This year the Contemporary American Theater Festival, like the nation itself, has given itself over to political conflict. Whether we are in the classroom, or a Nazi interrogation chamber, or an Amish community or even in the recollections of a young girl at war with her parents and all authority, we are seeing human protagonists […]

Wild Horses is the story of a thirteen-year-old girl making bad choices, in the company of her close friends, who also make bad choices, and of their bad-choice-making associates. She has bad parents, who make bad choices, and a slightly older sister, who makes terrible choices. Periodically we hear snippets of 80s music. The girl, […]

At the end of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the Judge offers the heroic John Proctor a deal. Confess to witchcraft, he says, and we will spare your life. More than that: you will go free. Proctor, whose life is sweet, agrees, and confesses on the spot to consorting with Satan. But the Judge also insists […]

Eleanor Burgess’ play could, with justice, be called Oleanna — The Next Generation. Like the Mamet play, this is the story of a student and her professor. Like Oleanna‘s Carol, Zoe’s (Margaret Ivey) initial mission is to impress her professor, Janine (Robin Walsh) with her eagerness to comply with the professor’s advice. As in Oleanna, […]

It’s surprising how quickly a time period can be captured with a few props, boom box, land line phone and some huge Afro wigs.  This world premiere by the talented Kara Lee Corthron is filled with sights and sounds from the 1970’s era, along with the ubiquitous thumping of the beat, and inklings of staccato […]