Feb 29

Boxer Shorts II, “From Water to Dust”: Ashes to Ashes

Nile Hawver/Nile Scott Shots, "Tape"

Nile Hawver/Nile Scott Shots, “Tape”

Boxershorts, A Cycle of Short Plays: “From Water to Dust” (Del Agua al Polvo)
Presented by Brown Box Theatre Project and Icaro Compania Teatral
Directed by Talia Curtin and Kyler Taustin
Plays by Jose Rivera, Nilo Cruz, Maria Irene Fornes, Caridad Svich
Brown Box on Facebook

BOSTON
Atlantic Wharf
290 Congress St
Feb 26-28 & Mar 4-6, 2016

SALISBURY
Headquarters Live
115 S Division St
March 10, 2016

OCEAN CITY
Center for the Arts
502 94th Street
March 11-14, 2016

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Boston, MA) Brown Box Theatre presents Boxer Shorts: From Water to Dust (Del gua al polvo) in collaboration with  Icaro Compania Teatral. It’s a short evening, say 50 minutes to an hour, of work from playwrights we don’t see a lot of in Boston: Jose Rivera, Nilo Cruz, Maria Irene Fornes, and Caridad Svich. From science fiction to abstract drama, It’s a nice change of pace. While not 100% reflective of the work by these playwrights, it’s an introduction to their work. It’s enough to give the audience motive to seek out more. Continue reading

Nov 10

Meet Crazy is Still Cute: LAB RATS

Photo credit: Nile Hawver/Nile Scott Shots

Photo credit: Nile Hawver/Nile Scott Shots

Presented by Brown Box Theatre Project
Written by Patrick Gabridge
Directed by Kyler Taustin

Boston, MA: Nov 6-8 & 13-15, 2015
Atlantic Wharf
290 Congress St
Ocean City, MD: November 20-23, 2015
Center for the Arts
502 94th Street
Brown Box on Facebook

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Boston, MA) Lab Rats is an adorable comedy about the drastic measures people will take to convince others of their relative normalcy. Some days it’s impossible to hold all the crazy in. Let she who hasn’t committed some social faux pas (like wailing like a blubbering infant on public transport) cast the first stone! For Mika and Jake, “some days” tend to be most days thanks to a barrage of paid-to-evaluate tests they take in order to make ends meet. Continue reading

Feb 02

Where the Shadows Run from Themselves*: ECHOES

echoesPresented by Brown Box Theatre Co.
Written by N. Richard Nash
Directed by Kyler Taustin
Brown Box on Facebook

January 30-February 1 & February 5-8
Atlantic Wharf @ 7:30
290 Congress Street, Boston, MA

February 13-16
Ocean City Center for the Arts @ 7:30
502 94th Street, Ocean City, MD

Review by Kitty Drexel

Trigger Warning: Panic Attacks, emotional violence, minor physically violent episodes – While the majority of the events are non-violent, actions depicted on stage may also trigger PTSD.

(Boston, MA) I must caution that extra-sensitive individuals or individuals with a negative associations with in-patient mental health facilities carefully consider attending Echoes. I mention this because the acting is very good, very realistic and, for this reason, potentially triggering. The play by N. Richard Nash focuses on the how the brain copes with trauma when faced with an unsafe reality. It is also about taking the first impossibly difficult steps from that reality towards treatment. This is difficult enough in real life. This production may impede the good work one has done outside of the theatre. Not attending this production falls under the category of  “self-care to stay safe and stable.” Everyone else and their Mom’s uncle’s sister should attend. Continue reading

Feb 03

“Two Wrongs” is Too Forgiving

Photo credit: Brown Box’s Facebook page

Presented by Brown Box Theatre Project
By Scott Caan
Directed by Kyler Taustin

Boston: January 31 – February 9, 2014
Atlantic Wharf
290 Congress Street
Boston, MA

Ocean City: February 14 – 17, 2014
Ocean City Center for the Arts
502 94th Street
Ocean City, MD

Brown Box Theatre on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Boston) The Brown Box Theatre Project’s Two Wrongs is a comedy-drama that concerns the tenuous, complex nature of doctor/patient relationships and the temptation to abuse authority.  It’s an entertaining show, but it never interrogates its wrongdoers too sharply.  Its tone is ultimately one of sympathy, perhaps a little too gentle. Continue reading

Aug 26

Brown Box Theatre’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” Drips with Humor, Actual Water

Presented by Brown Box Theatre Project
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Kyler Taustin

Aug. 23 – Sept. 1, 2013
Children Wharf’s Park, outside the Boston Children’s Museum
Boston, MA
Brown Box Theatre Project on Facebook

Can’t attend these performances in Boston? You’re in luck! Following their Boston performances, the Brown Box cast and crew will pack up their set and continue their tour on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Delaware.

Review by Gillian Daniels

The last production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream I saw before Brown Box Theatre’s was The Donkey Show at the Oberon.  Where the Oberon’s version was a show infused with drugs, sex, the excesses of 1970’s disco culture, and go-go dancer boys with body glitter, Brown Box Theatre fills its show with the excesses of Elizabethan fairies and water basins liberally placed around its stage.  The long-running Donkey Show may be the toast of Cambridge, but Brown Box Theatre has captured a more vibrant energy in its traditional telling. Continue reading

May 12

We’re All Seagulls Here: THE NINA VARIATIONS

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

Sep 01

Two Hours of Sweet Traffic: ROMEO AND JULIET

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Still Harbor, Dorchester 8/31/12-9/2/12
As well as other performances along the Eastern Shore through 9/14/12

Brown Box Theatre Project
Brown Box Theatre Project Facebook Page

Directed by Kyler Tausten
Fight Choreographer: Conor Olmstead

Review by Craig Idlebrook

What are your evening plans this weekend?  Cancel them.  I’ve got a Shakespeare play for you.

Wait, no, I’m serious.  I can hear the arguments now from the Bard-haters: long-winded speeches, posturing on stage, something fit for academic halls.  But that’s why you’ve got to drop what you’re doing and see the Brown Box Theatre breathe some life into the dusty folios with a no-frills, fast-paced production of Romeo and JulietContinue reading