Scrooge was right, you know; it is humbug to fall like jackals upon each other for eleven months of the year, but on the twelfth to feign good will and generosity of spirit. He was a skinflint and a tightwad, but he was no hypocrite. When he asked the do-gooders, seeking donations for the poor, […]
DCTS Performance Guide for the 2020/2021 theatre season
While planning theatre in the time of Covid requires faith and flexibility on everyone’s part, we thought it valuable to show you the shows our companies hope to present. Some are virtual. Some will be in theatres once that becomes possible. This is a listing of performances. Not included are readings, panels and discussions. We’ll keep […]
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 […]
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 […]
ASC performs Othello during the pandemic: A terrified critic and ASC performers weigh in
Into the valley of death rode the six hundred…no, no, no, that’s not it at all. I’m looking for a poem to help me decide what to do – poetry is the oldest form of literature, after all, predating written language – but all I’m getting is stuff extolling stupid courage. Pro-stupid writing is easy […]
Live performances of Othello and Twelfth Night at American Shakespeare Center have begun.
While a survey done by Shugoll Research shows that Washingtonians are chary about returning to theater while the coronavirus rages, one company is prepared to put live actors on the stage with a live audience in the seats – now. The American Shakespeare Center, in tiny Staunton, Virginia, will be producing Othello and Twelfth Night […]
First live performances in the area start July 25 at ASC. Here’s how they’re making it happen.
American Shakespeare Center joins only a few companies in the country to have obtained permission from authorities for live performances this summer. ASC will perform Othello and Twelfth Night in rep, starting July 25. Calling it their “SafeStart” season, the company developed protocols in strict accordance with VA Commonwealth, VDH and CDC guidelines to protect […]
Brush up your Shakespeare. It’s (almost) his birthday. Invites from 3 companies to celebrate
So Bill Shakespeare would have been 456 on Thursday, April 23, and under normal circumstances, I know, you would have been enjoying a fat goose and a few tankards of mead with a dozen or so of your besties. But: coronavirus. So now what? Do not despair. Three nearby Bard-centric theatre companies have your covered. […]
Review: The Grapes of Wrath, by ASC’s touring company, now online
Take an 80-year-old, 169,000-word novel, which begins with a journey halfway across the country, in the midst of the Depression, features the death of important characters, violent fistfights, a murder, the burning of a camp, a woman giving birth to a stillborn baby, which is moreover filled with pittoresque asides and a little bit of […]
Streamed performance helps American Shakespeare Center raise a record breaking $350,000
The American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va received a huge outpouring of local and international support for its “Keep the Lights On” campaign. Artistic Director Ethan McSweeny previously announced the “Keep the Lights On campaign” to raise $350,000 to keep the company viable between now – the Center is closed due to the cornavirus pandemic […]
American Shakespeare Center, now shut down until summer, continues to support its actors and staff
The innovative American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va has shut down its Actor’s Renaissance Season, canceled its Spring Season, and closed its doors at least until June in response to the coronavirus, the Company announced yesterday. The company will release its nearly-30 actors from their contracts, and furlough its staff of forty. ASC’s current touring […]
L M Feldman’s Thrive wins ASC’s Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries competition; 2021 submission guidelines announced
If the present ceaselessly calls out to the past in life — and it does — it also does so in art. So, for example, we have many iterations of Jane Austen’s novels cast in the present day, including the movie “Clueless” and, a little more fancifully, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” There have been […]
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