Kristen Morale - Page 5

Eastern Bridge continues in the telling of otherwise unheard stories with both a new board of directors and an exciting monthly series. Anna Rak is joined by new members Kanja Grobler (Co-Artistic Director) and Irina Bravo (Director of Design and Marketing) to lead the Troupe into a successful new season - a goal that, no matter how diverse its parts, brings these individuals together with unified purpose.

What isn't there to love about sketch comedy? It is the true meeting of the dramatic and comedic, mixed in with individual creativity to create a very casual and ideal way to begin the weekend. And who doesn't want to have a good laugh over silly (yes, there were farts) yet clever skits that will easily lighten anyone's mood? The place to be on Friday night was the TADA! Theater, where Wrong House Productions presented Sketchy Sketch Night. A one night event that drew sold out crowds of people whose aim it was to have a great time, the party that was Sketchy Sketch Night began even before the audience walked through the door; the fun that ensued made this one enjoyable and rather unique theatrical experience.

Written and directed by Rodrigo Nogueira (the latter with assistance from Valerie Mudek) and now presented at the Tank, The Ideal Obituary makes for quite the interesting play for more reasons that one. Produced in association with Torn Page and Apt 929 Studios, it is considered a dark comedy that the audience needs to dig in the darkest corner of their minds to find. The play gives the plain fact of this woman's rather bleak circumstances off the bat: once in the grasp of a debilitating sadness, she is suddenly struck with this euphoria that she will make any crude comment or travel any distance to keep; she would even sacrifice what she loves most.

The extraordinary is turned ordinary when the need to be heard, to believe in the right of happiness, overcomes what reason dictates one should do to achieve it; reason becomes as much of an ally as it is a weapon. What is so beautiful about Sondheim's Assassins is not only how the root of such an evil deed is understood as something so human, but this 'American Musical Comedy' is nothing short of brilliant - especially when presented by Brooklyn Heights' own Theater 2020.

50th & 4th, a fantastic new play now in performances at UNDER St. Mark's, is a comical, intense and very truthful look at a couple living in Sunset Park, and what it really means to feel displaced - what it means to feel loved - no matter where you are from. As part of the 2018 Frigid Festival, which offers audiences the chance to see 30 productions (no more than sixty minutes in length) between two venues on the Lower East Side, 50th & 4th now debuts with a bang appropriate for any play set in the great borough of Brooklyn. Written by comedian Mike Lemme and directed by Tara Cioletti, this has quickly become a favorite out of the smaller productions I have reviewed.

Directed by Clint Hromsco and produced by John Lant and Tamra Pica (in association with Write Act Repertory), Frankenstein boasts a book, music and lyrics by Eric B. Sirota, major contributions from Julia Sirota and also the help of Sharon Sudol and Cara London. Now in performances at the St. Luke Theatre in the heart of Times Square, the show is presented to a New York audience after being chosen as an official selection of the New York Musical Festival's 2015 reading series. Frankenstein: A New Musical is based on Mary Shelley's classic novel, which just celebrated its two-hundredth anniversary this past January.

The Snow Queen is based on the story by Hans Christian Anderson and is written by Matt Opatrny. Developed as part of New Victory Labworks at the New Victory Theater in New York, and inspired by the ideas of an ambitious fourth grade class at P.S. 3, this show is now in performances at the New Ohio Theatre under the direction of Jessica Burr. A beautiful story of love, The Snow Queen is the innocence of a child meshed with the trials of adulthood: lives that are affected by the inexplicable, obstacles that need a determined heart to overcome, and a love made stronger by the knowledge that success is somehow knowingly right around the corner. It is a story that teaches its audience that a child's love for her best friend is nothing short of spectacular, and our main character Gerda's pursuit of her best friend after he has been abducted by the Snow Queen gives her the fortitude we all wish to have - the ability to believe in the impossible.

Just let your senses roam free for a moment and imagine what this feels like: the comfort of a dark room filled with friends and strangers alike, the euphoria of a few drinks clouding the mind, the electricity of trouble brewing in the air as the band takes the stage. Gear your thoughts towards your favorite nighttime pleasure, enhanced by the talents of theatrical superstars. When you walk through the doors of (le) Poisson Rouge, the sexy and cruelly delicious sights and sounds of Cruel Intentions: The Musical seduce you the moment you enter. Everything you've ever wanted in a show is here: it is a tantalizing night out mixed with incredible voices and charm, as much a tribute to the 90's as it is a beautiful new take on an iconic classic. Cruel Intentions returns in all its glory to the West Village for a much-anticipated encore - and oh, are you going to love it even more this time around.

When we think of a person bound for success, dedicated to personal fulfillment and happiness gained through their craft, one such person who comes to mind is an actor. It is a profession that changes people, to say the least. An actor's drive and dedication towards a unique means of self expression is many times the priority of his or her life - it encapsulates a person's love and plots it towards a future role, a new technique, or simply finding a new place to call home. I have spent some time on stage myself, but never can I imagine how difficult a journey a true, dedicated actor must take. But you know what? Actors are also incredibly fun people! Who said that their life's journey can't be just a little bit entertaining, funny, and just a little quirky? Meet Mia Dolan, the star of Subculture Theatre's So Long Boulder City, who presents audiences with the little bit of everything that makes the life of an actor quite a fascinating story to tell. With a lightheartedness rising from the ashes of burned dreams, you're just gonna love this show.

Written by Alena Smith and directed by Chris Morrissey, The New Sincerity brings the two-year-old New Wave Theater Collective to a very respectable height. With a cast comprised of young artists who seem to have perfectly captured this idea of adulting amidst the deceiving nature of a know-thyself creative environment, this show really makes you wonder about the state of our generation. With characters who are more enthused about helping others and reaping the benefits than they are about the condition of their own lives, The New Sincerity questions just how much truth and honesty we can handle before it becomes easier to fight for (and sometimes join) another's cause than focus on our own.

Returning for this special performance after it marked Eastern Bridge's New York debut, The Story of Two Poets is the theatrical adaptation of Listy na wyczerpanym papierze ( The Letters on Depleted Paper ), a collection of love letters and poems written during what can only be described as a fairy-tale romance which began in 1964. Osiecka, who wrote the lyrics for many of Poland's most popular songs and Przybora, who created the notable Elderly Gentlemen's Cabaret, sent many secret correspondences to each other over the course of their two-year romance; this would have remained a secret, had their children not discovered their letters. In 2010, Agata Passent and Kot Przybora published Listy na wyczerpanym papierze and gave new life to this beautiful relationship that Eastern Bridge now presents to audiences.

Who can admit to not being a fan of Count Dracula and the horrors he bestows upon the unsuspecting Jonathan Harker and those he holds dear? How can you not be enticed by his dark lure, by the intoxicating mix of fear and seduction brought about by the mere mention of his name? Bram Stoker brought the undead to life long ago through his novel, and Dracula has never ceased to entrance those who bear witness to his resurrection, whether that take place on screen or on stage. And, with Halloween fast approaching, what better time for Dracula to rise up and quench his thirst for blood once again? Now presented by Moose Hall Theatre Company / Inwood Shakespeare Festival, Dracula! The Tale of Flesh and Blood is an engaging retelling of Dracula's tale, taking a bite out of the classic through the talents of a wonderful cast who bring the eeriness and fright of this Gothic tale to a West Village audience.

Written by Harrison David Rivers, conceived/directed by Sherri Eden Barber and presented by Ricochet Collective, Only You Can Prevent Wildfires celebrates its World Premiere by bringing the true story of forest technician Terry Lynn Barton and the Hayman Fire of 2002 to audiences in a rather unprecedented way. In what is both as surreal as the imagination running rampant beneath a star-infested sky and as visceral as the cold truth (and consequences) of human emotions, Wildfires depicts the reasoning behind a distraught woman's actions in an incredibly graspable manner.

Do you ever think about how much of this life is planned, sculpted by human hands to go the way we desire it to? How, no matter what we have been taught or the values we hold dear to our hearts, there will always be something beyond our reach that we cannot control - something we cannot ever predict will happen? Factor in the variables of chance, fate, human error and the like, and life begins to go slightly off the course we may have imagined it to follow. Once a child leaves the arms of a loving mother to venture out into the world, it is a chance taken as to what will happen next. In what is both alarming and exciting, the possibilities life will give to us are infinite - they do not follow a guidebook, and as values are tested and tried is when the 'self' is truly formed. This is the wonderful lesson that STRINGS teaches its audience so well.

Written by Anna Rak and Palmyra Mattner, and under the direction of Kira Kull, STRINGS will soon take the stage at the Access Theatre in Tribeca for its New York premiere; the show also marks EBTT's second NY production. A theater troupe of unique origins and aspirations, Eastern Bridge strives to bring together the voices, experiences and talents of those who are culturally or ethically different, but collaborate for the purpose of providing a unique theatrical experience. By giving expression to these foreign voices, the cast, creative team and theater-goers alike now have this special opportunity to bring what is different together to share in the purity of a mother's love.

Picture four people in a room, possessing just short of enough free will to be there but knowing that they can walk out if the mood strikes them. Four actors who base their lives on the truth of the untruth, forced to write a constitution applicable to all the actual people they have played - people who rely on their logic and experience to shape a universally "good" future. Four souls trapped in a room, compelled enough by the attraction of love to write a new Constitution based upon it. Six days are all they have to write something with no boundaries, no rules and no expectations. Shouldn't be too difficult, right?

Now being performed by the Nu•ance Theatre Co. (in association with John DeSotelle Studio) and under the direction of John DeSotelle, Proof is the Pulitzer-Prize winning play by David Auburn that provides audiences with much to think about…even if we understand little of the actual theorems themselves. This entire show is wonderful in that it equates the universality of math with the very specifics of how people live their lives - simple numbers that take the place of human emotions to the point where people are trying to prove theorems over love - trying to make equations work over how they should be functioning. It is a play that not only seeks to prove an equation that can exist as perfect, but also proves how imperfect we are in the face of ourselves and others. It is the perfect theoretical to what reality has given to these characters, and what ensues cannot be witnessed with anything less than pure fascination.

With time spent on Broadway, off-Broadway and on stages from France to China, A.R. Gurney's Sylvia is now in performances at Elements Theatre Company at Rock Harbor. It is the epitome of taking something that is seemingly normal and turning it into a drama-filled, heartfelt tale of what it means to be (and feel) human. Directed by Danielle Dwyer, CJ and in memory of the late Gurney, this show truly goes above and beyond to tell a story that is so much more than that of a dog who finds an aging man in the park, followed by his wife's jealousy of his affection towards this stray. It is a touching story about the indisputable need to be loved, and how figuring out why we love the way we do concerns so much more than the bond man shares with his canine friend.

When the unconquerable Billy Flynn and the ensemble sing of that "old razzle dazzle," they sing of corruption and deceit - of wicked things turned into truth when presented in just the right light. Under the pretense of being decent in a world of easy exploitation and unremorseful women, Billy's smile is a falsity he doesn't care to hide - his performance as showy as the lights which illuminate the stage. Transforming the lives of the potentially dead murderesses of Chicago into a form of entertainment for the masses is manipulation at its core - it is just one of the reasons Kander and Ebb's Chicago has remained one of our favorite musicals for so long. Now, we can all be grateful for Peregrine Theatre Ensemble's current production of the longest running American musical in Broadway history, happening right in the heart of Provincetown.

As part of the New York Musical Festival, Generation Me is absolute perfection in its ability to prove how kindness and cruelty are of the same unfortunate hand. How people, so certain in their anger or jealousy, are sometimes so blind to what really matters: what can you do to help me?