The city’s longest running opera company offers a really lovely blend of young professional artist support and community-based involvement. Their latest production, Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana (which ran June 2-5 for three performances only at the Harbourfront Centre’s Fleck Dance Theatre) perfectly illustrates that two-pronged approach to opera for everyone. It’s hard to explain […]
Maggie’s Little Theater, a community theater located in Queens, NY, is in its ninth season at St. Margaret Parish Hall. It presents two musical productions a year, and educates participants in all aspects of stage production. This year, it presented the classic Guys and Dolls, a musical about the affable gambler Nathan Detroit (Alan Perkins) […]
Every year, StageWorks Toronto takes some sort of step forward in the quality of their musical production. In 2013, they tackled one of the most difficult scores ever written; 2014 featured their strongest cast ever with an across-the-board excellent ensemble; 2015 is the year they finally eliminated blackout set changes! While that key feature is […]
Theatre is a tough career. It’s long hours and hard work, low pay, challenging politics, tons of rejection and unwavering job insecurity. It’s hard to get noticed as a freelance artist and harder still to build an audience as an independent producer. Even if you’re brilliant, you’ll still likely spend your days as many of […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2014 My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. Queen Elizabeth I in Timothy Findley’s gorgeous historical fiction Elizabeth Rex is a gift of a dramatic role for any actress. For relative newcomer Lydia Kiselyk, the chance to play the part in the East Side Players’ […]
Seeing that I was in a festive upbeat mood, it being my birthday and all, I decided to forget how many figurative candles were on my cake and I took my somewhat conservative wife and theater-savvy teen daughter to see Avenue Q at Arlington Friends of the Drama (“AFD”) Theatre. We were treated to a […]
While the summer months can be sweltering in the Greater Boston area, many actors escape to the suburbs to perform outdoor Shakespeare for local audiences. Many companies choose to perform crowd favorites like As You Like It and Comedy of Errors, but The Gazebo Players of Medfield present The Winter’s Tale, a late Shakespeare romance, […]
StageWorks Toronto is an incredibly ambitious company, especially when you consider that they’re really a community theatre organization (mixing new theatre grads with part-time performers, I’m pretty sure all un-paid). Year after year they choose an interesting, contemporary and thematically challenging musical and mount a full-scale production, never shying away from a hard vocal score. […]
Wait, another Rabbit Hole in the Greater Boston area? Yes, another. Community theatre companies have a fascination with the piece for its perceived simplicity and emotional range. Hovey Players in Waltham is one of Greater Boston’s stronger community theatres, boasting a rich history since 1936. Their Rabbit Hole proves that they have the tenacity and […]
The Children’s Hour is a Crucible-like story about the devastating effects of an angry young woman’s lives on those around her. In this 1934 drama, it is her two schoolmistresses Karen and Martha (played by Kathleen Pollard and Marisa King) who suffer most from the girl’s actions and who lose everything as a result of her […]
Okay, I’m going to try really really hard to make it through this review without making it about my hatred of Hair. I don’t understand why people still perform such a senseless outdated text and yet I find myself roped into seeing production after production of the hippie musical. What has come, at least, of […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2012 My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. As Glinda the Good Witch from Wicked, the affable and sweet-voiced Mindy Perlmutter was the highlight of Encore Entertainment’s My Theatre Award-nominated showcase Songs in the Key of Stephen. But it was her professional-calibre turn in their community theatre production of Fiddler […]
Jamaica Plains’ Footlight Club boasts being the oldest community theatre in the United States, and it’s not hard to see why they have sustained for over 130 years. The Footlight Club attracts many talented actors, designers, and directors, but most of all, they establish a strong sense of community within its company. Their passion for […]
An exciting adaptation was featured in Somerville, Massachusetts for the past two weekends. Elizabeth Hunter, a 2011 My Theatre Award nominee for her work in Equus, wrote and directed an original stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s popular novel Pride and Prejudice. Produced by Theatre@First in the stunning renovated Somerville theatre, the production showed much promise. […]