May 21

Troubled Flight for “Icarus”

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With Austin Auh and Corianna Moffatt. Photo courtesy of Liars & Believers Facebook Page.

Presented by Liars & Believers
Directed by Faye Dupras

May 17 & 18, 2013 (Grab tickets while you can!)
Cambridge YMCA Theater in Central Square
Cambridge, MA
Liars & Believers Facebook Group

Gillian Daniels

Liars and Believers’ Icarus is a wobbly production, a Depression Era circus fable that limps when it pushes hard to soar.  Like a small bird, the show is both endearing but weak.  Its flourishes are strong: puppets, bluegrass, and robots.  The result gives the audience a series of intriguing set pieces but nothing that really coalesces into a grand story.

Jason Slavick packs a lot into the show, the separate parts fluid and vibrant.  The lead-up to the play itself includes burlesque and music, giving the centerpiece, Minnie Minoseczeck’s Menagerie of Marvels, a vaudevillean glamour.  The trimmings for the circus are convincing, complete with posters promising a minotaur and a flying woman, Penny (Corianna Moffatt). Continue reading →

May 21

“Pirates of Penzance” Pillages Hearts

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Emily Casey, Sean Pfautsch, Matt Kahler, Ryan Bourque, Dana Omar. Photo by Evgenia Eliseeva

presented by American Repertory Theater
produced by The Hypocrites
by Gilbert & Sullivan
adapted by Sean Graney, Kevin O’Donnell
directed by Sean Graney

Loeb Drama Center
64 Brattle St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
The Hypocrites’ Facebook Page

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Cambridge) The Hypocrites’ production of Pirates of Penzance is an absolute confection.  Adapting the beloved Gilbert and Sullivan operetta to a quirkier, more contemporary stage, Sean Graney and Kevin O’Donnell infuse the original libretto and its score with banjos, bathing suits, beach balls, and a warmth that charms but never cloys.  It’s energetic and just plain fun.

Premiering in New York in 1879, the original show has a long history of making audiences titter at lyrics like, “I am the very model of a modern major general.”  The comic opera lampoons Victorian concepts of honor, piracy, politeness, the literary inconveniences of being a foundling, and, most importantly, duty. Continue reading →

May 20

How May I Connect You?

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Since their debut with What Are You Doing Here? Project:Project has been asking questions. What is our relationship to technology? How do we use it? Why do we cling to things that are obsolete? How May I Connect You (Or, Scenes in the Key of D:\) takes our play making to another level.

HMICY? explores our current hyper-connectivity, as well as how our relationships and communication styes have changed over the past years due to technology. We’ve been interviewing people from ages 17-70, and HMICY? is a direct result with songs, dances, and stories devised directly from those inspirational conversations.

Your contribution will fund the following components of our show:
1) Space Rental at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts (because it’s the most conducive space to the story we’re telling).

2) Provide Stipends for our design team (because paying people for their work is the right thing to do).

Your contribution ensures that we can tell this story in the best possible way with the best possible people. Doing what’s right is important to us, and we hope you feel the same way.

Leading up to our performance in September we’re continuing to create an ensemble based, collaborative piece of theatre that will evolve until opening night.

MISSION STATEMENT
Project: Project is a troupe producing ensemble-created, original stories that combine scripted material with improvisation. Preferring creating to interpreting, we explore and experiment with form, storytelling, and the role of the audience.

CORE MEMBERS:
Louise Hamill
Harry McEnerny
Max Mondi
Jeffrey Mosser
Vicki Schairer
Sophia Shrand

If you can’t give at this point, we hope you’ll join us in spreading the word.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ProjectProjectBoston
Twitter: @PP_Boston

We can’t thank you enough!

May 17

Kicking Ass and Taking Names: Meeting “The Opera Guy”

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The Opera Guy, Wesley Ray Thomas’ MySpace Page

This morning I had the pleasure to hear and meet Mr. Wesley Ray Thomas, The Opera Guy, at Alewife station. He was singing some lovely arias and it appeared he had been doing so since early in the morning. His commitment is exemplary.

He is a perfect example of seeking performance at every opportunity. He was at Alewife at 8:30AM on a FRIDAY singing the crap out of a Verdi aria. The aria was semi-staged, beautifully sung and, equally as important, this busker was making dough rise out of his pockets. Ladies and gentlemen, put this man in your shows.

Opera isn’t everybody’s thing. It doesn’t have to be to appreciate the fine art of performance and a dedication to craft.

Keep on rocking on, Mr. Thomas.

Wesley Thomas singing Jago’s Creed: “I believe in a Cruel God” from Verdi’s Opera “Otello” from Lowell House Opera’s 2009 production. Channing Wu conducts.


The Opera Guy busking on the Prado in Boston’s Historic North End. Sung in the original Baritone key.

May 16

Liars & Believers to Put on “Icarus”

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Presented by Liars & Believers
Directed by Faye Dupras

May 17 & 18, 2013 (Grab tickets while you can!)
Cambridge YMCA Theater in Central Square
Cambridge, MA
Liars & Believers Facebook Group

by Gillian Daniels

(Cambridge) This weekend, local Boston-area theater group Liars & Believers will be putting on its new show, Icarus.  It will be at the Cambridge YMCA Theater in Central Square this weekend only on May 17th and 18th.

Described as a show about poverty and transcendence, this American-bred tale uses the Great Depression as a backdrop as we follow Minnie Minoseczeck’s Menagerie of Marvels.  The play is written and directed by Jason Slavick with original music and lyrics by Nathan Leigh. Included in the production is puppetry, designed and directed by Faye Dupras.

The myth of Icarus is well known in the Western literary canon, a fable to illustrate the crippling nature of success.  A boy, given wings made from feathers and wax, is given the ability to fly.  Once airborne, Icarus flies so close to the sun, the wax that holds his wings together melts.  He plummets into the sea, a metaphor for the deadly foolishness of egotism and youth.

Liars & Believers is a mainly experimental troupe, one that prides itself on integrating different artistic pursuits into unique, chimera-like productions.  Their shows often include dance, song, aerial gymnastics, spoken text, and numerous interdisciplinary forms. Previous efforts this year include Lunar Labyrinth, a show loosely based on a short story by Neil Gaiman. Lunar Labyrinth combined and rejoiced in different storytelling methods, knotting its plot and themes into dreamy contortions.  Icarus promises to be a show in a similar mold.

May 14

Theatre is where my heart is.

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ONLY 6 DAYS & 8 HOURS LEFT.  WILL YOU HELP? (as of 7pm EST 5/14/2013)

by Becca Kidwell

The idea for Swiftly Tilting Theatre Project came out of my deep need and love of theatre, which I want to share with everyone.  I forgot when I started the kickstarter that this didn’t mean demanding more from those who have more or not giving to those who have less.

Everything good and right in my life has happened when I have been honest and true.  That doesn’t change because it is “business,” IF WE’RE GOING TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN, WE’RE DOING THIS TOGETHER! Continue reading →

May 14

“Mad Men” Set to Song and Dance: ON THE TOWN

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Photo by Mark S. Howard

Presented by Lyric Stage Company of Boston

Book and lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Based on an idea by Jerome Robbins
Directed by Spiro Veloudos
Music direction by Jonathan Goldberg
(kick-ass) Choreography & musical staging by Ilyse Robbins

May 10 – June 8, 2013
The Lyric Stage
Boston, MA
Lyric Stage Facebook Page

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Boston) On the Town is a sweet little musical about what happens when three horny US Navy men seeking adventure visit NYC for 24 hours. As the plot thickens, they meet their equally horny female counterparts, do some healthy snogging, see some sights and return to duty. It’s mostly romantic. The  Lyric Stage delicately wraps these adult themes in saccharine sweet nostalgia, excellent choreography and Bernstein’s music. Although this could be for mature audiences only, it is presented as tasteful family-friendly material. Continue reading →

May 13

A Movement in Technicolor: IN THE HEIGHTS

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Photo: Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo

Presented by Speakeasy Stage Company
Music and Lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Book by Quiara Alegría Hudes
Conceived by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Directed by Paul Daigneault
Music directed by Nicholas James Connell
Choreography by Larry Sousa

Boston Center for the Arts
South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
Boston, MA
Speakeasy Facebook Page

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Boston) In the Heights tackles heavy subjects such as endemic poverty, Immigration Reform, affordable education and racial stereotype with canny artistic expression. This community in Washington Heights might be needy but they are not poor. They are proud, hardworking and passionate people who strive for a better life. Just like you and me.

This music incorporates traditional Latin dance with Rap, Hiphop, and Flow poetry, among many others. The dancing looks like it is straight from America’s Best Dance Crew. The ensemble dance scenes are electric and justifiably make the show the stand-out production that it is. The cast adapts to the different styles and each other with such ease it’s as if they studied at the same school. Continue reading →

May 13

Normal Adolescent Madness: PUNK ROCK

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Photo by Jeff Adelberg

Presented by Zeitgeist Stage Company
by Simon Stephens
Directed by David J. Miller

At Plaza Black Box
Boston Center for the Arts
Boston, MA
May 3rd – May 25th, 2013
Zeitgeist Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

There is nowhere for the audience to escape from the horrors of adolescence in Zeitgeist Stage Company’s production of Punk Rock, playing at the Black Box Theatre.  We can only recognize our own cruelties, failures and flailings as a group of high schoolers try to make some sense of their universe.  This kind of play would drive me to drink if it weren’t drawn so brightly and crisply, thanks to a fearless cast which doesn’t shy away from the awkward intimacy. Continue reading →

May 12

We’re All Seagulls Here: THE NINA VARIATIONS

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We're all seagulls here. All the best people are.

We’re all seagulls here. All the best people are. Photo courtesy of Brown Bos Theatre Project Facebook Page.

Presented by Brown Box Theatre Project
by Stephen Dietz
Directed by Kyler Taustin

Davis Square Theatre
Somerville, MA
May 9-12 & 16-19, 2013

Ocean City Center for the Arts
502 94th St
Ocean City, MD
Maryland: June 8-11
Brown Box Theatre Project Facebook Page

Review by Kitty Drexel

The Nina Variations is a strange little nugget of show presented for the approval of Anton Chekhov devotees. The plot re-imagines the last scene of The Seagull 42 different ways. It manifests on stage all possible and impossible permutations of the final scene. Three different actresses playing Nina and one actor as Boris Trigorin examine all aspects of the couple’s “love story” (Is this how people in love treat each other? Really? Ok, fine.). The result is a live fanfiction demonstration wrapped in a buttery layer of honed acting technique. Continue reading →