Marsha Smith

Greater Boston Stage Company has announced its upcoming production of Dial M for Murder, a gripping adaptation of the celebrated murder mystery, running May 3rd to May 19th, 2024.

Greater Boston Stage Company will unveil the highly anticipated New England Premiere of TITANISH, an uproarious parody that promises to have audiences rolling in the aisles.

Gloucester Stage Company is the first theater in the country to produce THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT following its SRO limited run on Broadway. Based on the 2012 essay/book co-written by John D'Agata and Jim Fingal, the play explores the conflict between an unorthodox author (D'Agata) and the young fact-checker (Fingal) assigned by his magazine editor to vet a groundbreaking piece about a teen's suicide in Las Vegas. GSC mounts its production with local luminary and Academy Award nominee Lindsay Crouse, New York and Off-Broadway actor Mickey Solis, and recent Harvard University graduate Derek Speedy, making his Gloucester debut, under the direction of the estimable Sam Weisman.

If there's one thing that summer theater should be, it's fun, and Gloucester Stage Company's production of THE 39 STEPS happily fulfills the requirement. Actually, it is more than fun - it is laugh out loud funny, thanks to the witty script, the crisp direction by Artistic Director Robert Walsh, and the antics and split-second comic timing of a quartet of actors who play over 150 characters without going off the rails. Joining them on stage is Malachi Rosen, a Foley Artist who produces a litany of sound effects, allowing the audience to see and hear how every door slam, train whistle, and gun shot happens. The 1935 film was a classic Alfred Hitchcock thriller, but the stage adaptation by Patrick Barlow heaps large helpings of farce and satire atop the story, while maintaining a high level of suspense.

In Saturday Night's performance of Macbeth at The United Parish Church, Brookline, MA, Nael Nacer as Macbeth, (and in an inspired bit of casting as Macduff's son), was truly outstanding, backed by a strong company of actors. This production of Macbeth is the world premiere of a new verse translation by playwright Migdalia Cruz, courtesy of Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Play on! Project. The result was a truly enjoyable evening of classical theatre, that enhanced the meaning and understanding of the 'Scottish Play', and embraced diversity and non-traditional casting. Other stand-outs in the cast were Maurice Parent as Banquo, Paige Clark, as Lady Macbeth, Ed Hooperman as Macduff, and Kai Tshikosi as Malcom.

Actors' Shakespeare Project kicks off their 15th Season with Macbeth and Equivocation in rotating repertory at the United Parish in Brookline. Performances September 26 - November 11 (Press Performance for Macbeth: Saturday, September 28, 8:00 PM; Press Performance for Equivocation: Friday, October 12, 7:30 PM), The Sanctuary, United Parish, 210 Harvard Street, Brookline. For more information visit actorsshakespeareproject.org.

Actors' Shakespeare Project kicks off their 15th Season with Macbeth and Equivocation in rotating repertory at the United Parish in Brookline. Performances September 26 - November 11 (Press Performance for Macbeth: Saturday, September 28, 8:00 PM; Press Performance for Equivocation: Friday, October 12, 7:30 PM), The Sanctuary, United Parish, 210 Harvard Street, Brookline. For more information visit actorsshakespeareproject.org.

Timeless tale re-imagined with contemporary spin by Jason O'Connell and Brenda Withers. Jeremiah Kissel makes GSC debut in title role opposite Andrea Goldman, under the direction of Artistic Director Robert Walsh.

Continuing its season of The Downfall of the Despots, Actors' Shakespeare Project (ASP) kicks off 2018 with Richard III, William Shakespeare's stunning portrait of Machiavellian genius and the murderous quest for absolute power. Under the direction of Resident Acting Company member Robert Walsh***, the original game of thrones comes alive in an intimate staging at the Swedenborg Chapel (50 Quincy Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge) February 7 March 11, 2018.

Gloucester Stage Company presents the world premiere of playwright Jim Frangione's FLIGHT OF THE MONARCH following an overwhelming audience response to a reading last fall. Managing Director Jeff Zinn is at the controls, with a fine pair of collaborators in Nancy E. Carroll and J. Tucker Smith as a pair of middle-aged siblings who rely on each other as ports in the storm of life.

Actors' Shakespeare Project closes its 13th season with the definitive Shakespearean recipe for mirth and magic. Start with equal parts poetry and wit, add one misapplied love potion, stir in a feuding celestial couple, and finish with the most unintentionally awful play-within-a-play ever created, and you get A Midsummer Night's Dream. Directed by Patrick Swanson (Revels' Artistic Director), the production features Resident Acting Company members Steven Barkhimer* (Bottom), Sarah Newhouse* (Puck), and Paula Plum* (Titania) (Picture left by Nile Scott Shots.) Performances are May 10 - June 4, 2017 (Press Performance Saturday, May 13, 2017, 8 PM) at Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second Street, Cambridge. For tickets and more information, visit actorsshakespeareproject.org.

MAN IN SNOW, Israel Horovitz's newest play, receives its world premiere at Gloucester Stage in a riveting production directed by the playwright. A full-length stage adaptation of an earlier radio play, the seed of the fictional story was sown from a real-life event in Alaska nearly twenty years ago. A stellar cast, led by a convincing and commanding Will Lyman, fully inhabits their characters, and the design team creates an effective, evocative landscape and soundscape.

There's good news and bad news in the Gloucester Stage production of Jason Robert Brown's SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD. The inspiring song cycle from 1995 shows the composer's promise that has been fulfilled, as evidenced by his three Tony Awards, and there is much to enjoy in both the music and lyrics (when you can hear them). The five-member cast features quality vocalists, but they often lose focus while they are busily moving around the stage in Director Robert Walsh's zeal to substitute action for the nonexistent connective libretto.

Gloucester Stage opens its 36th season with the second play of Richard Nelson's four-part American epic collectively known as THE APPLE FAMILY PLAYS. Collaborating with Stoneham Theatre, each company will produce two of the plays between this year and next under the direction of Stoneham's Producing Artistic Director Weylin Symes, with the same design team and outstanding cast of six actors on board for the entire project.

Creators of the recent failed Broadway musical BIG FISH are testing the waters of regional theater with a more intimate, scaled back version of their splashy father-son story now premiering at Boston's SpeakEasy Stage through April 11.

IRNE Award-winning actress Celeste Oliva gives two riveting performances in Deirdre Girard's RECONSIDERING HANNA(H) to open the 2014-2015 season at Boston Playwrights' Theatre. With thoughtful direction by Bridget Kathleen O'Leary, RECONSIDERING HANNA(H) tells two good stories for the price of one, both of which will stay with you long after the curtain falls.

Gloucester Stage Company concludes its 35th season with Pulitzer Prize-winning drama FENCES, the sixth in August Wilson's ten-play chronicle of 20th century American history from the perspective of African-Americans. In Director Eric C. Engel's production that strives to illustrate the universal nature of one man's story, we can identify with the protagonist's anger and struggle for control in a rapidly-changing world. Daver Morrison and Jacqui Parker bat leadoff in a lineup of strong performances.

Good music stands the test of time and the Gloucester Stage Company celebrates its 35th Anniversary Season by revisiting one of their most requested productions. JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS still shows a lot of life more than 45 years since its off-Broadway debut. A quartet of polished actor-singers reveals the heart and soul in Brel's music and the brilliant complexity of his lyrics.

Feminist fantasy about three time-traveling Victorian-era women who set out to explore 'Terra Incognita' is playwright Eric Overmyer's paean to language and the art of the spoken word. His craftsmanship as a writer is on display in ON THE VERGE, but the quartet of accomplished, committed actors aren't enough to keep everyone onboard until the end of the ride.

Playwright Ginger Lazarus set out to write a lesbian version of Rostand's CYRANO DE BERGERAC and ended up taking on the United States Army and its sorry history of abusing and harassing gays in the era of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." An intimate and intense evening of theater, BURNING at Boston Playwrights' Theatre features outstanding performances by Mal Malme and Jessica Webb, under the direction of Steven Bogart.