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AS OF MAY 2012: This site now serves as the archive of the BU DramaLit Blog. For current activity and new posts, please visit our new site: http://dramalit.wordpress.com/

Transitions by Reggie Watts

On the surface, Transitions is an absurd yet addictive mix of stereophonic effects, live video, geometric movement and improvisation created by comedic musician Reggie Watts and playwright/director Tommy Smith. From the very beginning of the piece we are tipped off that this will not be a linear narrative, when a young red headed white man […]

Stefan Zeromski Theatre’s “In the Solitude of Cotton Fields”

In the Solitude of Cotton Fields is a piece from Stefan Zeromski Theatre in Poland.  Twenty-nine year old director Radoslaw Rychcik has adapted the 1985 play of the same name by Bernard-Marie Koltés into a fiercely contemporary production.  The story concerns two individuals who encounter each other on a road through a cotton field: a […]

Jay Scheib!

I know that I had promised to post some information on Jay Scheib, who directed the American premiere of Women Dreamt Horses, so here it is!: “Jay Schieb is an American stage director noted for his contemporary productions of both classical and new plays and operas. Scheib is Associate Professor of Theater Arts at the […]

The Method Gun

The description of “The Method Gun” on the ontheboards website reads as follows: “The Method Gun explores the life and techniques of Stella Burden, the actor-training guru of the 60s and 70s and creator of “The Approach” (referred to as “the most dangerous acting technique in the world”), which fused Western acting methods with risk-based […]

Art and/or Pornography Continued

While milling over my thoughts and feelings about Bruce LaBruce’s film Super 8 1/2, which puts the notion that pornography can be art on trial, I decided to investigate artists whose experimentations center around sex and sexuality.  Through my research, I found La Petite Mort Gallery in Ottawa, Ontario (Bruce LaBruce is also from Canada […]

An Illiad

Better Late than never…! When I was in New York over spring break, I went to see An Illiad by Denis O’Hare and Lisa Petersonat the New York Theatre Workshop  featuring Stephen Spinella and Denis O’Hare on alternating nights.   I saw Stephen Spinella. The script was very interesting and engaging at certain moments, evoking thoughts […]

Critical Response: The Andersen Project at The Cutler Majestic

I had the opportunity to watch The Andersen Project by Robert Lepage at The Cutler Majestic last month with two friends of mine. Going into the production none of us knew what to expect from the performance. However we knew that this would be a 2 hours and 15 minute one-man show, which meant that […]

Is NYC still alive and kicking?

I found this article questioning NYC’s status as the cultural capital of the world. This is a question I have been pondering over the last year or so. Especially after living in London for a semester, and traveling to places like Prague, Madrid, and even San Francisco that are so culturally rich. I think for […]

stripping a bodice, dancing with shadows, and projections for all

Last month I saw Ex Machina/ Robert Lepage’s THE ANDERSEN PROJECT at Arts Emerson. I knew of Robert Lepage (aka I recognized his name) and was excited to see something different. I did not know anything going into the theater and as the lights dimmed my friend whispered to me “Oh god, It’s 2 hours […]

HEY LADIES: Half Straddle

To further my search for some bad ass ladies I began with the list of speakers from Women in Downtown Theatre. I wasn’t able to identify who they were by just their voices, so I decided to identify their voices by watching a lot of youtube. This led me to Tina Satter, the writer/ director […]

Friends or Foes?: Art and Pornography

Sometimes, when I’m feeling in the mood to watch experimental video art (which actually happens), I go to ubu.com, a wonderful source for all things experimental.  Once I’m on the site, I find the directory for online video art and click on an artist’s name at random.  The other day, upon fulfilling this urge, I […]

Critical Response: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at The Huntington Theatre

Last month, I saw August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at The Huntington. I have been spending a lot of time this semester examining August Wilson’s century cycle, so I was excited to see what the Huntington did with the production. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is the final play of August Wilson’s century cycle to […]

More articulated thoughts on ‘Hookman’

I already shared my initial impressions after seeing ‘Hookman’ at Company one.  But here’s my response paper for it, it contains more articulated thoughts. Hookman, by Lauren Yee, was not what I expected.  Then again, I don’t know how I could ever have expected the originality and poignancy mixed with horror/dark comedy that is Hookman.  […]

Radiohole’s ‘Whatever, Heaven Allows’

Woah, Radiohole is crazy and awesome!  Lat week I watched Radiohole’s ‘Whatever, Heaven Allows’ on on the boards tv. Whatever, Heaven Allows is based on Paradise Lost by John Milton, and All That Heaven Allows by Douglas Sirk.  However, the piece is by Radiohole, so it is not your typical traditional theatrical experience.  When I […]

Cafe Variations

Last weekend I went to see Café Variations at Arts Emerson, directed by Anne Bogart with music by the Gershwins and text by Charles Mee.  The piece was collaboration between the Siti Company and Emerson musical theatre students.  I found it to be a breathtakingly beautiful piece both aesthetically and in its subject matter, which […]

Newyorkland

Temporary Distortion’s Newyorkland tells the story of four New York City cops and the difficulties that they have living in society with that title. Like all of Temporary Distortion’s work, Newyorkland is told through a mix of projections and intense sound scape over a restrained physical performance of the actors performing in tight confined boxes. […]

Gloria’s Cause: Critical Response

Gloria’s Cause is a new dance based, rock musical performance created by Dave Prosica and Peggy Piacenza and choreographed by Dayna Hanson. Hanson was a founding member of the acclaimed Seattle based dance theatre group 33 Fainting Spells. This production was developed in residence at On The Boards and originally performed in Portland as a […]

The Ger$hwin Estate

Earlier in the year we talked about the Production of “Gershwin’s” Porgy and Bess on Broadway.  Adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks and jazz composer Diedre L. Murray, the production was chopped down to 2 1/2 hours, and featured many changes including a happy ending.  There was widespread controversy over the new version; Stephen Sondheim, wrote a […]

Sojourn Theatre’s The Race at Georgetown University

I’ve been trying to be more in touch with political goings on lately.  In high school and freshman year of college I was good at keeping up to date but it is one of many many things that has fallen by the wayside due the time commitments of this program.  As I get ready to […]