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by Antonio Miniño on February 24, 2010
The Ohio Theatre, a pillar of New York’s downtown theatre scene for 29 years, will close on August 31, 2010. The new landlord has issued official notice and no further negotiations are scheduled.
Located at 66 Wooster Street, The Ohio Theatre was one of Soho’s pioneering performance spaces and is now one of the last remaining. The not-for-profit theatre company Soho Think Tank runs the space under the direction of Artistic Director Robert Lyons. Lyons says, “It’s where Tony Kushner produced his first play out of college, where Philip Seymour Hoffman made his professional acting debut, where Eve Ensler performed Dicks in the Desert, a decade before writing The Vagina Monologues. The Ohio Theatre has been an incubator and platform for New York’s most exciting and innovative theatre artists for almost 30 years. Its closing emphatically punctuates the end of an era in Soho, and stands as a high profile casualty in the relentless decimation of the lower Manhattan theatre landscape.”
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by Antonio Miniño on February 21, 2010
© Jill Usdan
Master collagist Charles Mee celebrates love, sex and the joie de vivre in Fetes de la Nuit, this time presented by WeildWorks at The Ohio Theater. Mee is no stranger to plays about relationships and how culture molds the different ways we approach love, loving, and being loved. For example, in his play Big Love, fifty brides flee their grooms and seek refuge in an Italian villa, mixing pop culture with tradition and texts from different classics. In Fetes de la Nuit he reinvents and updates a style that used to serve as entertainment for Louis VIX at Versailles, into a modern day somewhat stereotypical look into Paris, romance and a lot of sex.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on January 29, 2010
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| I cannot believe it’s been a year since the last time I brought news of Off-Broadway’s great 20@20 discount. But hey, that’s how it is with seasonal things.
Anywhoo … here we are again, at TWENTY @ TWENTY season which is possibly the best time of year to go see a great Off-Broadway show. As far as truth in advertising goes, there’s no deal that’s better, for this one is exactly what it says it is. For the next week or so head on down to any one of these great theatres (click on the links for theatre information) and twenty minutes before the show starts say “twenty at twenty” at the box office and get a ticket for twenty bucks. Happy Now? You Betcha! My Dear Edwina, it’s not only The Perfect Crime, it’s Fantastick(s). You’ll feel like Cinderella sipping a MazelTov Cocktail at her Awesome 80s Prom. And just wait till the Naked Boys (start) Singing! Don’t wait till it’s Zero Hour … get yourself to one of these great shows (or one of the ones I wasn’t able to slyly work into the conversation – I’m talking to YOU Circumcise Me) NOW. Keep reading for more information:
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on December 21, 2009
Image by Kelly Syring
I’m not as concerned with the persistent presence of fear and ridicule as I am with the conspicuous absence of understanding and respect, particularly in communities of color.
– Chisa Hutchinson
Most of us wake up in the morning wondering if we’re going to do anything that day … or any day … that will leave an impression on others. For most of us it’s enough to just touch a few lives in a positive way, to give something or share something or even to just illuminate something for those we’re close to in order to raise consciousness a little bit, or a little bit more. However, at the age of 16 in the rough streets of Newark Sakia Gunn was probably thinking very little about making an impression and just was focusing on how to get through her day. Being young, black and gay in a rough urban community doesn’t leave much room for being different. And in Sakia’s case, there was no room at all.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on December 7, 2009
Let’s just get the mystery out of the way – Meg’s New Friend is black.
But really, in The Production Company’s latest play, written by Blair Singer and directed by Mark Armstrong, everyone gets a label, so no one feels left out. For instance, Meg (Megan McQuillan) begins the play by labeling her boyfriend Sam (Michael Solomon) a sexist because he calls his secretary “Darling”. He fires back that calling his assistant a “secretary” is also sexist. And so it begins.
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by Antonio Miniño on October 30, 2009
Victor L. Cahn’s new play Embraceable Me at Theatre Row’s Kirk Theatre is attempting to be a tennis match of the sexes where Allison (Keira Naughton) is your egocentric, focused, determined woman, whilst Edward (Scott Barrow) is shy, mousy, and amazing at what he does, which Allison uses to further herself during college and ever after. You wouldn’t think these two would develop a romance together, but they do. And what could have been a flavorful “who would have thought” love story, never catches our fancy due to the underdevelopment of these characters. There is no indication as to why these two belong together.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on July 8, 2009
Going to see The Temperamentals at the end of Pride Month was as deeply stirring as watching a reenactment of the signing of the declaration of independence on July 4th, if not more so. Because, while the history of how America fought and won its independence is a story that is well worn, the story of how, long before the Stonewall Riots, a group of men fought for their own personal freedom is one I’d never even heard about before seeing this amazing play.
The Civil Rights movement didn’t happen in one fell swoop; it progressed bit by bit and built on itself event by event. Brown v. The Board of Education beget Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott which paved the way for Martin Luther King, Jr. Similarly, the Gay Rights Movement didn’t burst forth, fully formed, in one great disco-as-wreaking ball through the walls of the Stonewall Inn. By definition, it simply couldn’t. Rather, it started off years earlier with Harry Hay, Rudi Gernreich, and a manifesto which became The Mattachine Society. The Temperamentals is the play which tells their story.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on June 9, 2009
I tend to like it best when language is used precisely … I get annoyed when I’m trying to say that something is futile and all I can think to say is hopeless. I care about nuance; futile and hopeless may live in the same neighborhood of language, but they’re blocks away from each other, in my mind. The other day I came across someone who used “alas” in place of “luckily” (”I really needed some frozen yogurt and alas! I suddenly saw a Pinkberry.” Whaaaat???). It upset me so much that I had to write to a friend and complain.
So the idea of being hit by a car and losing my power of precise speech (a condition called Aphasia) is as awful, to me, as, say … the star quarterback being told he’ll walk with a limp for the rest of his life. Unthinkable. Devastating.
Which brings us to Night Sky by Susan Yankowitz – directed by Daniella Topol and currently playing at The Rose Nagelberg Theater at Baruch Performing Arts Center.
Anna (Jordan Baker) is a busy lady … she’s an astronomy teacher who ponders the great wonders of the universe on a daily basis; she’s been recognized by her peers for her work, she’s an intellectual. Her signifiacant other, Daniel, (Jim Stanek) is a singer of opera, and her teen-aged daughter Jennifer (Lauren Ashley Carter) is … well, we’ll get to Jenny-Jen-Jennifer later.
by Karen Tortora-Lee on February 23, 2009
When it comes to the theatre, Carl Andress was practically weaned First Row, Center; he’s been writing, acting, and directing for as long as he can remember, and it’s always been his passion. He got his start years ago when … well, I’ll let him tell you all about that. His latest directorial offering The Third Story stars Kathleen Turner and Charles Busch and is currently running through March 15th at the The Lucille Lortel Theatre. Carl took some time to chat with me about the play, what it’s been like collaborating with Charles Busch over the years, and how his career in theatre began.
KT: Hi Carl, thanks so much for taking some time to talk with me. I’m really excited to be able to chat with you about The Third Story … it sounds like a wild ride – “Gangster flicks, fairy tales, and B-movie sci-fi collide in this epic comic fable from the imagination of Charles Busch“. PLUS it also stars the amazing Kathleen Turner. How did it all happen?
CA: I guess it was around 2007 when Charles Busch was commissioned to write a play for the La Jolla Playhouse (LJP). He gave it to me to read first and I fell in love with it immediately. The La Jolla Playhouse is a very successfully non-profit theatre out in San Diego … a lot of great theatre has come out of there; it’s been in existence since the 50s. More recently, shows like Big River and the revival of How to Succeed in Business …, Tommy, and Jersey Boys started there. They do a lot of new work, new plays and big musicals. And they sometimes commission works, just like they commissioned Charles.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on January 5, 2009
Pop Quiz. Becky Shaw is:
a) your old college roommate who reconnected with you on Facebook
b) your boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend – who still has her ski boots in his closet
c) your mother’s bingo partner who keeps asking if you want to be fixed up with her recently divorced son
The answer is actually: d) the play I saw recently, written by Gina Gionfriddo, directed by Peter DuBois and currently being produced at the 2econd Stage Theatre (307 West 43rd Street off Eighth Avenue).
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