A communications professional for 25 years, Dan Collins was a theater critic for The Baltimore Examiner daily newspaper (2006-2009), covering plays throughout the Baltimore-Columbia area including Center Stage, The Everyman, The Fells Point Corner Theater, Mobtown Players, Vagabond Theater, Cockpit in Court, Spotlighters Theater, The Strand, Single Carrot Theater and others. Mr. Collins has been a reporter, features writer, editor and columnist since 1984, including stints with The Washington Times and the Times Publishing Group (later Patuxent Publishing and now part of The Baltimore Sun) in Baltimore. His freelance writing career has included his work for the Examiner as well as other publications including Baltimore Magazine.
 Cast Your Nets: Last Days of Judas Iscariot
April 10, 2011
Mother Theresa a bad guy? Pontius Pilate just an honorable Roman? Satan hitting people below the belt with the truth? Mary Magdalene in fishnets? It's all a bit off kilter, designed to give the audience a different perspective in Stephen Adly Guirgis' 'The Last Days of Judas Iscariot,' now at the Mobtown Players theater.
 Family Under Glass: Stick Fly
March 28, 2011
Secrets unfold when the Levay brothers bring their girlfriends to the family's luxurious Martha's vineyard summer home to meet their parents in Lydia Diamond's 'Stick Fly,' now at Baltimore's Everyman Theatre.
 Snow Drifts: Snow Falling on Cedars
March 21, 2011
It's a love story, a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, a WWII history lesson that's sad, tragic, funny, violent, and all set on a rotating stage...but is it all a bit too much? It's 'Snow Falling on Cedars' now at Baltimore's Center Stage.
 Test of Time
February 27, 2011
A wornout man in yesterday's suit and fedora achieves tragic heights typically reserved for Shakespearean kings in Arthur Miller's classic, 'Death of a Salesman,' now at the Vagabond Players Theater in Fells Point.
 Off Ramp Comedy
February 19, 2011
A family of four drive 2,000 miles across country to see a dying relative one last time. Who and what they encounter along the way is the stuff of 'Approaching Zanzibar,' now at the Spotlighters Theatre.
 BWW Reviews: THE HOMECOMING at Center Stage
February 6, 2011
A philosophy professor returns home to London from America with his wife in tow to meet his family. A simple enough premise, but in the hands of absurdist playwright Harold Pinter, the result is something less than warm and fuzzy.
 Stumbling Effort
January 30, 2011
There's a reason 'She Stoops To Conquer' continues to grace stages worldwide nearly 250 years since it was first performed in 1773...It's funny, and in a myriad of ways
 Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks
January 24, 2011
Translated into 12 languages with productions in more than 20 countries, 'Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks' brings its comic edge to the stage at the Vagabond Players theater.
 Second Chances
January 23, 2011
Valentine's Day comes early to the Everyman Theatre as two one-time lovers contemplate reuniting in Steven Dietz's play, 'Shooting Star.'
 Irrational Streak
November 28, 2010
Absurdly, sublimely ridiculous playwright Charles Ludlam's salute to acting, the relationship between fathers and
sons--especially when the father and son are both actors with an affinity for 'Hamlet'--is the stuff and nonsense of 'Stage Blood' now at the Spotlighters Theater in downtown Baltimore.
 War Stories
November 21, 2010
Taken from the real-life experiences of Marines and their families, ReEntry provides a look at what it's like for men and women trained to kill to leave the battlefield and return home.
 Family Affairs
November 14, 2010
Everyman Theatre's 20th anniversary celebration continues with a riveting performance of the 1946 Arthur Miller family drama, 'All My Sons.'
 Midsummer Madness: Twelfth Night
October 24, 2010
Shakespeare's comic tale of unrequited love, mistaken identities, cross-dressing, cross-garters, fights and duels, a drunken lord of misrule, and a spoilsport's come-uppance adorns the Spotlighters' diminutive stage.
 Bloody Wonderful
October 10, 2010
'Titus Andronicus,' the Bard's bloody horror play, finds the perfect setting in the haunted ruins of Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park as the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company presents a performance of murder, mayhem and a meal you won't soon forget.
 Fashion Statement: 5 Women Wearing the Same Dress
October 9, 2010
Take five 20-to-30-something ladies and put them into big, billowing satin dresses that make them look like lamps or linebackers. Toss in some sex, religion, drugs, a wee bit o'men bashing and don't forget the lesbian, and you've got award-winning playwright Alan Ball's 'Five Women Wearing the Same Dress.'
 Stranger Than Truth & Fiction
September 26, 2010
It's a tale stranger than truth and fiction as the Everyman Theater presents Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies' story of high seas adventure in 'Shipwrecked! An Entertainment: The Amazing Adventures of Louis De Rougemont (As Told By Himself).'
 BWW Reviews: Wilkommen to CABARET!
September 13, 2010
'Cabaret' is a celebration of celebration. It is also a play about deep denial, in this case, denial that the world was about to irrevocably change, particularly for the people of Germany in 1929-1930 when the work is set.
 Waiting for Miracles
September 5, 2010
The Vagabond Players open their 95th season with Henrik Ibsen's revolutionary assault on the hypocrisy of middle class marriage in 'A Doll's House.'
 Who's Who? Arms and the Man
July 11, 2010
Bulgarians, Russians, Austrians, Serbs, and a Swiss--it's an international carnivale, a study into human happiness and the self-woven tapestry of truths and falsehoods that define ourselves, as the Spotlighters Theatre presents George Bernard Shaw's 'Arms and the Man.'
 NO EXIT: Afterthoughts
July 5, 2010
People are talking, laughing, living. Shots ring out. Screams and more screams and then...nothing. Three college students find themselves in the aftermath of a killing spree in a room with no exit. Does the way out lie through a door or through a better understanding of humanity, how hatred blinds, how love redeems?
 BWW Reviews: A Stroller, An Inspector, A Genre, A Camera and 2,880 Minutes
June 24, 2010
It was voted 'best answer,' so it might be right. According to Yahoo Answers, it takes eight months to two years to film a medium-to-big Hollywood movie. Eight months to two years. That's 5,880-17,520 hours, or between 352,800 to 1,051,200 minutes. Okay, now imagine you have only 48 hours (that's 2,880 minutes) to make a movie-cast it, write the script, shoot it, edit it, deliver it, and have it screened before cheering crowds at Baltimore's Charles Theater.
 Errand of Mercy
June 20, 2010
Paul Morella brings famed attorney Clarence Darrow to the Everyman stage in the one-man show, 'Passion for Justice'.
 Small Town Truths: The Waiting Room
June 15, 2010
When a loved one is struck with a heart attack, friends and family gather at a North Carolina hospital to support, share, and sympathize...or is it just family? Secrets are revealed in 'The Waiting Room' presented by The Vagabond Players in Fells Point.
 As The Rabbi Said: THINK TWICE at Spotlighters
June 7, 2010
Evolution, creationism, the incongruity of heavenly music made from taught string and molded wood. It's God's will, it's murder, it's 'Think Twice' now at the Spotlighters.
 Birds of a Feather
May 18, 2010
In David Harrower's BLACKBIRD, now at The Everyman Theatre in downtown Baltimore, we find a bit of 'Extremities,' some 'Doubt,' and, of all things, a love story.
 Industrial Strength: Speed the Plow
May 16, 2010
The Vagabond Players presents David Mamet's 'Speed the Plow,' directed by Steve Goldklang, now through May 16th.
 My Oh Mai
April 25, 2010
One gains an interesting perspective on a play based on Sophocles' 'Electra' when one watches in the company of a Greek. The angst, anger, and adultery that run through 'The Mai' are certainly appropriate, but where's the bloody body? If a play finds its roots in a Greek tragedy, somebody has to die.
 Bingo: A Winning Addiction
April 24, 2010
If you like musicals a la the 'Tuna' series, you'll likely enjoy another whimsical look at small town Americana in 'Bingo: A Winning Musical' now at the Spotlighters Theatre.
 Celestial Melody: SONG OF SONGS
April 10, 2010
The Magis Theatre presents 'SONG OF SONGS,' a dramatic adaption of the biblical book, at Loyola University Maryland.
 A 'Charmed' Life: 'Charmed, I'm Sure' at The Strand
March 27, 2010
'Charmed I'm Sure!' is a funny, thoughtful, one-woman show written and performed by Onyi Okoli, a Baltimore native who reveals all about her life growing up in Charmed City.
 It's About Life: Our Town
March 21, 2010
Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, 'Our Town,' a look at life, love, marriage and death in an early 20th century New England village, comes to Baltimore's Everyman Theatre.
 BWW Reviews: To Tell The Truth: THE DRAWER BOY
March 16, 2010
Michael Healey's 'The Drawer Boy,' now at The Vagabond Players, has at its heart, a single question: Is it better to live with a lie which is comfortable and pleasant, or to face a truth which is not?
 BWW REVIEWS: PARTITION - Play By The Numbers
March 9, 2010
Ira Hauptman's 'Partition,' now at Baltimore's Spotlighters Theater, is aptly titled, as the playwright explores the partitions that separate us from each other, but also cause divisions within our very selves.
 A Comfortable Performance: Let There Be Love
February 23, 2010
Avery Brooks, particularly in his TV parts, often plays a smooth customer. Some roles exhibit this more than others, though as Alfred in 'Let There Be Love,' he's a Scrooge-before-the-Ghosts...but that doesn't mean he isn't smooth. This natural actor's comfort in every role he inhabits translates into a wonderful night of theater for the audience.
 BWW Reviews: GIRL POWER: THE LACY PROJECT
February 22, 2010
Take two living dolls...literally...place them in a tiny New York apartment with a female Peter Pan, an aspiring photographer, and a heroin loving hip-hop artist, all to tell a story about how women, their mothers and friends relate and you have yourself THE LACY PROJECT, now at The Strand.
 Rooms Without A View
January 31, 2010
TWO ROOMS is a love story set in two rooms--one, a cell in Beirut where a man is held prisoner, another, in the home of his wife who waits for his return home.
 BWW Reviews: Ode to a Nose CYRANO
January 25, 2010
What's a guy with a tongue like Shakespeare's but a nose like Mount Everest got to do to find love? 'Cyrano' knows (nose?) and you'll find him at Baltimore's Center Stage.
 BWW Reviews: GASLIGHT at Spotlighters
January 18, 2010
Some missing rubies, a 15-year-old unsolved murder, a Columbo-esque detective, and a woman either going out of or being driven from her mind set the stage a (gas)light as Patrick Hamilton's GASLIGHT comes to Baltimore's Spotlighters Theatre.
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