The Rivals Deep Dish Theater Through March 10 How would Mrs. Malaprop put it? I think I’ve got it: “As Lydia Languish and Captain Jack Absolute, the lovers in Sheridan’s THE RIVALS, Anne-Caitlin Donohue and Josh Long convey the very acne of cupidity.” Waitdon’t go reaching for the Funk & Wagnall’s. Trust me, it won’t […]
Byron Woods
Bio: Byron Woods is the INDY's theater and dance critic.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/byronwoods
Posted inArt
A Number and King Lear, plus The Great Game
Judging by appearances, he’s kindly and avuncular; the very image of an aging and benevolent father. But what finally sends that long, slow and hard chill down your spine are three ever-so-gradual revelations. First, he absolutely can’t be trusted. In his current misfortune, he’s actually reaping what he’s already sown. And though we’re allowed to […]
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Dead Man Walking
Dead Man Walking Justice Theater Project Cardinal Gibbons Performing Arts Center, Raleigh Closed Feb. 10 The sharpness in director Deb Royals’ voice on the telephone call from North Carolina conveys the stress she’s under at the moment. While I’m wrapping up an NEA fellowship in arts criticism in Los Angeles, Royals is helming a play […]
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Elizabeth Spencer and the musical adaptation of The Light in the Piazza
The Light in the Piazza Feb. 13-18, Progress Energy Center, Raleigh Broadway Series South In 1998, Chapel Hill novelist Elizabeth Spencer was facing a tough decision: Who would she allow to adapt her novella The Light in the Piazza into a musical? It’s a good thing for Broadway she didn’t base her decision on first […]
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Planks go flying at the North Carolina Dance Festival
Over the past decade, we’ve followed the shifting fortunes of the North Carolina Dance Festival with a mixture of joy and concern. Its binary mission has been and remains laudable: to collect and showcase the strongest works by the strongest dance artists, and then to tour those showcases, distributing what should represent the state’s best […]
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Quick-change tales
The moment comes toward the end of Marie Jones’ wicked jackknife of a comedy, Stones in His Pockets: Two ambitious local extras who’ve been playing stereotyped Irish peasants on a movie shoot have buttonholed a Hollywood director over breakfast, trying to sell him on a story far more realistic than the misty claptrap he’s been […]
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Silent partners
Judging by the eager, near-capacity crowd in Durham’s Common Ground Theater last Saturday, I wasn’t the only one who had missed Jordan Smith’s presence on the regional stage last year. It was a fitting reception for a man who is, simply, one of our best; an accomplished artist who, for years, has not only gifted […]
Posted inGuides
The best theater of 2006
See also… 2007 spring arts preview | The best films of 2006 | The best theater of 2006 We tend to remember magic. It’s a good thing we do: As an antidote for cold days, friendless winds and iron skies, the memory of it can warm the soul as well as any soup. There’s no […]
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The year in dance
Jan. 14: Bickett Gallery begins another year supporting developing dance artists (one of the traits that will win it an Indy Art Award in July) as Renay Aumiller curates an adventurous evening in Five Points. Megan Mazarick and partner Les Rivera use industrial-grade hip hop to explore the inner rooms of a biracial relationship in […]
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Learning to fly
Choreographer Karola Luttringhaus’ experiences with aerial dance remind us that it’s wise to approach a company’s first attempts in that field with some caution. After all, alban elved, her Winston-Salem-based troupe, had already established a formidable reputation in regional modern dance through concerts in the Triangle and the Triad when she revealed in 2000 that […]
