'Compulsion or the House Behind' is a good show, with a strong creative team and an immensely talented cast, but it’s also a flawed one. With pacing issues and a shyness about fully facing the questions it raises, it’s often a frustrating production. But it’s a thought-provoking one for that same reason.
Beginning on January 26, and running through February 20, 2022, Theater J will bring Compulsion or the House Behind to the stage. Hailed by the New York Times as an “absorbing” and “fascinating, multilayered tale,” Compulsion tells the semi-fictional story of Sid Silver, a man obsessed with making sure the world hears the story of Anne Frank.
Theater J has announced Theater J’s 31st season, which includes five plays and a bonus holiday musical engagement. The nation’s largest and most prominent Jewish theater company, Theater J eagerly anticipates once again gathering audiences for a season that promises to be life-affirming, celebratory, and unforgettable.
This production of Shakespeare's Othello has revelations galore, performed by an ensemble of actors whose comfort with the language and emotional power keep you riveted. Even if you've seen any number of Othello's beforea?'especially if you've seen a fewa?'the Riot Grrrls interpretation, as staged in the spartan Capitol Hill Arts Workshop space, gives vivid life to characters and speeches that usually get lost in the cavernous main stages across town.
Taffety Punk, the insurrectionist yet classically trained company now in its 15th year does what it does best in a pair of striking Greek adaptations by Anne Carson, presented in one invigorating sitting.
Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park will present THE LAST WIDE OPEN, a love story that encourages audiences to take a personal, humorous look at modern-day courtship, romance and relationships, just in time for Valentine's Day. It begins Feb. 9 in the Shelterhouse Theatre and runs through March 10, with support from The Rosenthal Family Foundation, Season Sponsor of New Work. Opening night is Feb. 14.
Taffety Punk Theatre Company's Bootleg Shakespeare production HENRY VI, PART 3 is performance without a net - exciting, dangerous, riveting, and raw. Bootleg Shakespeare isn't designed to be polished or perfect, it's designed to be fresh and immediate. And it delivered. What's more amazing? The actors arrived at 10:00 am Monday with roles assigned and lines memorized. That's it. Working together under the direction of Taffety Punk Artistic Director Marcus Kyd, over the next few hours the 32 actors DIY'ed the production and were on stage in front of an audience at 7:30 pm. There were minimal props, lights, and costumes-but the red and white paper lapel flowers told us exactly what we needed to know when every epic battle scene and every word of Shakespeare's text was performed.
While it's hard to fully embrace this comedic play, it is worth a watch if only for the fine acting and compelling thematic content.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presents Where Words Once Were, a wordplay-filled world premiere commission from playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer, directed by Colin Hovde. The production, most appropriate for patrons age nine and up, is part of the Kennedy Center's Theater for Young Audiences 2016-2017 season, and will run November 5 through November 27, 2016.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presents Where Words Once Were, a wordplay-filled world premiere commission from playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer, directed by Colin Hovde. The production, most appropriate for patrons age nine and up, is part of the Kennedy Center's Theater for Young Audiences 2016-2017 season, and will run November 5 through November 27, 2016.
Director Marcus Kyd has assembled a solid roster of professional actors to give Michael Milligan's mythic drama, composed entirely in iambic pentameter, a grand staging. On the Globe Theater's stage it was the actor's presence, the actor's gift of language that held the audience rapt with attention. Kyd's cast understands this, and gives vivid life to every one of Milligan's lines.
Absurdist comedy and sparking physical comedy collide in Taffety Punk's Inheritance Canyone
Under the direction of Joel David Santner (who will shortly be moving to California for film school, a great loss to the DC area) the company has proven yet again that when viewed with fresh eyes, the early First Quarto version of 'Hamlet' is a limitless source of inspiration for artists and audiences alike. Although the company pulls its aesthetic punches by inviting a few guys to join the cast (including Marcus Kyd in the title role), the performance is of a dependable, high quality that makes this a rare, intimate view of the Bard's work.
Words are indeed the star of this production as much as the Devil himself in Marcus Kyd's ambitious The Devil in His Own Words stitched together from more than 30 literary works ranging from the Quran to the Book of Revelations, from Twain to Bulgakov to C.S. Lewis. Like a patchwork, the pieces contrast vividly in tone, pace and intensity, highlighting Kyd's artistic range and strength.
A fascinating blend of dance, monologue, dialogue, lights, sound effects and live music, 'Enter Ophelia, distracted' gives you a piercingly perceptive look into the psyche of a young girl fated to lose first the love of her life, then her father, her mind, and then her life. Ophelia's fictional fate resonates strongly with women to this day, and Kim Gilbert-with the help of Choreographer Erin F. Mitchell-has plumbed her depths in ways that are intensely personal and unforgettable. The intimate confines of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop fairly burst with the passions unleashed in this piece.
The Baltimore Symphony, Folger Theatre Company, and Baltimore Choral Arts Society Women's Chorus combine for a musical delight.
Entertaining and well-acted, this one is worth your time. Tickets are only $15. There's no reason not to go.
But more than just a play about trying to bypass the Nazi regime and their cruelty, this play is about loss. Not just one loss, but continual and mounting loss. De Bonheur first loses his country, then his family of actors and finally bids farewell to his most abiding love-his art.
MetroStage will be producing its first In Rep series this spring featuring two one man shows The Thousandth Night by Carol Wolf starring Marcus Kyd (today, Apr. 3-May 18) and Underneath the Lintel by Glen Berger starring Paul Morella (Apr. 17-May 25.) Both will be directed by John Vreeke.
