Amanda Finn - Page 5

Moises Kaufman is not a household name- a playwright, teacher, and creator of a new wave of theatre perhaps, but unknown to the majority of audiences. This journalist is particularly fond of the work of Mr. Kaufman and has difficulty finding performances of his masterpieces. Why? Moises Kaufman crafts works of theatre that few have the courage or talent to take on. Actors switching characters off and on throughout the production is a feat of Kaufman's teaching entitled Tectonic Theatre. It is an art in itself and many directors do not want to take the time to tackle his works.

The Fireside's production of Les Miserables is a dream of which I've always dreamed.

A Broadway show to end the notion that every tale is a fairytale, though the title of this article would allude otherwise, Once finds its power in all things realistic rather than in a storybook romance. It takes the age old understanding that when a man and woman find each other everything else will work out and flips it on its head. While Hollywood and its cohorts would love for the public to believe that every story has a clear cut path, Once provides insight into what audience members already know. After all, the great Victorian playwright Oscar Wilde Once penned, 'the truth is rarely pure and never simple.' Once merely reiterates the fact.

Tucked away in a cozy theatre, off of Martin Street, lives a small theatre company that opened its fifteenth season this past weekend. Encore Studio for the Performing Arts opened this new season with a series of retrospective shorts that looked back on some of the most powerful, thought provoking, or downright goofy pieces that the company has had to offer.

Please be advised that the show discussed in this article contains strobe and flashing lights as well as gunshot effects in production…and, oh yeah, there will be blood.

"We're talking about sex."

'Without the theatre, nothing is possible.' Words penned by one of the greatest playwrights in theatrical history. And for Anton Chekov's play The Seagull, a show filled with characters deigning to exist as the people they've become, that pinnacle phrase means the world.

A great poet named Robert Frost once said, 'poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.' WarHorse, in much the same way, is a play that found its words in moments full of 'naysaying' and silence.

The turning of the tape reels. Two, grey circles that were constantly moving in the dimly lit background of Sam Phillips' recording studio. They rolled on amidst private conversations, arguments, and the performance of some of the greatest songs in the history of music.

An explanation and adoration of Encore! Studio for the Performing Arts' newest production. And an invitation to take part in a theatrical and social movement to help a worthy non-profit organization.