathryn Weaver as Musical Director,

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Review: Stupid Fucking Bird at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Do you know what passes for theatre these days? Honestly? How many of you get out of your comfortable living rooms— with your live-streaming Broadway channels on Netflix or the “new musical of the month” live on NBC— and go to the theatre, sit through two to three hours of live performance, and actually take in what you’ve just seen? The Maryland Ensemble Theatre seems to know what’s passing for live theatre and has challenged the standard,

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Review: James and The Giant Peach at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Marvelous things! Amazing, incredible, flabbergasting, marvelous things await theatergoers of all ages on the Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s Stage2 Performance Space as their Fun Company proudly presents James and The Giant Peach. Adapted to the stage by David Wood from the imaginative novel by Roald Dahl, this twisty and highly chimerical tale spins a story of a young lad called James and the marvelous things that await him once he encounters the giant peach.

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Review: Horatio Dark’s Between the Sheets at Yellow Sign Theatre

Love is in the air, all around you, and most definitely between the sheets if you’re doing it right! (Or maybe bedsheets aren’t your thing so you’re doing it in an anti-gravity suspension chamber with strap-on tentacles— whatever floats your boat.) All that delicious erotic loving— remember the antiquarian of the insane and his die-hard followers need love too— was all wrapped up in one gooey, tentacle-covered package for a Valentine’s Day at The Yellow Sign Theatre.

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Review: Southern Baptist Sissies at Spotlighters Theatre

Everybody has their truth. Yours may be different from mine, but there’s only one way to the promised land…of theatre…and for the moment that way is through the gates of Spotlighters Theatre as they warm up the winter with their production of Southern Baptist Sissies. Written by Del Shores and Directed by Fuzz Roark, this evocative, heartbreaking tale of reconciling religious truth with reality tugs the heartstrings hard and doesn’t let go until the show’s stirring conclusion.

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Review: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Stillpointe Theatre

Unbelievable— adj. “so great or extreme as to be difficult to believe; extraordinary.” Stillpointe Theatre’s current production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is insanely engaging, incredibly entertaining, and wildly wonderful; simply put it’s unbelievable. U-N-B-E-L-I-E-V-A-B-L-E. Directed by Amanda J. Rife, this brilliantly inviting musical takes a Stillpointe twist as the company unpacks this show— with Music & Lyrics by William Finn and Book by Rachel Sheinkin— into their brand new home on Charles Street in the Station North Arts District of Baltimore.

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Review: The Mystery Krewe at Do or Die Mysteries

Laissez les bon temps roulet! Mardi Gras is in full swing down in the happening French Quarter of N’Orleans. But don’t you worry, child, if you can’t make the trip down to Louisiana Do or Die Mysteries are bringing a bit of the bayou up to you with their scandalously savory production of The Mystery Krewe for Shrove Tuesday! Featuring an original script written by the company’s Artistic and Managing Director Ceej Crowe,

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Love Stinks! A Twisted Knickers Burlesque Show at Church & Company

Fed up with that ooey-gooey Hallmark holiday? J. Geils Band hit the nail on the head with their 1980 album Love Stinks and the Twisted Knickers Burlesque troupe of Baltimore is taking it a step further by putting that notion into practice this Valentine’s Day season. It was a splendid evening for everyone who has ever felt the lows of love, the blues of being involved, or the general sentiment of suckage when it comes to the all-too-romantic month of February.

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Review: The Laramie Project at Kensington Arts Theatre

Hate is not a Laramie value. And either the word is sufficient or it is not. It is a strong word, a word of intolerance, a word that cannot be ignored when addressing the heinous crimes that put Laramie, Wyoming on the map. On November 14, 1998 members of the Tectonic Theater Project traveled to the small town and conducted interviews with the people of Laramie, the result of which became a tragically beautiful play known as The Laramie Project.

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Review: South Pacific at Toby’s Dinner Theatre

Dites-moi pourquoi la vie est belle. Dites-moi pourquoi la vie est gai. Life is beautiful and life is gay because the Rogers and Hammerstein classic South Pacific has set a course for Toby’s Dinner Theatre of Columbia and finally landed this 2016. Directed and Choreographed by Mark Minnick, with Musical Direction by Reenie Codelka, this heartwarming, feel-good musical is just the remedy to chase away the winter blues. With stunning talent, beautiful aesthetics,

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Review: Under the Skin at Everyman Theatre

Blood is thicker than water, but it isn’t bondage— an unyielding tie to our relations— it’s more like a bond— a tie that connects us to one another in an unbreakable and inexplicable manner. Under the skin, we’re all family, tracing our roots back to the most basic of human origins, and playwright Michael Hollinger articulates that in his touching familial drama Under the Skin. Directed by Vincent M. Lancisi, this poignant and evocative drama performs explorative theatrical surgery on the construct of human relationships when it comes to the boundaries of the body and the limits of love.

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Review: Flatland at Annex Theatre

Stop trying to recognize. Start learning to dream. For irregularity is more beautiful than symmetry could ever be. Lost in the dimensional reality of the above statement? Hold onto your depth perception, kids, the ride over at Annex Theater is about to warp into hyperspace beyond the capacity of mere mortal minds. Transcending the borders of the dimensional continuum from dimensions D to 10thD, The Annex Theater of Baltimore is going to blow your mind,

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Review: The 39 Steps at Fells Point Corner Theatre

Ladies and gentlemen, with your kind attention and permission, I have the honor of presenting to you…well, I don’t suppose I have the honor so much as the Fells Point Corner Theatre and The Collaborative Theatre have the honor of presenting a lovely little farcical play on Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps. Adapted by Patrick Barlow to the stage in comedic fashion, and Directed by Anthony lane Hinkle, some two dozen characters grace the stage as four actors wittingly work their way through the dark and tangled plot of humorous proportions.

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Review: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder at The Kennedy Center

Blood may spill and spines may chill but that’s not a good enough excuse to skip town during the run of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder now appearing live— until poisoned, pushed, dispatched or otherwise— in the Eisenhower Theatre of The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Based on the novel by Roy Horniman, with Book and Lyrics by Robert L. Freedman and Music and Lyrics by Steven Lutvak,

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Review: All’s Well That Ends Well at The Rude Mechanicals

Girl wants boy. Boy wants different girl. Girl tricks boy into wanting her. And they live happily ever after. Other stuff happens. There’s a fool involved somehow. And a king. And a fistula. That the girl magically cures the king of with her magical powers, or her herbs and whatnot. And then they live happily ever after. Also some love letters and a ring. Maybe some secretive identities, a ten-o’clock kidnapping, and a horse?

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Review: The Complete Deaths of William Shakespeare at Cohesion Theatre Company with Baltimore Shakespeare Factory

I am slain! Well, I’m not slain, thankfully, lest you’d be reading ye ole review by someone else! But you will be slain— with comic calamity and gripping tragedy all rolled into one amalgamation of a stage production currently parading itself on the boards of the St. Mary’s Community Center. Co-produced by Cohesion Theatre Company and Baltimore Shakespeare Factory, The Complete Deaths of William Shakespeare— a devised work written by Alice Stanley (with a little help from Old Bill of the Bard)— is stirring up quite a ruckus,

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Ed Dixon in Georgie at Signature Theatre

Review: Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose at Signature Theatre

Theatre at its most basic element is storytelling. It follows logically that good theatre is simply good storytelling. Signature Theatre is not doing good theatre, but rather, exceptional and stellar theatre as they present the limited engagement run of Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose. Written by and starring Ed Dixon and Directed by Eric Schaeffer, this one-man 90-minute production delves into Dixon’s personal friendship with the most extraordinary character man known to the Great White Way— George Rose.

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Josh Huff-Edsall (left) as Spike, Jo Sullivan (center) as Masha and Nicole Musho (right) as Nina in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Prince George's Little Theatre

Review: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Prince George’s Little Theatre

Beware of Hootie Pie! Or perhaps just of being a wild turkey. Of waiting too long for the blue heron? Or perhaps just beware of missing a bizarre new comedy making its community area debut at Prince George’s Little Theatre this January. Brush up on your Chekhov before you go to see Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike for a titular and humorous evening; there is a good time of reflective musings and amusing reflections to be had even if you aren’t well-versed with the depressing antics of The Cherry Orchard,

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Review: Moonlight & Magnolias at Spotlighters Theatre

As God is my witness, you shall never be hungry again, at least your comedic appetite will be sated when you turn up to the Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre for their first production of 2016, Moonlight & Magnolias. A madcap malady of hilarious proportions Directed by Michael Zemarel, this play is a zany two hour trek across Hollywood’s most manic melodrama, Gone With the Wind. Only in the most truncated and hysterical fashion possible,

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Review: Twelfth Night, A Trans* Voices Workshop Series Show at Cohesion Theatre Company

For such as we are made of, such we be! Cohesion Theatre Company is cutting right to the core of Shakespeare’s words in their co-production of Twelfth Night alongside Iron Crow Theatre. Appearing as the second staged production in the Trans* Voices Workshop Series, Twelfth Night— Directed by Phil Vannoorbeeck and Assistant Directed by Sarah Maher— is shaking up the gender dynamics of the production to show one hugely important detail of existence as we know it: everyone wants to live their life authentically.

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No Darkness But Ignorance- Shedding Light on Trans* Twelfth Night: An Interview with Melanie Glickman and Alice Stanley

Like Shakespeare, interview series can too come with surprises! In an unpredicted fourth installment of the three-part series “No Darkness But Ignorance: Shedding Light on Trans* Twelfth Night” the show’s two remaining actors (who had not yet previously been featured) sit down to discuss the opportunity to work on the project with TheatreBloom. Alice Stanley, the Co-Founder and Co-Producing Artistic Director of Cohesion Theatre Company, sits with actor Melanie Glickman to discuss working inside of Twelfth Night in the Trans* Voices Workshop Series production co-produced by Cohesion Theatre Company and Iron Crow Theatre.

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No Darkness But Ignorance- Shedding Light on Trans* Twelfth Night: An Interview with Logan Davidson, Jane Jongeward, Danielle Vitullo, and Dana Woodson

In the third installment of a series of interviews with the cast and directors of Twelfth Night, a co-production between Cohesion Theatre Company and Iron Crow Theatre appearing in the Trans* Voices Workshop Series, TheatreBloom sits down with actors Logan Davidson, Jane Jongeward, Danielle Vitullo, and Dana Woodson to hear about their experience with the production.

If you could give us an introduction of who you are and who you’re playing in the show as well as a little bit of your performance background from the area that would be a great start.

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No Darkness But Ignorance- Shedding Light on Trans* Twelfth Night: An Interview with Caitlyn Carbone, Nick Delaney, Lilian Oben, and Matthew Payne

Following up the successful interview with Director Phil Vannoorbeeck and Assistant Director Sarah Maher, TheatreBloom sits down with four of the ten actors involved with the Trans* Voices Workshop Series production of Twelfth Night to have them shed further light on the experience.

If you could give us a brief introduction to who you are, who you are in the show, and what work you’ve done in the area, we’ll get started.

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No Darkness But Ignorance- Shedding Light on Trans* Twelfth Night: An Interview with Director Phil Vanndoorbeeck and Assistant Director Sarah Maher

“Oh time, thou must untangle this, not I. It is too hard a knot for me t’ untie.” More appropriate Shakespearean words have never been found to suit the current situation of gender fluidity in the 21st century. As the knot of the rigid gender binary breaks apart into an open an accepting existence that genders— much like plays— come in a great many varieties, time proves to be the ultimate salve and knot-worker when it comes to undoing the limited thinking that has been applied to the notion since people began identifying their genders.

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(L to R) Chris Allen as the Rookie Gumshoe, Jeffrey Gangwisch as Theodore16, Craig Coletta as Bennington Marcus, and John Bennett as The Chief reading Haunted Chrome: A Bennington Marcus Mystery

Review: Horatio Dark’s Between The Lines: December Broadcast at Yellow Sign Theatre

The master of the macabre, the navigator of the netherworld, the antiquarian of the insane— why it can only mean one thing! That it’s 9:00 o’clock, Baltimore, it’s the last Monday of the month, and it’s time for Horatio Dark’s Between the Lines at Yellow Sign Theatre. Commemorating a milestone on this very last Monday of the 2015 calendar year, Horatio Dark concludes its first season of broadcasts with this latest episode.

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Review: AntiKlaus at E.M.P. Collective

You better watch out! You better not cry! You better not pout! I’m telling you why! AntiKlaus is coming to town! Well, it’s not coming to town so much as it is returning to town. Taking up holiday residence with the E.M.P. Collective for a four-night festival engagement, AntiKlaus, as written by Alex Hacker, puts the slay in sleigh ride this Christmas season. Directed by Sarah Jacklin,

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Review: Bright Star at The Kennedy Center

Trouble and happiness tend to walk hand in hand because liars sometimes make good story tellers. Making its pre-Broadway debut with a whole lot of trouble, happiness, and one hell of a good story, Bright Star, premieres in the Eisenhower Theatre of The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts this holiday season and sets the soul ablaze with a backwoods tale of love and truth in a time the world has nearly forgotten.

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Review: Matilda at The Kennedy Center

Just because life isn’t fair it doesn’t mean that you just have to grin and bear it, and nobody but you is going to change your story. Make sure you be a little bit naughty this holiday season and get yourself a ticket, no matter how you do it, to Matilda as it appears itself on the Opera House Stage of The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Directed by Matthew Warchus with Musical Direction by Matthew Smedal,

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Review: West Side Story at Signature Theatre

Te adoro, Signature Theatre, te adoro. Blowing the minds of every theatergoer that snaps their way into the Max Theater at Signature Theatre in Shirlington, Virginia this holiday season, West Side Story is a smash-hit that steals the heart, captures the soul, and brings the audience to a standing ovation. A stunning tale of star-crossed lovers set to inspiring Music by Leonard Bernstein, with Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and Book by Arthur Laurents,

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