Dec 10

Tossing Your Cookies, and Having Them Too: Cirque Dreams’ HOLIDAZE

Presented by Cirque Productions
Created and directed by Neil Goldberg
Associate director: Heather Hoffman
Music & lyrics by Jill Winters & David Scott
Additional music by Lance Conque, Tony Aliperti

Shubert Theatre
Boston, MA
Cirque Dreams on Facebook

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Boston, MA) Holidaze is a Cirque du Soleil like production. It’s a “holiday” circus show with Christmas as it’s primary focus. Token nods are thrown briefly at Hanukkah and New Years. The focus is still on Christmas.  Please note: Cirque Dreams is not Cirque du Soleil. It is a production operated by company Cirque Productions, and a direct competitor of Cirque du Soleil. Cirque Productions are more… earthy. Continue reading

Nov 09

And Now We Fight.

fight

Dearest Readers for Whom the Election Results have brought Trauma,
Now it is more important than ever to be the change you wish to see in the world. Do not crumble. Fight.

We, the Geeks of NETG, wish our readers great love, convicted passion, and steadfast courage. We can make this country a better place by fighting for it. Art can heal. Art can teach. Art can protect. If you don’t like the election results, make it your goal to change the battlefield on which politics are fought. Commit yourselves to a greater good.

Thank you for voting. The next steps, among others, include ensuring that Arts funds aren’t slashed to smithereens.

Be Well, and All My Love,
The Queen

What Now? A Sampling
Slate: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/11/how_to_preserve_the_ideals_of_liberal_democracy_in_the_face_of_a_trump_presidency.html
Bustle: https://www.bustle.com/articles/194209-what-to-do-now-donald-trump-is-president-elect-your-america-no-longer-looks-the-same
Huff Po: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/queer-america-donald-trump-president_us_58230451e4b0d9ce6fc015e6
New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/09/us/politics/donald-trump-won-now-what.html

Oct 22

Geeks Read Books: “John” by Annie Baker

John by Annie Baker
Published by TCG (NYC) in June 2016
$14.95 paperback
$30.00 hardcover
www.tcg.org

Review by Kitty Drexel

I was given a gratis copy of John by TCG in return for my review. My opinions are my own. Anyone who thinks otherwise can fight me.

TCG summarizes the play thusly, “the week after Thanksgiving. A Bed & Breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A cheerful innkeeper. A young couple struggling to stay together. Thousands of inanimate objects, watching.” The truth is much creepier than that.

Elias and Jenny are traveling through Gettysburg on a mini-vacation. They are a textbook example of pre-breakup behaviors: they don’t value each other’s struggles or input. They are distant to the point of unintentional neglect. They are staying at Mertis’ freezing cold bed and breakfast. Mertis has awkward boundaries. She doesn’t read between the lines. Neither do they. As the play unfolds, the couple is forced to confront their self-absorbed assumptions regarding each other. Everything and nothing is a metaphor for their experiences. Continue reading

Jul 30

Geeks Read Books: “Sotto Voce” by Nilo Cruz

Cover design by Lisa Govan.

Cover design by Lisa Govan.

 

 

 

“If the sea were to shout,
we would all be deaf.”
– Carlos Fuentes, “Destiny and Desire”

 

 

 

 

 

“Sotto Voce: A Play”
Nilo Cruz
TCG Books
Theatre Communications Group, New York, 2016
$14.95
Available: http://www.tcg.org/; https://www.amazon.com/; and other purveyors of fine dramatic literature.

Review by Kitty Drexel

(New York, NY) Sotto Voce is a three person (two women, one man) play about the ways we harness our fears to confront the past and understand our consequential future. Playwright Cruz’s prose lilts off the tongue like a lover’s kiss. His character interactions sweep the stage of the imagination like poetry: gentle, unrushed but intense. Yet, his script is not without its thematic and dynamic problems. With the exception of two German characters revealed in flashback, these individuals manipulate each other with little compassion. Continue reading

May 03

A Passionate Concert: Ana Moura on April 30, 2016


Presented by World Music/CRASH arts
April 30, 2016 @ 8pm only
Berklee Performance Center
Boston, MA
Ana Moura on Facebook
World Music/CRASH arts on Facebook

Review by Noelani Kamelamela

(Boston, MA) The last time Ana Moura was hosted by World Music/CRASH arts in 2014, she brought the house to its feet in a celebration of her latest release at the time Desfado.  This show was excellent in a different way.  Certainly, her latest album Moura has been touring since last year and those performances were condensed for her concert at the Berklee Performance Center this past Saturday. Featuring a great backing band, Ana Moura dazzled the typically stoic New England audience to the point of stupefication for two hours. Continue reading

Feb 02

Geeks Review Books: Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “CHOIR BOY”

TCG7820

TCG book cover

Review of Choir Boy
Written by Tarell Alvin McCraney
Published by Theatre Communications Group (TCG)
New York, NY 2015
Press release, including production credits, here
Hard copies and ebook copies of Choir Boy can be purchased here.

Review by Kitty Drexel

(New York, NY) Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys is a christian organization founded on the mission to turn black boys into strong, ethical men… So long as the boys obey authority without question, these boys will grow into men who will do as they are told. This is how Charles R. Drew is expected to run. The reality is quite different. Continue reading

Aug 21

Behind the Big Top: “Midnight at the Midway”

Presented by The Boston Circus Guild

August 20 – 27, 2015
The Oberon
2 Arrow Street, Cambridge MA
Boston Circus Guild on Facebook

Review by Danielle Rosvally

(Cambridge, MA) I’ll cut to the chase on this one: the only reason not to go see Midnight at the Midway is if you’re allergic to fun. Continue reading

Jun 13

It’s Amazing What One Can Do with Some Time and Creativity

Article originally posted on Consumerist:

Guy Stuck Overnight In An Airport Makes Awesome “All By Myself” Music Video, All By Himself
By Mary Beth Quirk, June 11, 2014

What’s a solo traveler to do when you’re forced to spend the night in an empty airport, its waiting areas and carousels echoing with the resounding solitude that can only be found in such a place in the wee hours of the morning? Make a music video set to Celine Dion’s “All By Myself,” naturally.

A man waiting overnight in Las Vegas’ McCarran Airport found himself with a lot of time on his hands and Dion’s song in his heart.

So he used his smartphone, a wheelchair and a water bottle as his camera crew and spent the night making a music video, visiting various spots around the seemingly empty airport.

“I had a person behind a ticket counter give me a roll of luggage tape before she left,” he says on his Vimeo page. “I then used a wheelchair that had a tall pole on the back of it and taped my iPhone to that. Then I would put it on the moving walkway for a dolly shot.”

He made use of his computer bag’s extended handle, and would prop it up using different items to get the right angle for the shots. He also employed sweet moves of his own.

“For the escalator shot I had to sprint up the steps after I got my shot so the computer bag didn’t hit the top and fall back down.”

All by myself from Richard Dunn on Vimeo.

Awesome.