Change is mandatory in theaterimagine a plot without it. Among local companies, most significant changes come before the start of the academic year; it’s part of how the creative ecosystem cross-pollinates. When Hannah Grannemann left PlayMakers Rep for Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, Michele Weathers became interim Managing Directorleaving an interim position at Theatre Raleigh for […]
Byron Woods
Bio: Byron Woods is the INDY's theater and dance critic.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/byronwoods
Posted inArt
New organizations support the Triangle’s indie dance community this fall
If you’re a dance-maker in this region, the road has not been easy. “I got here in 2011,” Kristi Vincent Johnson says. “If you’re an independent artist, you’re wondering, ‘What’s going on? Where are the dancers? Where can I present my work? And if I don’t have enough material or money to produce an evening-length […]
Posted inArt
Dark Southern family comedy skips a few beats
CRIMES OF THE HEART Theatre Raleigh @ Kennedy Theatre Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts Through Aug. 24 We wondered just how gracefully the dark Southern comedy CRIMES OF THE HEART was aging when PlayMakers Rep produced it in 2007. The evidence against it mounts in the current Theatre Raleigh showing. Some of the […]
Posted inArt
Paperhand’s latest enchants on familiar grounds
THE PAINTED BIRD Paperhand Puppet Intervention @ Forest Theatre, Chapel Hill See dates and times at paperhand.org The same questions tend to arise whenever I take in a show by Paperhand Puppet Intervention. Exactly how do you review a parable? What critical form would be appropriate for Dr. Seuss? The thousands of people who seek […]
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Tiny Engine shows promise
HEARTS LIKE FISTS Tiny Engine Theatre; tinyenginetheatre.com Common Ground Theatre; cgtheatre.com through Aug. 10 New theater companies arise, often bringing new artists and insights, fresh energy and previously unseen playwrights to the region. That’s certainly the case with Tiny Engine Theater’s production of HEARTS LIKE FISTS, playwright Adam Szymkowicz’ loopy 2012 homage to masked superheroes, […]
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Unorthodox venue cramps Vogue Men’s Fashions: The Window
VOGUE MEN’S FASHIONS: THE WINDOW Urban Garden Performing Arts urbangardenpa.org 7 W. Hargett St, Raleigh through Aug. 16 About this time last summer, we marveled at the impact one actor, one playwright, one director and one visual designer could achieve in Urban Garden’s Vogue Men’s Fashions. In that exploit, actor John Jimerson riveted audiences as […]
Posted inCulture
American Dance Festival 2014: The Takeaway
AMERICAN DANCE FESTIVAL June 12-July 26 americandancefestival.org In a good year, the American Dance Festival changes at least some part of our thinking about modern and contemporary dance. That’s a tall—and standing—order, each season: to find and present artists whose works are exploring and redefining the boundaries of the art form, as well as the […]
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Victorian women explore the future in On the Verge
ON THE VERGE hiSTORYstage @ North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theatre Through Aug. 3 The second act of ON THE VERGE (OR, THE GEOGRAPHY OF YEARNING) is a fairly nimble meditation on human progress. Its charming verbal pyrotechnics and flashes of comic wit are tinged with intimations of mortality. The problemand it’s not an insignificant […]
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For the American Dance Festival’s “Footprints” program, Leonie McDonagh choreographs ADF students in a comedic sendup of the world of dance
Footprints Reynolds Industries Theater July 24–26, 8 p.m., $10–$34.50 americandancefestival.org If artists are mistake generators, as comedian and choreographer Claire Porter once observed, a cast of advanced students at the American Dance Festival are dangerously close to achieving their full potential at the present moment. It’s Thursday, July 17, and exactly one week remains before […]
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Bullish on Parade
PARADE Theatre Raleigh @ Kennedy Theater through July 27 When two regional companies stage the same play in the same season, theatergoers get an illuminating chance to witness what disparate directors and design teams see in the same script, comparing differences in emphasis, interpretation and abilities. Three months after a hybrid student/faculty production at Duke […]
