Mar 30

Critical Work, but Missing Voices: “Climate Crisis Cabaret: The Warm Up”

“Meadowlark,” Photo: Kristina Lauer / Artwork: Maggie Cooley

Presented with support from Arrow Street Arts and the Puffin Foundation
Directed by Debra Wise and David Keohane
Organizing Committee: Debra Wise, Joyce Van Dyke, Bill Marx, Mary Curtin, Deobrah Forston, David Keohane, Robert Lauer, Ellen Ryan

Featuring: John Kuntz, Eliza Fichter, David Keohane, Antje Duvekot, Regie Gibson, Bill Marx, Phillis Ewen, Zoe Halperin, Rhiannon Jenkins, Seth Glier, Debra Wise, The Red Rebel Brigade, Dr. Robert Lauer, Dr. Rose Abramoff, Dr. Johanna Ray Vollhardt, Dr. Nathan Phillips, Isaijah Shadrach, Zev Imani

Lobby Street Fair participants: Extinction Rebellion, Scientist Rebellion, 350 Mass, Beyond Plastic, Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station, Stop Private Jet Expansion, All In Energy, Deborah Forston, Anne Loyer, Rick Dorff, Skip Schiel, Extinction Rebellion Art Working Group, Sara Peattie with The Puppeteers Cooperative

March 24 – 25, 2025
Arrow Street Arts
2 Arrow St., Cambridge, MA 02138.
Information here

Review by Maegan Bergeron-Clearwood

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — As MC John Kuntz observes in his opening remarks, the American artistic community has been shamefully timid in its response to the topic of climate catastrophe, and Climate Crisis Cabaret: The Warm Up strives to fill this gap from a Boston-specific standpoint. Over the course of two hours, local artists and activists explore a full spectrum of responses to the issue at hand, from grief and despair to hope and resilience. The production is an admirable and necessary call to action, a reminder of the critical need for art in desperate political times. Continue reading

Oct 11

Frankenstein was the Monster: “Frankenstein”

Produced by The Nora Theatre Company & Underground Railway Theater; A Catalyst Collaborative@MIT Production; Design by Bird Graphics.

Presented by Central Square Theater
Produced by The Nora Theatre Company & Underground Railway Theater
By Nick Dear
From the novel by Mary Shelley
Directed by David R. Gammons
Dramaturgy by Hilary Rappaport
Ensemble: Remo Airaldi, Omar Robinson, John Kuntz, Ashley Risteen, David Keohane, Debra Wise

Oct. 4 – Nov. 4, 2018
Central Square Theater
Cambridge, MA
CST on Facebook

Trigger warning: rape, violence, body horror, strobe effects, spoilers

Critique by Kitty Drexel

(Cambridge, MA) Prometheus stole fire from Mount Olympus and gave it to mankind. For his indiscretion, Zeus condemned the Titan to an eternity of epic liver failure (a complication of eagle hunger). Shelley’s novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus warns a relatively modern audience not to play with fire lest one get burned. It plays out similarly in contemporary Halloween favorites such as The Rocky Horror Show and Prometheus that frustrating movie by Ridley Scott. It takes new form as Central Square Theater’s current production. As long as there is science, there will be humans poking around where they shouldn’t be poking. Continue reading

Dec 10

Song, Cheer, and Social Misfits: “A Christmas Carol”

 

 

Presented by Anthem Theatre Company
Based on the novel by Charles Dickens
Adapted by Steve Wargo
Musical Arrangements by Dianne Adams-McDowell
Directed by Michael Poignand

12/5/2013 — 12/21/2013
Boston Center for the Arts
Plaza Black Box Theater
Boston, MA
Anthem Theatre Co on Facebook

2 hours, 15 minutes with one intermission.

 

 

 

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Boston) Though remembered largely as a cheerful, life-affirming tale about learning to embrace kindness, A Christmas Carol is, really, a ghost story. Ebenezer Scrooge (Kevin B. McGlynn) contemplates loneliness and the end of his life as he’s visited by spirits that embody his past, present, and future. Anthem Theatre Company gives us a stripped down Victorian play, a musical with literal Christmas carols to color a melancholy London and the workhouse realities of its Industrial Revolution. Continue reading