Colleen Carey

In 2017, Fractured Shakespeare released a short film on the subject of consent, 'Was it Rape, Then?' which was featured in Huffpost, Bustle, Stage Raw, and Shakespeare Magazine. Now they are bringing that text (and more!) to their first stage production, entitled SPEAK I WILL, premiering at Hollywood Fringe Festival 2019.

Yes, Dear Readers, it's "Uncle Vanya" … again. Now, don't get confused. I know I just reviewed this a few weeks ago but this is a different production. This is Theatre9/12, those plucky actors who pour over scene work week after week until they come up with a full play they'd like to present, this time it's Annie Baker's adaptation of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya". They're all about the performance and not so much on the frills since there's usually little in the way of sets or elaborate costumes and they perform at the Trinity Church Parish Hall. And while they usually bring in a fantastic piece, this time it felt they focused a bit too much on individual scene work and not so much on connecting with each other as the play felt like so many performances in a vacuum.

Rebel Kat did such a good job with the adaptation of 'Coriolanus' (one of Shakespeare's rarely performed later works) that it does not feel like an adaptation at all. Nay, director Emily Penick improves upon the original with a fierce cast consisting entirely of women. What's more, 'Coriolanus: Fight Like a Bitch' has all of the pronouns switched so that the actors performing in the show get to play female characters. Unlike Shakespeare's 'Coriolanus', which, ultimately, is a play about high-ranking men clawing and back-stabbing their way to attain political power (boring!), 'Coriolanus: Fight Like a Bitch' flips the script on a gendered political system. Finally, women get to be power-hungry monsters!

To live like a legend... sometimes you have to fight like a bitch. The country is at war, and the Senate cannot keep the peace within its own walls--- let alone on the battlefield. Enter Coriolanus: the country's most famous badass warrior. She returns home to face the greatest battle yet: to win the love of the people & run for office--- or face the dangerous consequences of defying society's expectations. CORIOLANUS, the rarely produced play by William Shakespeare about politics, power, and pride, is packed with daring physical combat and deliciously vicious language.

To live like a legend... sometimes you have to fight like a bitch. The country is at war, and the Senate cannot keep the peace within its own walls--- let alone on the battlefield. Enter Coriolanus: the country's most famous badass warrior. She returns home to face the greatest battle yet: to win the love of the people & run for office--- or face the dangerous consequences of defying society's expectations.

To live like a legend... sometimes you have to fight like a bitch. The country is at war, and the Senate cannot keep the peace within its own walls--- let alone on the battlefield. Enter Coriolanus: the country's most famous badass warrior. She returns home to face the greatest battle yet: to win the love of the people & run for office--- or face the dangerous consequences of defying society's expectations.

It's difficult to see where creator, writer and director of "Storyville Rising", currently playing at Seattle Immersive Theatre, David Crellin was trying to go with his show. I mean, it's certainly a fascinating look, supported by some wonderful performances, into the world of the red light district in New Orleans at the turn of the century and all the seedy undertones it had to offer, but it lacks a through line to pull it all together.

I'll be honest, there were several elements that gave me trepidation before seeing Seattle Immersive Theatre's current production of “Romeo + Juliet” the other night. The immersive nature of it (seems to be the resurging trend and not always done well), the idea of tromping around an abandoned storefront, and the fact that while I love Shakespeare's “Romeo + Juliet” I've never actually seen a production I truly liked just to name a few. But all my fears were soon dashed as I entered a superbly crafted realm housing the best production of the play I have ever seen and culminating in a theatrical experience I'll remember for years to come.

Arouet is currently presenting two very dark and bleak one act plays with "Nine" and "The Long Road". Now don't get me wrong. Bleak and dark can work as long as they engage and don't preach. Unfortunately only one of these plays somewhat manages that. But we'll get to that in a minute.

A new work is always a risk even from author Charles Waxberg who gave us the amazing "A Shade of Green" a few years back. In this case from Theatre 9/12 we kind of have two works from Waxberg with his new play "The Equation". And while the performances in the piece were admirable, only one of the stories held together (for the most part) while the other left me completely confused.

THEATRE9/12 presents THE EQUATION, a new play by Charles S. Waxberg author of A Shade of Green, tonight, January 24th - February 15, 2014.

THEATRE9/12 presents THE EQUATION, a new play by Charles S. Waxberg author of A Shade of Green, January 24th - February 15, 2014.

In our time of soaring unemployment, sketchy Wall Street practices, and increasingly vast income polarity, the examination of a capitalistic economy and what it does to humanity asks to be explored. Originally commissioned by the UNITAS Theatre Co. of Los Angeles who felt the plays themes were too controversial for a new company, the workshop was produced nevertheless by the cast and crew and since revised by its author. Told through reverse chronology in Depression-era New York City with layered scenes in a nearby town house one generation later, THE EQUATION engages the audience in a "how-done-it" about a birth rather than a death. This period "play of excavation" reveals a physician and his wife who attempt to adopt the infant son of a Russian woman desperate to give her child a shot at the American Dream glittering impossibly beyond her grasp.

Rover Dramawerks will present the hilariously quirky comedy Wonder of the World by David Lindsay-Abaire at the Cox Building Playhouse, 1517 H Avenue in Plano. Performances are May 23 through June 15, with shows on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., with an additional matinee performance on Saturday, June 1 at 2:00 p.m.

Let me just start by saying I have never read or seen any works by Federico Garcia Lorca, so I could not be called a fan of his work. And I'm wondering if that's what you would need to really get into Arouet's production of Lorca's "The House of Bernarda Alba" adapted into English by Emily Mann. While there were some decent performances I just found it difficult to invest in any of the characters or situations.

In these ever changing days of what it is to be a family, we are seeing more and more portrayals in entertainment of same sex couples raising children. Such is the case with the latest endeavor from fledgling theater company Arouet with Christi Stewart-Brown's "The Gene Pool". And while the play itself doesn't really have anything groundbreaking or even new to say about families, same sex or otherwise, the production here infuses it with an engaging pace and contains some truly natural and honest performances.