With A Civil War Christmas, playwright Paula Vogel affectingly achieves her ambitious goal to create an American, non-Anglo worshipping Christmas Carol. There are no figgy puddings, Cratchits or Scrooges, and dancing sugarplums. The halls are barely decked but there are plenty of ghosts.
From Groucho to Mark Rothko . Baltimore’s giving Bruce Nelson some juicy roles
How’s this for an actor demonstrating stunning range: Bruce Randolph Nelson’s next project is playing the driven, intense (eventually suicidal) artist Mark Rothko in John Logan’s Tony-winning play Red. He jumps into that shortly after finishing up his current gig, playing Capt. Jeffrey Spalding, the Groucho character, in the Marx Brothers’ comedy Animal Crackers.
The Raisin Cycle comes full circle at CenterStage with Beneatha’s Place
Never thought I could welcome or anticipate meeting a character more than Aunt Ester Tyler, the 285-year-old matriarch and soul-cleanser of 1839 Wiley Avenue whose touchstone presence filled so many of August Wilson’s plays. When I finally met her in 2003’s Gem of the Ocean, everything I had imagined and dreamed about Aunt Ester paled […]
Beneatha’s Place, ready to open at CenterStage, to be featured in upcoming PBS special on Raisin in the Sun’s legacy
When the world premiere of CenterStage’s production of Beneatha’s Place by Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah joins with their production of Clybourne Park on May 15th, the full rotating repertory series which shares a single cast and set of designers will be complete.
Clybourne Park
The relationship between home, history and hatred is potently explored in Bruce Norris’ edgy living room comedy Clybourne Park, the 2011 Pulitzer Prize winning play now housed at CenterStage in a dandy production directed with verve by Derrick Sanders.
CenterStage’s new 7 show season features Groucho, Will, and a Civil War holiday
Baltimore’s CenterStage this week announced a seven-play 2013-2014 season which includes a favorite from Will Shakespeare, a Christmas play by Paula Vogel, and Bruce Nelson in a role made immortal by Grouch Marx.
Mud Blue Sky
Whoever said that travel is broadening never met a modern-day flight attendant. The three women of Marisa Wegrzyn’s world premiere, world-wearily funny play Mud Blue Sky, are drudges at 50,000 feet. Their backs ache, their dogs are barkin’, they figure out what city they are in by the cable TV selection in their interchangeable hotel […]
The Mountaintop
It is not fanciful to compare Dr. Martin Luther King, whose birthday we celebrate today, with Moses. Like the biblical figure, Dr. King led his people out of captivity. Like Moses, the Georgia preacher struggled with his fractious followers, who were drawn to false idols in the face of their leader’s stern and exacting principles. […]
Special PWYC performance of The Mountaintop, Jan 21 – offer good Jan 4 and 5 only
January 21, 2013 the nation pauses to witness the inauguration of President Barack Obama and to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr Day. In honor of these events, CENTERSTAGE will be making 100 Pay What You Can tickets available for their special performance on Jan 21st. Purchases must be made in person at the CenterStage box […]
CenterStage Artistic Director receives high British honor at Buckingham Palace
CenterStage Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah was last week named an Officer in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, one of the highest honors the British monarchy can bestow upon a subject, the company announced today.
The Completely Fictional—and Utterly True—Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe
Once upon a Sunday dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Will this latest Poe play rate high or very poor? Will I nod, nearly napping, or will my synapses be a-snapping As I watch Poe’s tortured writhing, writhing at death’s door? “’Tis some play,” I muttered, “Tapping pain and horror at the core— Only […]
An Enemy of the People
The Sage of Baltimore, H.L. Mencken, said it most succinctly: Democracy is the theory that the people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.