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March 23, 2011 at 11:51 pm
What do you do once your voted the Best Place to Laugh till you Cry? Why a Vanity Show of course. Improve Asylum has put together founders, current performers, alums and special guests for this ego boosting long form improv show Wednesday evenings at 8.
“unscripted, unrestrained and totally unexpected.”
March 23, 2011 at 9:32 pm
As sad as I am that Prometheus Bound is in it’s last two weeks on April 3 at 7:30 pm at the Oberon there will be a concert to benefit Amnesty International hosted by Lea Delaria, who plays Force. It will feature the bands Reckless Place, of which Michael Cunio who plays Oceanos is the lead singer, and The Deafening, of which Celina Carvajal who plays Daughter of the Ocean is the lead singer.
March 23, 2011 at 10:53 am
This very timely review of South End Rep's current production of The Weir is helpful in establishing the world of the play.
March 23, 2011 at 8:45 am
According to certain studies, of all employed individuals in theater, 20% are women. Of all the leaders in the theater industry, 7% are women. Yet women typically make up 65% of audience members.
On Monday, April 4 at the Calderwood Pavilion there will be a panel discussion addressing the state of employment parity in the theater in Boston.
Panelists include: Janie E. Howland, Angie Jepson, A. Nora Long, Karen MacDonald, Courtney O'Connor, M. Bevin O'Gara, Dawn Meredith Simmons, Kate Warner
March 23, 2011 at 8:27 am
It's hard to believe that Hair was such a lightning rod for protest when it first was produced in the late 1960s. Now it seems so tame with its antiwar message of peace and letting the sun shine in.
Hair is now playing at the Colonial, and for all you theater history majors, first here is a link to a brief recount of the difficulty the producers had getting it on the stage for the first time in Boston. The term "banned in Boston" was still a very real thing at that time.
And here is a link to a whole history of the production, starting with a NYT's article about the play's opening at Joseph Papp's theater, through reviews and articles about tracing the play's still tumultuous place in our society.
March 22, 2011 at 10:49 pm
Audra Mcdonald. May be coming. To Cambridge. You heard me. Audra in Porgy in Bess. It hasn't been confirmed, but woah there. For those who don't know Audra McDonald is one of our finest Musical Theatre actors out there. And she *may* be coming to the A.R.T. in Cambridge. Check it out here;
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/audra-mcdonald-looking-likely-for-porgy-and-bess/
March 22, 2011 at 10:43 pm
Um excuse me, but who is looking out for the actors in the Spiderman Musical? It's just pretend, guys. Not quite worth the staggering list of injuries it has produced. Does someone have to die or what? I don't know Mrs. Taymor. For such an expensive production can't you get like a harness or some pillow suits for the actors? Maybe pillow suits coated in bouncy balls. No, there's probably more potential for danger in that than just no safety precautions at all. Keep on keepin on then, you are Julie Taymor after all.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/03/spider-man-musical-broadway-injury-.html
March 22, 2011 at 10:35 pm
Though this review is a bit harsh, I'd love to see this show right about now. It's a one man show of one of my favs, John Leguizamo, talking about how he made it in the business so far. From Queens to Hollywood how his journey was carved out. Sounds like a good show for us seniors about to graduate! We too can make it with plenty of stories to tell.
March 22, 2011 at 3:33 am
I was unfamiliar with the story of the Pied Piper and found this recorded theater production from the 80’s, which consists of the entire original poem.
March 22, 2011 at 2:21 am
In case your curious, people bury themselves.
Some yogis bury themselves for days at a time for meditation and world peace. One such account can be read about here at India Divine.
The Mythbusters have an episode featuring being buried alive, you can find the episode on Netflix watch instantly, collection 1-episode 5, or follow this link for it on Hulu.
March 21, 2011 at 9:13 pm
I am so so so so jealous I did not see this show while I was in NY, but it was there so here's a shoutout. Boston even gets an honorable mention in this article, Holla!
This is theatre at it's finest. Why do we do theatre anyways? Why hasn't it died out while film and television grows with an alarming rate (not alarming, we need those jobs!)? Because you can't feel the energy in the room watching something on an LED screen like you can submerged in the real deal and that's what Punchdrunk is all about. This is a Designer's dream. Every one of the some 100 rooms is filled top to bottom with detail upon another detail. The drawers open and have surprizes inside and the rooms even smell exactly how Punchdrunk wants them to. It's complete sensory emersion like I have never - wanted to have - witnessed before.
March 21, 2011 at 9:03 pm
Having just come from Los Angeles and specifically from LAX, a large international airport, this article intrigued me. While I shuffled around the larger terminals scavenging for food I noticed tightly wound lines of asians waiting to check in their luggage (carts and piles of boxes) to travel across the ocean to Asia. Being a large city on the very Western coast of the United States, LA seems to be a buzzing with Asian culture and influence. Just walking down the street there is a noticable population of Asians. In line with what we've been exloring in class, I am thrilled that there is such thing as an Asian American Theatre Conference in LA. First of all, I didn't know there was much theatre in LA, let alone a swinging enough scene to throw together a large successful conference celebrating and acknowledging the immense cultural imortance of this group of people. I think this piece of the article is a wonderful highlight;
Assaf said that global political shifts that began with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have led Arab American and other Asian American artists to develop new, more complex images of themselves to counter the simplistic ones that often dominate the mass media. "I think it comes directly out of a need for self-representation," Assaf said. "It's coming out of 'Hey, wait a minute, this image that you're getting is not who we are.'"
The theatre conference also addressed Asian American Female Comedians and their struggles to fit into a culture and a gender that holds them to certain limiting exectations. Gotta appreciate that.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-asian-american-theater-20110322,0,7828702.story
March 21, 2011 at 4:41 pm
I had the pleasure of seeing Sideshow Theatre Company's production of Heddatron while in Chicago over spring break and was overjoyed to see such a bizarrely hilarious play at the Steppenwolf's Garage Theatre. Imagine a depressed, pregnant Michigan housewife who gets kidnapped by robots, taken to a forest, and forced to recite Hedda Gabbler with said robots playing the various parts. Supremely entertaining. Check out the review and photos from the show here: http://chicagotheaterblog.com/2011/03/03/heddatron-chicago-review-sideshow-theatre/
March 21, 2011 at 12:50 pm
The NY Times published this interesting mix of reader reviews of Arcadia in NYC. It brought up some questions for me: who gets to write a review? In this age of facebook, yelp and the many other forums where one can gather and consider the opinions of general consumers, why do "reviews" of theatre still belong firmly in the hands of bitter old critics who don't seem to like theatre to begin with? (Yes, that's my opinion. Take it or leave it.)
Well, it turns out that you can write reviews of shows you've seen and read reviews of others at theatreadvisor.com. Right now it focuses on shows in NYC and on tour, but it's a new website and I'll just bet they could expand to Boston if the demand is there!
March 21, 2011 at 11:44 am
San Jose Repertory Theatre was kind enough to compose a study guide for the Weir, I found it informative and helpful when reading the play.
http://www.sjrep.com/plays/0910/weir/weir_sg.pdf
March 21, 2011 at 10:27 am
Friday night - 9 Circles at the BCA (Calderwood). This is very high quality writing and drama in Boston's bargain basement. Very fine performance by the young Jimi Stanton, who should be seen by all who will appreciate a killer physique and acting chops to match. A crime that on opening day they were giving away free tix and still didn't fill the center seats. I can't recommend this enough!!!
Saturday, NYC: Arcadia. Holy criminey WOW. Just an amazing production of a masterpiece play. Billy Crudup is sooooo good, as is Raul Esparza and all of the rest. I think that I would beg, borrow and steal to make it to the City to catch this one again before it goes away. It is probably far too sophisticated a play to stay around for long. (Let's hope I'm wrong.) I can't even find words to tell you the intense feeling of pleasure I had after seeing this show.
Saturday night, NYC: Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. Zzzzzzzzzzz is the best way to describe this premium disappointment. The brilliant Robin Williams in the least interesting role I've seen in ages. A waste of his talents, a bigger waste of my money. People were leaving early, and at closing, everyone walked out in stunned silence. A few could be heard asking their pals if they had stayed awake in the first act. This is such a flawed play, especially after seeing 9 Circles (which proves that local theater can be such a bargain). Kudos to a very hard working cast of young actors who do the best they can with very little.
March 20, 2011 at 11:00 pm
Time Out New York's Upstaged blog had a great piece on the math in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. It focuses on novelist/mathematician Manil Suri's video explanation of the big picture topics.
Check this out:
March 20, 2011 at 7:41 pm
A new production of Conor McPherson's "The Weir" is happening at South Coast Repertory! I found it very interesting to read about how this show lives on its feet versus on the page (and the images are great, too). Thought this was a good preemptive post for our class discussion on Friday!
Read the review here.
March 18, 2011 at 9:20 pm
Hey guys!
Here's a production of "In the Red and Brown Water," Part I of The Brother/Sister Plays by Tarrell Alvin McCraney which we're reading later in the semester. This is a clip of a documentary about an outdoor production local housing projects. I think this kind of theatre is just incredible. You guys in Marin get my highest commendations.
March 18, 2011 at 9:59 am
We've spent a lot of time talking about Bryan Doerries' excellent project Theater of War, which takes new translations of Ajax and Philoctetes to military audiences. After seeing the Boston performances at A.R.T. earlier this month, I thought you'd like to know about a similarly-themed theatre company called American Records. (They're also on Facebook.)
American Records Theater Company is run by the amazingly talented KJ Sanchez -- actor, director, playwright, renaissance woman. (Here's a semi-up-to-date bio.) Check out American Records' play ReENTRY, a docudrama by KJ and Emily Ackerman, built from interviews with Marines returning from service in Afghanistan and Iraq, asking "how we – as families, as a culture, a society, and as a country – can help."
The New York Times' ArtsBeat Blog ran a Q&A on the play, which is worth reading. Here's a review from the NYT about the 2009 run at Two River Theater Company.
You may also be interested in a piece called Boots on the Ground by Laura Kepley and D. Salem Smith, which was written for, and ran at, Trinity Rep in Providence in 2006. The playwrights interviewed over 70 Rhode Island residents about the effects of war on the community, including veterans, soldiers' wives and girlfriends, clergy, journalists, etc. Like the Theater of War performances, Boots on the Ground built the experience of seeing that play so that act one was the performance, and act two comprised a town hall style meeting with audience members and veterans. Check out this account of one audience member's experience of the show. Here's another quite powerful account. Here's a Flickr stream of production photos. And here's a feature from the Phoenix on the show.
