by Karen Tortora-Lee on November 19, 2010
We’re still coming down from the amazing party that was held (in 3-D!) on Monday night – celebrating The Happiest Medium’s first year. If you were lucky enough to be at the party you saw some wonderful performances. If you missed it – I’ve got some great news for you.
This weekend you can get you fill of BALLS! The Testosterone Plays of Monica Bauer . . . and afterward you can get your Girl Balls fix with Killy Dwyer and Kill The Band as they open and close ALTER EGO with their avant garde comedic punk rock performance art and antics!! If you don’t have enough balls in your life, this is the weekend to get your fill . . .
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by Antonio Miniño on November 19, 2010
Peter Zinn
Peter Zinn is no stranger to Retro Productions, having helmed their incarnation of Holy Days and Women and War. He was kind enough to answer a couple of questions regarding his past, his upcoming plans and what it’s been like to be directing Michael Frayn’s Benefactors, which you can still catch tonight at the Spoon Theatre.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on November 9, 2010
It may not make sense to celebrate the past five years of your relationship with a performance of The Last Five Years – the musical. After all, for 50 percent of the show your job as an audience member is to painfully watch this fledgling relationship between Cathy and Jamie disintegrate while trying not to openly cry. (That’s right, tough guy. I saw you.)
However, just as Cathy belts out to Jamie - “I have been waiting for you . . .” similarly I have been waiting to see a production of The Last Five Years for a REALLY long time now. Strangely, while this amazing musical has been performed ’round the world in countries as varied as Mexico, Greece and Hungary (even being translated into German and Dutch) and even though it made its off-Broadway debut at the Minetta Lane Theatre (Right there! Minetta Lane!) it still has remained strangely elusive to me. So, in our little corner of the world, it actually made perfect sense for my husband and me to mark the 5th anniversary of our 1st date – our Last Five Years – with a viewing of Stage Left Productions The Last Five Years. But wait - it meant we had to travel all the way to Southern New Jersey. ONE HUNDRED miles and TWO hours away from the off-off Broadway community that I know so well.
So . . . was it worth it? Continue Reading…
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on November 8, 2010
There is a very good reason why some stories are told under the cover of darkness – hidden from the world and everything that takes place during the mundane trivialities of the day. Because some stories aren’t meant for the daylight. Only a blanket of blackest night will give some words that extra visceral thrill, only the the anonymity of the night can help create that tension that starts racing along every nerve ending – only darkness will give some stories the ability to make your heart race . . . will draw your lips together – will make you believe that the words are true.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on November 3, 2010
In vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured.
Jeremiah 46:11
To call T. Schreiber Studio’s Balm in Gilead a “play” is an understatement. Step into the Gloria Maddox Theater and find yourself stepping back in time – to a sensation, a memory, a peek into a world that few escaped and even fewer survived. The show is a visceral experience - astonishing in every detail and desperately authentic.
Playwright Lanford Wilson may have been writing of a world he knew well in the 60s, but Matt Brogan’s set takes that world and offers it up to the audience in such careful nuance that – rather than watch the play – your first instinct is to avert your eyes – hurry past – to not become ensnared in this sticky world of wickedness. Under Peter Jensen’s direction everything in this play reaches out at you and it’s impossible at first to feel comfortable in this microcosm of hookers, junkies, dealers, transvestites, street thugs, gamblers, drug users, derelicts and transients who are so plentiful that they brush past you as you quickly aim for your seat. Once you are able to look – you’re afraid to be caught staring.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on November 1, 2010
It’s not every day that The Henson Foundation takes an interest in your work – but then again, it’s not every day that man takes flight either.
The first time man conquered the air was when Alberto Santos-Dumont flew the first controlled airship. Despite the fact that – at the time – Santos-Dumont was one of the most famous men in the world, his legacy – and his story – has been overshadowed by that of the Wright Brothers.
This is where Tony Chiroldes comes in. For years now, Chiroldes has been perfecting the art of telling this particular story as meticulously as the man himself worked to perfect the art of flying. Chiroldes’ play, Before Icarus Fell, has made a long journey, but this week it alights briefly at the Studio Theatre at Theatre Row.
Tony took a moment during this busy week to tell me about his journey . . .
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on November 1, 2010
“A good review is never good enough . . . a bad review is devastating . . .”
Critical Mass (written by Joanne Sydney Lessner and directed by Donald Brenner) exposes a dirty little secret of reviewers: for some critics, reviewing is a bloodsport. For those critics who are out for blood, the review itself is an arena for them to not only grind their ax, but to then wield it in an effort to deliver that final blow that will not only cripple an artist’s confidence but – in some cases – kill their entire career as well. Some critics approach their job with a delicious sense of malevolent relish – the more they dislike what they are seeing, hearing, reading or otherwise reviewing the higher they construct their dark tower from which to throw their prey, waiting in anticipation for that satisfying SPLAT at the end of the long fall.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on October 30, 2010
“How delightful are the pleasures of the imagination! In those delectable moments, the whole world is ours; not a single creature resists us, we devastate the world, the means to every crime is ours, and we employ them all, we multiply the horror a hundredfold.”
– Marquis de Sade
The Company XIV ensemble Dénouement—A Murderous Masquerade (Photographer: Corey Tatarczuk)
Company XIV has joined up with Brave New World Repertory Theatre to create a show that, in three acts, covers all the grown-up Halloween thoughts that haunt the recesses of the minds of those too old to go door to door asking for candy on the appointed day.
To step into the space of Company XIV is to surrender yourself to the world that Austin McCormick and his cohorts create. First act – Dénouement —A Murderous Masquerade – is at once devilish, devious, and delirious – it will beguile you, possess you, and then -once it’s had its way with you- will leave you emotionally drained, begging for more.
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by The Happiest Medium on October 25, 2010
The Happiest Medium Review by guest contributors Anjali Koppal and Saurabh Paranjape
We went into Dorothy Fortenberry’s Good Egg expecting a light hearted take on the subject of embryo selection, probably due to the play’s frothy self-description (“A funny and surprising play about bioethics, siblings, and the limits of unconditional love”). We walked out of this emotional roller coaster ride overwhelmed by the overall experience. The play might not have delivered what it promised, but it blew our minds away with powerful performances and a strong message.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on October 22, 2010
What I’m about to tell you will sound very controversial . . . you may not even believe me at first. Frankly, I probably shouldn’t even be writing about it at all, but I’m compelled to. You see, last Wednesday night at 8:00pm I was an eye-witness to an alien invasion.
Not just any alien invasion – no . . . this was a Kentucky goblin siege. There were goblins. There was crazy banjo music. There were slo-mo shoot-outs. There were romantic entanglements. There were personal issues to be ironed out. There was a proposal of marriage. There were spooky noises of several different varieties. There was a rebellious teen who wanted to be a beatnik. There were people who weren’t what they said they were. There was a surprisingly serene baby. And when it was all over, there was a solid resolution for all involved. If I didn’t know better, I’d say what I’d witnessed was actually a theatrical play. Hey . . . wait a minute . . .
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