Brian Balduzzi

SpeakEasy Stage Company’s Far From Heaven made the My Theatre (Boston) Must See list for many reasons, but the best reason was the all-star cast. Somehow, SpeakEasy, under the steady leadership of Director Scott Edmiston, assembled some of the best talent in Boston for this hopelessly-flawed musical. The production is not flawed, but it’s hard […]

  Brian Balduzzi

In the middle of Dedham, Massachusetts, a new theatre company spread its wings with a production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. This production choice was the perfect summer treat and an excellent decision for the young and growing Dragonfly Theater. With strong female leads and plenty of supporting ensemble roles, As You Like It […]

  Brian Balduzzi

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a wonderfully accessible play, made for adaptations to different times and places with ease. The Hyperion Shakespeare Company and The Office for the Arts at Harvard presented their own adaptation of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with some talent and some reckless abandon befitting the play’s mastery. The […]

  Brian Balduzzi

Don Giovanni is one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s most famous operas, spurring countless productions and re-imaginings in modern culture. Boston University College of Fine Arts’ School of Music Opera Institute and School of Theatre presented their own clever twist, thanks to the inspiring direction of Stage Director Daniel Pelzig and Conductor William Lumpkin. While the […]

  Brian Balduzzi

Technically, I can’t review Boston University Shakespeare Society’s Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare. Former My Theatre (Boston) writer Elizabeth Ramirez directed, and Junior Editor Fabiana Cabral played King Leontes. I have to create boundaries for conflict of interests, and this is one of them. However, read on to hear a bit more about this rarely-produced […]

  Brian Balduzzi

I can’t appreciate Cloud 9. Playwright Caryl Churchill wears on my patience whenever I see her work performed (though I like reading her plays), and Cloud 9 proved to be a humorous but grating variation on the same pattern. The Boston Conservatory student-actors achieved mixed results, but, overall, the production felt tedious, lacking some of […]

  Fabiana Cabral

The audience enters the Arsenal Center Black Box, and is instantly greeted with music. Faraz Firoozabadi (percussion), Stephen J. Lamb (guitar), and Jacques Pardo (composer and sound designer), set the mood as we prepare to enter Iraq, the real and reimagined space offered by Amir Al-Azraki in Waiting for Gilgamesh: Scenes from Iraq, directed by […]

  Fabiana Cabral

I had the best seat in the house, smack-dab in the middle of the first row, mezzanine level. I surveyed the scene from my perch: non-threatening pastels (light brown, cream, orange tones), a few armchairs and lamps, a large, slightly faded rug beneath the coffee table in the center of the large room. The Drayton […]