BWW Review: World Premiere BARE STAGE: A Play for the Zeitgeist
The world premiere of Boston playwright Michael Walker's BARE STAGE lands smack in the middle of the zeitgeist, surrounded by the swirling maelstrom of #MeToo and a building movement within the theater arts community to pay attention to the needs of actors when they are at their most vulnerable. Walker wades deeply into an exploration of nudity on stage, seeking to answer the question of when it is essential to the play, and when it crosses the boundary to objectification or exploitation. The bottom line is to find the balance between the point/counterpoint of censorship vs. artistic freedom.
BARE STAGE World Premiere Opens 2/8
Tickets are now on sale for the world premiere of bare stage, a new work by award-winning Boston Playwright Michael Walker, to run February 9-March 2, 2019 at Plaza Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts (539 Tremont Street, Boston 02116). bare stage is directed by A. Nora Long, and features IRNE Award nominee Ashley Risteen as Kate,' Allie Meek-Carufel as Rachel , and Kevin Cirone as 'Parker', the rising star playwright playwright/director, who clashes with the actors around the issues of nudity in his production. Tickets available now at https://www.bostontheatrescene.com/season/bare-stage/ or by calling 617.426.5000.
New Play BARE STAGE Sets World Premiere In Boston
Announcing the world premiere of bare stage, a new play by award-winning Boston Playwright Michael Walker (Absolutely Dead, Dancing in the Garden). bare stage gives voice to the challenges and difficulties all participants face in a play with nudity, while calling into question the issues of censorship, artistic freedom, body-shaming, exploitation and simple morality surrounding the writing, production and performance of plays with nudity. bare stage seeks to answer the critical question - "When is nudity essential to the play, and when is it exploitation and a distraction?"
BWW Review: FRANKENSTEIN: Monster or Metaphor?
The Central Square Theater, in conjunction with Catalyst Collaborative@MIT, has a corner on the market of blending art and science. It is no easy task to create intelligent, dramatic entertainment that can live up to their mission and put across its message with clarity, as well as artistry. However, when a group of serious artists comes together with purpose, the whole may be greater than the sum of its parts. Director David R. Gammons overlays his kaleidoscopic vision onto British playwright Nick Dear's adaptation of FRANKENSTEIN, from the novel by Mary Shelley, inviting the audience to conceive of a monster of their own imagination rather than the familiar cinematic versions.
BWW Review: Powerful, Thought-provoking FACELESS at Zeitgeist Stage Company
Zeitgeist Stage Company begins its 17th season with the East Coast premiere of Selina Fillinger's FACELESS, a play with a storyline that sits smack in the middle of the national zeitgeist. It pits a sheltered 18-year old white girl against a Harvard Law School graduate and practicing Muslim in a taut courtroom drama that is about much more than the charges being litigated. Terrorism and ISIS are on trial, but the face of a young American woman is symbolic of how the enemy is expanding its reach into our homeland via social media, and the attorney in the hijab is the unlikely government crusader chosen to fight back.
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company Presents BECKETT IN BRIEF
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Founding Artistic Director Steven Maler, presents BECKETT IN BRIEF - Rough for Radio II • The Old Tune • Krapp's Last Tape, directed by James Seymour, featuring Will Lyman, Ken Baltin and Ashley Risteen.
BWW Review: MAN IN SNOW: World Premiere of Chilling Tale
MAN IN SNOW, Israel Horovitz's newest play, receives its world premiere at Gloucester Stage in a riveting production directed by the playwright. A full-length stage adaptation of an earlier radio play, the seed of the fictional story was sown from a real-life event in Alaska nearly twenty years ago. A stellar cast, led by a convincing and commanding Will Lyman, fully inhabits their characters, and the design team creates an effective, evocative landscape and soundscape.
Photo Flash: In Rehearsal with Israel Horovitz's MAN IN SNOW Premiere at Gloucester Stage
Gloucester Stage Company presents the World Premiere of Israel Horovitz's Man In Snow from September 29 through October 23 at 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA. Directed by Mr. Horovitz, the powerful and passionate Man In Snow follows David Kipling, recently retired and mourning the loss of his young son, as he re-visits Mt. McKinley in Alaska, a mountain he summited at age 25. He's not climbing, this visit. Instead, he is guiding a group of Japanese honeymooners who hope to conceive a child under the spell of the Northern Lights. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the cast in rehearsal below!
Photo Flash: In Rehearsal with Israel Horovitz's MAN IN SNOW Premiere at Gloucester Stage
Gloucester Stage Company presents the World Premiere of Israel Horovitz's Man In Snow from September 29 through October 23 at 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA. Directed by Mr. Horovitz, the powerful and passionate Man In Snow follows David Kipling, recently retired and mourning the loss of his young son, as he re-visits Mt. McKinley in Alaska, a mountain he summited at age 25. He's not climbing, this visit. Instead, he is guiding a group of Japanese honeymooners who hope to conceive a child under the spell of the Northern Lights. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the cast in rehearsal below!
BWW Review: CAKEWALK Lacking Nutritional Value
In a departure from its more substantial recent fare, Zeitgeist Stage Company offers up a sugary confection about a cake baking competition in a small Vermont town. Although widely-produced in Canada and the United States, including a run Off-Off Broadway, CAKEWALK is a slight story that is slow to pick up steam. Its humor is driven by its quirky characters and Director David J. Miller fields an endearing ensemble, but the recipe lacks nutritional value.
BWW Review: New England Premiere of APPROPRIATE Opens SpeakEasy Stage's 25th Anniversary Season
Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins enjoys ambiguity and messing with traditional concepts and constructs. His 2014 Obie Award-winner for Best New American Play, APPROPRIATE, is a prime example as it defies categorization. He borrows themes and tropes from classic American family dramas, and the ensemble of actors in the SpeakEasy production carve out brilliant individual performances that rival anything one might see on a Broadway stage. M. Bevin O'Gara directs this breathtaking drama.