Once you see the ocean you may never be able to return to the well. Once you say a thing, itâs said and can never be unheard. Once you see Small Mouth Sounds at the Maryland Ensemble Theatre, the first production on their mainstage for the 2026 calendar year, you will certainly never be able to unsee it, and you may find yourself wondering if you need to be on the path of enlightenment.
âFacts are facts. They donât loosen or tighten. They just are.â ~The Thanksgiving Play; Larissa FastHorse.
Opinions, however, can be loose, tight, and all over the place. Popular or unpopular, we all have them, and we all share them. And thatâs an important notion to keep percolating just at the back of the brain as you settle in for this 90-minute, no-intermission, genre-questionable work that is Larissa FastHorseâs The Thanksgiving Play at the Maryland Ensemble Theatre as the second offering of their 2025/2026 main stage season.
You never what youâre going to do when you meet the devil at the crossroads. Offer him a sandwich maybe? But does the perfect sandwich exist? Can it be created? A spicy egg salad with avocado-mayo and Greek-yogurt, with a garlic-zaatar aioli, fresh crisp romaine lettuce, sharp and pungent Manchego cheese, the ripest, firmest tomato, and fresh basil leaves on a toasted thyme and olive ciabatta. With a fresh parsley garnish on top. Pickle on the side.
âEmbracing happiness is f**king terrifying.â ~Sarah Shulman A Very Jewish Christmas
We donât 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 Theatreâs latest new work to grace their mainstage.
author: Jimi Kinstle
Head Over Heels, book by James Magruder, conceived by Jeff Whitty, is open and running at the Maryland Ensemble Theatre (MET) in Frederick, MD. Directed by MET Associate Artistic Director, GenĂ© FouchĂ©, it offers an entertaining evening of frivolity and fantasy while exploring themes of love, acceptance and self-discovery – all set to the sounds of the 1980s high energy band, The Go-Gos.Â
Set in an Elizabethan-esque fairy tale world,
Lynn Nottageâs Intimate Apparel has local origins; originally a co-production between Baltimoreâs Center Stage and Californiaâs South Coast Repertory in 2003, it went on to a 3-month Off-Broadway run starring Viola Davis. The material also has a direct link to Nottageâs family history and was inspired by her great-grandmotherâs life as a seamstress in the early 1900âs. Nottage found that the narrative and stories of black women in the early 1900âs were largely absent by researching her great-grandmotherâs life.
Story is the way organize our lives. Narrative is how we make sense of whatâs 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 âfake newsâ,
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,
Donut cannot change. Donut will always be donut. But the Maryland Ensemble Theatre can change up whatâs on their mainstage menu as they close out the 2015/2016 season with Tracy Lettsâ Superior Donuts. A shockingly different production from the original company-written rock musical seen just a month ago upon the boards, Superior Donuts, directed by company member GenĂ© FouchĂ©, is a stellar and touching dramedy that lives up to its titular adjectival description in talent,
Do you know what passes for theatre these days? Honestly? How many of you get out of your comfortable living roomsâ with your live-streaming Broadway channels on Netflix or the ânew musical of the monthâ live on NBCâ and go to the theatre, sit through two to three hours of live performance, and actually take in what youâve just seen? The Maryland Ensemble Theatre seems to know whatâs passing for live theatre and has challenged the standard,