At first, a mixture of relief and regret accompanies the realization that Lonely Planet, Steven Dietz’s metaphorical tale of AIDS Generation One, now actually registers as something of a period piece. That wasn’t the case in 1995, when Manbites Dog first presented this region with the story of Jody, a man living an ironic, self-imposed […]
Byron Woods
Bio: Byron Woods is the INDY's theater and dance critic.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/byronwoods
Posted inTheater
A non-redundant Cabaret
Those who look at Raleigh’s Broadway Series South’s offerings and ponder the possible redundancy of the North Carolina Theatre have a show they need to see. It’s Cabaret, the latest NCT production, and it closes this weekend in Raleigh Memorial Auditorium. Kander and Ebb’s cautionary memoir of Berlin during the rise of National Socialism is […]
Posted inArt
For the sake of argument
Damn David Hare. How can I review a show like Map of the World when I can’t even describe it? His 1983 drama is an examination of the politics (and ethics) of world hunger and international aid. Except that it isn’t: It’s an intensely staged debate instead, about the responsibilities, if any, that a novelist […]
Posted inArt
The next step is in question
The local modern dance year has identifiable rhythms. In the fall, the focus is on questions: Who’s back in the game? Who’s gone to The City? Who’s staying after American Dance Festival, and where is the great work underway? Answers begin mid-winter and run through spring, in academic and independent concerts. In its visits each […]
Posted inNews
The legends return
Legends beget legends, at their best. Few–if any–legends in this region’s musical and theatrical history loom larger than the Red Clay Ramblers. On New Year’s Eve 1976, a relatively unassuming group of folk musicians hit the New York theater scene from behind with Diamond Studs, a raucous “saloon musical” about the life and times of […]
Posted inNews
Photo-synthesis
It was the kind of itinerary only a critic could love. I’d returned to the Northeast regionals of the American College Theatre Festival last week to teach their theater criticism intensive. After a week of shows, seminars and abbreviated sleep, I landed back at RDU at 7 p.m. last Saturday night–just in time to dash […]
Posted inNews
The politics of enchantment
“In the moment we live in, fear, doubt and all kinds of emotions in the negative affective range are being put to use politically. We need to challenge that by saying, ‘There is another way of being in the world. There is Hope. Joy. Wonder–and play.’” The words are Annissa Clarke’s. She and Elizabeth Nelson […]
Posted inArt
Dance 2005:
Twenty-three moments in a year filled with dance: 1. Tiffany Rhynard: The Memory of Tomorrow . The stark, surreal images in Rhynard’s playful goth video dance piece certainly made a lasting impression. After a January ’05 premiere at Choreo Collective’s “Choreo Shorts,” it not only screened ADF’s “Dancing for the Camera” film festival, a still […]
Posted inArt
Spring. Renewal. Dance.
Dance catches its breath in the fall. Then in the spring, all of this happens. Chronological profiles on the events we know of follow; inevitably, others will join the dance later. Jan. 20 Ailey II Carolina Theater, Durham Not many second-string companies get rave reviews from The New York Times. But this feeder team for […]
Posted inArt
$150 theater tix in ’06?
Carolina Ballet led the way: With service fees, top tickets to The Nutcracker skirted past the century mark in 2004 before 2005’s “golden circle” seats face-valued at a Benjamin apiece. Now North Carolina Theatre is cashing in–or trying to–when its February production of Cabaret inducts patrons into the swankiest part of the Kit Kat Club–at […]
