Esther Williamson

Review: OUR BLACK DEATH by Taffety Punk Battles for Love at the End of the World

Taffety Punk returns to the stage in full force with their production of Our Black Death: Plagues, Turnips, and Other Romantic Gestures, directed by Marcus Kyd is all at once hilarious, shocking, and bittersweet in its exploration of love during a plague.

BWW Review: Taffety Punk's Bracing ANTIGONICK and THE FRAGMENTS OF SAPPHO

Taffety Punk, the insurrectionist yet classically trained company now in its 15th year does what it does best in a pair of striking Greek adaptations by Anne Carson, presented in one invigorating sitting.

BWW Review: PRAMKICKER at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

Few and far between are the times that we reviewers have a perfect night in the theater. Generally, we can find something to complain about in any given production. It could be we love the performances, but not the script or vice versa.

BWW Review: Bootleg Shakespeare HENRY VI, PART 3 at Taffety Punk is Theater Without a Net

Taffety Punk Theatre Company's Bootleg Shakespeare production HENRY VI, PART 3 is performance without a net - exciting, dangerous, riveting, and raw. Bootleg Shakespeare isn't designed to be polished or perfect, it's designed to be fresh and immediate. And it delivered. What's more amazing? The actors arrived at 10:00 am Monday with roles assigned and lines memorized. That's it. Working together under the direction of Taffety Punk Artistic Director Marcus Kyd, over the next few hours the 32 actors DIY'ed the production and were on stage in front of an audience at 7:30 pm. There were minimal props, lights, and costumes-but the red and white paper lapel flowers told us exactly what we needed to know when every epic battle scene and every word of Shakespeare's text was performed.

Jane Austen's PERSUASION at The Players

Sara Holdren will direct a staged reading of Jane Austen's Persuasion, adapted for the theatre by emerging playwright Sarah Rose Kearns, on Monday, April 9th at 7 o'clock at The Players in New York City, 16 Gramercy Park South. This performance will feature Jack Halpin, Marc LeVasseur, Patricia McNamara, Chris Mixon, Daniel Reece, Amanda Jill Robinson (also acting as music director), Maggie Wetzel, Esther Williamson, and Jenna Zhu.

Opera House Arts Opens Shakespeare's Intimate Epic HENRY IV Parts 1 & 2

Performances begin this week for Henry IV, the final production of the Opera House Arts summer 2017 theatre season.

By now the world is used to inhumane aberrations like ten-year wars. But back when Homer wrote his epic poem, it was still something to rage about, as he did about the siege of Troy by the Greeks in the Trojan War.

Under the direction of Joel David Santner (who will shortly be moving to California for film school, a great loss to the DC area) the company has proven yet again that when viewed with fresh eyes, the early First Quarto version of 'Hamlet' is a limitless source of inspiration for artists and audiences alike.  Although the company pulls its aesthetic punches by inviting a few guys to join the cast (including Marcus Kyd in the title role), the performance is of a dependable, high quality that makes this a rare, intimate view of the Bard's work.

Taffety Punk's current production of The Tempest demonstrates how Shakespeare's work is infinitely elastic in terms of creativity and casting. Riot Grrrls, a faction of Taffety Punk Theatre Company dedicated to all-female productions of the Bard's works, has come up with a low-tech, low-cost, intimate staging that is as finely tuned as anything you'd pay big bucks for uptown.

It is the stuff of great drama when people with incredible charm and talent behave like monsters: idealists with a clear vision of the future, leaving human wreckage in their wake. For fans of English literature who are fascinated by Shelley, Byron and the women who devoted themselves to their careers, 'Bloody Poetry' should be a pure delight.