It’s that time of year when the stage seems to play— every show you see— Christmas Carol – may three ghosts be haunting you… and this review of mine, in the nick of time, wishes you and yours— to experience one too. Why not experience the Maryland Ensemble Theatre production of the Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol presently running through this weekend at the Weinberg Center for the Arts cattycorner to the MET’s home stage in downtown Frederick?
“Embracing happiness is f**king terrifying.” ~Sarah Shulman A Very Jewish Christmas
We don’t usually censor words around here but tis the season and you never know which little ones might be reading alongside the adults in hopes that Santa Claus or Hanukkah Harry or whichever present-bringing seasonal deity will see them being a good little offspring, reading the theatre review of the Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s latest new work to grace their mainstage.
In a follow up to last year’s presentation of Angels in America, Part 1, the Maryland Ensemble Theatre has endeavored to complete the series with Angels in America, Part 2, Perestroika. The production of these two pieces is a monumental undertaking creating almost a seven-hour total theater experience.
It’s hard not to write a comparative review. The cast and design team remain relatively the same.
Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America, was ambitious in 1993, taking on difficult subject matter, and the Maryland Ensemble Theatre is ambitious to take on such a challenging production. ‘Set in the mid-1980s amid the AIDS crisis and the Regan administration, the characters struggle with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell’*. Originally intended for a season three years ago but sidelined by COVID, Angels now marks the MET’s 150th production overall and falls during its 25th anniversary,
Story is the way organize our lives. Narrative is how we make sense of what’s happening around us; it serves as a way to conceptualize, to frame our existence. But what about truth? What about facts? And where do they fit into our narrative? Our story? Opening their 25th Anniversary season with a play that feels topically relevant to this day and age, with a prescience that is unmistakable given that the essay, book, and play itself predate the concept of ‘fake news’,
Amanda N. Gunther | TheatreBloom
There is so much light in the world. Light from the sun,
light from inside that glows out from the human spirit, there’s all kinds of
light. But what about artificial light that’s natural? The disturbing glow the
illuminates from a diabolically dangerous substance? Radium. Playwright D.W.
Gregory historically fantasizes a dark spot on American history, shining an
incandescent beam of harrowing truth, with dramatic flair, onto historical
events of the shadowy 20th century.
While the autumn breezes finally rush in, bringing all the productions of Rocky Horror Show and Deathtrap along with them, The Maryland Ensemble Theatre defies the more conventional approach to the spooky season and instead invites a uniquely chilling entity onto its stage for the month of Halloween and beyond. Let the Right One In, a stage adaptation by Jack Thorne from the Swedish novel & film by John Ajvide Lindqvist,
Most people ain’t people. Because people strive to treat each other with dignity and respect. Of course, that was the point Arthur Miller might have been trying to make when he scribbled down A View From the Bridge. Horrifically relevant and strikingly topical in today’s political climate, this intense family-driven drama is an exacting fit for the style of ensemble performance work which the Maryland Ensemble Theatre prides themselves on and does exceedingly well.
There’s nothing like a pet in the house! They keep you safe! They keep you warm! They drain your vegetables of all their color because they’re juice thirst vampires! Wait— what?!? Well, only that last bit if you accidentally sit on a rabbit in a movie theatre while seeing Dracula and decide to take it home. This may be exactly what happens to the Monroe family in the childhood classic story of Bunnicula,
Oedipus! TheatreBloom knows something you don’t know! And here in this exclusive interview with Co-Creators Thom Huenger and Sarah Shulman, we’re going to tell you anyway! We’re going to tell you all about how this electrifying rock opera musical came to exist on the stages of the Maryland Ensemble Theatre and what drove the Greek Tragedy to bleed its veins into the world of musical theatre.
Thank you Thom and Sarah for giving us your time to talk about this exciting project!
Oedipus! They know something you don’t know! But they’re going to tell you anyway! A stellar new revolutionary musical is seizing the stage at Maryland Ensemble Theatre this spring, shaking the walls and shocking the soul with one of history’s most brutally revolting Greek tragedies. Oedipus Rox! a new MET original musical production, with Music and Lyrics by Thom Huenger and Book and Lyrics by Sarah Shulman, brings the well-told tale of Oedipus Rex to crackling sizzling life.
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,
I saw a figure. Or was it a reflection? A brilliant shimmering glimpse of Mary Shelley’s core essence, captured in theatrical perfection upon the Maryland Ensemble Theatre main stage as autumn brings a new adaptation of Frankenstein into their season. Devised by the ensemble under the riveting Direction of Co-Artistic Director Julie Herber, this new concoction is a striking and tragically beautiful amalgamation of Shelley’s most poignant words of prose.
It’s alive! And rising up from the creative minds of Maryland Ensemble Theatre! Frankenstein, newly adapted for the stage as a part of the 2015/2016 season, the Mary Shelley classic finds its footing in an innovative new approach this autumn. In a TheatreBloom exclusive interview, we sit down with Director Julie Herber to discuss the good doctor and his creature, learning and discover just who the monster is.
If you’d give us a brief introduction of who you are and what of your work the readers might recognize,
Artists make illusions of illusions of heaven and the artists dreaming with the voices loud as thunder in the minds at the Maryland Ensemble Theatre have fabricated an illustriously dark and decadently dark distortion of heaven in their current production of Bernard Pomerance’s The Elephant Man. Directed by visionary and company member Julie Herber, this nightmarish dreamscape of fascination entreats the senses, tugs at the heartstrings and ensnares the soul in a fashion most mesmeric.