Innocence is only wisdom in a world without evil. But why is it we are so quick to believe that of which we are not certain? Why are we so quick to judge? The most innocent interaction can see seem sinister to a poisoned mind. Why do we let our minds be primed so readily with poison? In a striking and evocative drama now appearing on the Vagabond Players’ stage as the penultimate production of their 108th season,
By now most of us have heard of the musical RENT and may have even seen a production (or more), and/or possibly even caught the movie version of Jonathan Larson’s brilliant masterpiece which chronicles the lives of several struggling young artists/activists/musicians in New York set against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic.  With roots loosely in the 1896 opera La Boheme, Larson’s tale is set in the then-thriving Alphabet City in Lower Manhattan’s East Village in New York.Â
Representing the triumphant return of the Iron Crow Theatre after their long pandemic hiatus, Mankind – written by Robert O’Hara, and directed by Ann Turiano – is a bold and beautifully-presented madcap satire that throws stones at such formidable topics as religion, anti-abortion legislation, and an upside-down world where “FEMINISM!” is a battle cry while women themselves are an afterthought.
This frenetic cyclone of ever-escalating absurdity takes place in a future where women have been extinct for over a century,
Hey, ho! Baltimore— take heed! Take all in good worth what is intended, which is nothing but mirth, of course! How could it be anything but merriment and entertainment at this time of year? Baltimore Shakespeare Factory is embarking upon a bold new endeavor— producing for the very first time— a non-Shakespearean production! Debuting a non-Bard classic, though penned most excellently by a contemporary of Shakespeare’s— one Thomas Dekker— BSF brings The Shoemaker’s Holiday to the stage under the hearty Direction of one Tom Delise.
Let me tell you a story. You’ll have to listen well since the cicadas and crickets have devious plots. Plots as thick and syrupy as Cassius’ (Utkarsh Rajawat) to slide vengeance into the noble heart of Brutus (Shannon Ziegler) under the guise of freedom. Baltimore Shakespeare Factory’s production of Julius Caesar is like a story told with a group of friends and family: a campfire tale told in a semi-circle of Tikki torches in the swirling beauty on the ground of the Evergreen Museum and Library.Â
If music be the food of love, then play on! And play on the Baltimore Shakespeare Factory indeed does with their annual summer offering of Shakespeare in the Meadow! Starting the two-show summer repertory with The Bard’s Twelfth Night, BSF gets well underway with festive merrymaking and their signature use of natural light, basic period costumes, and timely music to suit the show. Directed by Thomas Delise, with Musical Direction by Jim Stimson,
If the good truth were known, it would be spoke aloud that The Baltimore Shakespeare Factory has an impressive production of The Winter’s Tale to trod upon its boards the full month of April this year of 2016. What makes it so impressive, you ask? Not the fact that like at all BSF shows there is universal lighting a plenty and live music before during and at the end of the performance— both tools of the Bard’s day which serves well this merry band of players in their authentic Shakespeareance,
Tis indeed summer and that to the world of the Bard means Much Ado About Nothing. And the Baltimore Shakespeare Factory is no exception to that rule as they mount their first in-the-round production this summer. Taking the well recognized comic back to its simplistic basics, the BSF strips away the scenery and all the other convolutions that can often clog-up Shakespeare’s wittiest comedy and present it in its original essence.