Chris Arnold The cast ranges from adequate to good, which is dangerous in a play this complicated. Shanley writes characters with tough as nail exteriors, but use poetic language to lament. However, the actors had not concept to what they are saying,…
The story follows the infamous L Ron (Hubbard) from his birth in a manger through the height of Scientology. I have to admit the writing is very thin, and it stretches 30 minutes of material into an hour. However, director Steve Wilson and his young ensemble more than make up for the writing flaws with passion and energy.
However, I truly applaud Rae Gray for straying from stereotype and giving a compelling performance as a teenager battling adolescence and her mother. If Ms. Gray sticks with acting, she is going places.
Hey! Mr. Spaceman! Deconstructs the 1950’s horror flick by juxtaposing teens at a drive-in movie watching a film, and the characters from the film eventually invading their lives.
Kill the Old Torture Their Young follows a filmmaker who returns to his hometown to make a documentary about the city and its inhabitants. All of the characters are unhappy with their current disposition, and desperately searching to connect to someone or something.
While an intimate knowledge of the book is helpful, you do not need it to be effected by director Gary Griffin’s passionate and moving production. The Color Purple focuses on Celie (in a tour de force performance by Season 3 American Idol Fantasia), and 34 tumultuous years of her life.
The first, and major challenge presented by Stephen Sondheim is his music and lyrics require vocal acrobatics akin to Shakespeare, and James Lapine gives an equally challenging book.
The joy of attending a festival of new works is everyone (for the most part) is experiencing the work for the first time. The plays are free of previous baggage and expectations to meet.
The Last Barbeque is a dark comedy about a backyard barbeque to commemorate the one-year anniversary of a neighbor’s death, which coincides with a ten-year high school reunion. The plot is simple, so the excitement comes from being a voyeur into human interaction, or lack thereof.
The Mistress Cycle is not a traditional book musical, but a song cycle (a series of songs by one composer tied together by a story). The story jump cuts the lives and loves of five notorious mistresses: