Sweet Tea and Baby Dreams★★½ Through Sunday, August 13 Meredith College’s Jones Studio Theatre, Raleigh It was a split decision on a show that first got me into theater criticism, twenty-four years ago—a production so problematic, of a new script so promising, that I was convinced critics would focus on the former and disregard the […]
Byron Woods
Bio: Byron Woods is the INDY's theater and dance critic.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/byronwoods
Posted inArt
In the Wake of the DSI Comedy Scandal, the Local Improv Scene Takes Aim at a Culture that Enables Sexual Misconduct
Ending sexual harassment in the improv-comedy world is more complicated than merely removing bad actorsand even the professionals in major metro areas aren’t much closer than we are to solving the problem. Those were among the urgent messages from a Chicago-based expert on sexual violence and activists who have witnessed its effects in Minneapolis at […]
Posted inTheater
Paperhand’s Magic and Mastery Take Full Flight in Of Wings and Feet
OF WINGS AND FEET Through Sep. 4 | Forest Theatre, Chapel Hill Sept. 8–10 | North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh Sept. 16–17 | Carolina Theatre, Greensboro www.paperhand.org Some performances begin with indications of just how confident the artists are. A magician rolls both sleeves up before a sleight-of-hand routine; a conventional theater leaves the […]
Posted inCulture
Manbites Dog Theater Is Closing After Its 2017-18 Season, Turning Into an Artist-Support Organization
Manbites Dog Theater, the region’s oldest independent theater company, has announced plans to close and sell its theater building on Foster Street at the end of its upcoming 2017-18 season. The news shocked the area’s artistic community, coming one week after the venerated company announced the details of its thirty-first—and now, final—season as a producing […]
Posted inCulture
ADF Review: Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company Complete Their Analogy Trilogy, a Total Work of Art, in Durham
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company: Analogy/Ambros: The Emigrant ★★★★½ Saturday, July 29 Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham In the mid-1800s, European culture thought it had a fairly clear idea of what the ultimate synthesis of art forms looked and sounded like. Opera works like Wagner’s Ring Cycle combined music, literature, choreography, theater, and visual art […]
Posted inArt
Passion Coldly Pursues Its Prey in Ward Theatre’s Intellectually Subtle, Emotionally Muted Honour
HONOUR Through Saturday, August 12 Ward Theatre, Durham www.wardtheatrecompany.com To be clear, Ward Theatre Company’s production of psychological drama Honour is no thriller or murder mystery. But early on, its almost-title character, a middle-aged writer and poet named Honor Spencer (Nancy Ellis), makes it clear that a literary imagination is nothing to be trifled with. […]
Posted inTheater
The Worst Singer in the World Returns to the Triangle in Glorious! at Theatre in the Park
GLORIOUS! THE TRUE STORY OF FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS, THE WORST SINGER IN THE WORLD Through Sunday, August 6 Theatre in the Park, Raleigh www.theatreinthepark.com Almost any entertainer who plays birthdays, bar mitzvahs, and weddings will tell you (after a couple of drinks, at least) that most gigs, to various degrees, are performed en masque. Cultivating […]
Posted inCulture
Dance Review: Justin Tornow and COMPANY Look at Dance From Every Angle in No. 19/Modulations
COMPANY: No. 19/Modulations ★★★★ Wednesday, July 19–Monday, July 24 21c Museum Hotel, Durham “Modulation” can refer to controlled changes in a wide variety of signals, from musical pitch and vocal inflection to radio and television broadcast frequencies. In these examples, the changes either technically enable the coherent transmission of content or alter the meaning being […]
Posted inTheater
Improv Noir Is an Oasis for Black Performers and Audiences in the Too-White World of Improv Comedy
IMPROV NOIR Sunday, July 30, 5 p.m., $15–$25 The Vault, Durham www.improvnoir.com All improv comics live or diefiguratively, onstagebased on their ability to react to complex, changing circumstances. But, as comedian Monet Marshall notes on the Improv Noir website, the same is true, literally and offstage, for African Americans. Marshall calls being black in America […]
Posted inCulture
Theater Review: Dogfight’s Regional Premiere at NRACT Is Rich in Emotion But Meager in Staging
Dogfight ★★★ Through Sunday, July 30 North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theatre, Raleigh Because local companies regularly present regional and state premieres, we see a refreshing collection of new plays in the Triangle each season. But that’s never been the case with musicals, which is understandable. They’re exponentially more expensive to stage and larger companies […]