author: Leonard Taube
Do you know what it’s like to die alive? That may be a heavy question, but it’s one that Diana asks and sets the stage for an evening of intense, raw, gut-wrenching drama. Iron Crow Theatre’s production of Next to Normal opened at the beautiful M&T Bank Exchange this evening to a large house and more than a few wet eyes. You simply cannot be unmoved by its subject matter and,
Art and entertainment are not mutually exclusive; something can tickle your funny bone and give you great pause for appreciation. And vice versa. It’s what Ian Shaw & Joseph Nixon’s script The Shark is Broken sets out to prove. It’s now appearing— the area community premiere— at Vagabond Players, kicking off the back-half of the 110th season! Directed by Stephen Deininger, this fast-paced, truth-based theatrical engagement gives audiences a deeper look at what really happens when filming for a movie gets stalled in tight quarters.
Ceci n’est pas une pipe. Et ce tableau n’est pas dans cette pièce. Mais je voulais voir qui parle français et qui connaît l’art. Pas moi! Je doute que vous le fassiez non plus. Heureusement pour nous deux, Picasso à la Lapine Agile is in English. And it’s now appearing at The Vagabond Players as the final show of their 109th season (continuously operating too!) Directed by Stephen Deininger, this oddly quirky, witty play— written by Steve Martin— that is at times deeply profound and at other times completely off-the-wall,
People have expectations of you because of how they see you and if you get caught up in how you are seen you become what people expect, be it good, bad, or otherwise. Powerful stuff packed heavily into the words of Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline appearing as the penultimate production at Vagabond Players in their 109th season. Directed by Lorraine Brooks, this thought-provoking play tackles some tough subject matters and really makes you stop and think about perception,
If you’re going to call something sh*t, you have to have some standards to judge it by! A direct-ish quote from Yasmina Reza’s Art but one that I can relate to all too well; if you’re going to call something— anything (more often in my vein of critiquing, ‘brilliant, masterpiece, etc.’)— you have to have some standards to judge it by. Appearing for the second time in a decade of stage performance,
There’s a screw loose in this theatre! (And damn skippy if it isn’t ever in the doorknob! IYKYK!) And holy heck and go-ta-war, if the Vagabond Players aren’t determined to find it with their current production of Room Service, directed by Steve Goldklang. Making its return to the Vagabonds’ stage (it appeared April and May of 2013 as a part of their 97th season!) with the same director but a brand new cast,
Every moment is a moment when you’re in the woods— again please.
It’s the Vagabond Players’ turn to try their hand at Sondheim’s most beastly bear…Into The Woods, under the co-direction of Audra M. Mullen and Kerry Simons, launches its five-weekend run as the first show of the company’s 109th season. With Musical Direction by Stephen M. Deininger, this challenging Sondheim musical has a few twists, turns, and pleasant surprises in store for audiences who are familiar with the work,
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,
Dreams are dreams. Awake is awake. Know the difference. But if you don’t know— or don’t want to know? In stunningly beautiful narrative that blend magical realism with the burning yen to simultaneously connect one’s past to one’s future, Dontrell, Who Kissed The Sea is playing a limited engagement with Sisters Freehold currently at The Peale Museum for the next two weekends. This evocative coming-of-age journey, written by Nathan Alan Davis and directed by Makeima Elise Freeland,
Gods don’t die; they just change form. And what if one of the most revered Gods of all time— especially to those in the theatre community— were to reappear in a different form, come down to earth and hope to bring about a change of days? Then you sound like you might be prepared for Iron Crow Theatre’s production of Madeleine George’s Hurricane Diane. And if you’d like to be more prepared,
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,
Your mind is boundless. Allow this notion to guide you closure to the fullness of you. Or allow Rapid Lemon Productions and their first live on-stage performance of 2021 to guide you to the fullness of you. After over a year’s hiatus from live, in-person, on-stage performances due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, Rapid Lemon Productions is back in action with a world premiere of Serious Adverse Effects by upcoming playwright Derek Lee McPhatter.
There are somethings that you cannot put into words;
experiencing the joy of a world premiere is one of those things. Rapid Lemon
Productions presents the world premiere of Give Me Moonlight by Ariel
Mitchell. This surrealist tale of historical happenings in rooted in the truth
of Albert and Bessie Johnson, who eventually built a castle in Death Valley. Directed
by Noah Silas, the play features just four actors and carries a loosely woven
narrative of hope and despair,
In Rapid Lemon’s Variations on
Myth, director T. P. Huth takes advantage of the emotional ride a series of
ten-minute plays can create if presented in an order that allows them to
strengthen one another. It is too often that a series of smaller plays is
presented as hors d’oeuvres, being consumed individually without thought to if
the first appetizes the audience for the second, whereas this collection of ten-minute
plays formed a cohesive experience.