My grandfather was the meanest S.O.B. this side of the east coast. Seriously! My mother once told me that if you wanted to meet the devil, all you had to do was knock on my grandparent’s door.
Archives for June 2016
A Fringe peek at Free Range, an absurd comedy about parenting
Free Range actually has little to do about Free Range Parenting. The play is not so much inspired by Free Range Parenting as it is inspired by the media coverage that Free Range Parenting received in 2014 and 2015. Free Range Parenting seems like a perfectly reasonable way to parent, with much to admire, assuming […]
Million Dollar Quarter from Infinity Theatre (review)
On December 4, 1956, two young musicians dropped in on a recording session at Sun Record Studio in Memphis, for what turned into an iconic night of jamming and jawing that changed the course of rock and roll. If you haven’t heard of it, you’ve certainly heard of the men: Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and […]
The House of Yes. A Fringe Peek
November 17th, 1983 Dear Capital Fringe, Hello Capital Fringe, I do hope you are doing well, as I am doing just fantastic. Well, I am reaching out to you to inquire about your Thanksgiving. As I, Jackie-O, would like to cordially invite you to the annual Pasqual family Thanksgiving.
Play Cupid: a Fringe Peek
What I didn’t get to see was what drew me to these shows. I’m talking about Eight and Romeo and Juliet: Choose Your Own Ending, both presented at Capital Fringes past. Ella Hickson, the British writer of Eight, gave us eight characters of which we, the audience, could pick four; those four would give us […]
A Fringe peek at One Man Romeo
Where did the idea for One Man Romeo come from? After a coaching session, I told my acting coach, Martin Blank, that I always wanted to play Romeo. He suggested that I put on a solo show depicting Romeo,at Capital Fringe instead of waiting, if it ever happened, to be cast as Romeo.
Another Way Home at Theater J (review)
Back in the day in the French Quarter of Louisiana, there was a custom among the upper crust: when a boy reached the age of fourteen or so, he moved from the family manse to an outbuilding, where a muscular servant would oversee him until he was deemed fit to return to civilized company. Here […]
It Will All Make Sense in the Morning. A Fringe Peek
“Okay, explain your play to me.” It’s Fringe preview night, I’m drinking at the bar, and this is the third time in an hour I’ve been asked this question. Since we showed our sneak peek to a packed house, It Will All Make Sense in the Morning, has been renamed by the audience into That […]
Too Close. A Fringe Peek
About a year ago, I was having dinner with a friend of mine and the conversation turned towards the pros and cons of technology and to what extent technology negatively affects climate change. The conventional notion of climate change is very confusing, politicized, frustrating.
When history becomes personal, write a musical. A Fringe Peek at Rain Follows the Plow
My one grandmother was so important to me, but weren’t there supposed to be two? What would it have been like for my dad, to lose his mother at age six? These were questions from childhood that I hadn’t revisited in many, many years. Then, watching the Ken Burns documentary on the Dust Bowl, I heard […]
The Three Musketeers amidst the Ruins (review)
The Three Musketeers, as performed by Chesapeake Shakespeare Company-in-the-Ruins receives a spirited and entertaining outdoor staging that will please many family members, although the adaptation and the acting are too broad to be fully satisfying.
Chalk from We Happy Few (review)
Chalk opens amid chaos one Easter Sunday during a revolt that culminates in hangings and fires. In the middle of it all, palace guard Peter Sedovski (Jon Reynolds) places a cross around the neck of kitchen maid Alma Novak (Natasha Gallop) as a marriage proposal before each flees on differing quests.