Keith Waits - Page 8

What does a family do when their beloved father starts showing signs of dementia? Do you take him in and try to keep him comfortable or do you send him to an assisted living facility where experienced personnel will be there to take care of him? It's the question at the heart of Juergen Tossmann's latest play St. Nickaklaus and The Hanukkah Christmas.

'Merry Christmas You Wonderful Building And Loan.'

The scars carried home by combat veterans are often visible, but just as often they are invisible, at least to anyone who hasn't had similar experiences. In Pvt. Wars, James McClure examined Vietnam veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome years before it was given that name.

It is not often that Louisville is treated to a World Premiere orchestral piece, but, lucky for us, we have a young talent of renown who serves as our orchestra's Music Director: Teddy Abrams.

The words 'carefully taught', drawn from a song in Rogers & Hammerstein's South Pacific, promise artistic green vegetables, an edifying moral lesson about the origins of racial prejudice in American society. Cheryl L. Davis's play contains exactly such a lesson, but it is wrapped in an equally edifying story complex enough to promise something other than simpleminded answers.

I have watched some plays that were awarded the Pulitzer Prize and wondered, 'was this REALLY the best American play of the year?' Watching this production of Bruce Norris' Clybourne Park that thought never entered my mind. This is a play for which the word 'great' is fully justified, a reading of the American character in the last two generations destined to stand as a landmark for theatre in this country.

Kentucky Opera brings their premiere of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking to Louisville audiences this week. And composer Heggie was also in town to celebrate this production, one of more than 60 mounted of this work around the world since its 2000 premiere.

Most of us have grown up with the story of Peter Pan; the story of a young boy who can fly, who never grows up and lives in Neverland, which can be found at the second star to the right. We heard it as a bedtime story, or enjoyed seeing Walt Disney bring the story to animated life, or even, if we were lucky, got to see it performed live on stage with actors flying about the audience. It is a magical story to be sure, one that has transcended time and elicits memories of a simpler time.

In a far off land there exists a world of magical witches and angry bears, a world where girls roam the country to find themselves and grow into women. Theater 502 's current staging of The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls blends fairy tale archetypes with Russian customs and modern chic to create a whimsical feminist fable. It blurs the lines between fantasy and reality as one girl's journey leads to self-discovery.

Arthur Miller's The Crucible, written as a parable for a specific time, seems to strike such a deep and resonant chord that its themes are universal and always relevant. The historical setting is Salem, Massachusetts and the infamous 18th-century witch trials, but Miller had the 1947 House Un-American Activities Committee on his mind.

Mitch Albom's book Tuesday's With Morrie told of the renewal of a friendship with one of his college professors in the months before the old man dies from ALS. It was a bestseller and popular television movie, and it remains an appealing inspirational story. The stage adaptation, by Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher, keeps the schmaltz at bay for most of its length with humor grounded by J.R. Stuart's performance in the title role.

As the house lights dimmed the familiar rata-tat-tat on the snare drum signaled the beginning of our nation's anthem, the 'Star Spangled Banner' as the audience rose to their collective feet and sang along. Thus, this long-held tradition began the Louisville Orchestra's 80th Classics Season.

We Wear the MaskTrayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Eric Garner - just to name of few from recent, ongoing history. In the social discourse and overt protest surrounding the growing list of Black lives lost to police violence, the connection between these events and the epidemic of public lynching in the Jim Crow south is often cited and just as often derided.

Addiction To LifeWith every ending, a new beginning is sure to follow. This common idea of change in literature and art manifests itself through themes of death and birth. Angels in America Part Two: Perestroika at Actors Theater picks up where Millennium Approaches leaves off at a rigorous pace. Emotional ups and downs are non-stop until the play comes to a resounding conclusion leaving its audience to carry out the message of a new life.

Same As It Ever WasEvery time I enter a theatre and take my seat, I hope for the best. To be critical is to express disappointment that that hope was not realized. I'm happy to say that the return of this play, which debuted at the 2011 Humana Festival of New American Plays, was a genuine pleasure on a number of levels.

After a two-year stint in California, J Barrett Cooper's directorial touch has returned to Louisville stages. The founder of Savage Rose Classical Theatre here turns his attention to material that is world away from the period pieces that dominated his work in the last ten years. Coyote Ugly is a brutal, unstinting journey into the darkest of hearts.

What is there to be said about Angels in America that hasn't already been said? Some would argue that it has passed into the literary canon and is no longer relevant; due to the Reagan-era time frame and a story tied to a health crisis now long forgotten. And yet, the LGBT rights, AIDS epidemic, and drug addiction addressed in this work tread far from thinly veiled plot devices and storylines. This play is just as important now (if not more so) as it was back in 1991. Heartbreaking and conscientious, this contemporary classic is anything but irrelevant in the wake of alarming current events. And Meredith McDonough's production Actors Theater is ample proof of how meaningful this show truly is.

The dysfunctional family drama has long been a staple in American theatre, only the particulars of the dysfunction change to reflect the times. In Taylor Mac's Hir, Isaac Connor (Neil Brewer) is a Marine discharged from active duty collecting dead bodies from a war zone, returns to his California home to find his mother, Paige (Teresa Willis). has abandoned all sense of order and has clothes, food, and other life detritus strewn around the house. His stroke victim father, Arnold (Michael Drury) sits in a house dress and rainbow clown wig behaving like a toddler, and his sister, MAx (Megan Adair) is trans gender, preferring to be addressed as 'hir' (rhymes with here) or 'Zee.' For a soldier used to the severe discipline of the military, the chaos is nearly intolerable.

Lady in the StormThis week sees the closing of Kentucky Shakespeare's 57th season of free, continuous, outdoor Shakespeare productions, making it the oldest company of its kind in the country. To mark the second and final Community Partner Week, they are teaming up with the Louisville Ballet, one of the oldest ballet companies in the country - a fine pairing.

I am not the biggest fan of Adam Sandler, or at least the movies he manufactures for himself and his buddies, but I have always liked The Wedding Singer, one of his first, most endearing films. The story of Robbie Hart (Remy Sisk), a cheesy but sincere front man for a wedding band in the late 1980's, is a logical selection for adaptation into a stage musical, and provides ample opportunity for satire of social trends in fashion.