Alex Givens News

The Great River Shakespeare Festival in Minnesota has taken up one of the Bard's more obscure plays as part of its Season 16 offerings. CYMBELINE is difficult to classify (one scholar called it a "comical-tragical-historical-pastoral-dramatic-romance")! But that also makes it a lot of fun.

It's not surprising to feel somewhat uneasy sitting in a theater waiting for MACBETH to begin. At the Great River Shakespeare Festival's production you're confronted when you sit down with a stage set that feels fractured, unforgiving, ominous.

Great River Shakespeare Festival opened the fourth show of its 16th season last night, with the world premiere of Beth Gardiner's new adaptation of Carlo Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters. 

Between January 2018 and August 2018, the federal government attempted to censor, misrepresent, and otherwise silence science over 150 times. That's according to the Silencing Science Tracker (SST) launched by Columbia University's Sabin Center and the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund. While most of the 150 plus SST entries involved attempts to stifle climate science, 24-percent of the entries targeted scientists working in other fields. But the government assault on science is nothing new. In fact, nearly 400 years ago, Galileo Galilei was forced to recant some of his scientific views after the church found him guilty of heresy. Subsequently, his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems was placed on the 'Index of Forbidden Books' by the Sacred Congregation of the Roman Inquisition, and he was placed on house arrest. Galileo's life is the subject of Bertolt Brecht's 1938 play LIFE OF GALILEO, which explores the ups and downs of going from being a celebrated scientist to a convicted dissident. More importantly, the play provides a 'big brother' commentary on humanity and the delusion of blind faith in an era of alternative facts.

PlayMakers Repertory Company What: "Life of Galileo" by Bertolt Brecht. Adaptation by Joseph Discher. Directed by Vivienne Benesch. When: February 27 to March 17, 2019. Opening Night & Press Opening Saturday March 2, 2019. Where: Joan H. Gillings Center for Dramatic Art, 120 Country Club Road, Chapel Hill, NC Tickets: Start at $15; Students tickets start at $10

A 'Forbes' headline from last week read: "Ford Prepares for Mass Layoffs After Losing $1 Billion to Trump's Trade Tariffs, Report Says." In fact, Ford is planning to restructure its company to the tune of $25.5 billion, which could cost as many as 24,000 people their jobs. Seemingly ripped from the headlines, Dominique Morisseau's play SKELETON CREW, which opened at PlayMakers earlier this month, is set in a Detroit auto plant on the verge of shutting down amidst the recession in 2008. Already having lost half its crew, the plant is struggling to keep operations afloat. Morisseau examines the plight of four workers and their intertwined relationships.

PlayMakers Repertory Company proudly presents Dominique Morisseau's 'Skeleton Crew,' the searing dramatic final installment in her Detroit Trilogy. Directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton, the production runs from October 10 to 28, 2018.

PlayMakers Repertory Company proudly presents Dominique Morisseau's 'Skeleton Crew,' the searing dramatic final installment in her Detroit Trilogy. Directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton, the production runs from October 10 to 28, 2018.

PlayMakers Repertory Company proudly presents Dominique Morisseau's "Skeleton Crew," the searing dramatic final installment in her Detroit Trilogy. Directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton, the production runs from October 10 to 28, 2018.

Acclaimed playwright Mike Wiley returns to PlayMakers with singer-songwriter Laurelyn Dossett to lead us on a musical journey across time, unearthing the cycles of history in a small North Carolina town.

PlayMakers Repertory Company proudly presents the world premiere of 'Leaving Eden' a play with music, script by North Carolina playwright and UNC-Chapel Hill alumnus Mike WIley, and music & lyrics by North Carolina singer-songwriter Laurelyn Dossett. The production, the first fully commissioned work by the theatre, is directed by PlayMakers' Producing Artistic Director, Vivienne Benesch, and runs from April 4 to 22, 2018.

PlayMakers Repertory Company presents "The Christians" by 2017 Tony-nominated playwright, Lucas Hnath. The production, which is directed by Triad Stage founder Preston Lane, runs from February 1 to March 10, 2018 in rotating repertory with the Moliere classic "Tartuffe" (adapted by David Ball).

PlayMakers Repertory Company's 'Sense and Sensibility' by Kate Hamill, opened last night, October 18.

PlayMakers Repertory Company proudly presents Sense and Sensibility by Kate Hamill (based on the classic Jane Austen novel). The production is directed by Taibi Magar, in her PlayMakers directorial debut.

PlayMakers Repertory Company proudly presents Lerner and Loewe's 'My Fair Lady' at the Paul Green Theatre, now through April 29, 2017.

PlayMakers Repertory Company proudly presents Lerner and Loewe's 'My Fair Lady' at the Paul Green Theatre, from April 5 through 29, 2017.