“The transformative power of live theatre” has arguably become a cliché, co-opted by the marketing and development departments of large regional theatres to convince the locals of their cultural obligation to spend hundreds of dollars a year on subscriptions, or thousands of dollars to get their names engraved on a patio brick or lobby wall. […]
About John Geoffrion
Review: Henry the Fifth from Brave Spirits. The last show standing is closed by COVID-19
Brave Spirits opened Henry the Fifth this past weekend, and then closed it due to the COVID-19 pandemic with the hope to return in a few weeks. A shame, for a multitude of reasons not limited to the art being presented onstage all too briefly at the Lab at Convergence, because it is another solid […]
Defining and defending the gray area: the invisibility of small professional theatre
I’ve spent nearly three decades working in nominally professional theatre. That is to say non-Equity but (usually) paid, albeit below a living wage, but with enough EMC points to join. Two theatre degrees, worked with some famous people, garnered multiple awards and nominations, co-founded a theatre company in Boston that’s still going strong, etc. In […]
Review: Brave Spirits’ Henry the Fourth, Part 2. Strong cast. Superb Falstaff.
Brave Spirits’ two-year repertory of Shakespeare’s history cycle continues with an impressively lively production of one of the Bard’s more challenging plays, Henry the Fourth, Part 2. After Part 1 fell a bit short on delivering the expected thrills and energy from a superior script, Part 2 reassures me that matters are well in hand. […]
Review: Henry the Fourth, Part 1 – A Monarchy… if you can keep it.
(First off: my sincere apologies to the company for my constant coughing through the performance.) Henry Bolingbroke, having snatched the English crown with boist’rous hands, must now struggle to keep it. The alliances he forged now fraying to the point where his allies become enemies, while his eldest son Prince Hal seemingly more concerned with […]
Review: Richard the Second kicks off Brave Spirits’ History Project with panache
Brave Spirits – oh brave indeed! – have kicked off their ambitious plan to perform the entirety of Shakespeare’s double-tetralogy of history plays covering one of the most tumultuous periods of English history. This season is devoted to Richard the Second, Henry IV parts 1 and 2, and Henry V (collectively titled The King’s Shadow), with each play opening over the […]
Review: Other Desert Cities from Peace Mountain Theatre
A grown daughter’s soon-to-be-published memoirs of a childhood family trauma rip open long-festering emotional scars over Christmas Eve at the Palm Springs manse of an aging Hollywood B-list couple turned GOP political organizers in Jon Robin Baitz’s Tony-nominated 2011 drama Other Desert Cities, brought ably to life by Peace Mountain Theatre Company out in Potomac, […]
Review: The Havel Project: A tribute to Czechoslovakia’s dissident playwright and president
To mark and honor the thirtieth anniversary of Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, the Alliance for New Music-Theatre is presenting two one-act plays to honor the revolution’s leader, the dissident playwright/author, political prisoner and eventual president Václav Havel; one he wrote, the other he inspired. No venue in DC could be more appropriate for these plays than […]
Review: Surfacing from ExPats Theatre
Sometimes theatre amuses, sometimes it entertains, sometimes it moves. Oftentimes we get caught up in the protagonist’s journey, sometimes we are dazzled by technical brilliance. Then there are times when, as the audience, our obligation is to bear witness. If there’s any hope for humanity, it is our heretofore underutilized capacity for empathy. I’ve also […]
Review: Despite a solid 4615 production, Harold Pinter’s Betrayal gives one pause
The second leg of 4615 Theatre Company’s “Summer of Scandal” repertory, Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, opened this past weekend at the Dance Loft on 14th. My review of the other play, Enron, is here. Is it fair to evaluate Betrayal alongside Enron? One is a searing docudrama indictment of American capitalism, the other a semi-autobiographical play […]
Review: 4615’s ENRON is a Strong Buy
Eighteen years ago, a Texas energy company’s deceptive accounting practices finally caught up with them, their inflated stock value plummeted, billions of dollars evaporated, employees’ retirement savings obliterated, lives were ruined. The Enron collapse was the leading headline for most of 2001, pretty much right up to September 11th. The almost perfect storm of greed […]
Zombies move into Wilder’s Our Town in Capital Fringe show Our Town Plus Zombies
I’ve been in Our Town five different times in my acting career, from college to community to summer stock to regional over a twenty year span. I have played or understudied nearly every adult male character. Very often I wound up in the Act III chorus of the Dead, where I’d usually doze off in […]
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