“All the world’s a stage, /And all the men and women merely players:/They have their exits and their/entrances; /And one man in his time plays many parts.” – Jacques in “As You Like It” Act II, Scene VII (William Shakespeare, 1600) In Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” Jacques solves the eternal question of whether art imitates life or life imitates…
There is a great deal of playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan in his rollickingly funny “The Rivals” the comedy of manners he wrote for Covent Garden and where it first appeared in 1775. Riffing the sham chivalry and sham romance of his day, Sheridan drew from his life experiences to develop a roster of comedic characters with absurd conflicts that spin…
“Never, in the field of human conflict, was so much owed by so many to so few.” – Winston Churchill “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers…” – William Shakespeare, “Henry V” Long distance truckers are indeed a band of brothers and sisters whose escapades on America’s interstate highways place them among the few. And consumers in the…
“And indeed there will be time/To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”/Time to turn back and descend the stair,/With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—“ From “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot (1888 – 1965) The connections playwright David Rudkin draws between T. S. Eliot’s fictional character J. Alfred Prufrock…
Two couples trying to discover who they are as dyadic entities. Four individuals attempting to discover who they are in their unitary states. Oddly, the lives of the couples parallel one another and even more curious, each individual has a doppelganger. These four – coupled in twos – collide on one rainy night in a flat in the midst of…
There is a brooding sadness inherent in and hovering over the love story of Liverpudlian Timothea Stiles (Xanthe Elbrick) and Cliffhorn Heads fisherman Colm Primrose (Patrick Fitzgerald). Gardner McKay’s mesmeric “Sea Marks” echoes the deep sadness of James Joyce and the disputatious anger of Martin McDonagh and, blended with his own unique storytelling style, creates a beautiful tale of love…
“Right now, it’s time for us to do something. If not now, then when. Will we see an end. To all this pain. It’s not enough to do nothing. It’s time for us to do something.” – “Do Something” by Matthew West What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Just ask the irrepressible Lydia Rauscher (Michele Pawk) come to visit…
It is difficult to develop well-rounded and rich characterizations when one has not experienced directly or indirectly the significant conflicts and settings of the characters involved in a play or any other performance piece. Actors attempt that theatrical feat often with varying degrees of success. In the case of “Family Play (1979 to Present),” Collaboration Town’s ensemble-driven creative process does…
Despite Ranger Steve Reynolds’ (Jeremy Wilhelm) welcoming words to the NYTW audience and his insistence that “Red-Eye to Havre de Grace” is “gonna have a lot of good information [and] some important dates,” there is not much Edgar Allan Poe aficionados do not already know about Poe, his marriage to his thirteen year old cousin Virginia Clemm, his attachment to…
“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 Words are inherently powerful tools, even more powerful when written and perhaps most powerful when spoken. This is the case with Harry Melling’s compelling script “Peddling” currently running at 59E59…