Take It From Us - 1950 - West End Articles Page 10

With Pride Week approaching, Birmingham Festival Theatre is on time with offering an emotional and striking production of Robert Anderson's 1953 drama 'Tea and Sympathy.' Set at an all boys' school in the early 1950's, the show tackles the fear, insecurity and the eventual anger that people under persecution face. The teenage boys attending the school are written with an amped jocular rambunctiousness. The carnal behavior lurking behind the boy's clean crisp khaki's and sweater vests is a starter kit for toxic masculinity.

Opening week at the Stratford Festival came to a close on Saturday evening with director Antoni Cimolino's production of Shakespeare's THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. Reimagined to take place in the early 1950's, this production is outrageously funny, with charming and distinctive performances by all involved.

City Theatre's Artistic Director, Margaret Ledford, was a joy to interview- as intelligent as she was funny. We talk all things SUMMER SHORTS. City Theatre and the Adrienne Arsht Center present Summer Shorts 2019, May 30 - June 23, at Carnival Studio Theater. The summer theater season starts with a fresh batch of City Theatre's SHORTS at the Arsht Center!

Back by popular demand - ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST FESTIVAL - returns for its much anticipated 6th annual outing in Summer 2019.

Hot Flushes- The Musical takes us back to 2016 (if you can remember a time before Brexit!) and tells the story of a BHS worker, a pension age woman, who discovers that not only is her BHS pension in jeopardy, and her bus pass on hold, but her state pension has been postponed 6 years without warning.

The World Science Festival has unveiled its 2019 program lineup, which presents many of the world's leading scientists, pioneers, artists, and influential thinkers - bringing science to life in imaginative ways throughout the five boroughs of New York City.

According to Wikipedia, the Rashomon effect occurs when an event is given contradictory interpretations by the individuals involved. The effect is named after Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon, in which a murder is described in four contradictory ways by four witnesses. Such is the case in Irish playwright Brian Friel's uniquely structured FAITH HEALER which illustrates the healing power of faith over inner demons via four separate monologues performed by 3 characters travelling together through small towns in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. Their goal is to present small community meetings as best they can, in which they hope to occasionally prove that pure faith can heal even the darkest of maladies.

The Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King and adapted to the stage by Owen O'Neill and David Johns. Directed by Bob Paisley and being performed at the Metropolitan Theatre Ensemble in the Warwick Theatre Kansas City MO April 4-21, 2019 World Premier

The Coney Island Ritual Cabaret Festival marks International Culture Lab's (ICL) 4th consecutive year probing the fantastical partnership of ritual and entertainment on Coney Island USA's (CIUSA) Sideshows by the Seashore stage. This year again ICL has assembled an array of performance artists, musicians, magicians, puppeteers, sideshow performers and dancers, all of whom have been tasked with presenting original works that define ritual cabaret through the lens of their own particular aesthetic, discipline and lineage.

'Strikingly beautiful,' 'ghost-like,' are just two adjectives that make up the mood in which Agatha Christie's Mousetrap, leaves on it's audiences which can witness this 'who-dunnit' now on-stage at Stageworks Theatre in the heart of downtown Tampa. At least that was the first and lasting impression I received upon entering the space Saturday night for a mere sold out performance, that was so stunning I still think about it days later. After all as one character proclaims, 'First impressions are so important,' and this bone chilling first impression still has me gasping for air.

In an extraordinary concert-film event, only the second such screening ever in the United States, the blockbuster film Titanic will be shown on a vast LED outdoor screen with James Horner's epic score performed live by the New West Symphony's renowned orchestra on Saturday night, June 22, in Thousand Oaks.   The special showing will take place at the William Rolland Stadium on the campus of California Lutheran University.

The Coney Island Ritual Cabaret Festival marks International Culture Lab's (ICL) 4th consecutive year probing the fantastical partnership of ritual and entertainment on Coney Island USA's (CIUSA) Sideshows by the Seashore stage. This year again ICL has assembled an array of performance artists, musicians, magicians, puppeteers, sideshow performers and dancers, all of whom have been tasked with presenting original works that define ritual cabaret through the lens of their own particular aesthetic, discipline and lineage.

Berkeley Playhouse Founding Artistic Director Elizabeth McKoy and Executive Director and Producer Kimberly Dooley announced today that the 12th professional season of their award-winning theater company for all ages includes five brand-new productions that will stir the soul and ignite challenging conversations about the world we live in. 

For its second original production, Labyrinth Stage Productions (LSP) presents the world premiere of Daughters of Mile End, from April 3 to 6, 2019 at DB Clarke Theatre (1455 de Maisonneuve West). Written by LSP's co-founders, Pearl Lottner Rothenberg and Claudia Litvak Polachek, the play is about four Mile End girls and the diverse paths their lives take as they grow into adulthood and beyond. The all-female multi-generational cast of thirteen is under the direction of Rachelle Glait, with set and costume designs by the multi-award winning John Dinning and Louise Bourret respectively.

Will anyone else but Ambrogio Maestri bring the same dynamism to Robert Carsen's 1950's take on Verdi's masterpiece, FALSTAFF? Time will tell. But the return of the wonderful production, with the great Met orchestra under conductor Richard Farnes and an all-around terrific cast, brought a little sunshine into the gray winter in New York.

Four symphonic orchestras, a major heritage museum and one of Los Angeles' leading performing arts centers will join forces in 2020 for an ambitious collaborative initiative that will bring to life the sounds of music once lost. 

With Belvo and Meyer leading the way, this is as funny an ODD COUPLE as you will likely see.

Jeff Award winner and TimeLine Associate Artistic Director Nick Bowling stages a fresh take on the beloved Broadway fable where mobsters, mayhem and musical comedy light up the stage.

Ivo van Hove directs Gillian Anderson and Lily James in his new adaptation of All About Eve, a razor-sharp, unsettling expose of the eternal obsession at the heart of show-business. Let's see what the critics had to say.

Incoming Artistic Director Simon Godwin today announces Shakespeare Theatre Company's 2019-2020 Season. Godwin's debut season highlights his artistic aspirations for the company to create high quality, exciting, inclusive theatre. Godwin states, This is not my season, but ours, everybody's season.

Fasten your seatbelts! Ivo van Hove has taken on the ultimate quotable backstage melodrama: Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1950 Oscar-winning film about a celebrated actress and her young wannabe assistant. And the modern star power is assured: Gillian Anderson succeeds Bette Davis, while Lily James follows in the scheming footsteps of Anne Baxter.

Well, next up in decluttering my apartment is clearing out the big, tall stack of different Guys and Dolls CDs I've spent a few decades collecting. I think I could hack this particular task without any tears (or maybe like you know without having to blog about it) were it not for that gorgeous black square with the orange and yellow title letters thrown into the air alongside perfect pair of cartoon dice. 1992 Grammy Award-winning New Broadway Cast Recording, it's gonna be hard to leave you, baby.

Love Letters will have its premiere on 29.1. at the Tampere's theatre. I had the honor to meet the charismatic acting duo Seela Sella and Esko Roine! How was the theatre school of 1950-60s different from the theatre academy of nowadays, can anyone become a fairly good actor like Grotowski claims and have their lives gone the way they've planned out?

Jeff Award winner and TimeLine Associate Artistic Director Nick Bowling stages a fresh take on the beloved Broadway fable where mobsters, mayhem and musical comedy light up the stage.

Dramatists Guild Foundation (DGF) has announced the second-ever recipients of the DGF Writers Alliance Grants. These Grants provide $5,000 to both a non-profit theater's production of a new work and $5,000 to the writer or group of writers whose work is being produced. Gary Garrison, who serves on both the DGF Advisory Board and the Writers Alliance Grant selection committee, said: "The DGF's Writers Alliance Grant is the perfect combination of support for both writer AND theater. It acknowledges that the writer has a story that should to be told while also smartly pointing to the theater that should be telling it."