Irene Crist News

Billy is a young man born deaf and raised in a loud, opinionated family where his parents and siblings never bothered to learn sign language, requiring him to adapt to the hearing world. When he meets Sylvia, a young woman from a deaf family who introduces him to deaf culture, Billy suddenly feels confidence and a sense of belonging to a 'tribe' he's never known before. Winner of the 2012 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, Tribes is a poignant new drama about love, family, and finding one's voice.

Billy is a young man born deaf and raised in a loud, opinionated family where his parents and siblings never bothered to learn sign language, requiring him to adapt to the hearing world. When he meets Sylvia, a young woman from a deaf family who introduces him to deaf culture, Billy suddenly feels confidence and a sense of belonging to a "tribe" he's never known before. Winner of the 2012 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, Tribes is a poignant new drama about love, family, and finding one's voice.

I wonder if Jackie Nichols is providing on-site psychiatric help for those involved in the repertory presentations of Anton Chekhov's THE SEAGULL and Christopher Durang's VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE at Playhouse on the Square. Surely the veteran Irene Crist, performing double duty as Director of both the uber-heavy Chekhov piece and the giddy Durang parody, is on a schizoid seesaw as she veers from the serious to the silly - and the same might be said from the cast members who swap costumes and take their characterizations from one play to the next. Having just seen THE SEAGULL last week, I was eager to see how Durang's TONY-winning play would parlay all that Chekhovian talk about artists and pseudo-artists into something more laughter-inducing. However, rest assured that the talents involved in both plays rise (or fall, as it were) without any difficulty.

Staging a play by Henrik Ibsen or Anton Chekhov poses certain problems for theatre groups. On the one hand, there is a commitment to 'the classics' - and there is an opportunity for actors (especially young ones) to examine their talents and extend them in directions they have not gone before. The 'downside' is the reputation such plays have as 'talkfests,' for they are often deliberate and detailed in their construction of characters and relationships. I was reminded of this during both the performance and the intermission of Playhouse on the Square's production of Chekhov's THE SEAGULL (which, literally, follows on the 'heels' of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW). During Intermission, two couples stood next to my seat and discussed the play. With a hint of apology, one lady stated, 'The actors are very good, but I really prefer the musicals.' Yet, as I watched and listened to the play, I glanced at one audience member, leaning forward and rapt in concentration; and further down my row, another could audibly be heard gasping at the insensitivity of 'Madame Arkandina' toward her son.

Humorist Christopher Durang pays homage to Chekhov's classic themes of love and loss in this 2013 Tony Award winner for Best Play. Vanya and Sonia have frittered their lives away in their family's Pennsylvania farmhouse full of regret and angst. When their self-absorbed movie star sister Masha visits with her prized 20-something boy toy Spike, the stage is set for an absurd weekend of general hilarity and sibling scorekeeping.

Famous, but aging, actress Irina Arkadina is obsessed with a callous younger lover, dismissive of her son the frustrated playwright, and suspicious of an admiring ingenue. Christopher Hampton's adaptation of Anton Chekhov's 1895 play lays bare its comedy and its cruelty in a household overflowing with creativity, fantasies of fame, jealousy, and unrequited love.

Billy is a young man born deaf and raised in a loud, opinionated family where his parents and siblings never bothered to learn sign language, requiring him to adapt to the hearing world. When he meets Sylvia, a young woman from a deaf family who introduces him to deaf culture, Billy suddenly feels confidence and a sense of belonging to a 'tribe' he's never known before. Winner of the 2012 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, Tribes is a poignant new drama about love, family, and finding one's voice.

Famous, but aging, actress Irina Arkadina is obsessed with a callous younger lover, dismissive of her son the frustrated playwright, and suspicious of an admiring ingenue. Christopher Hampton's adaptation of Anton Chekhov's 1895 play lays bare its comedy and its cruelty in a household overflowing with creativity, fantasies of fame, jealousy, and unrequited love.

Humorist Christopher Durang pays homage to Chekhov's classic themes of love and loss in this 2013 Tony Award winner for Best Play. Vanya and Sonia have frittered their lives away in their family's Pennsylvania farmhouse full of regret and angst. When their self-absorbed movie star sister Masha visits with her prized 20-something boy toy Spike, the stage is set for an absurd weekend of general hilarity and sibling scorekeeping.

Votes are cast; polls are closed; and results have been tabulated! This was our biggest year yet! After a record number of voters in more than 60 regions worldwide, BroadwayWorld is very excited to announce the 2014 Memphis winners! Thanks to all who voted, and huge congratulations to all the winners!

It's your last week to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Memphis Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 26th. Voting closes at the end of the year, in under one week!

Time is ticking on your last chance to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Memphis Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 19th. Voting closes at the end of the year!

Voting has now opened for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Memphis Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 4th.

Voting has now opened for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Memphis Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 4th.

Voting has now opened for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Memphis Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of November 25th.

Following the recent triumph of the musical THE ADDAMS FAMILY, and nestled quietly in the more intimate setting of Theatre Memphis' Next Stage, Carson McCullers' touching THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING offers yet another 'Addams Family.' This time, however, the trio of performers who dominate the play - tomboyish 'Frankie' (nee 'Frances'), odd little 'John Henry,' and warm, nurturing 'Berenice' - easily draw the audience members into the world of their kitchen and garden area. It may seem a ridiculous notion, but I couldn't help seeing a similarity between the two plays. In both plays, the main characters are removed from an outside, 'normal' world; and in both plays, there are characters who wish to be seen by others as normal. Yet, THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING, despite its moments of humor (and there are many such moments), is full of longing and pain and frustration.

The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers will ceremoniously take over the Next Stage at Theatre today, September 19 - October 5, 2014, as the first production in the 100-seat black box space for the current season.

The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers will ceremoniously take over the Next Stage at Theatre September 19 - October 5, 2014, as the first production in the 100-seat black box space for the current season. An American classic, this story is funny as it is touching and heart-warming, Frankie, a 12-year-old tomboy, is coming of age in a small Southern town in the 1940s.

The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers will ceremoniously take over the Next Stage at Theatre September 19 - October 5, 2014, as the first production in the 100-seat black box space for the current season. An American classic, this story is funny as it is touching and heart-warming, Frankie, a 12-year-old tomboy, is coming of age in a small Southern town in the 1940s. She is a troubled adolescent who dreams of escape from her seemingly hopeless environment and is befriended by her loving confidante housekeeper and younger cousin. A plot that has timeless relevance, it is a mid-century look at attitudes on racial and sexual identity that has lessons that can be applied to society today.

Amy Herzog's family drama (albeit a drama with a number of very funny moments) 4000 MILES is unobtrusively generating a thoughtful, low-key alternative to the outsized HAIRSPRAY (already a sellout at 'Big Sister' Playhouse on the Square just a block or so away); and it's a safe bet that a number of theatre-going Memphians are already trekking south to DeSoto Family Theatre's epic presentation of LES MISERABLES. However, this intelligent, intimate little piece is currently providing a rewarding alternative at Theatre Works, quietly nestled across from the parking garage at Overton Square.