Andrew Child - Page 3

What did our critic think? Joseph has woven an intricate veil of social commentary which haunts the two characters. King James might be a play about a Black man finding a way to advocate for himself, a white man figuring out how his access to wealth has affected him, or two friends navigating the terrors of adulthood. 

There’s a lot going on, but the play itself lands its message within the first twenty minutes, and then bumbles through seventy more minutes of reiteration, repetition, and regurgitation.

Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky at Center Theatre Group gets a few topical buzz words in there, but there is nothing fresh, urgent, or timely about the piece. Pitting a closed-minded character against a cohort of progressive friends, the play is deadly: as dull as its message is heavy-handed.

If every theatre review compared each show to the last presentation by the same company, we would be lost beyond the already limited capabilities of “thumbs up vs thumbs down” or “three and a half stars”.

The thing about Lindsay Joelle’s Trayf, now playing at the Geffen Playhouse, is that it has really excellent dialogue. In every sense of the word. The opening patter between two Chassidic teenage boys fizzes like a sketch comedy routine and the rhythm carries like a current through a lot of silliness and a lot of seriousness.

Rogue Machine Theatre’s latest offering, the American premiere of Welsh playwright Daf James’ On the Other Hand, We’re Happy opens in a cloud of cliches.

Teenage Dick, a current streaming option from Pasadena Playhouse, filmed as a coproduction with the Huntington Theatre of Boston and Woolly Mammoth Theatre of DC is perfectly translated from the stage to the computer screen.

The play explores the friendship between Gina, a self-proclaimed “wordsmith” whose liberal “activism” channels through her popular podcast and a pending book deal, and Dru, the young “Banksy of the Black Lives Matter movement”.

I am not from Los Angeles. I have lived here for less than two months, and before that, had not so much as visited. Thus, though it is clearly a beloved cultural gem, the Bob Baker Marionette Theater with its kitschy, retro lobby and fizzy energy holds no sentimental value for me and cannot conjure any fond memories of simpler times.

Upon entering the Dorie Theatre at the Complex Hollywood tonight and seeing an enlarged black and white image of a shirtless man on a dimly-lit stage as 90s music blared through the speakers, I turned to my friend and asked, “Did they pump this place with cheap cologne or have I been transported back to Abercrombie & Fitch?” The effect was perfect.

The Roxbury International Film Festival, New England’s largest film festival celebrating works by and about people of color is happening through June 26 with in-person screenings, online viewing options, and plenty of exciting events. I was able to catch three of the documentary highlights from this year’s festival.

“HowlRound is a place where you can share your learning, experiences, and expertise in service of a future in which resources and power in the theatre can be shared equitably in all directions,” explains Jamie Gahlon.

Guerilla Opera’s artistic director, Aliana de la Guardia, hosted a warmly informal Zoom preview of the company’s current work in progress, Island of Hope, Island of Tears (working title) which served effectively as a promotion of a planned in-person workshop as well as an opportunity to engage in dialogue around the opera’s themes.

As long as the current standard theatrical canon is taught in schools, young artists will continue to riff on the sanctified artists from their syllabi. Thus, America has seen a recent trend in irreverence toward the works of Anton Chekhov.

There is a lot good about Enigma Chamber Opera’s new meta-comedy adaptation of Mozart’s The Impresario, but the highest praise must be reserved for its formatting as a highly scroll-able hour-long entertainment (mainly because it is actually at most a 20 minute performance trapped inside a redundant overdrawn explanation of and apology for itself).

Streaming this weekend, Boston Experimental Theatre Company’s latest offering, Zahhak, the Legend of the Serpent King! is another sample of a paired down performance that actually works.

“This particular group has an appetite for learning, cultivating their voices, growing their voices, and being genuinely expansive artists,” explains Company One’s HowlRound/ Mellon Foundation Artist in Residence, Kirsten Greenidge of the current Volt Lab.

With limitations on gathering, like many arts spaces in the city, the Strand Theatre in Upham’s Corner has been closed for a year now.

About two years ago, theatre artist and educator Adil Mansoor sat down at his mother’s dining room table to record discussions with her about Sophocles’ Antigone through an intergenerational Muslim lens with the hopes of generating a pseudo-adaptation of the text.

“It took me a while to realize this but, I have a unique voice. If I can put into words what others feel but can’t express, then that’s my role.” In a recent post to her blog titled The Complex Art of Being a Biracial Actor, Troilo opened up about the complexities facing actors who may not be simply Black or white.