Tag Archives: Boston Playwrights’ Theatre

Mar 17

Random Waves and Good Promise: THE SEABIRDS

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With David Lutheran and Brendan Mulhern. Photo credit: Argos Productions.

With David Lutheran and Brendan Mulhern. Photo credit: Argos Productions.

Presented by Argos Productions
by William Orem

Boston Playwrights Production
949 Commonwealth Ave
Boston, MA
March 15th – March 30th, 2013
Argos Productions Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Boston) Purgatory can be the hardest thing on a man, the play The Seabirds seems to suggest. It also can be very difficult on an audience. And that’s what makes a new script so deliciously maddening to watch take shape.

There are so many good elements to this play, which revolves around a Union lighthouse keeper, Laben Shadfield (David Lutheran), and a Confederate deserter, Mickey Leance (Brendan Mulhern) who are forced to share a spit of rock on the sea. Great central characters, winning snatches of dialogue and nuanced touches of historical accuracy help immerse the audience into a time when the nation was tearing itself in two. Continue reading →

Mar 11

Sex, Sexy, Sexy (Sometimes Not), SEX: SUCH TIMES a SEX FESTIVAL

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This is a website primarily for educated adults. We do review some Children’s theater for the benefit of all participants. If offended by the content below, one is cordially invited to skip this post. There are other delightful offerings on this site that will suit you better.

SUCH TIMES a SEX FESTIVAL of new work by Boston’s SEXIEST Playwrights

Presented by Heart & Dagger Productions

heartanddagger2

Audience members were invited to share their secret fantasies. They did. A lot.

The Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
949 Commonwealth Ave
Boston, MA 02215
Friday, March 1st @ 8pm – Saturday, March 9th @ 8pm
Heart & Dagger Productions Facebook Page

It should go without saying that with such a title that this production is not safe for children and prudish adults. It may lead an audience member to expect live-action porn. This was not the case. The production did not contain explicit acts of carnal engagement but the stagings were otherwise immediately revealing to all but the most innocent of eyes and ears.  Continue reading →

Feb 25

SUCH TIMES a SEX FESTIVAL of new work by Boston’s SEXIEST Playwrights

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Heart & Dagger Productions
presents
SUCH TIMES a SEX FESTIVAL of new work by Boston’s SEXIEST Playwrights

This is NOT a family show. If you aren’t convinced after reading the summary, please seek (sexy or non sexy) therapeutic assistance.

Friday, March 1st @ 8pm – Saturday, March 9th @ 8pm
The Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
949 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215
Heart & Dagger Productions Facebook Page

Monologues, scenes, and dances based on sexual desires, situations, and dreams by:
Silvia Graziano, Mary-Ann Greanier, MJ Halberstaldt, Craig Houk, John J King, Grant MacDermott, Lesley Ann Moreau, Rick Park, Joey C. Pelletier, Mary ElizaBeth Peters, Devon Scalisi, Cassie M. Seinuk, Jesse Wood

Directed by: Devon Scalisi, Elise Weiner Wulff, Jesse Wood, Mikey DiLoreto, Danielle Leeber Lucas & Joey C. Pelletier

Featuring:  Amy Meyer, Jesse Coleman, Melissa De Jesus, Chuong Pham, Josh Coleman, Mike Budwey, Noah Tobin, Joey C. Pelletier, Elise Weiner Wulff, Erin Rae Zalaski
& MORE

Nov 13

indiegogo Campaign: “From Denmark With Love”

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Vaquero Playground: Fun, Cheap, Dirty Plays made just for Boston.
FROM DENMARK WITH LOVE,
May 10 – June 1, 2013
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre

Vaquero Playground Facebook Page

WHO WE ARE and WHAT We’re Doing:
In Spring of 2013 Vaquero Playground will be bringing it’s biggest production yet: FROM DENMARK WITH LOVE, a mash-up parody of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the one and only Bond, James Bond.
Written by John J King, the play stars Boston rising legend Daniel Berger-Jones and is directed by Barlow Adamson.

What We Need
Funds raised for the project will go primarily to the hard-working cast, crew, and creative team.  But just as importantly, the monies will go towards making sure the show is as BIG, bold, and exciting as it’s sources demand.
$3000 will go towards stipends for artists.
$3000 will go towards set, costumes, props, and necessary rehearsal space.

THREE WAYS TO HELP!
1. Toss us some Cash!
2. Spread the word!  Post the video on Facebook and Twitter; email friends; help us tell the world what we’re doing!
3. LIKE us on Facebook – best way to keep tabs on the show and everything from Vaquero Playground!

Nov 07

Crossed Communications: The Sussman Variations

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by Richard Schotter
directed by Jeff Zinn
music by Phil Schroeder
Boston, MA 02215
November 1 – 18

Boston Playwright’s Theatre Facebook Page

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Boston) Loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Charlie Sussman (Ken Baltin) is turning 75 and his entire family has come to celebrate with him at his Connecticut beach house to celebrate in The Sussman Variations. His son Jonathan (Steven Barkhimer) has a paper on The Tempest to write that will put his career on the world map. His daughter Janey (Erin Cole) has a big secret to share with the family and is afraid that they won’t share her happiness. Deirdre (Laura Latreille) needs to practice for her international tour and attempts to keep the peace. Granddaughter Miranda (Lauren Thomas) is on house arrest until she writes her college essay. Margery (Cheryl McMahon), Charlie’s wife, wants to throw a party that will reunite the family despite their differences. Each family member suffers under the weight of familial expectations, frustrated with the conflict of whom they are and whom they supposed they should be. Continue reading →

Oct 10

“The Company We Keep” by Jaclyn Villano

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Boston Playwrights’ Theatre

Presented by Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
October 4 – 21, 2012
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre
949 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215

(Boston) Boston Playwrights’ Theatre presents its 31st season of new plays in Boston starting with recent BPT alumna Jaclyn Villano’s The Company We Keep. We can joke about attorneys and sharks, but here the metaphor is apt. New to Georgetown with a law professorship and a freshly renovated home, attorneys Harry and wife Ellie are having difficulty settling their 12-year-old son into the new school. When their best friends Katherine and Greg come to the housewarming with surprises of their own, what ensues tests the bonds of friendship, marriage, and parenthood in this vicious, biting comedy of manners. This one is not to miss.

Continue reading →

Mar 25

‘Deported’ dreams fragrant hope

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Bobbie Steinbach and Jeanine Kane, photo credit: Boston Playwrights' Theatre

Deported, A Dream Play by Joyce Van Dyke, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Modern Theatre at Suffolk University, 3/8/12-4/1/12, http://www.bu.edu/bpt/.

Reviewed by Becca Kidwell

(Boston, MA) An American rose does not smell as sweet as an Armenian rose; that’s what Joyce Van Dyke tells us.  The Armenian-American culture is extremely prevalent in the Metro Boston area, particularly in Watertown where the Armenian Library and Museum is located, and has been trying to get the world to recognize the genocide in Armenia from 1915, when there were several massacres.  “Armenian men were rounded up and killed.  Then the women and children were ‘deported’ on a death march through the desert,” Van Dyke writes in the program.  And as the hundredth anniversary approaches, the genocide is still denied by Turkey, but Van Dyke writes of the hope of recognition and reconciliation in the near future. Continue reading →

Mar 04

Acting Natural While Cramming it In: SAINT JOHN THE DIVINE IN IOWA

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Photo Credit: Another Country Productions

Saint John the Divine in Iowa by Lyralen Kaye, Another Country Productions, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 3/2/12-3/18/12, http://www.anothercountry.org/productions.html.

Reviewed by Craig Idlebrook

(Boston, MA) There is a fine line to walk when it comes to groundbreaking plays.  It’s difficult to keep a thought-provoking issue from swallowing the play.  The result can be a diatribe at worst, or an afterschool special at best.  The only way to keep a play that handles heavy-hitting social issues on track is to populate it with characters who are drawn razor-sharp and true to life. Continue reading →

Nov 11

The River Was Whiskey: Tension for the Senses

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Joe Lily, Nettie and Arlo (Alex Pollock, Sarah Newhouse and Kendra Jackson)

The River Was Whiskey by Will Fancher, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 10/27/11-11/20/11, http://www.bu.edu/bpt/.  Contains mature themes, mature language,  and violent images.

Reviewed by Anthony Geehan

(Boston, MA) There has been an ongoing moral debate since man was first able to form laws on what the fate of the guilty should be. One school of thought is that redemption is available through either the forgiveness of a higher power or acts of contrition. Then there are those who believe that there must be a punishment for every crime and that an eye for an eye is the only way to balance the damage done. There is possibly no greater example of this dichotomy of thought than Old and New Testaments of The Bible. While the New Testament speaks of forgiveness for all sins through the following of Jesus, The Old Testament is filled with the wicked being punished by a vengeful spirit for their transgressions. This backdrop of faith and fear is the foundation of the Will Fancher play The River Was Whiskey. Continue reading →

Oct 03

The Farm: Paranoia and Uncertainty

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Photo Credit: Boston Playwrights' Theatre

The Farm by Walt McGough, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 9/29/11-10/23/11, http://www.bu.edu/bpt/.

Reviewed by Anthony Geehan

(Boston, MA) There is a very particular fear that runs through our country these days, unique to the new century. The threat of fascist world conquerors and nuclear holocaust has been stripped away for a much more mundane, yet equally terrifying threat. Extremist mass murders, with no concept of mercy or fear of death, dressed as everyday citizens are what our new public eye has focused on as the danger of our time. A danger that has caused many everyday citizens to rethink the people they see on the street as potential threats to their lives and national security. It is that paranoia, honed into a profession view point, that makes up the mind set of special agents of the C.I.A along with other bodies of authority, whose job it is to make the life and death decisions every day between who is an enemy and who is a civilian. So enters the mind set of Special Agent Finn, the central focus of Walt McGough’s The Farm. Continue reading →