Jacqueline Thompson News

The Black Rep and COCA announce that the two longstanding St. Louis organizations will collaborate to produce a student youth production of Four Little Girls: Birmingham 1963 by Christina Ham. Performances will be held October 18-20 and 25-27, in the newly opened Staenberg Performance Lab at COCA. 

The setting strikes a chord with the audience upon entering the space. Hardwood floors, a simple flat set to the backdrop of the Brooklyn Skyline. The time is the 1950's the season, fall. Five actors/actresses tell the plight of this family in a struggling neighborhood in Brooklyn, and the events that envelope them truly show the heart, and passion inside each and every one of its' centralized characters.

Rehearsals are underway for freeFall's production of Lynn Nottage's Crumbs from the Table of Joy. This Tampa Bay professional theatre premiere opens March 23 and runs through April 14. Crumbs from the Table of Joy stars Alicia Thomas (Ernestine), Rae Davis (Ermina), and Michael J. Kinsey (Godfrey) as the Crump family. This break out play for two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage (Sweat, Ruined) is the coming of age story of a young African American girl whose family is finding their way through 1950's Brooklyn, as she teeters between filtering her life experiences through the fantasy of movies and learning the real poetry and pain of the world. Crumbs from the Table of Joy also stars freeFall favorites Trenell Mooring (freeFall's Our Town and The Little Prince) and Emilee Dupre (Broadway's Chaplin and freeFall's smash hit Cabaret).

Rehearsals are already underway for freeFall's next production of Pulitzer Prize Winning playwright Lynn Nottage's Crumbs from the Table of Joy. This Tampa Bay professional theatre premiere opens March 23 and runs through April 14. Crumbs from the Table of Joy stars Alicia Thomas (Ernestine), Rae Davis (Ermina) and Michael Kinsey (Godfrey) as the Crumb family. This break out play by Lynn Nottage is the coming of age story of a young African American girl whose family is finding its way through 1950's Brooklyn, as she teeters between filtering her life experiences through the fantasy of movies and learning the real poetry and pain of the world. Crumbs from the Table of Joy also stars freeFall favorites Trenell Mooring (freeFall's Our Town & The Little Prince) and Emilee Dupre (Broadway's Chaplin, freeFall's smash hit Cabaret).

The New Jewish Theatre has opened 'District Merchants', by Aaron Posner, and it is certainly among the finest productions I've ever seen there. Posner's script is most remarkably beautiful-it's masterful indeed.

The New Jewish Theatre's 2018-19 season continues with an adaptation of The Merchant of Venice - Aaron Posner's District Merchants, an Uneasy Comedy. The production will be directed by St. Louis Theatre Circle Award winner, Jacqueline Thompson, and runs January 24 - February 10, 2019.

The New Jewish Theatre's 2018-19 season continues with an adaptation of The Merchant of Venice - Aaron Posner's District Merchants, an Uneasy Comedy. The production will be directed by St. Louis Theatre Circle Award winner, Jacqueline Thompson, and runs January 24 - February 10, 2019.

Ben Nordstrom and Kari Ely will play opposite one another in "Into the Breeches!," the headlining production of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis' new program titled, In the Works, set for Oct. 28 through Nov. 24, at the Grandel Theatre. Written by George Brant and directed by Nancy Bell, the month-long, ticketed production is the culmination of the Festival's 2018 season.

Picture Farm Film Festival has announced THE LINEUP for its 5th annual festival, taking place April 13 - 14 at the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn.

As the New Jewish Theatre closes out the first season of our third decade, it's time to make a few changes. So the upcoming 2018-19 Season includes many things that are NEW for the New Jewish Theatre. This includes a new season where four of the five shows are regional premieres which have only been performed a handful of times. Three of the five are comedies.

It's uncanny the way that Upstream Theater is able to produce plays that consistently tackle issues that, while often international in scope, often resonate with situations we face in our own country and, in particular, the current political climate we find ourselves in. A HUMAN BEING DIED THAT NIGHT is a very intriguing and powerful work by Nicholas Wright (adapted from a book by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela) that focuses our attention on post-apartheid South Africa, and which delves into the institutionalized racism that gripped that area of the world for many, many years. It's a subject that it is abhorrent in nature, but one which we seem to see America headed toward with the rise of white nationalist actions and policies. The seeds seem to have been sown with the cultural backlash from certain quarters following the election of Barack Obama, our first African American president, and which are starting to become more dangerously vocal and violent since he left office and was replaced by our current president, who surrounds himself with people whose agendas and ideologies are in direct conflict with the progress that has occurred since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's. This work, though it deals mainly with conciliatory efforts, is one that needs to be seen as a reminder that, if we are to continue to progress as an open society, we need to remain vigilant as citizens to ensure we do not take steps backwards in this regard. There's a lot to contemplate here, and this production is decidedly must-see theatre.

During the 1990s, psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela interviewed Eugene de Kock, commanding officer of the South African government's death squad stationed at Vlakplaas--a man who had ordered and carried out the torture and murder of dozens of anti-apartheid activists, earning the nickname "Prime Evil." De Kock was serving a 212-year prison sentence for crimes against humanity.

The New Jewish Theatre's production of playwright Lynn Nottage's INTIMATE APPAREL is a very engaging work that presents the audience with layers of text and subtext to chew on. It's primarily about the pursuit of a dream, and the events that occur that may delay or derail that dream, but not to the point where the protagonist ever gives up hope. Though set in New York at the turn of the last century, there are a lot of issues brought forth that will ring true for a modern audience. In these especially difficult times, it's a reminder of the way people of color were treated then, something we have to work vigilantly to make sure doesn't happen again. Drawing on the experiences of her great-grandmother, Nottage has written a wonderfully touching, and ultimately hopeful, work that is brought to life with an incredibly well done production by The New Jewish Theatre. I recommend it highly!

The New Jewish Theatre continues its 20th Season with the Award-winning Lynn Nottage play, Intimate Apparel from January 26 - February 12.

The New Jewish Theatre continues its 20th Season with the Award-winning Lynn Nottage play, Intimate Apparel from January 26 - February 12.

Perhaps the best way to approach Dickens' venerable A CHRISTMAS CAROL is straight-forward, with a generous helping of music, sterling performances, and some cool effects to liven up the proceedings. After all, the story, which dates from 1843, has been reworked, parodied, and used as a device by nearly every sitcom and animated show ever made. So, what's old seems new again in The Repertory of St. Louis' current presentation for the holidays. And, what a treat it is. David H. Bell's adaptation is faithful to the spirit and language of the story, which occurs when the industrial revolution has wreaked havoc on the lives of both the old and young. Filled with energy and enthusiasm, this is an absolute must-see for the Christmas season!

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents A Christmas Carol, adapted by David H. Bell from the novella by Charles Dickens and directed by Steven Woolf.

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents A Christmas Carol, adapted by David H. Bell from the novella by Charles Dickens and directed by Steven Woolf.

On November 14, 2016, at 7:30pm at the Kranzberg Arts Center in Grand Center, That Uppity Theatre Company and the St Lou Fringe, present excerpts from a collection of three minute plays specifically written and curated in response to the massacre at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on June 12, 2016, that took the lives of 49 LGBTQ and Allied people.