All posts by Susan Galbraith:
Susan Galbraith is a playwright, librettist, director and actor in theatre. Currently, she serves as President of Alliance for New Music-Theatre.
Behind the magic of The Magic Flute at The Puppet Co
February 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Three shadowy figures stand on a scaffold high above the stage, looking down on a tangle of eight foot strings and contorting themselves in and around each other to bring inanimate blocks of wood and celastic creatures, most no larger than three feet in height, to life. [Read more...]
Three Bears
February 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
What do you get when you cross three bears, reportedly kicked out on their hinies from the Kennedy Center, with an Animal Control cop from Fairfax County, whose dream is to feature his golden corkscrew curls in a Breck commercial? A bodacious, bureaucratic-bashing, barely believable but baringly Bear-way show. [Read more...]
The Wings of Ikarus Jackson
February 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
We knew when we walked into the Kennedy Center Family Theater space, this was not going to be an ordinary play. And when the central character, Ikarus, appeared, we just knew this was no ordinary story about the new kid at school. This curious boy, with red ribbons twisted into his hair, carrying a shiny backpack that kept twitching and yanking him out of his seat, was hiding something live back there. [Read more...]
Le Roi et le Fermier
January 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Opera Lafayette will be playing the Palace. Having had one performance at the Kennedy Center,
Opera Lafayette next moves its production of this 18th century opera to NYC and then to the palace of Versailles [Read more...]
Barber and Barberillo
January 9, 2012 By 1 Comment
Once more Producing Artistic Director Carla Hubner and her In Series have taken on a double-bill of “pocket opera”. And, as she has in the past, Hubner refuses to be either defined or limited by culture, including language, musical genres, or budget. [Read more...]
Amelia
January 9, 2012 By 2 Comments
This simply presented production exemplifies the astonishing power of theatre to unexpectedly grab your heart and carry you off into an adventure of the soul.
It was an unexpectedly warm day in January, and I, for one, wanted to romp outside. But I knew what Washington Stage Guild is capable of, and so made my dutiful pilgrimage downtown as a theatre reviewer. I came away awed, acknowledging to myself what a shame it would have been to miss this authentic and most moving piece of theatre. I am both humbled and inspired by some of the best acting I have seen on the DC stage, indeed ever seen anywhere. [Read more...]
Arlen Blues and Berlin Ballads
December 5, 2011 By 1 Comment
‘Tis the season, and programming holiday fare for adults can either overload us on Sugarplum gooiness or, ignoring the holiday, risk appearing downright Scrooge-like. But Carla Hubner and her company of musical “elves” have conjured up something that is just the ticket. The show is well-directed and funny, and it’s got both heart and some soulful moments. Best of all, it features the music of Harold Arlen and Irving Berlin. [Read more...]
Romeo and Juliet
November 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
At the opening of the third production in Synetic Theater Company’s Silent Shakespeare Theater Festival ‘Speak No More’ I thought to myself, how can they top the muscular, driving ambition of their Macbeth? Or the sinuous, mind-blowing staged metaphor of the central spine of Othello (Never has jealousy been made so seductive or so evil.) The evening did not diminish the other two productions, but this Romeo and Juliet is breathlessly youthful, deliciously sensual, and, as usual with Synetic, when the fights come, they kick ass! [Read more...]
Stay
November 15, 2011 By 1 Comment
Stay is a story in performance featuring theatre, dance, music and SLAM multimedia. The premiere production of this collaboration, conceived by Playwright/Director Heather McDonald and Choreographer Susan Shields, was developed in workshop by Theater of the First Amendment, and it has all the markings of an interesting experiment of form realized through beautiful stage pictures. [Read more...]
Lucia di Lammermoor
November 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Lucia di Lammermoor, which opened last night at Washington National Opera, is not your daddy’s Lucia. If you had come to pay homage to Donizetti’s original impulse and bask in its early romanticism, complete with Scottish mists and moors, you were in for a shock. [Read more...]
