Konstantine Stanislavski Love art in yourself and not yourself in art.
Harold Clurman The stage is life, music, beautiful girls, legs, breasts, not talk or intellectualism or dried-up academics.
by Joel Elkins
There is something familiar, almost comforting, about Ten Cent Night (now playing at the Victory Theatre Center). Beginning with the set, the weathered facade and front porch of a rickety, backwoods ranch house that could be located in just about any rural area in the country, but this time happens to be in [...]
by Geoff Hoff
The Theatricum Botanicum is a repertory theatre. As such, the rehearsal process is swift and the plays themselves are performed, perhaps, once a week by actors who are simultaneously in several other plays with swift rehearsal processes performed rarely. As such, the focus is on getting the play on its feet, [...]
by Joel Elkins
Living in L.A. definitely has its advantages. (“Let’s see, where do you want go today: the mountains, the desert or the beach?”) We also have about as much variety in entertainment as anywhere in the world. Specifically, and, most apropos to this forum, we have an abundance of small theatre. [...]
by D. Jette
needtheater’s newest offering Mercury Fur is brutal, heartfelt and authentic, and probably the best play I’ve seen this year. The mononymic Chicagoan Dado directs a spectacular young cast in this shocking dissection of the human animal inside of all of us.
The design features a rare treat: a curtain. In this case, a ratty [...]
by Geoff Hoff
Full disclosure, a dear old friend, Susan Angelo, plays the queen in this production.
Cymbeline is listed in the original folio as The Tragedie of Cymbeline, although many scholars refer to it as one of Shakespeare’s romances, some as a comedy or tragicomedy. One critic even called it a romantic tragicomedy to cover [...]
by Geoff Hoff
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) started life in 1981 as a truncated parody of Hamlet performed by three fellows at Renaissance Fairs in California. They then tackled a truncated parody of Romeo and Juliet. They moved to England, called themselves The Reduced Shakespeare Company (The RSC, of course), added [...]
by Joel Elkins
A few months ago at the Academy Awards, Hugh Jackman announced to the world that the musical is back. In making his case, he cites to Exhibit A, the worldwide success of Mamma Mia. He can now point to Exhibit B, last Sunday’s musical-studded Tony award show. I’m not sure [...]
by Joel Elkins
Dying is easy. Comedy is difficult.
- Actor Edmund Gwenn
I don’t know whether any part of The Muscles in Our Toes is meant to be taken seriously. I don’t even know why The Muscles in Our Toes is called The Muscles in Our Toes. All I know is it was funny. [...]
by D. Jette
Kudos to the Porters of Hell’s Gate who recently finished a solid Richard II at the Whitmore-Lindley. Their simple staging of this under-appreciated history had good performances in the play’s most demanding roles, including a very well grounded Jamey Hecht as John of Gaunt and a sympathetic Thomas Bigley in the title [...]
Is it finally time for a Hollywood Fringe Festival?
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by Jonathan Harris~
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Fringe theatre can be tricky to define. Many hold that to qualify as a true fringe production, a show must be cutting-edge, avant-garde or, at the very least, far riskier aesthetically than the mundane, status quo productions found at the majority of regional theatres across [...]
