Governors State University Presents the World Premiere Musical RED SUMMER Next Month
by Stephi Wild
- Aug 8, 2022
Governors State University’s Center for Performing Arts announces the world premiere of Red Summer written by Lookingglass Theatre’s Andrew White and MPAACT’s Shepsu Aakhu, composed by Shawn Wallace, directed by Lydia J. Dymond. Red Summer will play at the Center for the Performing Arts stage, just 35 miles from Chicago in University Park, IL, September 16-25, 2022.
BWW Review: CATF's THE FIFTH DOMAIN a New, Warp-Speed Cyber-Thriller
by Andrew White
- Jul 11, 2022
With Victor Lesniewski's cyber-drama 'The Fifth Domain,' CATF steps boldly into a genre that is in its relative infancy. Focused on the world of code, on computer hacking, and on the shadowy world of international cyber-espionage, Lesniewski contemplates the darkest potential behind the infernal machines that now rule our lives.
BWW Review: Contemporary American Theater Festival's SHEEPDOG A Gritty, Moving Tour-de-Force
by Andrew White
- Jul 11, 2022
Sarah Ellen Stephens delivers a passionate, nuanced performance as Amina, a black Cleveland police officer whose relationship with a fellow, white officer is dealt a huge blow when a late-night confrontation with a suspect leads to a shooting, under murky circumstances. Playwright Kevin Artigue does an admirable job of laying out the complexities, leaving enough room for all of us to contemplate how easily even the best of intentions can implode.
BWW Review: USHUAIA BLUE an Immersive, Deep Environmental Dive at CATF
by Andrew White
- Jul 11, 2022
Jessi D. Hill's production of 'Ushuaia Blue' offers us a performance piece that is part tone poem, part personal tragedy, part environmental meditation. Shifting with ease from one time and place, and from one frame of mind, to another, the cast offers us a glimpse of how our understanding of global climate change needs to expand-beyond the microscopes and bathyscaphes, beyond the labs, beyond those cute penguins, and out onto the ever-more-endangered ice of Antarctica.
BWW Review: BABEL at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival--A Play Unstuck In Time
by Andrew White
- Jul 11, 2022
Jacqueline Goldfinger's 'Babel' was written in, and for, a different time and a different nation. Although designed as a comedy, watching its action unfold in the Marinoff Theatre at this year's Contemporary American Theatre Festival, in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, it's striking how the end of Roe vs. Wade, and the already-engaged battle over women's bodies nationwide, can force an entirely different reckoning from the audience.
BWW Review: CATF's THE HOUSE OF THE NEGRO INSANE is a Riveting, Mind-Blowing Experience
by Andrew White
- Jul 11, 2022
Terence Anthony's offering at this year's Contemporary American Theater Festival, 'The House of the Negro Insane,' will sweep you up in a tornado of emotions and deliver a few gut-punches as well, with riveting characters whose challenges make our own problems look as trivial as that fly landing on your picnic blanket. A polished piece of playwriting, this piece-now finally launched, after the long COVID hiatus-should find its place on stages across the country.
BWW Review: Olney Theatre's THE JOY THAT CARRIES YOU a Touching Journey Towards Renewal
by Andrew White
- May 21, 2022
'The Joy that Carries You' is a touching and touchingly thoughtful journey, one which many might recognize in their own. But Secka and Stoller also make this a celebration of the relationships which until (only) very recently were taboo. Thank goodness we're no longer at the stage where seeing two women choosing each other as life-partners is a shock; we can now see them as human beings. But we also know that relationships like this are still fraught with a unique form of anxiety, between the women themselves but especially with their families.
BWW Review: Contemporary American Theatre Festival's Listening Party for REDEEMED Yet Another Afternoon of Gripping Drama
by Andrew White
- May 10, 2022
Recently, CATF supporters gathered to hear one of playwright Chisa Hutchinson's latest pieces, a radio drama that was co-produced with the Vermont's Dorset Theatre Festival. Over a fine, inventively crafted lunch at one of Shepherdstown's newest restaurants, Alma Bea (near the railroad tracks, just a couple blocks from the town's main drag), we were all given headphones and were instantly immersed in a tense, emotionally-wrenching drama 'Redeemed.'
BWW Review: Synetic Theater's SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS a Raucous Hilarious Showcase
by Andrew White
- Apr 9, 2022
If there were any doubt in your mind that theatre is back, as thrilling and death-defying as ever, make your plans now to see Synetic Theatre’s take on the old Italian classic “Servant of Two Masters.” Fasten your seat belts, you’ll be on a roller-coaster of virtuosity, wordless and breathless, for a solid hour and a half.
BWW News: CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEATRE FESTIVAL Returns This July!
by Andrew White
- Apr 5, 2022
It's a new day in Shepherdstown, indeed; after a 2-year hiatus from live theatre, the Contemporary American Theater Festival is returning with a panoply of performances to choose from: six fascinating plays, workshops and coffees with the artists, and a cabaret or two to complement the mainstage events.
Review Roundup: Critics Sound Off On A.D. 16 At Olney Theater Center
by Alan Henry
- Feb 14, 2022
The reviews are in for Olney Theatre Center's world premiere of A.D. 16, now on stage through March 6, 2022. The new musical is by writers Cinco Paul (co-creator of Despicable Me and Schmigadoon!) and Bekah Brunstetter (producer and writer on This Is Us).
BWW Review: Mosaic Theatre's DEAR MAPEL A Compelling, Personal Journey
by Andrew White
- Feb 6, 2022
Any time you can spend with a master storyteller is time well spent; and when the storyteller is Psalmayene 24, you know you're in for a rewarding, though-provoking evening. This time, digging into his past, with all the joys and pain that growing up involves, audiences can look forward to a performance that is by turns dazzling, drop-dead hilarious, but with moments of darkness that remain all too familiar.
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