Don't Leave It All to Your Children! Photos - Off-Broadway

Children's Theater Company puts on a Broadway-caliber show, and if you are looking for a wonderful re-introduction to live theatre, Annie is a family-friendly production that will start your holiday season off right.

It's one of the most physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding jobs. With long hours and little sleep, you're expected to consistently portray a myriad of contrasting roles at the drop of the hat, sometimes with no prior experience or preparation - full out, no marking. All with a contract that offers no out, no sick leave, no vacation time, and no pay. Would you be down for the role?

In Sisters of Swing, produced by Town Hall Arts Center, the lives of LaVerne, Maxene and Patty, are put on display as they sing their way through the years. The show follows the sisters from their early days on the road and rise in fame to their dissembling over irreconcilable differences. With a score chalk-full of hit songs such as, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schon," "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree," and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," some audiences members may get a sense of nostalgia that will leave them smiling.

When I wrote Blacklisters, I was focusing on fascism and totalitarianism through the perspective of the individual in relation to absurdism. It's strange now considering the relevance a lot people who've been involved with the script have given it. On one hand it bugs me that the current events are being very tightly tied to the story when it was not my intention, but I can't deny that interest in it has picked up as a result. As I see it, what I wrote in this show was designed to be slightly unreal and terrifying but not beholden to a specific time period. I also can't deny that inspiration comes from weird places and like most people I was obsessively watching last years politics unfold, largely in horror, so it probably affected me.

Much like the much-loved musical "Fiddler on the Roof," IN THE HEIGHTS focuses on family love and traditions being challenged by the beliefs of the next generation. In our modern world where a good education can make all the difference, what does it take for a poor family to put a cherished only child through an expensive university? And what happens when the student cannot keep up and drops out and gets romantically involved with someone her parents don't think is good enough? And what happens when a neighborhood is challenged by urban renewal and its flavor is about to be lost? Can it be saved when local shop owners must leave their beloved neighborhood when rents rise?

Bridgeport's Downtown Cabaret Theatre has it all.

'The more real you play it, the better for any piece, even a comedic piece like this one.' Stage and television actor Robert Creighton is talking about his upcoming role debut in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein, which opens August 6th at the Maine State Music Theatre. Creighton, who is playing the meaty role of Frankenstein's bungling, hunchbacked assistant Igor, says of his approach to the part, 'The script is so good, so honed that I just have to say the words and stay out of their way. I don't have to mug. It is so well-crafted that I simply embrace the stupidity of it all, enjoy that and watch the audience enjoy it, too. When you play it for real, you are not making fun of the humor or commenting on the material, and the situation takes care of itself.'

This summer, 25 alums have returned to the O'Neill. We speak with five of them about their experience both as a NTI student and as a member of the O'Neill's professional summer season!

WHITE PEOPLE is very well worthwhile for anyone who thinks that gaining insight into personal ideas and values is a mission of theatre. You won't leave this production the same person as when you entered. This is compelling theater!

The Arden's children theater production of Peter Pan may be for kids, but adults will still be enthused. As a fan and scholar of Peter Pan I was incredibly interested to see this adaptation. Often, children's theater takes classic books and dummies them down for kids to the point where they are barely recognizable. This is not the case in this production.