Vince Eisenson News

The 2017 awards honor productions which opened between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017. Nominations were completely reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended October 31, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors.

Something is clearly rotten in the state of the DFL and perhaps America itself. Whipping, or the Football Hamlet, written, directed, and choreographed by Kathleen Akerley, is entertaining and humorous as it is stirring and thought-provoking.

Tom Prewitt, Avant Bard's current artistic director, knew who he wanted to take on this monumental role: Rick Foucheux. A 35-year veteran of stages large and small in the Washington, DC area, Foucheux has played everything from realism to the avant garde; modern and the classics. Capping off his storied career as he is about to leave the limelight to spend time as a grandfather and to travel, Foucheux taking on Lear is a match made in heaven. Effortlessly commanding the stage, Shakespeare's words and the arc of the tragedy seem newly minted in Foucheux's skillful hands.

An epic parent-child drama and then some. Check out photos from the show below!

This version of Richard III has been stranded in a World War I setting where it does not fit very well, and gives us an exceedingly tight focus on Richard himself, to the exclusion of a plethora of characters and relationships. The spareness of the resulting work is disorienting. Who are all these people and why are we supposed to care about them, again? Maybe we'll figure it out and maybe we won't. Richard remains a fascinating character: a moral and physical cripple who takes the audience into his confidence and challenges us to dislike him as he schemes, murders, seduces, and marries his way onto the throne.

Faction of Fools Theatre Company presents William Shakespeare's THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, pairing heightened text with heightened physical comedy in the style of Commedia dell'Arte. One of Shakespeare's most rich and intricate plays is also one of his most controversial, as it explores a burgeoning merchant class and what happens when things get personal. By utilizing masks and physical characterizations from Commedia dell'Arte, Faction of Fools puts the comedy back into the text, allowing the tragic junctures to cut all the more profoundly. Performances run November 18th - December 11th, 2016 in the Eastman Studio Theatre at Gallaudet University.

Comedy. Shakespeare. Theatre. Fear is it all and then some.

If you view this production as an entertainment for those whose taste runs to Mad Max, to Rocky Horror, and to the movies of Quentin Tarantino (none of which I'm knocking, but let's not call them Shakespeare), then this may be a lark for you.

Get ready for an annual Baltimore tradition.

Chesapeake Shakespeare Theatre Moves into downtown Baltimore.

Wow to the theater, a three-tier structure that echoes the layout of Shakespeare's own Globe. Wow to the play, one of Shakespeare's funniest. Wow to the acting, the direction, the staging, the lighting. The audience is assured of over two hours of being in stitches.

It's often been observed of Shakespeare that his plays don't tell you what he thinks about most subjects. But it is hard to doubt that he believed in romantic love, that mad, intoxicating, all-encompassing feeling that inspires courtship and marriage. Many of his comedies are essentially love delivery vehicles, giddy confections that give the audience an extraordinarily broad license just to roll in the bliss of it. I think especially of Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. But the most love-mad of all is surely As You Like It. And thankfully, that love-mad champagne feeling is served up nearly full-force in the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company's latest rendering of the play.

This month, audiences have the extraordinary opportunity to see Shakespeare's murderous play, Richard III. Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Maryland's premier professional classics stage company, will present the bloody tragedy outdoors among the stone ruins of the PFI Historic Park.

This October, audiences have the extraordinary opportunity to see Shakespeare's murderous play, Richard III. Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Maryland's premier professional classics stage company, will present the bloody tragedy outdoors among the stone ruins of the PFI Historic Park.

In a play in which morally acceptable and unacceptable stances are hopelessly intertwined and might turn an audience off, there are two things that will draw us to the play anyway: Portia and Shylock. If they are right, the play will succeed, despite all its difficulties. They are right as can be in this staging.

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Maryland's premier classical theatre company will present William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice at Oliver's Carriage House in Columbia, MD, February 17 to March 24, 2012.

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Maryland's premier classical theatre company will present William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice at Oliver's Carriage House in Columbia, MD, February 17 to March 24, 2012.

Now celebrating its ninth year at the ruins in Ellicott City, CSC presents a summer season that is bound to dazzle and delight audiences of all ages. Returning to the picturesque PFI Historic Park, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company will present two wildly popular plays in repertory, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged).

Now celebrating its ninth year at the ruins in Ellicott City, CSC presents a summer season that is bound to dazzle and delight audiences of all ages.