Articles Tagged With: The Strand Theater

Her Portmanteau at The Strand Theatre 📷 Shealyn Jae Photography

Her Portmanteau at The Strand Theater

Reviews April 13, 2026 Chris Pence

author: Chris Pence

Photographs & Memories: Her Portmanteau at Strand Theatre Company

Culture shock is a very real side effect of immigration, to which family can be both a cure and an agitator, in varying degrees. As a first-generation Nigerian-American storyteller and educator, Mfoniso Udofia knows these struggles intimately, sharing her understanding through Her Portmanteau, a profound dive into the hearts and minds of a family working to find connection despite a divide carved by 30 years and 5,300 miles of distance.

The Long Christmas Ride Home at The Strand Theater

Reviews December 8, 2025 Erin Tarpley

author: Erin Tarpley

“Well, what a lovely Christmas you’ve given me”

The weather outside is frightful, but inside The Stand Theater, tidings of comfort and joy are complex and raw (and theatric!) in their opening production of their 18th season.

Directed by Tessara Morgan Farley, Paula Vogel’s The Long Christmas Ride Home is not merely a play: it is a profound, breathtaking piece of theatrical artistry that transcends the familiar boundaries of the American family drama.

Devon Michelle Hernandez (left) as Light and Isaiah C. Evans (right) as Dark in 'Light Strikes at Deal' at Variations on Night with Rapid Lemon Productions 📷 Max Garner

Variations On Night at Rapid Lemon Productions

Reviews July 12, 2025 Amanda N. Gunther

“When it’s dark, look for stars.”

“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”

“Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensations, darkness stirs and wakes imagination.”

Some of my favorite quotes about night. Two of those three come from musical theatre, my heart and passion, and while there are no 10-minute musicals in this year’s variations festival, the plays on offer are quite impressive, all swirling in the darkened void of this year’s theme: Night.

Brown Sugar Bake-Off at The Strand Theater

Reviews June 3, 2025 Erin Tarpley

author: Erin Tarpley

Why go out for a night of theatre to see one play when you can go out and see eight?! In this Co-Production between Strand Theater Company and Two Strikes Theatre Collective, Brown Sugar Bake-Off presents a night (or matinee) of eight 10-minute plays that focus on the theme of mental health, as told through the voices of Black women and non-binary playwrights.

This year’s 10-Minute Play Festival,

Rarefied Air at Strand Theater Company 📷Shealyn Jae Photography

Rarefied Air at The Strand

Reviews March 20, 2025 Erin Tarpley

author: Erin Tarpley

Definition of “Rarefied”: distant from the lives and concerns of ordinary people

It is sometimes hard to believe that this week marks the five-year anniversary of the start of the Covid-19 “lock-down.” That time in our all too recent history where we were told that for the benefit of public health and safety, all stores, businesses, and schools would close their doors and everyone (except “essential workers”) were expected to shelter in place and wait for this new novel virus to pass.

Honey Bee Baby

Reviews January 9, 2025 Amanda N. Gunther

Words have meaning. Precision of language is everything. When you wish to communicate an idea, you use your words. And Philadelphia-based playwright Erlina Ortiz has done exactly that with her play Honey Bee Baby, receiving its world premiere this January with Rapid Lemon Productions. Directed by Jalice Ortiz-Corral, this fascinating new work takes a futuristic deep dive into a plethora of timely, relevant topics that will leave you deeply pondering and questioning where you stand on the ethical side of the dividing line when it comes to things like natural resources,

The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberly at The Strand Theater

Reviews December 9, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

author: Erin Tarpley

“Love is about knowing the other person and allowing them to be the person they are”

With the holiday season upon us, tis the season to be merry, jolly, and joyous. And after a wonderful evening at The Strand watching their rendition of The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, these are three adjectives that I found made even my Grinchy heart grow three sizes that very night!

Crocodile Fever at Strand Theater Company

Reviews June 17, 2024 Erin Tarpley

author: Erin Tarpley

“There nothing that a hundred men on Mars could ever do”

If you’re like me, then you have never heard of the play Crocodile Fever before. If you’re like me, you didn’t immediately see the connection between “crocodile” and Northern Ireland when you did get a brief whiff of where the story was set. If you’re like me, and you are ready to take a chance on the unknown but are ultimately looking for an evening of comedy and drama,

alright, Sweet hearted at The Strand Theatre ???? Shealyn Jae Photography

alight, Sweet hearted at The Strand Theater

Reviews April 9, 2024 Lilou Von Kokoro

author: Lilou Von Kokoro

Friday night was cold, raw and blustery, but as I entered The Strand Theatre, I was warmly welcomed by Producer Elena Kostakis. I wasn’t sure what to expect but let me tell you— this was not just a performance; it was an experience. Interactive would be an understatement! To quote their program, “Welcome to the immersive production of alight, Sweet hearted.”

alight,

The Book of Grace at Rapid Lemon Productions

Reviews January 16, 2024 Erin Tarpley

In a time in our history when yet again we are faced with a growing divide of “us” vs “them,” we are challenged to ask ourselves if the old proverb about how a “house divided against itself shall not stand” is indeed truth. Suzan-Lori Parks’ play The Book of Grace, making its Baltimore debut with Rapid Lemon Productions, tackles that notion.

Before continuing, a warning: this production contains depictions and descriptions of domestic violence,

Little Women at Strand Theater Company

Reviews December 4, 2023 Erin Tarpley

“That when I come back to them I may be fonder and prouder than ever of my little women”

Ever since its first publication in 1868, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women has captured the hearts of millions of readers all over the world. But considering at its face value the story of Little Women seems to be a mere fictional story focused on the 19th century domestic lives of four young American women living in genteel poverty,

The Lady Was A Gentleman at The Strand Theater

Reviews May 8, 2023 Erin Tarpley

From the very first millisecond of Barbara Khan’s The Lady was a Gentleman, I knew I was in for a wonderful treat! In an instant, the production begins and the audience is swept into an aura of light, and energy, and laughter. Led by a brief dumb show that allows the characters to take the stage and give a silent, yet physically over exaggerated sense of who they are, the production immediately becomes alive and allows for a fantastic transposition from the mundane world into the world of a St.

Crisis Mode: Living Pilipino in America at The Strand Theater

Reviews March 20, 2023 Erin Tarpley

Crisis Mode: Living Pilipino in America at the Strand Theater

“If every Filipino lit a candle at the same time, we would light up the world”

The popular American narrative is one based around how this nation was built on people immigrating to these shores from a variety of other lands in search of work, opportunity, or security (whether by choice or by force). Additionally, the brutal historic reality is that this narrative has always been carefully focused on specific populations at specific points in time,

High School Coven at The Strand Theater

Reviews February 1, 2023 Mike Zellhofer

Curse, comfort, conjure; three words that Director Lee Conderacci uses in her “feminist practice and in her theatre art.” (words directly from Conderacci.) This time her artistic undertaking is Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin’s High School Coven, at The Strand Theater. Three words that individually bring forth a myriad of thoughts, ideas, and emotions. Three words that together allow us to see the world through the eyes of Conderacci, even for a brief two hours;

Frankenstein at The Strand Theatre

Reviews September 12, 2022 Erin Tarpley

“Madness is that much closer to death”

A Shayna Maidel at The Strand Theatre

Reviews October 25, 2019 Joseph R. Kennedy

A Shayna
Maidel is a play I had never heard of, and that’s really a shame,
because it was a powerful experience that left me thinking, for days. I’ve seen favorite plays performed in an
underwhelming way, and also saw a play I didn’t anticipate liking performed by
such talented thespians that I was converted to a fan, but the real treat with
this particular production of A Shayna Maidel,

Bright Half Life at The Strand Theatre

Reviews September 20, 2019 Joseph R. Kennedy

When I was
considering attending Tanya Barfield’s Bright Half Life, I committed a
horrendous crime, in that I read a review containing a summary. A couple starting out like a fire caused by a
comet. The marvelous beginning, the slow
and painful waning, and an end showcasing the doom that was always in store, as
if asking us if it was really worth the good times. Knowing the half-life referred to a
relationship and not a radioactive isotope was all I was after!

Heavy Hors D’oeuvres 3: Interrobang’s Holiday Dinner at The Interrobang Theatre Company

Reviews December 6, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

Tis the season to stuff your face be it with chestnuts roasting on the open fire, grandma’s pumpkin pie or the Heavy Hors D’Oeuvres that The Interrobang Theatre Company his throwing down this holiday season! In its third incarnation, The Interrobang Theatre Company is proud to present Heavy Hors D’Oeuvres 3: Interrobang’s Holiday Dinner. But don’t be fooled, this isn’t your ordinary Christmas comedy or holiday hilarity, it’s actually some delicious bite-sized semi-dramas that all come together for one intriguing local playwright sampler this time of year.