Played on the fabulous two apartment set (designed by Linda Buchanon). Pearl Cleage’s wonderful script, Blues for an Alabama Sky, is staged with dramatic panache by director Ron OJ Parson. We meet the creatives in Harlem as they struggle during the start of the Great Depression as the Black Renaissance erodes the accumulated affluence of the 1920’s.
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Filled with low-key committed political activists with roots in the American Communist Party, the Mattachine Society emerged as a group of gay men lead by the intense Harry Hay and his loyal lover Rudi Gernreich. Hay’s recruitment initially for the Communist Party became la rights forum for the four gay men. These activists realized that their movement was more about protecting the rights of’ oppressed minorities, i.e. homosexuals than a political movement
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As the 75 minute drama unfolds, we see Will Allan sinking in to hatred that becomes rage as things happen to his father. This performance was honest and heartfelt. Allan demonstrates his depth as an actor as he moves from cute, humorous memories of his youth to the self loathing and rage-filled reaction to his father’s demise. Circumference Of A Squirrel’s only reason to be mounted is to show off Will Allan’s acting chops.
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Pride’s Priscilla: Queen of the Desert -the musical is a sweet, energetic and superbly danced, sung and acted musical long on heart and peopled by empathetic characters. Filled with stunning show-stopping dance numbers by the creatively innovating choreographer Jon Martinez with a peppy orchestra lead by Robert Ollis,
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Director Hand’s vision of Eurydice’s world comes across as only half concocted. In effect a two-tiered set with a dilapidated brick façade half-obscured by a white, translucent tarp, the “place” of this world is highly ambiguous and suggests virtually no atmosphere to either the realm of the living or of the dead. The nicest touch is an elevator and sliding door, through which the newly deceased enter and in which they are sprinkled with the waters of Lethe (thereby losing their memories). But neither this embellishment nor even the stony inhabitants of Hades, each of whom are dressed like figures from the past—a half-cocked nod toward some theme of “nostalgia”—can redeem this set’s production value in some coherence of “world.”
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The opening night audience loved this cast as they garner our diverse identify into terrific bits, Immigration, ethic and racial identify difference are celebrated especially by Tien Tran (Vietnamese0 and Jasbir Singh Vazquez (Latino) expert scene. Among other immigration bits satirize the Immigration Dept. questioning folks at a food court in a mall. The light sweet social commentary contuses to garner laughter as long as we are willing to listen and speak to our differences.
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This well-stage fable explores class, gender, and the history of women in sports, and asks just who can afford the luxury of playing basketball? The Tall Girls is a most entertaining stage play about the early days of women playing sports. I must confess that I was a high school and college basketball referee for over twenty years in Chicago and South Florida and I worked hundreds of women’s college games yet I was not familiar with the early days and rules of women’s basketball. Director Louis Contey has his cast delivering fine renditions of the skill level of those pioneering players.
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Not only for those who appreciate steeping in the viscous bath of lustful tremors, Phèdre also offers much fodder for post-production discussion for those who appreciate thinking. For one, the interplay of the gods, the emasculated Mars and the vindictive Venus, analogues perhaps for their respective passions—or, if psychology is more your bent, the animus and anima—is worth contemplating: specifically, what role does Euripides/Racine/Schmidt/Wiesner see these gods playing in affecting the characters and their actions; and what role does the ruler/patriarch Theseus (Carl Wisniewski) play in attempting to set right his kingdom overrun by passion?
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This is the story of WASPs, who lived throughout the 19th Century, with serious cultural norms of how life should be and the stability this lifestyle offered in the well-to-do households. About this dining room- A real-estate agent and his client discuss the possible uses of the dining room in a house that is for sale. Brother and sister argue over which one will get the dining room table left behind. A daily breakfast, a birthday party, a Thanksgiving dinner with a mother who does not recognize her family, there are many moments that make memories around this table.
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The “Musical Love Story,” opens slowly, when Danny (Larry Buzzeo) and his
future wife Silvia Fine (Katie Angell Thomas), meet at the audition of the
1939 “Straw Hat Review.” Fine, who had written the music and lyrics for
the show, is initially turned off by “Danny Kaminsky’s” high jinks