Keith Waits - Page 2

Ring Of Walking into the Henry Clay Theater for Pandora Productions' Fun Home, the first thing you notice is the white stage. Blank and solid, like a canvas or a sheet of paper. An artist's stand sits to the side of the stage with drawing pads, pencils, and other supplies. Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel, the musical follows Bechdel as she reflects, creates and struggles to draw each panel of her memoir. As her drawings pop up on a screen behind the actors, we see Bechdel's parallels with her father, his struggle with mental illness and self-acceptance and the effect on the family. While looking back at adversity, coming out, and family bonds, Bechdel's story of closure and clarity is one relatable to any family.

If a live performance is memorable for how it surprises you, Mandee McKelvey's My Left Boob is a show I will not soon forget. A stand up comic for 13 years, and a frequent participant in the Character Assassination series of Roasts of Fictional Characters, McKelvey certainly knows how to be funny, yet the laughs are not the most crucial element here.

When Theatre [502] launched in 2010, it was a personal project from a Louisville Theatre power trio, Amy Attaway, Gil Reyes, and Mike Brooks. All three brought strong experience and sound reputations for working with actors and designers. Their vision for the company was to produce contemporary plays that would be new to Louisville, '...filling a gap in what small theatre companies were doing here at the time' according to Ms. Attaway. All three were directors and the first seasons tended to take a three-point stance, each one in charge of one production.

Holding On Too LongIn The Secret Garden, Pulitzer-prize winning playwright Marsha Norman writes, 'They're only a ghost if someone alive is still holding on to them.' It is very clear from the top of Haunting Julia that the three characters we meet are haunted by Julia long before she gets the chance to do any haunting of her own. Set in November of 1993 at the newly established Julia Lukin Music Centre, Haunting Julia tells the story of Julia Lukin, a piano prodigy who apparently committed suicide at the age of 19. Twelve years later, her father (Joe), her would-be boyfriend (Andy), and a psychic (Ken) gather to revisit that fateful night, and, from there, the plot begins twisting.

Caryl Churchill's 1982 play Top Girls has so much to say about women that it is staggering to realize that it is no less relevant thirty-seven years later. However it speaks to today, it does so from within an elliptical, non-linear narrative structure emblematic of the time of its creation.

a??a??a??a??a??a??a??Measure for Measure has long been considered one of Shakespeare's 'problem plays' because it doesn't clearly fall into the constructs of his comedies or tragedies. While the play has many of the comedic elements that Shakespeare is known for (mistaken identities, eccentric side characters, and witty repartee), it tackles more complex issues such as the abuse of power for sexual purposes, moral dilemmas, and the difficulty of exposing leaders who grossly misuse their power - an eerie (and - in this case - sad) example of how Shakespeare's plays still remain so relevant today.

Playwright Ken Ludwig has made a name for himself writing some of the funniest modern comedies of any living writer, including Lend Me a Tenor, Moon Over Buffalo, and perhaps most notably, The Game's Afoot. The latter was a mystery-comedy involving real-life actor William Gillette (best known for playing Sherlock Holmes on stage) getting pulled into a real-life murder mystery. It was a funny show, and I had the pleasure of seeing it last year at Clarksville Little Theater.

Writer Cormac McCarthy subtitled his play The Sunset Limited, 'a novel in dramatic form', and that immediately calls into question exactly what is going on here. Basically it is two guys talking for a couple of hours. They also have coffee and eat. White (J. Barrett Cooper) is a professor whose suicide attempt was thwarted earlier by Black (Clyde Tyrone Harper). Now they are in Black's apartment engaged in conversation about theology, morality, and the nature of human existence.

A great story, well told, could and should move the audience into feeling something. Whether it's empathy for the protagonist's plight, revulsion at the villain's crimes, or laughing at a clown's antics, if you don't come away from a tale without feeling something, then the author/actors/director/etc. have failed their audience.

Ghost, a faithful adaptation of the novel by Jason Reynolds, tells the story of Castle 'Ghost' Crenshaw (played by the always-excellent Crystian Wiltshire), an earnest seventh grader who finds himself unexpectedly recruited onto the track team thanks to the encouragement of Coach (Louis Robert Thompson). Ghost is haunted by the memories of an abusive father, and a large part of this play's journey is watching how the discipline of sports and the support of friends and mentors help Ghost keep his life moving in a positive direction.

In his curtain speech, Artistic Director of Louisville's newest theatre company and director of this production stated that both the company and The Mystery of Irma Vep were long-held dreams coming true.

As with most of August Wilson's work, King Hedley II functions as and can be easily accepted as, flavorful, heated melodrama. But, as the second to the last of The Pittsburgh Cycle, it is so much more. Wilson's plays, each set in a different decade of the 20th century, tell 100 years of African American history in a deeply layered narrative that can only be excavated through time. One single production will never capture it all, particularly if the audience is not familiar with the other plays in the series.

When Harvey Fierstein dropped this story on the world in1981 as Torch Song Trilogy, it ran more than four hours. It was a seminal work in LGBTQA+ theatre, a frighteningly intimate story contained within an epic timeframe.

When a 17-year-old boy gets brutally murdered at the hands of the police, a rising hip hop trio finds themselves at odds with one another as they decide to use fame to speak out or stay silent. Hype Man: a break beat play is ripped from the headlines, realistic and cool. Actors Theatre of Louisville's 90-minute production examines race, privilege, and points of view with vibrato as striking as the production's underscore.

Each time I review theatre written and performed in another language, my disadvantage forces me to think differently about what I'm seeing. I kind of enjoy the challenge but there is undeniable risk that I will not fully comprehend some of the detail and nuance carried in the language.

In biology, evolution is usually defined as '...the change in the characteristics of a species over several generations and relies on the process of natural selection. The theory of evolution is based on the idea that all species are related and gradually change over time.'

On December 4, 1956, four recording legends dropped by Sam Phillips' famously small Sun Records Studios for various reasons, completely unplanned and coincidental. Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash had both been under contract for some time to Phillips, though Cash's contract would be up soon and he wouldn't be renewing. Jerry Lee Lewis had just signed, and Elvis Presley had long since been sold to RCA. Never one to let an opportunity pass him by, Phillips got the four stars to record an impromptu jam session, and a musical legend was born.

Intrigue, plots to bring disaster. Humor, handled by a master. Romance, sex presented pastorally. Acting Against Cancer in collaboration with CirqueLouis certainly has magic to do as it opens another season with Pippin. This outright delight of a show hits the mark with tricks, tumbles, and flights of fancy as a young prince finds his way in the world.

In the wake of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's controversial testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, on August 19 Louisville joined the growing ranks of cities to host a live reading of the Mueller Report.

In his opening night curtain speech, director Jeff Mangum referenced the Wayward Actors' Company 2018 production of Hand to God, which he also directed. David Ippolito's The Green Room is another unorthodox speculation about the contrast between the more inclusive Christian sects and their more extreme brethren.