Mankind
Written by Robert O’Hara
Directed by Robert O’Hara
Playwrights Horizons
December 30, 2017 Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
Mankind was a most unexpected treat. The advert for it mentioned that it was a satire about a world in which there were no more women, and men were left to give birth to babies without them. Ouch! I thought this was going to be a cheap – woman hating – even gay celebration play – but I was wrong! Nothing in this play was gay and nothing in this play was about hating women – far, far from that. Continue reading Mankind→
Farinelli and the King
Written Claire Van Kampen
Directed by John Dove
Belasco Theatre
December 23, 2017 Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
Mark Rylance rules the world! AND for this particular production I was gifted with seats right on the stage. It felt almost like being part of a private audience in some courtly manor. This was going to be one of my favorite theatre memories in a long list of productions.
Mark Rylance – – There is no way he can be on stage without all eyes being riveted to his work. It is hard to explain this stage charisma. The best that I can explain it is that he is SO very present on stage that you really believe he has NO idea what is going to happen in the next moment. He is like a small child playing in the now and hearing the words coming out of his mouth for the first time. It is ALL discovery. Continue reading Farinelli and the King→
The Pipeline
Written by Dominique Morisseau
Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz
Lincoln Center Theater at the Mitzi E. Newhouse
June 26, 2017 Production website 💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
I go from the wonderment and colossal budget of Groundhog Day to the basement of Lincoln Center to a play that has a teachers desk, a lunch table and a couch, a VERY white wall and some very harsh florescent lighting. And I will take the second play over the first any day. Pipeline was another play that I knew very little about before the show. I knew it was about a teacher (familiar ground) and about a black student trying to navigate life in a ROUGH urban school – or survive a very preppy private school (certainly much less familiar ground.) Continue reading The Pipeline→
The Little Foxes
Written by Lillian Hellman
Directed by Daniel Sultan
Manhattan Theatre Club
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
June 18, 2017 Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
I am such a fan of theatre the pushes the envelop and challenges the way we “think” theatre should be done. I love when they take the “major dramatic structure” that I teach every day of my working life and mess around with it. I celebrate the rule breakers.
Oslo
Written by J.T. Rogers
Directed by Bartlett Sher
Lincoln Center Theater at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre
June 16, 2017 Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
This play took me to school in the most wonderful way. I knew the play was a dramatization of a true meeting between the Israelis and the PLO in Norway that was responsible for a first real, although brief, truce between these long time enemies. The history is vital for our country to understand – especially since we keep sticking our nose into the business often to the detriment of the peace. Continue reading Oslo→
Mankind
