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We all know how stressful holiday time is, but it appears that even the inhabitants of the North Pole are not even immune from it. Santa is over worked, Mrs. Claus can’t take any more of his sixteen hour days, Rudolph is looking to unionize the reindeer, and Santa has a very overzealous office manager. [...]
This past weekend, Charm City Fringe assembled a brilliant collection of artists for Nights on the Fringe, a two-night event at the Autograph Playhouse, raising the bar for Baltimore’s newest theatre and performance festival and giving a promising glimpse of what’s to come. Friday night featured three, wickedly funny improv sets from B.I.G. (Baltimore Improv [...]
For the Fall Fringe festivities in D.C., the best of the plays from the summer festival return for another round of performances. Among the bakers’ dozen of productions currently playing is the summer’s winner for best comedy, R.U.X.: Rockwell’s Universal seXbots, which opened Friday. Maurice Martin’s work is a saucy update of the 1920 R.U.R.: Rossum’s Universal Robots by [...]
The final play in the Baltimore Playwrights Festival is The Last Shall Be First, produced by Heralds of Hope Theater Company, in residence at Sojourner–Douglass College. The play is based on the story of the Nat Turner rebellion in 1831, even taking its title from a quote from Turner. It’s a very interesting play, and [...]
In 2007, riots erupted in Kenya as incumbent Kikuyu president Mwai Kibaki was reelected over expected winner and Luo Raila Odinga. In a Kisumu hotel, relief worker Jeff (Mike Ware) tries desperately to get home as images of violence, war, and brutality play out across his room window. But his separation from the events outside [...]
Following Sarah, now playing at the Fells Point Corner Theatre, is an eloquent and moving reflection on the tragedy of high-achieving adolescents. The play by Rich Espey follows four girls on a cross-country team at Thwaite Academy, a New England boarding school, as they try to follow in the shadow of their late state champion [...]
Another selection of the Baltimore Playwrights Festival is playing at the Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theater. Well, three of them actually. The Things We Do…an evening of one-acts is a wonderful evening that the audience thoroughly enjoyed. The evening is directed by Lynn Morton and uses the same group of nine actors throughout. Ms. Morton was inconsistent; sometimes [...]
The Apron Theatre Company’s current production of Stone Age Recreation is a cross between watching a show at Synetic, The Flintstones, the story of Adam and Eve, and whatever happens when Philip Glass scores a show. Writers Ty Budde (book) and Craig Budde (Composer) take us on a wild ride and show us that nothing [...]
The Artistic Director of SeeNoSun OnStage has written a compelling play, called The Extermination Machine. SeeNoSun OnStage is an underground theatre company whose mission is “to produce dark compelling theatre with a disturbing twist.” True to their mission, Michael Wright’s The Extermination Machine is a two actor play about Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann (Kim [...]
Children in the Mist, A Horror Opera, presented by the innovativi Riverbend Opera Company as part of the 2012 Capital Fringe Festival, is a puzzling mix: a contemporary opera that draws its plotline and mood from Stephen King’s short story, “The Mist.” The opera opens with David Drayton (played by composer/librettist Sean Pflueger), his wife [...]
Laughter is the best medicine and The Comedy Academy is giving audiences a much needed dose of nature’s most natural cure. In a play written by Harry M. Bagdasian and Liam Brennan, HeHEE! or “What? It’s Not Glee?” centers around a group of high school “misfits” who are always in detention. In a bold move, [...]
Blanche: The Bittersweet Life of a Wild Prairie Dame is a theatrical song cycle based on the life of creator Onalea Gilbertson’s grandmother. Through the use of music, projection, and really good storytelling, this show is one that should have a life outside of the festival circuit. Onalea Gilbertson wrote this show as a tribute [...]
The Disreputables (formally The Disreputable Woman) return to Capital Fringe with another interesting and well done piece of theatre. Last year it was David Mamet’s Boston Marriage and this time we go in the completely opposite direction with Gorgeous Raptors by Lucy Alibar. This is the story of two woman Kaballah (Kathleen Alvania) and Elise [...]
I think I’ve found my favorite show for the fringe. Apocalypse Picnic, produced by a group that calls themselves Orbit Chef and directed by ensemble member Stephanie Svec, delivers a wry, clever, and silly but witty parody of the cultural times by plunging us into a post-apocalyptic setting. Apocalypse Picnic is a collection of solidly [...]
