If the idiom “home is where the heart is” has any veracity, then the characters in Horton Foote’s 1982 “The Roads to Home” are as far from home as anyone might be. Geographically, the main characters – the three women in the first two short plays of the somewhat interconnected trilogy – are refugees from their original homes and have…
“I want to write music. I want to sit down right now at my piano and write a song that people will listen to and remember, and do the same thing every morning for the rest of my life.” – Jon Before Jonathan Larson’s iconic “Rent” had its workshop production at the New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) in 1993 and…
The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) has been hard at work since 1989 introducing writers and their new musicals to significant theatre industry leaders. Now in its 28th year, NAMT attracts theatre producers from around the world for this industry-only event to discover eight new musicals presented in 45-minute concert presentations over two days. All production costs are underwritten…
“This agony inside of me ain’t providing me any time to think/About anything beyond the sitch we’re now living/Gotta go hard, gotta be tough/gotta move forward towards a new dawn, a new dream, a new hope.” – Tong On a recent visit to Vietnam, two glaring disparities were evident: there is a noticeable divide between rich and poor Vietnamese citizens;…
Mrs. Johnson muses that the role of a teacher– a high school English and Drama teacher at an unnamed public school at a non-specific time – is to provide answers to students’ questions. Whether the answers are right or wrong matters not, she ponders. What matters is grappling with the issue and discovering the truth – whatever that might be….
Joe Sutton’s “Orwell in America” imagines what might happen if George Orwell were to embark on a book tour in post-World-War II America with his publicist. How would an American audience receive his “Animal Farm” and his deep commitment to Democratic Socialism? There is really nothing new in Mr. Sutton’s exposition: other than the fictional visit to America, all of…
“Yes, and this country will either cease its injustice or it will slowly fall to ruin. Leave it while you can.” – Nat Turner The encounter between Nat Turner (played with a powerful morally ambiguous core by Phillip James Brannon), Thomas R. Gray (played with a palpable malicious intent by Rowan Vickers), and the Guard (also played by Mr. Vickers)…
“A composer who avoids melody is like a person avoiding breathing just to make life a little more interesting. But the things is, the melody must always be memorable.” Hershey Felder’s stunning tribute to the life and work of Leonard Bernstein is a work brimming with affection and respect for the “Maestro” currently running at 59E59 Theaters. Mr. Felder bristles…
“Missed Connections: A Craigslist Musical” is being presented at the New Ohio Theatre after successful runs throughout Canada. It is a musical cantata with lyrics taken or derived from actual ads placed on Craigslist. That indeed ensures a variety of interesting and bizarre subject matter that is approached throughout the ninety-minute production. It is sung through as a rapid succession…
When the director and creative team of a play conspire in every way to make it difficult to see their product, it should meet with immediate suspicion. Instead, trusting audience members allowed themselves to be ushered into 59E59 Theater C and to be plopped into a bizarre configuration of seats – all on the same level – seemingly designed to…