Tag Archives: boston center for the arts

Aug 13

“The Intersection” presented by Bodega

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The Intersection presented by Bodega Commedy

Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019
Doors at 7:30 p.m., Show at 8 p.m.
Tickets are $22
Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
527 Tremont Street
South End
Boston, MA 02116

Featuring the talents of Geeks Diana Lu and Shiyanbade Animashaun!

They’re back again! Mark your calendars for the return of The Intersection. Come to the South End on Saturday, September 7 for a night of comedy!

Come witness the baddest comedians, poets, sketch artists, and improvisers create community on stage while making you laugh! The Intersection is produced by creatives of color from across the Boston area.

Doors open at 7:30 pm. Show at 8:00 pm.

#FUNinBOS

F.U.N. – Fierce Urgency of Now: Energizing Young Professionals of Color to Unlock Boston’s Promise

What is the Fierce Urgency of Now Festival?

A five-day series of events hosted by local businesses and organizations geared at highlighting the experiences, challenges, and opportunities for young professionals of color in our city with the ultimate goal of creating community. With more than 30 events scheduled, you can plan to learn, connect, and have fun all week long, while also lending your voice to change. Join us September 4-8 to help make Boston more inclusive for all.Why are we involved in F.U.N.?
With half of the workforce in Boston being classified as millennials, and nearly half of millennials in Greater Boston being people of color, we know that the business community must play a key role in improving the city’s image and increasing access and opportunities to attract and retain talent. Retention of young people of color is of critical importance to our future as a region.

F.U.N. is for you: young professionals and young professional of color looking to build community and gain allies.

May 07

“Vietgone” Baby, “Vietgone”

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Quentin Nguyen-duy and Rob Chen – Photo by Paul Fox.

Presented by Company One
In partnership with Pao Arts Center
Written Qui Nguyen
Directed by Michelle Aguillon

April 26 – May 25, 2019
Boston Center for the Arts
Plaza Theatre
Boston, MA
Company One on Facebook

Review by Diana Lu

(Boston, MA) A hip hop musical play, Vietgone is Qui Nguyen’s new rom-com style re-telling of his parents’ love story. Though it’s presented as “a story about falling in love, not a story about war”, it very much is also a story about the Vietnam War, its devastating consequences, and the dignity and fortitude of its survivors. As a play, it’s well-written, at times hilarious, at times, heartbreaking. Continue reading →

Feb 04

Parental Supervision Requested: “Girlish”

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Photo by Paul Fox; Eigo and Jensen in a lighter moment.

Presented by Fresh Ink Theatre
By Alexa Derman
Directed by Melanie Garber
Dramaturgy by Corianna Moffatt and Ramona Ostrowski

Feb. 1 – 16, 2019
Plaza Black Box Theatre
Boston Center for the Arts
Boston, MA
Fresh Ink on Facebook

Critique by Kitty Drexel

Trigger warning: catfishing, dubious consent, underage romantic activity

(Boston, MA) My cousin Aubrey* owned a coveted Samantha Parkington American Girl Doll growing up. I hadn’t known what jealousy was until I saw Samantha in Aubrey’s perfect, skinny arms. Sure, I occasionally suffered a nervous desire to own things that I couldn’t have such as Gap jeans or the a Skip-It, but I didn’t really know what wanting was until I espied Samantha in all her plastic, toothy glory. Samantha was everything Aubrey was, and nothing I’d ever be. I needed an AG doll. I’d die without one.   Continue reading →

Jan 08

Awkwardness is Part of the Process: “Small Mouth Sounds”

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All photos by Nile Scott Studios. The cast. Digesting.

Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company
By Bess Wohl
Directed by M. Bevin O’Gara

Jan. 4 – Feb. 2, 2019
Boston Center for the Arts
The Calderwood Pavilion Boston, MA
SpeakEasy on Facebook

This critique has been updated from its previous posting. The update includes corrections and clarifications. (1/31/19 KD)

Critique by Kitty Drexel

Trigger warnings: penis, simulated pot smoking, heavy moaning

It’s January and chances are that you (or your acquaintances) are experiencing an influx of athletic practitioners in your studio of choice. For example, at my own neighborhood ashtanga yoga studio, January 1 meant that the floor became overwhelmed with novices and their wholesome, divot-free mats. Small Mouth Sounds(SMS) captures that awkward group consciousness of baby-yogis talking first “did I make a huge mistake?” steps towards enlightenment. An enlightened mind is not obtained overnight. The journey is schadenfreude for the audience. Continue reading →

Dec 04

“Twelfth Night” Thrums with Life

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L to R: Sarah Gazdowicz (OIivia), Charlotte Kinder (Viola); Photo Credit: Sharman Altshuler

Presented by Moonbox Productions
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Allison Olivia Choat

Nov 25 – Dec 29, 2018
Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theatre
539 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116
Moonbox Productions on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Boston, MA) There are productions of Shakespeare that are focused on reciting the text rather than acting it out. I understand the temptation. Maybe it’s the rhythm, maybe it’s the Bard’s reputation as, well, THE BARD, but sometimes theater groups seem to engage with Shakespeare’s comedy as a text to worship rather than a story to tell, even with a comedy like Twelfth Night. I’m happy to say Moonbox Production not only engages with the high emotions, cartoonish confusion, and whacky consequences of the comical cross-dressing romance but celebrates the story and its jokes with delight. Continue reading →

Dec 03

Castaway Caught in Colonialist Fantasy in “Shipwrecked!”

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Presented by Moonbox Productions
Written by Donald Margulies
Original music composed and performed by Dan Rodriguez and the repertory cast
Directed by Allison Olivia Choat

Nov 25 – Dec 29
Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theatre
539 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116
Moonbox Productions on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Boston, MA) Halfway through Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, when Louis de Rougemont (Kevin Cirone)–a real person who claimed to have been stranded in the Pacific in his 1899 serial-turned-book–lives on an unspecified island in a carefree existence with an unspecified, idealized indigenous people who variously refer to him as “chief” or “god,” I thought I’d be writing a very different review. But the lively depiction of a “man-eating octopus” and “flying wombats” early in the show should have tipped me off. This is a narrative that pokes holes in itself, a comedy-drama, a man using a survivor’s unlikely colonialist narrative to build his self-worth, and a story about the stories we tell ourselves to feel better. Continue reading →

Nov 19

Lived A Girl Trapped: “In the Forest, She Grew Fangs”

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Photo by Tenneh Sillah. With Kira Compton and Branwyn Ritchie.

Presented by Also Known As Theatre
By Stephen Spotswood
Directed by Kelly Smith
Movement design by Jessica Stout Malone

Nov. 16 – Dec. 2, 2018
Stanford Calderwood Pavilion
Boston Center for the Arts
Boston, MA
AKAT on Facebook

Critique by Kitty Drexel

(Boston, MA) In the Forest, She Grew Fangs twists the Little Red Riding Hood cautionary tale about the dangers of strange men into a different cautionary tale about the dangers of female mental health. Fans of horror theatre may find a lot to enjoy in this production. Intersectional feminists might not. ITFSGF explores the modern young woman’s psyche as she comes of age. It does so through the lens of bullying culture and a little light stabbing. Continue reading →

Sep 24

Casual Disregard for Our Mutual Humanity: “The Niceties”

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Look who’s teaching now. Lisa Banes and Jordan Boatman. Photo: T. Charles Erickson. 

Presented by Huntington Theatre Company
By Eleanor Burgess
Directed by Kimberly Senior
Original music and sound design by Elisheba Ittoop

Aug. 31 – Oct. 6, 2018
Calderwood Pavilion
Boston Center for the Arts
Boston, MA
Huntington on Facebook

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Boston, MA) The Niceties is a play about primary sources. It’s about the writers of white history, and white history’s casualties. It’s about speaking effectively and effective listening. It’s about race and the people who decide what is and isn’t racist behavior. It’s about attempting to be a good person while being good to other people. It’s about an impetuous Black student who’s had enough of excuses from a white professor, and an egotistical white professor who’s forgotten how to teach. There are no winner; there’s only complication. Continue reading →

Sep 24

“Vicuña” or not “Vicuña,” That is the Question

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(L to R) Evelyn Holley, Srin Chakravorty, Steve Auger, Arthur Barlas, and Jaime Hernandez in Zeitgeist Stage Company’s production of Vicuña. Photo by Joel Benjamin.

Presented by Zeitgeist Stage Company 
By Jon Robin Baitz
Directed by David J. Miller

September 14th – October 6th, 2018
Plaza Black Box Theater
Boston Center for the Arts
539 Tremont St
Boston, MA
Zeitgeist on Facebook

Review by Diana Lu

(Boston, MA) In Vicuña, the year is 2016, and Amir, a young Iranian-American tailor’s apprentice, gets thrown into the world of national politics when Kurt Seaman, the loose cannon business tycoon-turned underdog presidential candidate, drops in to order a special suit (made of fine vicuña wool) for his third debate against an unnamed female opponent. Caught between virtue and duty, flirting with Seamen’s daughter Ivanka—er, I mean Srilanka—and disaster, Amir must decide whether to make the suit and betray everything he believes in, or refuse and let his family and closest friends suffer the consequences of denying this powerful and dangerous man. Continue reading →

Sep 21

Kindness Can’t Kill Systemic Disease: “Between Riverside and Crazy”

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Oswaldo and Pops at breakfast. Photo by Nile Scott Studios

Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company
By Stephen Adly Guirgis
Directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene
Fight choreography by Greg Maraio
Dialect coaching by Kelly Sabini

Sept. 14 – Oct. 13, 2018
Calderwood Pavilion
Boston Center for the Arts
Boston, MA
SpeakEasy on Facebook

Review by Kitty Drexel

“I may look how i look. That don’t mean I am how I look.”  – Lulu

(Boston, MA) Fuck the police. Fuck them for killing Black people at unprecedented rates. Fuck them for killing gay/queer/trans people because they can. Fuck them for raping women while in uniform. Fuck them for #bluelivesmatter. Fuck the police and their scare tactics, faulty de-escalation training, and their playing to the sympathies of ignorant white people. No one should die of a routine anything because a trigger happy cop couldn’t keep their shit together. Fuck them for making small changes and expecting big credit. Fuck the police and the lame white horse they rode in on. Fuck the goddamn police. Continue reading →