This weekend a new opera, Proving Up, proved itself indeed – a chamber opera worthy for the 21st century. Born out of a spirit of inquiry, Proving Up is mysterious, mesmerizing, startling in moments, and highly atmospheric. The work is less plot-driven than most traditional opera; it has earmarks rather of an extended tone poem.
Archives for January 22, 2018
All the Things You Are: Jerome Kern from In Series (review)
“I hear you’re a son of a bitch,” said Jerome Kern, introducing himself to a producer. “So am I.” But he was one productive son of a bitch, composing more than 700 songs in collaboration with an all-star rotation of lyricists, among them Oscar Hammerstein II, P.G. Wodehouse, Ira Gershwin, Dorothy Fields, and Johnny Mercer.
This Is All Just Temporary from Convergence Theatre (review)
Autism, family obligation, and innovative design collide on stage in Olivia Haller’s This Is All Just Temporary, Convergence Theatre’s contribution to the 2018 Women’s Voices Theater Festival. Using projections, movement, and some classic storytelling techniques, this production puts a new spin on the theme that the people we love the most can also make us […]
Waxing West, a Romanian immigrant’s American dream (review)
Waxing West is a rich, moving story of immigration, culture clash, and revolution—the common political kind and a deeper, internal, personal kind. A little over a decade after the Romanian Revolution its aftermath has proved disappointing. The new government resembles the old, the economy languishes, and the people still suffer from the psychological horrors inflicted […]
Pointless Theatre’s Imogen, a romance with puppet (review)
It’s always a treat to see what Pointless Theatre does with a story, and they rise to new levels with their take on one of Shakespeare’s rambling masterworks. The program notes that Shakespeare’s Cymbeline mentions Imogen throughout the script but the character’s storyline is mostly offset as secondary. Wonderfully adapted by director Charlie Marie McGrath, […]