Jul 02

Fear and Loneliness in El Serano: “Fade”

Photo via Teatro Chelsea Facebook page.

Presented by Teatro Chelsea
By Tanya Saracho
Directed by Armando Rivera
Movement direction by Audrey Johnson
Intimacy direction by Olivia Dumaine
Featuring: Luz Lopez & Cristhian Mancinas Garcia

June 19th – 30, 2024
Chelsea Theatre Works
181 Winnisimmet Street
Chelsea, MA 02150

Teatro Chelsea in METRMAG

Critique by Kitty Drexel

The play is presented in English and some Spanish. Run time is approximately 106 minutes with no intermission.

CHELSEA, Mass. — Teatro Chelsea’s Fade at Chelsea Theatre Works was excellent. At 106 minutes in a wee black box, it was compact and intimate. Congratulations to the cast and crew on a successful run and a sold-out final performance! 

Mexican-born novelist Lucia (Luz Lopez) moves to El Sereno, Los Angeles to write for a copaganda TV series. She forges an unexpected friendship with the Mexican American custodian, Abel (Cristhian Mancinas Garcia), because she is homesick, and he speaks Spanish. As their friendship grows, Abel trusts Lucia with the details of his life. The boundaries between his stories and hers fade.  Continue reading

Feb 24

Semaphore Flags of Tension: “Solitaire Suite”

Presented by Hub Theatre Company of Boston
Written by Trent England 
Directed by Daniel Bourque
Stage management by  Madeline Hartrich
and Kelsey Whipple
Sound Design by Kyle Lampe
​Digital Design by Justin Lahue

Feb 20 – Feb 27 2021
Youtube Presentation
Boston, MA 02116
Hub on Facebook

Critique by Kitty Drexel

YOUTUBE — Anxiety is a feminist issue. Women are told they are too emotional, too sensitive, and too fragile. Our responses to stimuli are so criticized that we disbelieve our own experiences. We distrust our own instincts – no matter how perceptive. 

Believing women is the basis for the #MeToo movement. Trust women, we say. The message should carry a caveat to emphasize that society must grant women the benefit of the doubt in all situations. Believe us when we’ve been assaulted and at other times, too. Believe us all the time.  

Hub Theatre premiered Solitaire Suite by Trent England on February 20. Marty Mason is Celeste, a conscientious mother on a car ride with her husband Pete (Cristhian Mancinas) and their son, Tiger (Michael Lin). Celeste tells the viewer about how her family came across an unidentified flying object on their way home from retrieving Tiger from a failed sleepover. The family follows the UFO and has an unexpected engagement with the unknown.    Continue reading

Aug 04

Balance Amidst the Loneliness: ORDINARY DAYS

Photo credit: The Opposite of People

Photo credit: The Opposite of People

Presented by The Opposite of People  
Music & Lyrics by Adam Gwon
Directed by Cara Guappone
Musical direction by Samantha Prindiville

July 30th – August 2nd, 2015
Arsenal Center for the Arts
Watertown, MA
OoP on Facebook

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Watertown, MA) Ordinary Days is a sweet, funny musical set in NYC by living composer (!) Adam Gwon. The Opposite of People took this cute but choppy, Jason Robert Brown-esque musical and gave it breadth in the Arsenal Center for the Arts. It had a slow start but it developed into a lovely production that shows promise for this fledgling company. Continue reading

Sep 30

Sinners, Saints, and Boston Roots in “Goodly Creatures”

Photo by Alex Aroyan; Smack talk shall not be tolerated.

Presented by Hub Theatre Company of Boston
By William Gibson
Directed by John Geoffrion

September 20 through October 6, 2013
First Church Boston
66 Marlborough St
Boston, MA 02116
Hub Theatre Co on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Boston) Boston embraces the fact it has a long history, at least longer than most of the US.  It celebrates the pieces that are unique to Massachusetts’s development as a colony, the Revolutionary War, and the soldiers who die for a common cause.  Historical figure Anne Hutchinson has a memorial to her name in Quincy, Massachusetts, but what she symbolizes and what led to her place in history is difficult to build a fitting monument to. Continue reading