Sep 18

Every Moment of Life Is Decay… And Ecstacy: “Laughs In Spanish”

From left: Luz Lopez, Daniel Rios Jr., Brogan Nelson, Rebekah Rae Robles, and Paola Ferrer. Photo by Nile Scott Studios.

Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company
Written by Alexis Scheer
Directed by Mariela Lopez-Ponce
Intimacy coordination by Paulina Martz
Dance consultant: Audrey Johnson

September 18 – October 12, 2024
Boston Center of the Arts
The Calderwood Pavilion: Roberts Studio Theatre 
527 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — Laughs In Spanish is a snapshot into the lives of art gallery manager Mari (Rebekah Rae Robles) and her intern/best friend Caro (Luz Lopez) on the day of a major exhibit for a male celebrity artist. The paintings have gone missing! So the gallery’s security guard (and Caro’s boyfriend) Juan (Daniel Rios Jr.) investigates. 

They are troubleshooting when Mari learns that her mother is in town. Estella (Paola Ferrer), a true Hollywood star, arrives and disrupts everyone’s day with her presence. Her trusty assistant Jenny (Brogan Nelson) is at her side. Estella promises to help. Mari is dubious. Caro and Juan are keeping secrets. Jenny is trying to salvage Estella’s day. Continue reading

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

Mar 08

We Would Do Anything for Love, Including That: “Alma”

Full frontal chancla fight, Karina Beleno Carney and Luz Lopez in “Alma”. Photo: Nile Scott Studios.

Presented by Central Square Theater
Written by Benjamin Benne
Directed by Elena Velasco
Choreography by Angie Jepson
Dialect Coaching by Cristhian Mancinas-García
Community Connectivity Dramaturgy by Zowie Rico
Featuring Karina Beleno Carney (she/ella) and Luz Lopez (she/her)

February 23 to March 26, 2023
Central Square Theater
450 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 
75 minutes with no intermission

Critique by Kitty Drexel

Cambridge, MA — The Oxford English Dictionary says the American Dream is “the ideal that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” Benjamin Benne’s Alma at Central Square Theater is the story of a family that comes to accept that some American dreams are only available to wealthy, white, and documented dreamers.   Continue reading

Oct 24

“My Fascination with Creepy Ladies” and a Complete Replication of Poe

Foreground, front to back: Siobhan Carroll, Luz Lopez, Elena Toppo.
Background, front to back: C. Padraig Sullivan, Christine Power, Jessica Golden

Presented by Anthem Theatre Company
A Collection of Horrors by Edgar Allan Poe
Conceived and Directed by Bryn Boice
Featuring Anthem company members Michael Poignand, Johnny Kinsman, Siobhan Carroll, Olivia Z. Cote, Sarah Gazdowicz, Jessica Golden, Katie Grindeland, Luz Lopez, Jessica Scout Malone, Eric McGowan, Christine Power, C. Padraig Sullivan, and Elena Toppo.
Designed by Bridget K. Doyle and Theona White

October 17 – November 3, 2019
South End / BCA Plaza Theatres
Plaza Black Box Theatre
539 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116
Event on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Boston, MA) Berenice, Annie, Ligeia, Rowena, Annabel Lee, Morella, Lenore, and so many others– an archetype with many names collapsed into a single, waifish woman with hair that hangs loose over her shoulders and a hint of otherworldliness. Meanwhile, the heroes and narrators of these stories are boiled down into the figure of a melancholic, bow-tied, possibly opium-addled narrator.

The woman in question is always on the verge of death, or has already died, but in the wake of that death, she is somehow made more beautiful, powerful, and entrancing. In Anthem Theatre Company’s My Fascination with Creepy Ladies, these characters are now four, leering, dancing, and laughing Creepy Ladies that haunt eight, terrorized, pale, bow-tied Poes. Continue reading

Dec 04

“Twelfth Night” Thrums with Life

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!”

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