Casey Hoekstra News

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night opens this week at Writers Theatre!

Writers Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma announce initial casting for the company's previously announced 2018/19 season.

Music and plot are so closely intertwined in Appoggiatura, that you can't mention one without the other. Even the title reflects this, it means: a grace note performed before a note of the melody and falling on the beat. The play, part of a trilogy written by playwright-in-residence James Still, follows three travelers on a sojourn through lovely Venice. On their journey they wander the canals finding pieces of their hearts as they go. The city feels like one of the main characters in the story. As one actor notes, 'Venice is as old and broken as the rest of us.'.

Watch director James DeVita discuss CYRANO DE BERGERAC at American Players Theatre!

Watch director John Langs discuss staging A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at American Players Theatre!

A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE by Arthur Miller plays at American Players Theatre's Touchstone Theatre until October 22, and the critics are weighing in!

CYRANO DE BERGERAC at American Players Theatre's newly renovated Hill Theatre is a timeless romance filled with wit and heart-stopping action.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at American Players Theatre's newly renovated Hill Theatre brings a modern spin on this Shakespearean classic, which first played on the American Players Theatre stage thirty seven years ago.

Willy Loman (Wonderfully portrayed by Brian Mani) is a phony, a faker. He may very well be aware of this fact, and yet...he may not. Who among us has not a time or two filled in the blank spaces of our memory?

Arthur Miller's 1949 Pulitzer Prize winning play Death of a Salesman might be considered by critics the most influential play of the 20th century. American Players Theatre presents a visceral, gut-wrenching production at the Up the Hill Theatre, the scenery drenched in depression glass colored green.: A green bedspread on a tarnished brass bed, a green ice box stands behind a humble green table and four chairs. Envisioned by Scenic Designer Michael Ganio, did he and veteran Director Kenneth Albers infer Willy Loman suffer from depression, was green with envy for his his brother Ben and friend Charley? Or did this particular hue represent the institutional green characterizing hospitals and mental asylums in the '40's and '50's symbolizing the breakdown between a person's memory and reality that Willy and his family struggle with?

Quite refreshing and revitalizing as a summer breeze, American Players Theater (APT) opened their 2016 Up the Hill season in Spring Green with a wild version of William Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors. Directed by the well-known David Frank, this condensed Comedy revisits a slight nod to Lewis Carroll's 'The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland.' The production plays broadly by quoting  Shakespeare's verse with a tongue in cheek delivery also heightened by Victorian costumes designed by Fabio Tablini.  The imaginative designer envisioned two Dromios which might resemble Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, clothed in wide striped pants, vivid colored jackets and huge straw hats. The story set amid an Ephesus where square marble columns and a great gate placed on the left Up The Hill stage fashioned by Scenic Designer Nayna Ramey, gives Ephesus a rather dream like quality. 

Confession: I've never read THE JUNGLE BOOK (the collection of stories written by Rudyard Kipling in 1894) or seen the 1967 Disney movie (that I can remember). So I was on the fence about seeing Children's Theatre Company's new adaptation, until I saw the cast list. They're about a month into their two and a half month run, and I'm so glad I decided to see the show. This coming of age story that just happens to take place in a jungle is a wonderful tale of friendship, family, community, interdependence with nature, and finally having the courage to strike out on your own. With a sparse adaptation featuring just five actors playing all of the characters (most of them animals), whimsical musical accompaniment and sound effects, and a set that's like the best playground imaginable, THE JUNGLE BOOK is sheer delight from start to finish.

Children's Theatre Company (CTC) is extending the premiere stage adaptation of The Jungle Book for a second week, closing December 20. This classic tale is brought to stunning new life through director Greg Banks' unique style that emphasizes the sheer virtuosity of the actors.

Yesterday I sat on the famous thrust stage of the Guthrie Theater and watched a bunch of soldiers, lovers, and fairies dance, sing, fly, converse, love, hate, and generally cavort around in a bare circular space. Or was it all a dream? Such is the Guthrie's latest production of perhaps Shakespeare's best loved romantic comedy, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, that after three hours of spellbinding theater, you're not quite sure if what you saw just happened, or perhaps, as Puck suggests in his epilogue, it was all just a dream. Artistic Director Joe Dowling has returned to an old favorite in his final season at the Guthrie, assembling a gorgeous and talented cast of local favorites with a few national talents thrown in. It's no wonder that he returned to this show; this MIDSUMMER is a dream of a production, with plenty of spectacle in the form of dancing, flying, singing fairies, humor in the form of typical Shakesperean hijinks, and heart in this sweet romance that ends with a neat happily ever after. Everything about it is truly a delight.

Performed in four 15-minute quarters with a half-time show, featuring a dance company, a drum corps, and a fully-padded cast, COLOSSAL is an epic event that simultaneously celebrates and attacks our nation's most popular form of theater: football.

Performed in four 15-minute quarters with a half-time show, featuring a dance company, a drum corps, and a fully-padded cast, COLOSSAL is an epic event that simultaneously celebrates and attacks our nation's most popular form of theater: football.

Theatre in the Round Players (TRP) presents the drama Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams in weekend performances October 12 through November 4, 2012. Get a first look at the cast in the photos below!

Theatre in the Round Players (TRP) presents the drama Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams in weekend performances October 12 through November 4, 2012. Get a first look at the cast in the photos below!

Georgia Shakespeare announces the Family Classics Series production, The Legend of the Sword in the Stone. The production is based on the work of T.H. White, adapted and directed by Tim Conley and Allen O'Reilly and featuring the 2010-2011 Will Power Ensemble. Shrew: the Musical, Love's Labour's Lost and King Lear continue to run in repertory through August 8.

Georgia Shakespeare announces the Family Classics Series production, The Legend of the Sword in the Stone, opening Tuesday, July 20, 7pm curtain. The production is based on the work of T.H. White, adapted and directed by Tim Conley and Allen O'Reilly and featuring the 2010-2011 Will Power Ensemble. Shrew: the Musical, Love's Labour's Lost and King Lear continue to run in repertory through August 8.