ELEVATOR/CONTRACTIONS Common Wealth Endeavors @ Common Ground Theatre 4815B Hillsborough Rd., Durham 919-384-7817 www.cgtheatre.com Through March 7 Fourth time’s the charm for Common Wealth Endeavors. Their fast, fun production of two plays, New Zealand playwright Jess Sayer’s Elevator and Contractions by Mike Bartlett (Manbites Dog Theater produced another of his plays, Cock, in 2013) represents […]
Byron Woods
Bio: Byron Woods is the INDY's theater and dance critic.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/byronwoods
Posted inArt
After reviving a struggling PlayMakers, Joseph Haj moves on to a bigger theater
Wanted: Professional theater in decline seeks idealistic, visionary young artistic director to halt current downward spiral. Résumé must reflect solid work in top-tier regional theaters; projects in war zones and maximum-security prisons at high risk to personal safety a plus. No prior experience required managing a company anywhere near >$1M annual budget, but candidate must […]
Posted inArt
Much Ado About Nothing takes an Italian holiday in Raleigh
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING Raleigh Little Theatre 301 Pogue St., Raleigh 919-821-3111 www.raleighlittletheatre.org Through March 1 With fine lead performances by Lucius Robinson and Katherine Barron, there’s strong work at the center of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Patrick Torres’ first directorial bow as the new artistic director at Raleigh Little Theatre. Setting Shakespeare’s comedy (and […]
Posted inArt
The Mountaintop is a persuasive play about Martin Luther King Jr.’s last night alive
THE MOUNTAINTOP Justice Theater Project @ St. Francis of Assisi 11401 Leesville Rd., Raleigh 919-847-8205 www.thejusticetheaterproject.org Through Feb. 22 It’s the surprise that’s no surprise, when it comes to regional theatera superior production is staged on a shoestring budget, while a company with significantly greater resources somehow fails to meet the same standard. At the […]
Posted inArt
Wherefore yet another production of Romeo and Juliet?
At least they got the question rightalthough probably not in the way they intended. I’m referring to the would-be marketing geniuses behind the arts initiative Wherefore: Shakespeare in Raleigh. Theatergoers familiar with the Bard will recall that the word “wherefore,” in Shakespeare’s time, was interrogative, asking “why” or “for what reason?” The famous line “Wherefore […]
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Groundbreaking play Trouble in Mind skewers racism in the theater world
TROUBLE IN MIND PlayMakers Repertory Company 150 Country Club Rd., Chapel Hill 919-962-7529 www.playmakersrep.org Through Feb. 8 In “The Last Mama-On-The-Couch Play,” one of the 11 “exhibits” in George C. Wolfe’s play The Colored Museum, the protagonist writhes in a tenement slum (albeit one “with middle-class aspirations”) in the apparently fatal clutches of The Man. […]
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Playwright Howard L. Craft stages a five-star Freight; sadomasochistic sparring in Venus in Fur
FREIGHT: THE FIVE INCARNATIONS OF ABEL GREEN Piedmont Performance Factory / StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance @ UNC’s Swain Hall 101 E. Cameron Ave., Chapel Hill 919-542-5406 www.piedmontperformancefactory.org Through Jan. 24VENUS IN FUR Raleigh Little Theatre / Actors Comedy Lab @ Raleigh Little Theatre 301 Pogue St., Raleigh 919-821-4579 www.raleighlittletheatre.org Through Feb. 1 Despite […]
Posted inCulture
Raleigh Little Theatre cancels Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
Raleigh Little Theatre announced yesterday that it has canceled a scheduled May production of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, replacing it with a run of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The company reports making the decision on the basis of conversations with the region’s Native American community over the fall. The musical satire based on the […]
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New theater productions take on the Israel-Palestine conflict and the opaque transparency of the Internet age
WRESTLING JERUSALEM PRC2 @ UNC’s Kenan Theatre 150 Country Club Rd., Chapel Hill 919-962-7529, www.playmakersrep.org Jan. 7–11 LOVE AND INFORMATION The Delta Boys @ The Carrack Modern Art 111 W. Parrish St., Durham 704-213-6666, www.thedeltaboys.squarespace.com Jan. 8–11 Albert Camus issued a warning to artists when he won the Nobel Prize in literature: “To create today […]
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Year in review: An evolving chronicle of best (and worst) practices on local stages
Each year, regional theater writes a new book of changesan evolving chronicle of best (and, occasionally, worst) practices. In our informal census, four companies joined us in 2014: Leviathan Theatre Company debuted a notable Amadeus in March. She’s-A-Nelson staged the edgy British drama Closer at Burning Coal Theatre in May. If Tiny Engine Theatre’s engine […]
