THE WIZ Burning Coal Theatre Company @ Murphey School Auditorium 224 Polk St., Raleigh 919-834-4001 www.burningcoal.org Through Dec. 20GROUNDED Sonorous Road Productions 209 Oberlin Road, Raleigh 919-803-3798www.sonorousroad.com Through Dec. 20 Sometimes, when directors strip a script to the essentials, new insights come to light. Then there are shows like Burning Coal Theatre Company’s THE WIZ, […]
Byron Woods
Bio: Byron Woods is the INDY's theater and dance critic.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/byronwoods
Posted inArt
Family feuds and other psychological operations in Cold War Germany in The Emotions of Normal People
THE EMOTIONS OF NORMAL PEOPLE Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern@ UNC’s Swain Hall 101 E. Cameron Ave., Chapel Hill 919-542-5406 www.littlegreenpig.com Through Dec. 19 The CIA estimates that at the height of hostilities in East Germany, one person in seven was a collaborator with Stasi, the state secret police. In a totalitarian society, such blanket […]
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Charlie Chaplin and James Agee after the nuclear apocalypse in The Tramp’s New World
THE TRAMP’S NEW WORLD Manbites Dog Theater 703 Foster St., Durham 919-682-3343 www.manbitesdogtheater.org Through Dec. 19 On “Talkin’ World War III Blues,” the young Bob Dylan relates his dream of surviving a nuclear apocalypse. Written just after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the song veers between gallows humor, social criticism and optimism. In the end, the […]
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After three decades of white Cinderellas, Destiny Diamond breaks through the glass slipper
Cinderella Friday, Dec. 4–Sunday, Dec. 20 Raleigh Little Theatre, Raleigh As Destiny Diamond looked around the room during the callbacks for Cinderella at Raleigh Little Theatre, she knew the odds were stacked against her. In the 31 prior productions of the holiday classic, the title role had always been sung by a soprano, and Diamond, […]
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PlayMakers’ Peter and the Starcatcher is a resourceful, all-ages origin story for Pan
PETER AND THE STARCATCHER PlayMakers Repertory Company 150 Country Club Road, Chapel Hill 919-962-7529 www.playmakersrep.org Through Dec. 12 There was a time, not long ago, when audiences and critics alike bemoaned the lack of theater options in the twelfth month, when two regional evergreens loomed large: Theatre in the Park’s A Christmas Carol and Raleigh […]
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Bare Theatre’s imperfect but promising all-female production of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus
TITUS ANDRONICUS Bare Theatre @ Common Ground Theatre 4815B Hillsborough Road, Durham 919-384-7817 www.cgtheatre.com Through Nov. 21 The questions are rarely pursued in regional theater and our culture at large: What are the limits to a woman’s anger? In what ways might a women-only culture functionor not function? And how would a women’s theater company […]
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Barlett Theater’s debut production is a startling take on a familiar classic, The Glass Menagerie
THE GLASS MENAGERIE Bartlett Theater @ PSI Theatre 120 Morris St., Durham 919-560-2787 www.bartletttheater.org Through Nov. 15 The moment takes us by surprise at the start of Act 2 in Bartlett Theater‘s production of The Glass Menagerie. Under Jonathan Bohun Brady’s direction, Maigan Kennedy’s Laura stands stock still, arms out, as overbearing Southern matriarch Amanda […]
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PlayMakers Repertory Company appoints Obie-winning actor and director Vivienne Benesch as its new leader
In a press release yesterday afternoon, PlayMakers Repertory Company announced that Vivienne Benesch will become its new producing artistic director as of Jan. 1, 2016, replacing outgoing artistic director Joseph Haj. Benesch, who was chosen from group of five finalists after a six-month national search, has directed three shows at PlayMakers in the past five […]
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The Addams Family, Mr. Burns and Asylum: A haunting trio of local productions, just in time for Halloween
THE ADDAMS FAMILY Temple Theatre 120 Carthage St., Sanford 919-774-4512 www.templeshows.com Through Nov. 1MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY Manbites Dog Theater 703 Foster St., Durham 919-682-4974www.manbitesdogtheater.org Through Nov. 7 ASYLUM Burning Coal Theatre Company and Only Child Aerial Theatre 224 Polk St., Raleigh 919-834-4001www.burningcoal.org Through Nov. 1 It is the week of Halloween, when we […]
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A moribund society makes a stately exodus in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard at Deep Dish Theater
THE CHERRY ORCHARD Deep Dish Theater Company 201 S. Estes Drive, Chapel Hill 919-968-1515 www.deepdishtheater.org Through Nov. 14 There’s nothing like an idea whose time has comeand gone. By the start of Chekhov’s THE CHERRY ORCHARD, the divisions are crumbling between the pomeshchiki, the landed Russian gentry of the 1800s, and the not-so-permanent peasant underclass […]
