Things are looking up for the Apple family, but not for me, as the characters talk to one another on a Zoom call yet again. Richard Nelson’s third play in four months about the same set of characters is both the least engaging and the most problematic. Over the seventy minutes of Incidental Moments of the […]
Review: American Shakespeare Center twists Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s already complex comedy
We think of Shakespeare as a romantic. He was anything but. As portrayed in the canon, love is an affliction, which clouds the reason and destroys discrimination and judgment. If we take a cold look at his great romance, Romeo and Juliet, we see it for what it is. Juliet is a 13-year-old girl who […]
Shutdown-induced space comedy, Rebecca and Bekka in Space, returns for Season 2
Rebecca and Becca in Space, the space comedy created during the coronavirus stay-at-home orders by Rebecca Wahls and Rebecca Ballinger, returns for Season 2 with a special launch party tonight at 5pm. In Season 1, it’s 2033. Rebecca (Wahls), alone on Space Station Beta and Becca (Ballinger), aboard her space ship, connect through a telecast […]
The Black Artists Coalition announced to bring fair and equitable practices to DC-area theatres
The Black Artist Coalition (BAC), a collective of DC-area performers, designers, administrators and arts supporters, announced its purpose and plans today. The BAC was formed in response to the increasing awareness of both macro- and microaggressions that have more often than not tainted Black artists’ experience in the performing arts industry for centuries, the organization […]
Othello, live performance review at American Shakespeare Center
To frame a story about the triumph of lies over truth, jealousy over love, anger over generosity of spirit and – let’s put it plainly – the insidious reach of racism over all decent impulses, even self-preservation, the American Shakespeare Center begins its live performance of Othello with a pledging of troth. In an imagined […]
Review: ACA Radio Reps takes on the challenges of Hamlet
Since art, like life itself, constantly renews itself, new generations of artists arrive on stages, and in studios and publishing houses, whether we are ready for them or not. They are not deterred by inhospitable times, such as depressions (viz Paul Robeson, Orson Wells) or World Wars (viz. Ernest Hemmingway, Norman Mailer). We have not had […]
Review: Romeo and Juliet and Man and Superman, ACA Radio Reps’ theatre for the ears
Adjusting to the changed circumstances brought on by COVID 19, Shakespeare Theatre’s Academy for Classical Acting has moved its 2020 graduating class performances to online audio/radio. In this situation, telling the story primarily by vocal production and sound effects becomes the main thing. Classical theater received only aurally takes some getting used to. It’s not […]
Review: Synetic Theater’s The Decameron, Day 10. It’s a wrap!
We have come to the end of Synetic Theater’s series of short videos based on Boccaccio’s classic “in-the-time-of-the-plague” entertainments. Like one of those imported Masterpiece Theatre series, it feels that, tucked into one of those massive houses, is a world of people and their stories. I have come to know the family of characters and […]
Review: Amadeus. Mozart’s rival is Salieri; the play’s rival is the movie
Historically, Amadeus is baloney. Theatrically, it’s a feast. Musically, the National Theatre’s 2016 production of Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play — a recording of which is being streamed online through July 23 — arguably shares something of the same fate as Mozart’s supposed rival Salieri. This Amadeus suffers from comparison with the 1984 film directed by Milos […]
Review: Synetic Theater’s The Decameron, Day 9. Imaginings run wild
Boccaccio’s world of The Decameron continues as cyber-theater for two more rounds of short videos by Synetic Theater’s company members and close associates. Imbedded in the program is one of the best short works in the series. Joseph McAlanan has found a nugget of a story to display his stage combat talents. Boccaccio’s third story in […]
Review: Synetic Theater’s The Decameron, Days 7 & 8. Unraveling minds.
In trying to capture the times of our modern plague, the sum of the Synetic artists who have made these short performance works have shown us life as it has been reduced: clowns in cramped spaces, unraveling minds, and chaos. Rachael Small pushes boundaries, creating one of the wackiest of all of the Synetic videos […]
Review: Synetic Theater’s The Decameron, Day 6. We dance!
The short videos from Synetic on this sixth day of content give us three worlds and stories through the language of dance. In classical ballet’s repertoire there is no greater or more physically demanding role than the dual swan role of Odette-Odile. Italian ballet dancer Valentina Palladino has used as her inspiration pieces of the […]