Despite being second cousins, Ronnie (Jessica Myhr) and Danny (Seth Reich) have had a romantic attraction to one another since childhood and are finally able to confess and consummate their love for one another at the annual family reunion in Philadelphia in January 2009. This is not an easy reunion: Ronnie is married to gambling-addicted Steve with children and second…
It is ironic that by refusing to go to New York City, his last opportunity to escape into freedom, protagonist Tiago (Josue Gutierrez Guerra) is murdered then pushed off a thirty-nine foot sail boat wrapped in sailcloth. He begins his descent into death’s memory vault and launches into his role as unreliable narrator extraordinaire. Tiago’s remarkable and mind-splitting postmortem narrative…
[The Prelude: Joseph and I believe that the thing we call theatre – from idea to performance to review and beyond – is a collaborative process. No one entity in that process is more important than another. Writers, directors, casts, creative teams, critics, audiences are all accountable to preserve the core of the dramatic process and are accountable to one…
“Luke Nicholas” is the quintessential example of what should be found at the ongoing NY International Fringe Festival. It is good theater, refreshing, new, innovative and well written, always keeping the audience engaged with surprising twists and turns. It examines the parameters of an open gay relationship testing boundaries only to realize what is required to survive the sometimes ugly,…
After a full fifteen-minute intense visceral, sweaty, and well-rounded pre-curtain warm-up, Lee J. Kaplan launches into his equally intense visceral, sweaty, and well-rounded boxing match with all things bullying. Mr. Kaplan makes it clear that if one is to beat the bully at his/her own game, one needs to be in excellent shape or know someone in better shape to…
Friends from childhood, Adam (Topher Rasmussen) and Steve (Logan Tarantino) each need validation from the other as they move forward from graduation and decide where to spend their college years together. Adam needs to know his friend affirms his strong commitment to Mormon values and, after coming out to Adam, Steve needs to know his friend truly understands his sexual…
Cal and Grey (“with an ‘e’”) are two teenage boys considered to be expendable. They were warehoused in their post-infancy by the revolutionary regime whose takeover eliminated “all men and women” and placed all children in orphanages until they were twenty-one. With many other institutionalized children, Cal and Grey survive by adhering to a diet of strict obedience to a…