Tony Reilly News

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson runs now through October 20, 2013 at Portland Stage. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

'Blues are a way of understanding,' Ma Rainey tells her band in the second act of August Wilson's 1984 play set in a 1920s recording studio in Jim Crow era Chicago. And, indeed, Wilson uses music as a means of making sense of the African-American experience in a world scarred by racism and violence. The Portland Stage's new production, which opens its 2013-2014 season, is a tautly directed, intensely acted interpretation of Wilson's meditation on what it is like to be black in a white man's world. The play, which uses the a quasi-musical blues structure of long, seemingly improvised solos interspersed with short rhythmic exchanges of dialogue, builds slowly and tensely to its chilling climax. Along the way, it penetrates the recesses of the musicians' hearts, their troubled pasts and their tenuous presents. And it examines the high cost of 'making it' in white America, where, for all their artistic talent and success, these determined entertainers remain faceless and invisible. Delivering Wilson's prose with an engaging blend of humor and pathos, the Portland Stage Company's cast scales the poetic heights of the playwright's genius.

The brutality and barbarism of Shakespeare's early 'revenge' play, Titus Andronicus, make it difficult fare for modern audiences. And yet, as director Stacey Koloski says about her staging at South Portland's Mad Horse Theatre Company: 'Titus Andronicus shows the human cost to the cycle of war and violence.' That the tragedy with all its on-stage atrocities may be 'frighteningly relevant today' does not make the experience any less painful for the spectators. Yet despite its assault on our emotions and senses, the audience at the Mad Horse Theatre cannot help but be gripped and moved by what it witnesses.

I am here to tell you that not only can Shakespeare's work be truly life changing, but it IS accessible, and topical in our present world climate. And a production like the Mad Horse Theatre's stellar presentation of Titus Andronicus proves that to a tee.

Mad Horse closes its 27th Season on a grand scale with one of Shakespeare's most sweeping and controversial plays. In this depiction of an aging warrior's return home, TITUS ANDRONICUS is a masterful examination of power, corruption, loyalty to family and to country, and the lengths to which one man will go to right a horrifying wrong. Click below to watch a promo for the show!

Mad Horse closes its 27th Season on a grand scale with one of Shakespeare's most sweeping and controversial plays. In this depiction of an aging warrior's return home, TITUS ANDRONICUS is a masterful examination of power, corruption, loyalty to family and to country, and the lengths to which one man will go to right a horrifying wrong.

Mad Horse closes its 27th Season on a grand scale with one of Shakespeare's most sweeping and controversial plays. In this depiction of an aging warrior's return home, TITUS ANDRONICUS is a masterful examination of power, corruption, loyalty to family and to country, and the lengths to which one man will go to right a horrifying wrong.

Good Theater, the professional theater company in residence at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland, is proud to announce its 12th Anniversary Season. The company will host two Maine premieres, a Portland premiere and a New England premiere for 2013-2014.

Acorn Productions has announced the performance schedule for the 11th annual Maine Playwrights Festival. This year's festival takes place during the month of April, beginning with a special fundraising event titled "Write Right Wright" on April 3rd, continuing with 2 staged readings on April 7th and 14th, and culminating with 2 weekends of fully staged performances at the St. Lawrence Arts Center from April 19th to 29th.

In celebration of St. Patrick, Portland Ovations presents traditional Irish ensemble Danú at Merrill Auditorium on Thursday, March 15th at 7:30pm.

Good Theater will present the Maine premiere of the recent Broadway success NEXT FALL through February 19, at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland.

In celebration of St. Patrick, Portland Ovations presents traditional Irish ensemble Danú at Merrill Auditorium on Thursday, March 15th at 7:30pm.

Good Theater presents the Maine premiere of the recent Best Play Tony Award nominee, NEXT FALL by Geoffrey Nauffts from January 25 - February 19.

Good Theater will present the Maine premiere of the recent Broadway success NEXT FALL beginning January 25 and running through February 19, at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland.

Good Theater's production of NEXT FALL by Geoffrey Nauffts will be opening January 25 and playing through February 19, at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland.

Good Theater will present the Maine premiere of the recent Broadway success NEXT FALL beginning January 25 and running through February 19, at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress Street, Portland.

Acorn Productions, a non-profit art presented located in the Dana Warp Mill, announces the complete line-up for the tenth annual Maine Playwrights Festival (MPF), the company's annual celebration of the work of local theater artists.

Frost/Nixon the award winning play by Peter Morgan will make its Maine premiere at Good Theater beginning October 29 for a run through November 22.

Frost/Nixon the award winning play by Peter Morgan will make its Maine premiere at Good Theater beginning October 29 for a run through November 22.

Frost/Nixon the award winning play by Peter Morgan will make its Maine premiere at Good Theater beginning October 29 for a run through November 22.